Q&A
Read Q9, not very encouraging talk of horsepower....
Id like to ask about the development of the Wii U. You mentioned that, after the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, an insufficient number of applicable software titles were able to be released. Looking at todays environment, I believe you will either have to prepare software further in advance or increase the number of people working on the software. On this analysis of mine, I have questions for Mr. Miyamoto. As a man responsible for managing the software, how do you see the challenges of the software development period and necessary human resources, and how are you going to cope with these challenges? I also have a question for Mr. Takeda. Do you have any measures to improve the situation for the Wii U from the hardware perspective? I recall that the company incorporated various ideas to improve a similar situation to reduce the number of the development staff members for the Nintendo GameCube. Are you going to do something similar this time? If you cannot elaborate on the details, please tell me about it in general. Finally to Mr. Iwata, as a person who makes decisions as the judge, what do you think about the increasing development costs for the business of the Wii U and other platforms in the future?
Miyamoto:
Regarding the size of the development teams, after releasing various titles this year, I think that we will be able to explain about the teams that are developing the software, but we have already started working with a number of other companies. Talking about game development in general, if we develop video games based upon similar concepts and scale as before and release it for multiple hardware systems, the time each developer has to spend to do similar work again and again increases, which is not so interesting for the developers. Talking about the Wii U, it is going to be compatible with high-definition TV sets, which are now widespread and, with the graphics capabilities catching up to the general trend, some people consider it to be the "next-generation Wii." On the other hand, as far as graphics capabilities are concerned, there are already other hardware systems with similar functions. Therefore, we have designed the Wii U to be recognized as being different from any other hardware system. Although I cannot elaborate on its network functions today, as we are preparing for the launch of the Wii U, we are taking into consideration its network-related capabilities.
In short, the bottom line is the number of new things which are possible only on Wii U we can create, and our basic policy is to nurture the younger people who can think about the ways to create such things. We are making efforts so that when we release applicable software in the future, you will be pleasantly surprised and you might say, "Oh, this is what you were trying to achieve!" or "These are the titles you were preparing."
Genyo Takeda (Senior Managing Director, General Manager of Integrated Research and Development Division):
I was worried about being asked about the Wii U today. As we are preparing for the announcements at E3 this year, we need to refrain from talking about it so that we can keep the surprise for that opportunity. If there is anything that I can answer today, perhaps on the question of how the developers will be able to reproduce attractive visuals in HD graphics by using shader functions, but the fact is, a number of the developers have already had sufficient experiences on doing so on several hardware platforms. In other words, they have already experienced and overcome the challenges in this regard. But if I stop here, my remark will be interpreted as, "So, the Wii U has just caught up with the trend" if I borrow the words that Mr. Miyamoto just used. So, how to differentiate the Wii U in terms of brand-new uniqueness with other video game systems is important, and regarding this point, all I can say today is, we now have the new controller which revolves around the original concept of the Wii Remote, and the developers can take advantage of multiple screens, which enable them to leverage upon the unique combination of a big TV screen and a smaller screen in players hands. As you know, at Nintendo, those who are developing the contents are working closely with us, the hardware developers, in the same building. We are once again working together closely by exchanging ideas. Also, NFC can be one answer to your question as a new trial.
Iwata:
You are asking for my comment as a judge, but I also need to think about the software content, so my remarks are two sided. Looking at the software for home console systems, there are certainly the software titles for which very rich graphics must be reproduced on HD displays and which demand a large number of developers to spend a very long time to develop. It is one of the truths that a certain number of such software titles must be prepared, or the consumers will not be satisfied. But we do not think that any and all the software must be created in that fashion. When you look at Nintendos software, extraordinary rich graphics, massive gameplay volume and astonishing rendition effects are not necessarily the appealing point. It is, in fact, important for us that our games are appealing in other ways as well. An example of this is the Wii software, "RHYTHM HEAVEN FEVER," that we released last year in Japan. It became one of the hits, but if we had adopted rich photo-realistic graphics, it would have lost much of its appeal rather than improving its appeal. Similarly, about the Japanese title "Tomodachi Collection" for Nintendo DS, the developers themselves confirmed that this software is based upon the "cheap concept." It is not necessary for us to deploy a huge number of people in order to develop such games. When we need massive power and have a lack of internal resources, we collaborate with outside resources and pour necessary resources to where they are needed. We are increasing the frequency of working with outside developers where Mr. Miyamoto and our internal developers alone used to develop. At the same time, however, we do not forget to ask ourselves in each such opportunity, "Isnt this something our internal resources alone could sufficiently deal with?" Also, when we have such a doubt in the development as, "Will such cheap pictures do in terms of todays home console graphics standard?," sometimes we conclude that "showing such pictures are unique and rather appealing, so its OK." So, there are a variety of different ways to show the unique appeal of software. Whats important here is not to narrow down what we can do. Rather, we have to create the dynamic range of appeals that the consumers can appreciate. We decided to make a proposal of an additional screen into the Wii U controller because developers could think of a variety of different possibilities here and there of using both a big TV screen and a screen in a players hand. As we will showcase the Wii U at E3 in June this year, the detailed announcements must wait until then, but we are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons. Having said that, however, as I mentioned, it is true that, in some software areas, we need to be engaged in the power games. Take The Legend of Zelda franchise, for example, the fans must be looking for the graphic representations that they do not see as cheap at all when the title is released for the Wii U. When it is necessary, we do not hesitate to role out our resources.
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