Iwata Talks Nintendo Wii U Performance and Miiverse

By Jorge Ba-oh 14.01.2013 9

Iwata Talks Nintendo Wii U Performance and Miiverse on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Will the Wii U succeed? Will Nintendo be drowned out by tablet devices? Company president Satoru Iwata recently spoke to Japanese newspaper Nikkei on the current situation for the company's latest home console.

Iwata started by comparing the Wii U's concept to that of the original DS, reminiscing about a time where "when the PSP released, no-one thought that the DS would succeed." It took specific software to lift the console off the ground and cement it as the portable to get.

The Wii was a far simpler job to get across to seasoned gamers and casuals - "one that could be understood immediately". The console brought families together to play in the living room, instead of perhaps isolated in a separate kids room for example.

I am still thinking about increasing the gaming population, and it's something I'd like to spend my whole life doing.

With TV lifecycles increasing, Nintendo wanted to create a console that compliments the living room instead of causing this battle. The company began talking about another screen around 2008, but ended up eclipsed by the launch of the tablet boom a year later.

Even though we'd been working on dual screens prior to the release of tablets, it looked like we were just following a trend.

Iwata moved onto Miiverse and social gaming, and how Nintendo were told that "trying to make a social network now was a fool's errand", and why the company wouldn't just bolt on Facebook or Twitter. Reason being is that Miiverse is purely game-related, and specific to each title that users are playing - accessible from within each game - "we had to integrate it into our platform, and support it as a unified service".

Whilst there isn't an immediate timeframe for Miiverse on other devices like smartphones and tablets, Iwata did say "it won't be far away".

I couldn't tell my high school buddies that I had got a high score in Mario Kart. (Laughs).

Games shouldn't just be about the time you spend with a console, but also telling people that you passed something, or that you found a neat trick is interesting. If I were to put a name on it, it would be empathy.

He also acknowledged the system menu performance issues once again, reaffirming that Nintendo are aiming to improve the speed with starting up the console and shifting between menus.

Wrapping up his thoughts on Wii U and the future for Nintendo, Iwata described the company's longstanding philosophy - it's all about the smiles.

We aim to leave a smile on our customer's faces, no matter whether it's the game being interesting, a parent and child talking about gaming, or a grandfather being able to remain cheerful. Because it's worth doing, our staff can smile too. If our performance rises, so too our investors smile. If this chain is successful, Nintendo can be something worth keeping and continuing, and we can fulfill our responsibility to society.

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

More than anything, I'm really looking forward to seeing Miiverse and Nintendo Network integration on PCs, Smartphones and especially 3DS'! Smilie Really hope that gets finished soon.

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery

I just want some interesting games Smilie
Retro and Monolith better be working on some epicness - not ports,remakes or bundles.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+

@Darkflame: Retro is doing either Donkey Kong Country Returns 2 or, hopefully, StarFox. Another option is that Retro will help with Smash Bros in order to get the Wii U and 3DS out by 2014.

Monolith has already confirmed they're working on a Wii U game... which is great news!

I'm also looking forward to Miiverse for the Internet. Hopefully you won't need a Nintendo machine to sign up... then I can add a lot of gaming friends who don't have a Wii U yet.

Canyarion said:
I'm also looking forward to Miiverse for the Internet. Hopefully you won't need a Nintendo machine to sign up... then I can add a lot of gaming friends who don't have a Wii U yet.

I see where you're coming from on that, but I kinda hope it stayed locked to Nintendo IDs made on WiiU and 3DS. Opening it up to anyone with a browsing device opens the floodgates for spammers and flamers.

I'm sure that they'll have a form of hardware registration/accounts when they unlock Miiverse on other devices anyway - "you'll be able to login to your own Miiverse on your phone" - was the premise, so presumably it'll mean you would either need to register online with a Nintendo hardware ID or on the Wii U or 3DS.

Making it public without a Nintendo console would be madness!

But yesh, definitely up for a dedicated Miiverse app on my phone. I admit I've been a little lax lately checking my Miiverse, mainly due to being busy/ill over the last week but definitely getting hooked on it Smilie Those drawings on these boards are just amazing - have to do a regular feature on these! J

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

Phoenom said:
Canyarion said:
I'm also looking forward to Miiverse for the Internet. Hopefully you won't need a Nintendo machine to sign up... then I can add a lot of gaming friends who don't have a Wii U yet.

I see where you're coming from on that, but I kinda hope it stayed locked to Nintendo IDs made on WiiU and 3DS. Opening it up to anyone with a browsing device opens the floodgates for spammers and flamers.

I was going to say the exact same thing when I saw your comment. I also hope they only allow people to register via Wii U or 3DS for those same reasons.

I wonder if MiiVerse is sill on the way to the 3DS. In the form of an app, hopefully. Same with smartphones and tablets. I'm afraid Nintendo will just make a mobile website version for them. I'd prefer full apps.

Hm yeah I guess that is better...

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Insanoflex

There are 1 members online at the moment.