Miyamoto: My impression may be too subjective or personal, but I haven't felt any significant difference when I see Wii from purely the standpoint of a man who has been making something. I have just been trying to make something fun. When I was working on Donkey Kong, I was impressed with the fact that I could make completely different things on the same hardware just by working on the software as long as we are using computer as the platform to make things. Of course, Nintendo has been developing a variety of different hardware and peripherals such as Virtual Boy and Kirby's Rumble and Stumble, but our basic approach has been to make new things by working on the software. When many people are trying to improve things within a limited area, a few limited things are becoming more and more sophisticated. Now that you referred to soccer, in case of a soccer video game, developers would make the games more and more interesting just for those who know about real soccer games. The same formula has been applied to action games, role playing games and many other genres. We believe that we have already reached to the stage where we need to show the new vision for the whole entertainment. This is why we have decided to alter the game control interface significantly, not just slightly. Now that we are going to drastically change the control interface, we thought we should also aim to change things from different perspectives as well, such as seeking new ways to package software just as Iwata mentioned today. It will also be fun for us, game designers, if we think in terms of altering the overall way how players play with home console games with what kind of images. On the other hand, this is nothing new for us. After all, Nintendo has been making commodities this way for a very long time.



So, we have been making a variety of different software for Wii and we exhibited some of them at E3 this year. Many of you have had the hands-on experience of Wii today. I know many people in this industry do not play video games even though some of them are running video game companies, but I have seen them enjoying playing with Wii without any hesitations. Looking at them, I can feel that we can change the way people play. We are trying not to increase the number of buttons the player has to manipulate. We are trying not to be constrained by conventional rules. We are trying to make games so that anyone can enjoy playing easily. I am sometimes sharing this view with third-party developers. Sorry, I was spending a long time to answer to you.



Iwata: The person in your question appears to be puzzled with the changing rules in developing software. At Nintendo, changes are nothing new. Nintendo has always been trying to create things from the perspective of making uniquely fresh, fun entertainment. Though the hardware may change, we don't feel that we need to see things from a completely different angle. Looking outside of Nintendo, however, there are people in this industry who have been spending their energies always to make improved versions of the existing games, say for 10 years. Some of them have become the authority in certain game genres that nobody can compete. Many developers are so capable of doing their jobs perfectly in the traditional way of making games. Some of them may not have been able to determine how they can utilize their know-how when Nintendo offers a completely new platform. This will change as the time goes by. Even inside of Nintendo, not everyone could get accustomed to it when a completely new platform was presented. In case of DS and also in case of Wii, some of them could adapt easily and some of them needed time. In the end, however, everybody learned how to adjust themselves, so I'm sure that the same thing happens outside Nintendo as well.



At E3, I felt the same way as Miyamoto did. When the brasses at major publishers visited the Nintendo booth, they used to see games by crossing their arms at the tail end of the crowds. This year, the majority of these top executives were the first people to hold and swing the Wii Remote to play. I was really impressed.