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Nintendo's Iwata Talks European Neglect, DS Origins
Thanks to Kikizo for its transcript of an interview with Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata, also available in video form on the site. When asked, Iwata "apologise[s] to the fans of Nintendo products in Europe" over repeated delays, presumably including games such as Animal Crossing, finally out this September in Europe, mentioning "we are now putting our energies so that the European version of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes will be launched in Europe by the end of this year, at the sacrifice of the Japanese launch by the end of this year." He also discusses the origin of the Nintendo DS, "Talking specifically about the DS, [legendary 76-year old Nintendo president Hiroshi] Yamauchi specifically hit upon the idea, and proposed, 'Why not have the two screens?'"
I really don't see what the all the fanfare surrounding the two screens is. The idea had been milked by Nintendo for years before they decided to dump it in favor of the Gameboy. Not sure what I mean? Check these out: Donkey Kong, LCD game Zelda, LCD game and there were a multitude more. So when legendary 76-year old Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi specifically hit upon the idea, and proposed, 'Why not have the two screens I think he was just having a flashback to the good old days of 2 screen gaming.
I think you're missing the perhaps more important features in the DS. It has a pen-based touch screen which will undoubtably improve many turn-based games and allow some very interactive and unique action games. There is also a microphone jack on the DS which could evolve into some interesting, although probably not compelling, game features. And finally, the greatest feature in my opinion, up to 16 player wireless in a 100-foot area. Not 4 players and you had to have it so every person had a cable to player. 16 players and you just need to be in the same general area.
You might say, well the PSP has wireless, but it uses WiFi which is incredibly more power hungry than the Nintendo proprietary short-range alternative. As a device, I think most people would agree the DS is quite functional and the second screen is only gravy on top.
I think there's still plenty of room to grow within the typical Screen+Controller interface.
Look at board games. Everyone thought they had seen it all but starting in the early 90's the Germans revolutionized board games with new mechanisms and the golden age continues. They didn't need motion detection cameras or holographic tables to do it, they just changed the way a group of people sat around some cardboard and wooden tokens.
I think the problems of innovation are more deep-rooted and incestuous than merely getting bored with a control pad and a handful of buttons. They are problems with the way we perceive games should be.
"You're absolutely right. Nintendo had a massive installed user base and then Sony came out of seemingly nowhere and got a stranglehold on the market. I see a very similar situation here: Nintendo, currently number one with no real innovation in years, facing competition from someone with a technical edge over them. Interestingly enough, it's the same company challenging them. If you question whether or not Nintendo has innovated in the last... 15 years or so that the gambeboy has been available, just think about it: up until about a year ago there was *still* no light and you had to hold the damn thing at an awkward angle sometimes. Color took forever and they were still pushing ugly graphics on expensive media. The battle over handheld dominance will be very interesting as we know Sony has a track record for taking hold in the video game market"
Wait a minute, adding a light source to a handheld is innovative? Waiting to add color is uninnovative? What the heck? First of all, color pretty much was nonexistant in any portable device until the mid to late 1990s. And even so, color handheld games is more of a technological upgrade than an innovation. Same with the frontlight on the GB. What portable devices do you remember having an internal lighting source when the GBC came out? While I admit, Nintendo should have included a light in the GBA, at least they corrected that mistake with the GBASP, and they didn't sacrifice performance or battery life for it, the way it should be done. These things have NOTHING to do with innovation: They have to do with the technological limitations of the time. I mean, look at how the Game Gear performed with the color it had. Technologically, none of this: a game boy with color and/or a backlight/frontlight couldn't be done until six or seven years ago. Don't confuse that with lack of innovation.
Nintendo has not innovated? Wtf? Why is it that people say that? Just because Nintendo often uses the same characters in its games does not make them uninnovative. Mario Kart was innovative in that it started the kart racing subgenre. Mario Party: What games were like it beforehand? It made a board/minigame hybrid party game. How about Pikmin, a game in which you play as a guy and control an army of small plants which have special abilities and powers? Or how about Wario Ware? How in the world is THAT not innovative? Nintendo, just like everyone else, uses brand names, because people love what they are familiar with. It's human nature. Not only that, but when people see a game with Mario in it, they're pretty sure it will be high quality, because that's what mario games usually are. Brand names help inform a consumer of what to expect from a product, like that.
The Playstaion got more support than the N64 because it was, in order of most importance: Cheapter to develop for, easier to develop for, and had more storage. Now, let's look at the DS and the PSP: The DS allows developers new ways to make games, and appeals to video game developers' creative side. the DS will use a cheap semiconductor memory unit, 128 Megabytes and beyond. Now, Mario 64 was 16 Megabytes. 16 megabytes was the typical maximum for an N64 game, although there was one game that was 24 Megabytes (Ogre Battle 64), and two games that were 32 Megabytes (Pokemon Colloseum 2, and Resident Evil 2). 128 megabytes should be plenty for developers, unless they want to use a bunch of pre-renders and high poly models, which don't really matter on a handheld. The price of the DS looks to be pretty cheap, too.
And the PSP? Well, it uses 1.8 GB disks, so, again, it has the memory advantage of an optical format over a cartridge. But that's the only advantage that the PSP has over the DS that the PS had over the N64. It looks like games will have the production costs of Playstation 2 games, and higher prices disencourages innovation and risky moves by developers. That's one reason
It takes a lot of guts for a company to apologize to the consumer for its mistakes. I salute you, Iwata-san.