If we can shift to the Wii now, it seems like the software library moving forward is going to be a lot more graphically impressive. Do you feel that’s because people are devoting separate teams and more time to games on the Wii? Or, are third-party companies learning lessons from internally developed Nintendo games?
Yeah, I think you’re right in both senses. There are two things going on. One is that it’s been some time since we’ve launched the Wii and the developers have accumulated some know-how in taking advantage of the Wii’s capability. And another thing is, more and more teams appear to be more interested, spending more time and more energy and more resources in order to create one Wii title.
Compared to last year’s E3 presentation than this year, there are a lot more first party titles coming from Nintendo. Is that a result of third party developers not being able to sort of create the right game for the Wii platform?
Yes, there are some third-party people who sometimes cannot tell what kind of software can actually sell on Wii hardware. Some third-party developers may not be very happy about the fact that, while Nintendo’s titles are selling very well on Nintendo’s platform, their titles are not selling that much.
But, when we look objectively at that and see the sheer number of third party titles sold on the Wii, it’s actually huge. When we compare the third-party titles with the Nintendo’s first-party titles, comparatively that number appears to be less. As you know, most of the key franchise titles by the third parties are sold across multiple platforms. Between Wii and other platforms, they might find that the Wii might not be the most lucrative platform for them.
That’s an honest assessment. Going off of what Miyamoto-san said about folks not being able to really tap the full potential of the current hardware, is it safe to assume that (a) you do have sort of next generation hardware plans already in place and then, (b) once developers, whether it’s Nintendo developers or third party developers can actually push the limits of the hardware, is that what we might be able to see the next generation?
Yes. The point is not necessarily the limit of the technologies, but rather we should think in terms of the software, whether or not we would be able to come up with a new great software idea is the key.
So to ask a little bit more about software from third-party partners, I just came from seeing Epic Mickey this morning and talking Warren Spector. The game looks amazing and he’s obviously a great designer. What other games you feel are going to be very important in the next 12 months or so from third party partners for the further future of Wii?
I might not be the best person to answer that kind of question, because I myself am not in a position to talk directly with these software publishers. But as I said, during my presentation on the Nintendo 3DS yesterday, Nintendo really had to depend upon its own software titles in order to come up with a certain level of [momentum] during the launch period of Wii and DS. Because there were so many Nintendo titles coming out, a lot of the first party titles appeared to be selling well in comparison to the share number or the third-party titles. That [kind of momentum] is typically said to be successful in the marketplace, but Nintendo Wii doesn’t think that’s an optimal situation where Nintendo appears to be the leading software on Nintendo platforms. That’s a situation we definitely want to change. Fortunately, we’re receiving so much support now from third-party partners for the Nintendo 3DS at this stage. The message yesterday was that we really appreciate the third party support, be it for Nintendo 3DS, the Wii or DS. And of course, we do not believe that the first party software [alone can] sustain the whole hardware install base and maintain the momentum for the Wii or DS.
(More on Techland: E310: Warren Spector Talks About Why Epic Mickey Will Live Up to Its Name)