.jpg)
Major points:
* Zelda coming to DS
* Genesis and TurboGrafx games on Revolution virtual console
Zelda DS video:
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JHmGp9lB1gw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">
Here is the summary of Iwata's keynote (thanks Go Nintendo):
10:45: The keynote begins. GDC conference director, Jamil Moledina, takes the stage and introduces Satoru Iwata.
10:48: Iwata talks about Nintendo’s positioning in the market. Mentions how Pepsi is #1 in soft drinks worldwide by executing a disruptive strategy. He jokes that every developer understands that the three basic foodgroups are Cheetos, Doritos and Fritos. (laughter)
10:50: Iwata says that the game industry is ready for disruption. He talks about the power of the Nintendo DS and how it disrupted the market.
10:55: He then goes on to talks about Brain Training for DS — known as Brain Age in the US. Introduces the concept of the title: using software to stimulate brain activity.
10:58: Tells story about how the prototype was demoed, they were measure the impact with a brain scanning device. Nintendo has been spending a lot of time on this.
10:59: He says that it was an up-hill battle to convince the industry of the power of this title. Says retailers and sales people questioned it, saying “it’s not even a game.â€
11:01: Introduces Bill Trinen (NOA).
11:02: Showing a DS playing Brain Age. Described by him as “not really a game — more an interactive training program.†He shows off “Quick Play.†DS is turned sideways (as IGN readers know from our coverage of the game). Bill shows off the main mode, including the different mental exercises which appear in random sequence. Exercises include counting, math, ability to read text out loud, etc. The content of the exercises is randomly generated so that users can’t remember sequences and have to adjust on the fly. Shows off graphs tracking improvement. Stresses importance of the DS’s unique features, such as recognition of hand writing and voice recognition.
11:06: Bill invites people up on stage: Jamil Moledina (the director of the GDC), Geoff Keighley (G4TV.com host), and developer Will Wright. The three try out Brain Age and compete in an arithmetic challenge. Bill beats everyone and gloats. Another competition. Will Wright wins this time.
11:12: Iwata takes back the mic and talks about the simple but addictive appeal of Brain Age. Calls the title one of the company’s biggest successes. The development came from the idea that people wanted something new. The only real way to demonstrate the appeal of these games is to let people try them — found that consumers without interest in games were soon hooked. Encourages gamers to share the title with their non-gamer friends and even parents. Iwata promises each person in attendance at GDC a free copy of the game to share with their families.
11:16: Nintendo is taking a different approach to technology as well as a different way to make it attractive to everyone. Says network gaming has been around since 1998, but Nintendo Wi-Fi evolves it in a unique way that opens it up to a new audience. Elaborates on challenges and successes of the Wi-Fi project. He says that the connection process needs to be simple and that some may find it more fun to play strangers, others may like to challenge friends. One million unique players in only 18 weeks — 29 million gaming sessions so far. It took competitors more than a year to reach that number.
11:22: He says that Nintendo has added a new title to use the service: Metroid Prime Hunters. Invites Bill back on stage to demo the game. Another competition: Bill against the creators of the game. Introduces the different ways to battle, including the morph ball.
11:29: Iwata takes the stage. There’s one more new adventure for you today: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS. Short clip plays: cel-shaded-style graphics. Top screen: mostly maps. Action is on the lower screen. Use touch screen to draw things — transitioning the bottom screen input to the top. Launches later this year — from Aonuma and team (makers of Wind Waker).
11:31: Iwata says that he is asked all the time: “How did you get the idea for the Revolution controller?†Elaborates on how some people are afraid to touch regular game controllers. With that in mind Nintendo created lots of prototypes to arrive at the current design.
11:34: Reiterates backwards compatibility to all previous Nintendo titles and the need for the controller to function with it. Said after back and forth and taking in all the needs, they arrived (back) at the remote control concept.
11:37: In addition to NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube titles, games specifically developed for the SEGA Genesis and for the TurboGrafx console will also be playable on Nintendo Revolution. Not all of them — but the best of them will be.
11:38: Most important story is still to be told: how developers will work with the new consoles. Huge amounts of money are needed to market games, to create the detailed graphics, etc. Elaborates on Nintendo’s desire to do something different — provide solutions for people with great ideas. Nintendo understands importance of graphics. Games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid will all look better than ever. But those will not be the only types of games. Stresses innovation. Essential to reach new audience: younger people, older people. Nintendo is commited to creating a development environment that lets developers and publishers expand and express themselves. In a few weeks, you will play and see and understand our philosophy. Videogames are meant to be one thing: fun.
11:44: Thanks everyone for inviting him
Transcript of the speech from Nintendo:
2006 GDC KEYNOTE ADDRESS
2
Thank you so much for giving me the honor of speaking before you again this
year. In my job, I have to talk to a lot of people, but as you all know, since I still have
the heart of a gamer, I have the most fun talking to you!
Once upon a time, way back in the 1980s, a company became number one
because its products meant fun to young people. Then, in the 1990s, a bigger
company with a bigger brand name and bigger budgets took away the number one
spot.
Fortunately, that first company also had another line of products that let it
remain popular and profitable. This company used that threat to reconsider its
strategy, and think how it could regain overall leadership.
And this is what it decided.
It would redefine its own business, and expand its market beyond current core
users. Could this strategy work?
Well, we already know the answer. The answer is yes.
Because that first company, Pepsi, has returned to number one in its industry
displacing Coke. Pepsi stopped asking, How can we sell more cola? Instead, it
started asking, What else do people want to drink?
Today, Pepsi is number one in bottled water. It is number one in sports drinks.
It is number one in health drinks. And, of course, it remains number one in the snacks
business that it used to maintain profitability while they executed their disruptive
strategy. (As every game developer understands, the three basic food groups are
Fritos, Cheetos and Doritos.)
I am here today to share some stories about Nintendo. But, I begin with a
story about Pepsi because it demonstrates how thinking differently, and holding
strongly to your strategy, can disrupt an entire industry and in a good way.
For some time, we have believed the game industry is ready for disruption.
Not just from Nintendo, but from all game developers. It is what we all need to
expand our audience. It is what we all need to expand our imaginations.
Several years ago, when I began talking about reaching out to casual gamers
and non-gamers, few people listened. Today, Nintendo DS is succeeding in disrupting
the handheld market in fact, you could attribute most industry growth last year to
just this one product line. Now, people are listening more closely.
3
I know many of you smiled when we demonstrated Nintendogs at the GDC
last year, but Im sure not many of you believed it could sell 6 million copies around
the world in less than a year.
But the success of DS is not based on just one game; it is the story of several
new kinds of software creating brand new players.
Let me explain how disruption is working for us. Most of you are very
familiar with the American market, so let me share some information about Japan.
When it launched in 2001, Playstation 2 sold 6 million units in its first 21
months. Soon after, our Game Boy ® Advance did even better, reaching 6 million in
20 months. But Nintendo DS is selling at a much faster pace than any game system in
Japanese history. We have reached sales of 6 million systems in just 14 months. And,
this number would be far higher if production could keep up with demand.
In part, the DS success is due to how we redefine better technology with
unique hardware features. But more importantly, the disruption of Nintendo DS
comes from how software takes advantage of the hardware.
Over the last year, no software has created more discussion (or more surprise)
than our brain games. The first brain training game, which launched 10 months ago,
has sold 1.97 million units. The second brain training game, which only launched the
last week of last year, has already sold over 1.8 million units.
I have been asked many times how we decided to develop these gamesso I
thought maybe this is the first story I should share with you today.
Where did this idea come from? Im sure you can guess it started where all
great creative ideas begin from a board of directors!
When Atsushi Asada was a member of our Executive Committee, he
complained that he knew no one his age who played video games. Because Japan is
an aging society, he thought a game designed just for seniors might work.
I agreed it was a good start, but I said it might be a mistake to target only
seniors. Instead, maybe something that would appeal to other users, as well.
This meeting occurred just after the E3 show two years ago a very busy time
for us. We were finalizing the Nintendo DS hardware, as well as preparing DS launch
games. Even so, I asked each of our four main development groups to nominate a few
people to serve on a task force.
4
Some of them did not have much experience making games, so I got to play
the role of professor, talking to them not just about games, but about overall product
planning. The goal of the task force was to invent a game whose appeal would
include everyone from youngsters to baby boomers to seniors.
Our early meetings were just brainstorms and didnt produce any solid ideas.
But at that time, people in Japan were beginning to read a new book and do its brain
exercises. I noticed this, and thought it might be a good game idea.
Even Mr. Mori, our chief financial officer, was doing the exercises himself
and convinced me to go forward. Then I consulted with Mr. Miyamoto, and when he
got excited, too, I asked the task force to tackle the job.
Several of them said that just exercising your brain might not be enough.
Could there be a way for players to measure a brain age? I thought this was a great
idea. People would be eager to compare their scores. But in fact, no work at all could
begin until we came to agreement with the author, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. Since we
were both about the same age, I decided to try to meet with him myself.
His schedule was very busy, but he agreed he could find just one hour on just
one day the very day that the DS was launching in Japan. Not only was his
university a long distance from our offices, but the meeting itself lasted not one hour,
but three.
We showed him a prototype brain training software and explained how his
work might translate to our medium. He was enthused, and we started exchanging
ideas. The doctor offered to demonstrate evidence on how the prototype software was
stimulating brain activity. He asked if he could borrow one of the team members I
had brought along from Nintendo. I said, Certainly.
You might find this unbelievable, but his assistant then entered with
something that looked like a metal bowl with wires attached to it, and then he turned
it upside down, and placed it on my team members head. It looked like a sci-fi
movie from the 1950s. The doctor showed that he could determine that the prototype
game was changing the amount of blood moving across the surface of the brain. This
was an important moment for all of us.
m sure some people at Nintendo wondered how I could spend so much time
on the kind of meeting on the very day of the DS launch, but I think it turned out to
be a good idea.
5
Meanwhile, back at Nintendo, we also benefited from some good timing.
Internally, we have one team we call the Development Environmental Group. They
had just finished a library of tools for voice and sound recognition for DS.
Simultaneously, work on hand-writing recognition was also in progress.
When they began this work, we all thought these functions would be useful
for the DS someday, but we had no real idea how. Then suddenly, it seemed to Mr.
Miyamoto and me they would be a perfect match for this brain game.
By now, I admit I was getting very enthusiastic about the project. But at first, I
dont remember that the development team felt quite the same way. I assembled a
group of nine people and told them that since this wasnt a very complicated
programming they should be able to finish the first game in just 90 days And that
included the year-end holiday period. I could tell they were not happy, but at least
with such a short schedule, they couldnt waste much time complaining.
My bigger concern was how the market would reactbeginning with
retailers. Few people inside Nintendo believed they would place very big ordersthe
game was just too different from what they knew. Maybe it wasnt even a game at
all. So at this point, one member of the sales team suggested a new rule. When our
salesmen showed the software to retailers, even before business was discussed, the
first 15 minutes of every meeting must be spent with the buyers trying the brain
exercises themselves.
Oh, when they heard this, the retailers hated the idea! They were disgusted,
but they had no choice. So they started playing, and we could only wait to see how
they would react.
And how did they respond? Well, at this point I think I will take a risk and see
if we can reproduce those first reactions right here on stage. In order to do that, Id
like to introduce Bill Trinen from Nintendo of Americas localization team a person
who has spent months with Brain Age. Hell walk us through a demonstration, and
invite a few friends.
[Bill Trinen, from Nintendo of Americas localization team, demonstrated the unique
game play of the new Nintendo DS game, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a
Day, among a group of volunteers]
Thank you Bill (Trinen), Will (Wright), Geoff (Keighley) and Jamil
(Moledina). I think we have now discovered people who are determined to improve
their brain age! And of course, that is the secret appeal of this game.
6
Let me add one more note to this story. Those first retailers, after playing the
first game, agreed to buy a total of 70,000 units, which was still more than our
domestic sales team expected, but I was not satisfied with that number. But between
the launch of the first game and the second, you could see a disruption of the market
occurring across Japan. Something had changed. New people were playing.
Seven months later, we returned with samples of the second Big Brain
Academy game. This time, no demonstrations were needed. The retailers quickly
placed orders for 850,000 units. And even that turned out not to be enough. It
recorded the biggest first-week sales for any DS game ever.
As of right now, the three brain games, including Brain Flex, have sold more
than five million copies in Japan alone. The moral of this story is pretty clear. If you
want to succeed in game development, you need to follow two simple rules:
· First, listen to your board of directors
· And second, listen to your chief financial officer
The development of this game came from our belief that people wanted
something new. In this case, that game took the form of a treadmill for the mind.
But we also learned that the only real way to demonstrate the appeal of these games is
to have people actually play them. At Nintendo in Japan, we had employees take the
game home and show it to family and friends, especially people who werent game
players.
Quite a few of our employees were surprised that their parents and wives who
would never show any interest in gaming were suddenly playing this everyday. That
helped to build buzz. So, I decided that the same thing might work here in America.
And that the best time to start is right now.
So, when were finished this morning, I thought you should test your own
brain age to play yourself, and to show it to a friend or colleague or even your parents
even if they have never played games.
So as you leave my keynote address, please take a copy of Brain Age with you
as a gift from Nintendo. Please only take one, and understand that the games are only
available to pick up when we finish today.
The second story I want to share with you involves disruption of a different
sort not only taking a different approach to a new technology, but also finding a
way to make it attractive to everyone and thereby expand the overall audience.
The topic was constructing the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
7
Many of you know that we have been experimenting with networks since the
1980s. Back then, you could use your NES in Japan to trade stocks. We kept working,
but never thought the time was right to introduce a game network until Nintendo DS.
In 2004, we began considering Wi-Fi gaming. From the start, we had several
challenges. First, we knew that both Animal Crossing and Mario Kart would be
arriving on the DS the next year, and we wanted them to feature Wi-Fi play. That
made the development timetable very short.
Secondly, I insisted that our Wi-Fi interface be seamless. I wanted connecting
to someone around the world to be as easy as connecting to someone playing next to
you in the same room. As you know, this creates its own problems, because normally
making things easier for players, makes things harder for developers.
But the most difficult aspect was deciding who players would be able to
connect with. Online gaming normally belongs to the most aggressive players, and
they can be a very vocal group. For the casual player, this kind of interaction can be
very intimidating. I believed if we catered to only this very vocal group of hard-core
players, we could never truly expand the audience.
Originally, we thought Wi-Fi should be set up as a kind of social network,
almost a game-play version of MySpace. In Japan, we initially referred to the Wi-Fi
system as project house party. We had in mind the comfort of inviting friends over
to play in your own home. Well, at Nintendo of America this name was not very
popular. They told us that this sounded like what you call a tupperware party. No
matter what we called it, I believed the experience must be easy and fun.
What did I mean by easy? Its simple to connect a game on DS locally when
youre sitting in a room with your friends. It should be just as easy to find those
friends and play with them even if theyre thousands of miles away.
But what is fun? That depends on the player. You may want to play Mario
Kart only with people you know. Or you may find it more fun to try to defeat total
strangers. Sometimes, the choice will be determined by the nature of the game. No
one playing Animal Crossing wants someone to come in cut down all their trees and
trash their town. What was important to me was that players have the choice, and the
freedom to choose which way to play.
For developers, easy and fun doesnt mean the work will be easy or
fun. There were many barriers to overcome. And my colleague, Mr. Takao Ohara,
will share those stories with you later here at the GDC.
8
In the end, it is the freedom of choice, I believe, that has made the Nintendo
Wi-Fi Connection so successful. To date, we have surpassed 1 million unique players,
totaling more than 29 million play sessions and, this in only 18 weeks of
availability.
We reached 1 million players almost five times as fast as the Xbox Live
service, which also offered free connections when it began. It took them 20 months to
reach 1 million different users. Of course, this has made our Wi-Fi development team
very happy as you can see.
What you cant see is that sign theyre holding up, a message to all of you. So
let me show you what it said: We love the GDC. They all wanted to come, but I told
them, Sorry, no. But I did promise I would bring their picture.
As you know, this week we added a new wrinkle to the Nintendo Wi-Fi
Connection. Voice over internet protocol arrived with Metroid Prime Hunters. It
introduces a new level of fun.
At first, I thought you might like to see a Wi-Fi demonstration of the game.
But I know Wi-Fi is nothing new for you. In fact, I imagine many of you have already
played Mario Kart DS wirelessly and seamlessly. Instead, I think the true appeal of
the game is seen best if we hold our own four-player battle right up here on stage.
Again, Id like to invite Bill Trinen to come back on stage to get the battle
underway.
[Bill Trinen, from Nintendo of Americas localization team, demonstrated the
wireless game play capability of the Nintendo DS game, Metroid Prime Hunters,
among a group of volunteers]
Thank you, everyone. I know I am much better watching this game than
playing it.
When we talk about expanding the market to new players, many times this
means new kinds of software, but certainly not always. I hope that Metroid Prime
Hunters shows were not turning our backs on the kind of games that current core
players already love. We will serve all tastes.
Our new Tetris DS is something even your grandmother will enjoy. On the
other hand, you can compete head to head with nine different people on a local
network, or three others via Wi-Fi.
9
We are also going to bring our first all-new Super Mario Bros. game to the DS
in a matter of a few weeks. For those of you who have been waiting for the next great
Mario gamethis is for you. And because youre all such game fans, Ive decided to
reveal one more brand new adventure for you today
[The audience was shown a demo reel of the The Legend of Zelda: Phantom
Hourglass]
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, is designed exclusively for the DS.
It will launch later this year. Its a product of Mr. Aonuma and the team that has
created most of the Zelda hits in the past. You will be seeing and playing Zelda both
on DS and Nintendo Gamecube at E3.
The third story I have to share is the answer to a question people ask me all
the time: how did we get the idea for the Revolution free-hand controller?
Well, we started out with a very simple question: why is it that anyone feels
comfortable picking up a remote control for a TV, but many people are afraid to even
touch the controller for a video game system? This was our starting point.
Our first controller meetings began early in 2004, and from that initial thought
we added two other requirements. First, the controller must be wireless. We need to
give players freedom to move. And second, the look of the controller had to be simple
and non-threatening. But of course, at the same time, it had to be sophisticated
enough to serve the needs of complex games.
And yes, we also wanted it to be revolutionary.
Finding an answer to all of this was not easy. For more than six months, two
people at NCL did nothing but produce sketch after sketch with new ideas. Each
sketch caused more discussion, and the discussions led us to create dozens of
prototype designs. In all, about 15 people were involved trying to figure out an
answer.
At the same time, I was considering technologies which would incorporate a
direct pointing device, something that would show direct visual contact between the
controller and the screen. In fact, many good ideas were floating around, but nothing
yet felt revolutionary.
Early last year a young team leader of the controller development group came
up with a disruptive idea: what if you could play with just one hand?
10
Mr. Miyamoto quickly imagined a small, simple, wireless device. That
intrigued us, but we realized an immediate problem. Considering our plans, how
would we allow backward compatibility to all the previous Nintendo games that
required two-hand control?
Again, Mr. Miyamoto had an answer: make the small wireless controller
detachable from a larger, traditional controller both using the same wireless
interface.
This sounded good, but when we shared the idea with our Metroid Prime
producers, they objected. They said their games would not work with what we
invented. They added another idea: Why not keep the simple one-hand controller, but
also add a secondary device for the other hand if the game required it? Something
like a nun-chuk device. We think this is something that will entirely change firstperson
shooter games. By separately using the joystick device to control position and
the direct pointing device to target enemies the experience truly feels more intuitive.
Now, we really went to work. There were dozens of models and prototypes fabricated
until we came up with the final result.
And what did it look like?
Well, it looked exactly like the same TV remote control that we first imagined
more than a year earlier. Sometimes ideas are like good wine in that they just need
time. After all the designs and mockups, we were happy with the final result. It met
our goals. It was wireless. It was inviting to new players. It offered something brand
new for core players. And, it was also a new interface we could offer to every player.
But, it also represented something else. As you can imagine, this was a very
expensive process. Not only in terms of the research and development costs, but also
the manufacturing expense of producing such an elaborate control system, and
including it as part of every hardware purchase.
Some people put their money on the screen, but we decided to spend ours on
the game experience. It is an investment in actual market disruption. Not simply to
improve the market but disrupt it. We believe a truly new kind of game
entertainment will not be realized unless there is a new way to connect a player to his
game.
New is good, but there also is an appetite for old. For young players,
classic games are brand new. For others, they are a way to feel young again.
After we announced the virtual console concept for revolution last year, many
people asked me if only games for Nintendo systems would be available. Today, I
11
have a better answer. I can announce that games specifically developed for both the
Sega Genesis and the NEC Turbo Grafx system will also be available for Nintendo
Revolution via the Virtual Console.
Between them, these systems built a library of more than a thousand different
games. Of course, not all of them will be available, but the best of them will.
Thank you for listening to my stories this morning. However, the most
important story of all is still to be told. I hope all of you, the creative force of our
industry, will help us write it. It is the story of how disruption will help every one of
us overcome the growing barriers to game development.
We know what the main barrier is cost. There is one dominant business model
for our industry. Publishers work backwards from a console game at retail that sells
for $50 or now, even $60. To compete at that level, games must be longer, larger and
more complex, which requires bigger development teams. Success is more likely if a
strong license is acquired, but even then, huge amounts of money are needed to
market that game to a mass audience.
Its understandable that many publishers, in order to reduce risk, feel most
comfortable relying on sequels to already successful, high budget games. As a result,
our business is beginning to resemble a bookstore where you can only buy expensive,
full sets of encyclopedias. No romance novels. No paperbacks. No magazines.
In our business, too often people with a fresh idea dont have a chance. I
believe if Tetris were presented today, here is what the producer would be told: Go
backgive me more levelsgive me better graphicsgive me cinematicsand
youre probably going to need a movie license to sell that idea to the public. The
producer would go away dejected. Today, Tetris might never be made.
Nintendo understands the dominant business model. We work with it every
day. And future Zeldas and Marios and Metroids are going to be bigger masterpieces
than ever before. But, this does not have to be the only business model. We want to
help you create a new one. One where your simple Tetris will be made.
With Nintendo Revolution, we offer a combination of opportunities that
simply cant be matched. Our controller allows for every existing form of game to
take on a new character. It allows for game creation that is not dependent on just the
size of the development budget. I consider our virtual console concept the video game
version of Apples iTunes music store.
Since I first announced the virtual console concept last year at E3, other people
have become very interested in digital downloads. Others will offer such a service,
12
but it will not be the same. Because for us, this is not just a new business opportunity,
for us, this is true innovation true disruption. It is part of our DNA.
The digital download process will bring new games to the widest possible
audience of new players. Young people, older people, even those who never played
video games before. When I think of what faces all of us right now, I imagine what it
must have been like for the explorers who first set foot on a new continent. For them,
it was impossible to imagine all the adventure that lay ahead.
Our adventure is still ahead of us. Nintendo is committed to creating an
environment where all of your work can prosper. I began today saying that disruption
is not just a strategy for Nintendo.
Yes, we have already disrupted handheld and it worked. Yes, we have
already disrupted Wi-Fi and it worked. We disrupted the very definition of a game
and that is working, too. In a few weeks, you will better understand how to disrupt
console gaming. You will play, and you will see.
At Nintendo, we do not run from risk. We run to it. We are taking the risk to
move beyond current boundaries. It should be our goal, each of us, to reach the new
players as well as the current players. Our goal is to show them surprise. Our reward
is to convince them that above all video games are meant to be just one thing fun
Fun for everyone.
Thank you again so much for inviting me.
# # #
Iwata Interview:
Q: How much information will you share at E3 about the price and launch dates?
A: We’re still in the process of deciding how we’ll release the information. The goal is to have the product there to experience. The Revolution is coming out this year.
Q: Microsoft had a shortage of consoles. Is there a lesson in that as you launch the Revolution?
A: In general, the platform business is a business of momentum. Idea is maintain and build momentum. Microsoft had problems with strategy. There were markets where they had consoles left on store shelves. I think I understand where their problems were. I don’t want to give an answer because I don’t want to give them any help.
Q: What is your message to game developers?
A: Mostly I will talk about disruptive innovation. To have an impact, we have to look at disruptive innovation. Sustainable innovation we have made already. One important message is that the Nintendo Revolution is a system that really gives people the opportunity to take on a disruptive innovation. The industry has problems with rising game budgets, huge teams, the need to get movie licenses just to compete. The Revolution will allow small game developers to duke it out in a battle of ideas. Long ago there was a little game called “Tetris,†designed by a Russian scientist, which managed to take the world by storm. I’d be worried if he proposed to do it now, would he raise the money? What would happen now if a person took such a game to a publisher? They would say bump up the graphics, add more modes, add computer-generated movies for the cut scenes, maybe you need a license to go with that. You would have all these elements to enhance a game. They cost a lot of money but don’t add a lot to the game.
If I were to compare this to the book industry, huge thick volumes of encyclopedias would be on the shelves of bookstores and nothing else. There would be no paperbacks, no trashy romance novels. When an industry gets there, then it can no longer sustain itself. I’ll talk to developers about how to come up with a system to create paperbacks for consumers.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/0 ... ervie.html
Nintendo's Press Release:
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 23 /PRNewswire/ — Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today challenged a crowd of game developers to think differently and take a fresh approach to the creation of video games. During his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Iwata said Nintendo will provide developers with the tools they need to disrupt the traditional methods of game creation, much as the company already has.
These tools include the controller for Nintendo’s next home console (code-named Revolution), which lets users control the action on their television screens through the motion of the controller itself. The controller lets game developers create new kinds of gaming experiences, ones that enhance the experience for hard-core gamers while making video games more accessible and less intimidating to novices. The new forms of innovative software that can be created by any size developer will be made available for download via Revolution’s Virtual Console service.
“This new approach is like stepping onto an unexplored continent for the first time, with all the potential for discovery that suggests,†Iwata said. “No one else can match the environment we’re creating for expanding the game experience to everyone. Our path is not linear, but dynamic.â€
Iwata also announced partnerships with Sega and Hudson to offer downloadable access to their classic games via Revolution’s Virtual Console. Revolution owners will be able to relive their past gaming glories from the Sega Genesis console by playing a “best of†selection from more than 1,000 Genesis titles, as well as games sold for the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). These games join Revolution’s access to 20 years of fan-favorite Nintendo games from the NES(R), Super NES(R) and Nintendo(R) 64 eras.
Iwata also revealed for the first time that a new game called The Legend of Zelda(R): Phantom Hourglass would be released for Nintendo DS later this year.
Iwata, a game developer himself, revealed behind-the-scenes stories about the development of three key initiatives. For the industry leading Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, internal engineers and developers overcame a series of hurdles to make the system seamless and flexible enough to allow players to choose to play wirelessly either with friends or against unknown opponents. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection reached 1 million unique users in just 18 weeks — nearly five times the adoption rate of the leading online game console network. He described a pivotal meeting in coming to agreement on development of the incredibly popular “brain games†in Japan. A leading Japanese scientist attached a sci-fi-looking wired helmet to a Nintendo staffer and then visually demonstrated stimulation of brain activity as the staffer played prototype software. Finally, he described the hundreds of sketches, dozens of prototypes and company-wide collaboration that led to the final form of the unique Revolution controller system, which resembles a traditional TV remote control. He called the related research and manufacturing costs of the new control system, “…our method to disrupt the market…realizing a new way to connect a player to his game.â€
