Nintendo Shareholders Meeting Reveals New Information Concerning Wii U

Brand new information for you guys, this time brought to you by Andriasang. At Nintendo’s shareholders meeting in its Kyoto headquarters, CEO Iwata answered some questions mostly concerning the Wii U’s reception and Nintendo’s HD development. He also talks about the possibility of using the 3DS as a controller for the Wii U for the first time. Check out the Interview below.

Q: Won’t Nintendo continue with plans to release text book software?

A: This is being done through DS and has been well received in places where it’s used, but there are many who are against the idea having game systems brought into the classroom. Brain Age did change some minds, though.

Nothing too new here. The DS most likely won’t be used as a substitute for text books, due to critical voices against it.

Q: Question about earnings for Nintendo’s board members.

A: In line with lowered company earnings, earnings for board members dropped. Iwata was the only person to make over 100 million yen (precisely, 137 million yen).

Sales for Nintendo deteriorated. This is most likely because of the increasing amount of piracy concerning the whole game-industry (on that note, you might want to check out Tom’s thoughts about this problem).

Q: Wasn’t the reaction to the Wii U bad?

A: Reactions directly from L.A. were extremely good. The majority of the overseas media offered congratulations to Iwata. The reaction differed greatly between those who covered the product at the show and those who just covered it online. In other words, the point is how Nintendo can convey the value of the product.

This is another proof that Wii U indeed had a good reception. Especially the reactions of the people who could get their hands on the new console at E3 2011 were great. Now Nintendo has to focus on convincing the rest of the world of the qualities the new system brings.

Q: Is it not difficult to recover a new product from a slump?

A: Iwata replied that Nintendo had low software output for the 3DS launch. They hope to not have this problem with the Wii U.

As we know, the 3DS started pretty weak sales-wise, but it recovered from that soon after OoT 3D hit the stores. To avoid a disappointing start like this with the Wii U, Nintendo has to deliver it with anticipated and promising games right from the beginning. They should probably do that by releasing first-party games, though the possibilities for third-party games are enormous on the Wii U compared to the Wii.

Q: Is Nintendo’s HD development ability okay?

A: Regarding Zelda HD, Japanese developers said that it could not be replicated on other machines. It was made in a relatively short period, so Iwata feels that HD development will not be a problem.

Since Nintendo set the time-frame for the release of Wii U very broad by just stating “2012”, they actually still have a lot of time to work on its performance, meaning what we saw at E3 2011 doesn’t necessary have to be the best they can offer HD-wise. While I was blown away by their presentation, it’s good to know they can still improve on that. For example, Sony’s PS 3 was released in 2006, and even though they stated that they didn’t see a threat in the Wii U, the release of a PS 4 in the next few years is very likely, meaning Nintendo, who put their focus on their new HD-abilities, can’t just fully rely on that.

Q: Will core gamers accept Wii U?

A: Wii was not accepted by core gamers because they did not want to abandon their preferred control approach. Additionally, Wii did not use HD because HD cost performance at the time was low. Wii U makes it easier to use conventional controls. Also, the Wii U controller is not as big or heavy as it looks.

So Nintendo hopes to get the attention of core gamers not only through the Wii U’s HD-performance, but also because the new console goes back to common controls. Still, Wii U is also motion-controlled; we just don’t know how much yet. While the Wii was mostly motion-based, though, the Wii U will most likely try to combine motion- and motionless-controls, which Nintendo hopes will please the core gamers more than the Wii did.

Q: Can’t the 3DS be used as a controller for the Wii U?

A: It is possible technically. However, when doing this you lose the ability to go online (I’m not sure if Iwata is talking about Wii U or 3DS). Also, if you connect the two, players have to buy both system.

Here you have it; hooking the 3DS onto the Wii U and using it as a controller would actually be a possibility. I’m not sure how much this would improve gameplay though, since the Wii U controller basically is just a big version of the 3DS touchpad and buttons. The one thing the 3DS could add, on the other hand, would of course be the 3D-effect itself. We’ll see what Nintendo makes of this.

What do you think about the way Nintendo is going right now? Let me know in the comments below.

Source: Andriasang