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Nintendo prez says the Wii needs more "surprises"

Category: Wii, Posted: 05/01/2008 at 05:25PM CDT by Frank Ling, Editorial Director

iwataIt's no news that critics of Nintendo's Wii say that the game console has been mired in shovelware of late and that the Wii is a gigantic giant ready to take a hard fall. But among those voices comes one from Nintendo's own ranks-none other then the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata.

First off, he related that he wasn't very concerned with other game companies copying the Wiimote motion sensing concept but was more concerned with bringing in new ideas to the Wii consumer base.

"We are not concerned about what other companies may do but rather more concerned with presenting them with new ideas to our customers based on the prospect that our existing customers will surely get tired of the plays enabled by Wii Remote if we do not try to improve the experience. In other words, what matters to us is whether or not we can continue to constantly create and offer new surprises one after another."

Iwata has a keen sense that the Wii's success may only be a fleeting moment in time even though the console has continued to remain strong in sales. He said that in order to maintain the Wii's popularity, Nintendo would have to keep coming up with "surprises" for the fan base. And if Nintendo doesn't, it will mean the beginning of the fall for the Wii.

"...even though they are appreciating our offers today, will get tired of them if we cannot provide them with new proposals before they get tired of them. If we can provide them with new surprises, they will continue to support Nintendo for longer, and if not, they will say in the near future, ‘That was Nintendo's peak.' So, we want to make sure we will do our job right."

Iwata has his feet firmly planted on the ground and isn't resting on his laurels. Let's hope that his vision for the Wii comes true as Nintendo constantly tries to surprise us with new offerings.

[via developmag.com]
Posted by Garcian Smith on 05/02/2008 at 12:35PM

Nintendo have to put a lot more rigorous scrutiny into games that get their 'Seal of Approval'. There was a simple bar chart that showed that AAA games on the Wii were massively out of proportion to those lower than that. Nintendo also need to lead by example. They've done this to an extent, Metroid Prime 3 has the best console FPS controls I've ever used, Super Mario Galaxy was an absolute treat for the eyes, despite the technical short-comings for the Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl had amongst the best content within a game this year, and 'games' such Wii Sports and WiiFit have, potentially, branched out gaming to new audiences.
Unfortunately, the Wii's continued success cannot be held aloft by Nintendo alone, 3rd Party companies need to stop shovelling out retreds of PS2/GCN games, or watered down editions of 360/PS3 games. Ubisoft, for example, looked promising prior to the launch of the Wii, with half a dozen exclusive titles for the system on Day One. Sure, the games were (largely) absolutely terrible, but it was at least a sign of a developer trying to support a system with a radically different approach to console gaming (though we must note that the only game out of the original Ubisoft launch to get a series of sequels was the Rayman Raving Rabbids series).

Er, I'll stop now.

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