Nintendo Investors Meeting ( now in english )

[dazzybee]

X and TW101 certainly are ones that I love, however the former hasn't even come out yet.

 

As for TW101, look at the sales it got; it clearly isn't the type of game that is going to make people rush out to get the system.

 

As I've mentioned before (and others seem to agree with), Nintendo need new I.P's that appeal to those in the west. Unfortunately, a game like TW101 has no chance of having the same impact as Uncharted, Gears of War etc.

 

I don't disagree, but I'd prefer Wonderful 101 than a Gears type game. Maybe even an Uncharted type game though both would be good. Why would we want nintendo to not make games like Pikmin, Wonderful 101, Mario etc just because of sales? These were my favourite games of the whole of last year?!

 

However, slightly devils advocate as we all want Nintendo to "succeed" and maybe classic Nintendo isn't as popular as it used to be, or maybe they need to entice people with more "western" games (whatever that means) and then the magic of Nintendo will be discovered by new generations

[liger05]

Genyo Takeda's answer in regard to the specs of the Wii U being low was BS. He didnt answer the question!!

 

I honestly dont think Iwata, Miyamoto or Takeda have any idea on why the Wii U has failed. Its laughable.

[dazzybee]

Hyrule Warrios is as non-new IP as you can get. It is a cut and paste job of Zelda characters onto the Dynasty Warriors archetype. You can't even say as a crossover thing it's new, because the exact same thing has been done with Gundam (Gundam x Dynasty Warriors crossover). It blew chunks.

 

So you know exactly how this game is going to play and that it's going to be crap...? From one video and brief announcement? I'm not saying it won't be awful. But you're so bizarrely assured it's just a reskinned Hyrule Warriors. I can't imagine Nintendo would allow something so simple done with their franchise.

[Sheikah]

So you know exactly how this game is going to play and that it's going to be crap...? From one video and brief announcement? I'm not saying it won't be awful. But you're so bizarrely assured it's just a reskinned Hyrule Warriors. I can't imagine Nintendo would allow something so simple done with their franchise.

 

Dude, it's a Dynasty Warriors game with Zelda characters, that much we know for sure. I was just saying that it's not 'new IP', even if they add extra polish to it on account of it having a Zelda theme.

[Goron_3]

But that wasn't the conversation... it was someone said people don't want new versions of old games like Mario, Pikmin and mario kart; someone said yes they do look at cod, killzone and fifa etc Which is true. Then that was rebuffed saying "people don't buy those consoles for those games, but for new games" which is why i said there are new games for the wii u.

 

The fact people changed their arguments slightly about brand new ip and nintendo made ones is different to he original point...

 

My initial point is that you need to prove to people why it's worth BUYING new hardware and what new experiences you'll get on there, which aren't just sequels or shinier versions of old games. Serebii then made the same reply he always does ('but the TW101?!?!) to which I explained that those new games need to have western appeal if the games and console are to sell (compare TW101 impact to Gears).

 

You then, for some reason, said something along the lines of 'look at the top selling games, they are sequels/follow ups' which had nothing to do with my intitial post that people will only invest in new consoles if they see new experiences. Clearly the Wii U is showing that making sequels to Wii titles is not enough to entice people to buy an entirely new console (look at current Wii U sales, both software and hardware). People will buy sequels once they own a console but few people will buy new hardware for the same old games.

 

I made my initial point because Iwata seems to think that Mario Kart and Smash will save the Wii U, but again, why would people pay so much money for a system just for another Mario Kart or Smash game, when buying a newer version of 2D Mario, Wii Fit or Pikmin hasn't worked.

 

Okay, they are now making a game that uses the gamepad but it's a bit late, surely?

 

tl;dr

 

Nintendo's problems are that:

1. They don't have enough 'new' I.P/experiences to sell a console, and as a result people can't justify buying expensive new hardware.

2. New I.P that they do invest in have relatively little western appeal and won't sell a console the way that a game like Gears of War did for the Xbox or Super Mario 64/Goldeneye did for the N64.

3. As a result of these 'new I.P' not doing well, Nintendo rely on Mario to save the day again.

 

Edit. @dazzybee, just seen you reply a few posts above, and yes, I also prefer most Nintendo games to Gears lol

Edited February 3, 2014 by Goron_3

[dazzybee]

I genuinely believe if Nintendo released a stream of games, one fantastic title a month it would sell a lot of consoles, in the mean time improving their online, releae software to make great use of the gamepad, and having a steady, and quality stream of eshop and virtual console games. I think all of that would equal big sales I really do. i think the complete lack of games is the single reason it hasn't sold.

 

I'm not saying it'll sell incredibly, but definitely better. Imagine if they released the following

 

February - Donkey Kong

March - Steel Diver

April - Watch Dogs

May - Mario Kart

June - Yarn Yoshi

July - Luigi's Mansion 2HD

August - Bayonetta 2

September -Hyrule Warriors

October - NEW GAME FROM E3

November - X

December - Smash Brothers

 

With the result of all the indie deals and software they sorted last year. And the realisation that their VC is crap and sort that out.

 

Do we still think the Wii U would bomb?!

[liger05]

I genuinely believe if Nintendo released a stream of games, one fantastic title a month it would sell a lot of consoles, in the mean time improving their online, releae software to make great use of the gamepad, and having a steady, and quality stream of eshop and virtual console games. I think all of that would equal big sales I really do. i think the complete lack of games is the single reason it hasn't sold.

 

I'm not saying it'll sell incredibly, but definitely better. Imagine if they released the following

 

February - Donkey Kong

March - Steel Diver

April - Watch Dogs

May - Mario Kart

June - Yarn Yoshi

July - Luigi's Mansion 2HD

August - Bayonetta 2

September -Hyrule Warriors

October - NEW GAME FROM E3

November - X

December - Smash Brothers

 

With the result of all the indie deals and software they sorted last year. And the realisation that their VC is crap and sort that out.

 

Do we still think the Wii U would bomb?!

 

Yes as like it or not you need third parties to succeed in this business and Nintendo still are not prepared to accept that. They still think third parties do not matter.

 

Not forgetting that needs to be a much wider range of games released from nintendo. More genres and Nintendo dont have enough covered in house. They ignore western gaming trends like they are the plague.

Edited February 3, 2014 by liger05

[Pestneb]

Genyo Takeda's answer in regard to the specs of the Wii U being low was BS. He didnt answer the question!!

 

I honestly dont think Iwata, Miyamoto or Takeda have any idea on why the Wii U has failed. Its laughable.

 

 

You have to realise, this is a business. They have to be careful about what they say, they have to play with what they've got.

He explained that the focus was on the gamepad, not on strengthening the processing power of the console. That answers the question as fully as he can, at least if he wants to retain his position within the company.

[Sheikah]

I'm not saying it'll sell incredibly, but definitely better. Imagine if they released the following

 

February - Donkey Kong

March - Steel Diver

April - Watch Dogs

May - Mario Kart

June - Yarn Yoshi

July - Luigi's Mansion 2HD

August - Bayonetta 2

September -Hyrule Warriors

October - NEW GAME FROM E3

November - X

December - Smash Brothers

 

With the result of all the indie deals and software they sorted last year. And the realisation that their VC is crap and sort that out.

 

Do we still think the Wii U would bomb?!

 

That's a good list of games, but then also factor in New Super Mario 3DS World and NSMB/ Luigi that not long since came out - and aside from a main Zelda title Nintendo are pretty much spent in terms of biggest/most anticipated titles in just over a year. I think without lots of third parties they're going to have trouble getting games/quality games out every month.

 

Either that or start up a lot more studios.

[dazzybee]

That's a good list of games, but then also factor in New Super Mario 3DS World and NSMB/ Luigi that not long since came out - and aside from a main Zelda title Nintendo are pretty much spent in terms of biggest/most anticipated titles in just over a year. I think without lots of third parties they're going to have trouble getting games/quality games out every month.

 

Either that or start up a lot more studios.

 

Which they'll have to do. Like you say, with Zelda likely coming out 2015 and Metroid too to be honest, that's their big guns out. But isn't that what people want, nintendo to be forced to come up with new stuff or their smaller IP?! They have to sustain this thing themselves so they have to do it somehow.

 

Nintendo have said they're up for murders and executions, so getting new studios and such will likely happen.

 

Yes as like it or not you need third parties to succeed in this business and Nintendo still are not prepared to accept that. They still think third parties do not matter.

 

Not forgetting that needs to be a much wider range of games released from nintendo. More genres and Nintendo dont have enough covered in house. They ignore western gaming trends like they are the plague.

 

I really think they can survive without them, the 3DS hasn't had loads of 3rd party support has it?! If they release that many new main games a year, alongside smaller eshop games, a better VC and also 3rd party games that do come and companies playing with their licenses etc. Then i think many many more people will buy it.

[liger05]

You have to realise, this is a business. They have to be careful about what they say, they have to play with what they've got.

He explained that the focus was on the gamepad, not on strengthening the processing power of the console. That answers the question as fully as he can, at least if he wants to retain his position within the company.

 

Investors play an important part of the business and its not to much to ask for a questioned to be answered with a sufficient answer. I would prefer someone else in charge of producing a console as going by that answer Takeda doesnt know what people want from a console.

 

With regard to Wii U, we first need to create a strong foundation in areas Nintendo excels at and achieve a sufficient sales volume. If we manage to do so, those publishers in the overseas markets who are currently not interested in Wii U will be attracted to the Wii U platform, as they were to Nintendo 3DS. This is going to be our approach in the near future

 

Iwata still doesnt get it.

 

Firstly Japanese third parties didnt even support the Wii U from day 1.

 

Secondly its not just about Wii U sales which do not appeal to third parties. Its the fact that the kind of games you see on other platforms dont sell on a Nintendo console regardless of how large the install base is. Nintendo dont seem to acknowledge this and ask the question why?

 

Thats not even including the fact that the Wii U isnt capabale of running next gen engines.

 

I really think they can survive without them, the 3DS hasn't had loads of 3rd party support has it?! If they release that many new main games a year, alongside smaller eshop games, a better VC and also 3rd party games that do come and companies playing with their licenses etc. Then i think many many more people will buy it.

 

3DS has had loads of Japanese third party support. Its been an important factor into how it has performed.

Edited February 3, 2014 by liger05

[Serebii]

Investors play an important part of the business and its not to much to ask for a questioned to be answered with a sufficient answer. I would prefer someone else in charge of producing a console as going by that answer Takeda doesnt know what people want from a console.

 

 

 

Iwata still doesnt get it.

 

Firstly Japanese third parties didnt even support the Wii U from day 1.

 

Secondly its not just about Wii U sales which do not appeal to third parties. Its the fact that the kind of games you see on other platforms dont sell on a Nintendo console regardless of how large the install base is. Nintendo dont seem to acknowledge this and ask the question why?

 

Thats not even including the fact that the Wii U isnt capabale of running next gen engines.

 

 

 

3DS has had loads of Japanese third party support. Its been an important factor into how it has performed.

Well what the hell do you expect them to say?

 

"We've built a time machine to change the specs of the Wii U"

 

They have to weather out the Wii U, and try and make it profitable? How, you ask? Releasing awesome software and marketing.

[Retro_Link]

I hate the fact that I'm actually at the point where I'm considering buying my own 'virtual console' of N64 and Gamecube game off of ebay (made worse by the fact I don't buy second hand games), instead of being able to simply download them from Nintendo. Stupid bastards.

[Goron_3]

Just download Dolphin

 

But yeah, GC VC

[liger05]

Well what the hell do you expect them to say?

 

"We've built a time machine to change the specs of the Wii U"

 

They have to weather out the Wii U, and try and make it profitable? How, you ask? Releasing awesome software and marketing.

 

I expect a better answer than one which includes

 

I apologize for not directly answering your question, but it is my personal belief that explanations of such a nature have little relevance to consumers.

 

It has plenty of relevance and its crazy that Iwata, Takeda and co seem to think specs of hardware do no matter to consumers.

 

Iwata and co are taking Nintendo down some crazy path.

[Serebii]

I hate the fact that I'm actually at the point where I'm considering buying my own 'virtual console' of N64 and Gamecube game off of ebay (made worse by the fact I don't buy second hand games), instead of being able to simply download them from Nintendo. Stupid bastards.

Hold off until after the next Direct first.

 

I expect a better answer than one which includes

 

I apologize for not directly answering your question, but it is my personal belief that explanations of such a nature have little relevance to consumers.

 

It has plenty of relevance and its crazy that Iwata, Takeda and co seem to think specs of hardware do no matter to consumers.

 

Iwata and co are taking Nintendo down some crazy path.

You do realise how damaging it would be for Iwata etc. to put things in a negative light, right? Investor Meetings are intent on re-assuring investors about their plans, not pleasing spec-hungry internet fanatics.

[Dcubed]

You people, bickering like children, are missing the really interesting points from this Q&A!

 

The goal of our application on smart devices is not to generate profit, at least in the short-term. The biggest point is to create consumer awareness and use that opportunity to have consumers know more about our information. As I mentioned in the presentation that people’s lifestyles have changed, we are beginning to see big generational differences in terms of how they watch TV and how often they interact with TV commercials. Consumers who acquired information only through TV or other mass media in the past now get their information through smart devices or the Internet. With the growth of the Internet, PCs and smart devices, as well as social media that enables you to see easily what others are saying, have become such important methods with which people gather information and make judgments. The key aspect is that Nintendo would like to establish a firm channel on smart devices through which we can connect with consumers. This channel will enable not only us but also third-party publishers to communicate all the fun content on Nintendo platforms to consumers. However, we cannot expect consumers to activate our application every day if we only establish a channel that is solely dedicated to advertising. We would have to make efforts to provide a channel for consumers that makes them entertained, pleased and happy in order to have them use our application frequently. The application market for smart devices is already extremely competitive, so it is generally very difficult to have consumers activate a single application on a continual basis. Perhaps it would not be too difficult to simply have people download our application and have them try it just once, but ensuring continued engagement is going to be challenging. We are determined to take on this challenge, fully understanding the situation in which we are going to place ourselves. Once we have established such an environment, however, we will be able to dramatically change the relationship between Nintendo and consumers. In addition, while we had no other choice but to use TV commercials in the past, we feel that adding such a new communication tool will be a cost-effective measure as a whole, so we are thinking about this issue in a holistic manner.

 

Since we are spending the same amount of marketing expenses as before in such an environment, to explain what is happening, the ratio of marketing expenses to sales has increased rapidly. From this viewpoint, I believe the most effective way to improve profitability in the short-term is to change the way we spend money and focus on more efficient areas, an idea strongly connected to my presentation in which I mentioned that we would like to create ties with consumers through smart devices. On the other hand, a simple reduction of marketing expenses without any measures results in balanced contraction, as I mentioned earlier in my presentation. Therefore, the key point is to review the current marketing expenditure allocation, and spend more on areas where it is necessary to do so and thoroughly examine areas that are not cost efficient.

 

This part is important as it really drives home the thought that Nintendo don't look at smartphones as a profit making venture for them to put out games and entertainment apps on, but rather as a major promotional pillar from on ongoing perspective. They're looking to move away from above-the-line techniques like TV and Print and shift their focus much moreso towards below-the-line efforts like online, SNS and (now here's where their upcoming official app comes into play!) mobile marketing. Based on what Iwata's saying here, this future app will probably include some form of free minigames/trivia etc that keep getting continuously updated with new content to entice people to keep coming back to use it (where they read about upcoming products too).

 

Regarding the research and development expenses for this fiscal year, many people seem to have been surprised by such a sudden increase and I heard from the IR team that they received many questions on this topic from financial analysts. Yesterday, I received the same question when we made our financial announcement at the Osaka Securities Exchange and answered that we decided to increase our forecasted expenses this fiscal year in order to tackle some of the areas that we feel we are not strong at, and this is an investment toward the future. I will not, however, go into detail about these specific areas since doing so does not benefit Nintendo or our shareholders. Please also note that the rise is unique to this fiscal year and it does not signify a general rise for and beyond the next fiscal year.

 

Nintendo just made a big R&D investment into... something secret... Ooooh! Seemingly it's something that Nintendo is "not strong at". What could it be? Cloud computing? Protean simulation? Who knows! (but it's seemingly something important and something that we'll be seeing the fruits of soonish)

 

Regarding Nintendo 3DS, we did not sell as much as we expected in the last year-end sales season. Since we expected the sales volume of Nintendo 3DS to increase rapidly in the year-end sales season and saw signs that it would happen at the end of October last year, I mentioned at the second quarter Financial Results Briefing that we would aspire to deliver great results in the year-end sales season, but we are now reflecting on the fact that we could not achieve it. On the other hand, since Nintendo 3DS has an installed base of more than 40 million units globally as I mentioned earlier, we are now getting to the point where it is impossible not to turn a profit with our software business. We have many key titles to be released in this calendar year and we will strive to drive profits from these titles. Seen in this light, I believe the key profit-driver for the next fiscal year will be Nintendo 3DS. Regarding Wii U, it is not easy to make a significant profit with the current units sold. The price reduction of the hardware in the overseas markets represents a large amount of our total expenditure for this fiscal year, but based on the premise that we will not make such a reduction in the next fiscal year, I think our business can operate without such a negative effect on our profitability. Also, in this calendar year, we will release “Mario Kart 8” and “Super Smash Bros.” which are kinds of games that Nintendo has been particularly strong with in encouraging players to invite each other to play. Therefore, with these two titles as our main drivers, we would like to make sure that the markets will thoroughly acknowledge the value of Wii U, including the titles that we have released to date. Also, we will try to turn around Wii U and enrich the value of the GamePad, a point I mentioned earlier in my presentation. With regard to Wii U, it is not realistic to hope that it will sell 100 million units in the same product cycle as Wii. On the other hand, I believe it is never too late and it is possible to achieve a certain level of sales volume and a certain level of results with Wii U depending on how we write its scenario. Therefore, we would like to come up with a realistic scenario and turn Wii U into a platform that generates as much profit as possible.

 

They consider the 3DS to be a cash-cow that is capable of standing on its own two feet from this point onwards and they have enough upcoming software (both 1st and 3rd party) to keep their handheld business sustained for the next year or two at least. With the Wii U however, Iwata has no delusions of grandure; while he's not giving up on the console, he doesn't believe that it can realistically magically turn around to be anywhere near as successful as the Wii. As such, they're gonna make it their focus this year in regards to 1st party support and will focus on turning it into a platform that they can make a reliable profit out of - so in short, don't expect any kind of crazy pricedrops or promotions, expect less TV advertising and an increased focus on cost reduction and profitability (so more subscription stuff and high price/quality software - no insane discounting!)

 

I believe companies around the world that own a variety of character IP have ideas of their own about their licensing businesses, and I think our licensing business would not be greatly different from them. In that sense, within a year, we will probably embark on various types of businesses that we didn’t conduct in the past, and actually there are projects we have already started working on with our clients, so please look forward to them.

 

We'll be seeing the efforts of their new licensing endeavour sooner than you might expect and it might not be something completely crazily different to what you might expect...

 

First of all, concerning the utilization of character IP, there may be common ground with the business model of Sanrio, but there also may be differences. As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, Nintendo places great value in doing things different from others, so we do not conclude that since there is an ideal business model in another company, we should do the same thing. But if there is something that others are doing that we feel would leverage Nintendo’s strength, we will incorporate that into our business. Of course, incorporating a business model in the same way as other companies is not Nintendo’s usual way, so it would depend on the situation. For your information, depending on the offers we receive, we are planning to consider many options including the examples that you shared with us, but we have not prepared our specific plans to share with you today. Licensing Mario in digital areas would mean that there is a possibility that Mario will appear in stamps or wallpapers for smartphones, and I will not rule out this kind of business. This is because we believe that this would not be in direct competition with Nintendo’s business and would not threaten our video game platform business which integrates hardware and software. We will flexibly consider options including those that Nintendo has not done in the past. What we will permit will depend on the matter, client and conditions. Also, I will not deny the possibility of an M&A deal to implement this business. Yesterday, we announced our share buy-back plan. We only mentioned the upper-limit amount and possible period of the acquisition yesterday, so we will officially announce when and how we will acquire them as timely disclosure at a later date. However, we are considering acquiring shares at a considerable level, and this will considerably increase the ratio of our own shares (to the number of shares outstanding). When the treasury share ratio increases significantly, we might be questioned about whether we will retire the shares. Currently, our video game dedicated platform business is reaching a transition stage in several different meanings, and we would like to have the option of using our shares for M&A purposes. We will not cling to this option for a long time, and when the transition stage ends, retirement of shares would be one option. However, at the moment, there is nothing that we can share with you regarding M&A deals.

 

... and it will involve all kinds of things that DO NOT conflict with their core business of integrated hardware-software games. So no having Nintendo characters in other people's mobile games or in PS4/Xbone games or stupid stuff that would damage their brand, but you might see stuff like Nintendo ringtones, soundtracks on sale, possible anime shows/OVAs etc and they may be using M&A to get their enhanced licensing business off the ground...

 

As a matter of fact, we have been granting merchandising licenses to other companies for the use of our intellectual property. A good example would be Mario plush toys, and there are many other products that feature Mario’s image as well. While we have been doing this for a long time, however, we are yet to do so in the digital fields, as it is very difficult to have clearly definable criteria to decide whether a certain product should be perceived as a game or not. For example, let us say that we just received a request to license Mario in educational PC software that will enable children to enjoy learning with their favorite character. However, children are not expecting Mario to be a teacher; they are expecting Mario to let them play games. This means that, while the publisher was perhaps originally trying to use Mario for educational purposes only, they may very well end up making PC games with Mario. So we deliberately set a broader definition for what we meant by “digital area” for which we decided not to license our game character rights. However, having Mario loved by many people in various settings is by no means a bad thing for our future, and if we can do that in the right manner, it will in fact help our business. The point is that we are not ruling out the digital area, and we want to think about it in a flexible way. On the other hand, it does not mean that we will license our character rights in every single case and I do not envisage a scenario in which we would license Mario out to another company to make a Mario video game. I would like to mention, just for reference, that there are examples in which we have licensed Mario as a guest character in some third-party titles on Nintendo platforms. We thought it was acceptable as long as Mario appeared only on Nintendo platforms and have continued to manage Mario in such a fashion, so Mario has already appeared in several games as a guest character.

 

... but Nintendo REEEEAAALLLYY do not want a repeat of Mario Teaches Typing

 

Last year Nintendo reorganized its R&D divisions and integrated the handheld device and home console development teams into one division under Mr. Takeda. Previously, our handheld video game devices and home video game consoles had to be developed separately as the technological requirements of each system, whether it was battery-powered or connected to a power supply, differed greatly, leading to completely different architectures and, hence, divergent methods of software development. However, because of vast technological advances, it became possible to achieve a fair degree of architectural integration. We discussed this point, and we ultimately concluded that it was the right time to integrate the two teams.

 

For example, currently it requires a huge amount of effort to port Wii software to Nintendo 3DS because not only their resolutions but also the methods of software development are entirely different. The same thing happens when we try to port Nintendo 3DS software to Wii U. If the transition of software from platform to platform can be made simpler, this will help solve the problem of game shortages in the launch periods of new platforms. Also, as technological advances took place at such a dramatic rate, and we were forced to choose the best technologies for video games under cost restrictions, each time we developed a new platform, we always ended up developing a system that was completely different from its predecessor. The only exception was when we went from Nintendo GameCube to Wii. Though the controller changed completely, the actual computer and graphics chips were developed very smoothly as they were very similar to those of Nintendo GameCube, but all the other systems required ground-up effort. However, I think that we no longer need this kind of effort under the current circumstances. In this perspective, while we are only going to be able to start this with the next system, it will become important for us to accurately take advantage of what we have done with the Wii U architecture. It of course does not mean that we are going to use exactly the same architecture as Wii U, but we are going to create a system that can absorb the Wii U architecture adequately. When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems.

 

Now this part is reeeaaallllyyy interesting. It seems that, contrary to what I would've expected (and I imagine what most people would've expected) it seems that Nintendo's next systems (the ones that share the same hardware architecture) will actually be based on the Wii U's hardware architecture and NOT the 3DS! So it seems that they're not looking to use ARM for their next handheld and console but rather it might actually be Power PC based again!

 

And while it wont be using the Wii U architecture wholesale, it sounds like it should be backwards compatible with Wii U (and by extension Wii and GCN as well). This means that they wont have to throw away all of their technology and knowhow and that they should have a fairly smooth transition from Wii U to whatever new machines that they make (not too unlike them going from GCN-Wii). It also means that all of their experience in developing Wii U software will not go to waste, so even if the hardware fails to recover; sticking with the Wii U will give their development teams a strong headstart with the next consoles that come after the Wii U and 3DS.

 

There are many players in this market, but Nintendo is one of the few that make both hardware and software, offer and deliver propositions to people throughout the world, and make people enjoy and continue playing with them, so we think we have a great deal of possibilities ahead of us. I am not planning to announce any specific themes today, but to give you a hint, “non-wearable” does not necessarily mean it is something that will be used in the living room. I apologize for not being clear, but please allow me to leave it at that today. I will explain in detail when the time comes.

 

So their "non-wearable" QOL device may actually a handheld... Comparisons were made with Game & Watch (watch + application) , Pocket Pikachu (pedometer + application) and Wii Fit (weight scale + application), so it seems that they might be focusing on taking an existing product and applying their game knowhow to it... (Vitality sensor + application? Nicotine Patches + application?)

 

As we are certainly not able to do everything by ourselves, we would like to be flexible and consider various ways in which we can share the same vision with third parties and move in the same direction. On the other hand, as I explained when I talked about what Nintendo will not change in the future, our essence lies in creating unprecedented products of our own, continuing to be different from other companies and changing with the times as necessary. Joining forces with companies that do not embrace these qualities will narrow down Nintendo’s future choices, so it depends on the situation. Of course, if our share price decreases significantly, it will naturally lead to various risks, so we have a variety of ideas of our own about that. Our current stance is to actively cooperate with third parties when necessary while firmly holding our corporate identity.

 

Basically no matter what Nintendo decide to do regarding M&A; holding onto their corporate identity and culture is their number 1 priority. Further proof that their M&A efforts will not involve videogame companies...

Edited February 3, 2014 by Dcubed

[Serebii]

I really am excited by the fact that their next console and handheld are likely to have similar architectures and a unified OS. This allows for easier porting, asset sharing, connectivity, and, if necessary, scalability on various titles and so forth.

 

Unified Virtual Console, here we come

[Pestneb]

Investors play an important part of the business and its not to much to ask for a questioned to be answered with a sufficient answer. I would prefer someone else in charge of producing a console as going by that answer Takeda doesnt know what people want from a console.

 

 

And this is probably sufficient. You seem to want him to say Wii U is crap, or at least list out every fault the machine has - if he said that do you REALLY think investors would be happy?

 

I think his answer was good, given the forum it was released in. Maybe next cycle he can give a more frank appraisal of the machine. But for now to give a full and honest appraisal of the machine would be shooting themselves in the foot.

[liger05]

Hold off until after the next Direct first.

 

 

You do realise how damaging it would be for Iwata etc. to put things in a negative light, right? Investor Meetings are intent on re-assuring investors about their plans, not pleasing spec-hungry internet fanatics.

 

Iwata's doesnt re-assure anyone other than by feeding investors absurd forecasts which the product had no chance of hitting.

 

And this is probably sufficient. You seem to want him to say Wii U is crap, or at least list out every fault the machine has - if he said that do you REALLY think investors would be happy?

 

No I want him to explain how they come to the conclusion that releasing the hardware as it was the right thing to do?

 

So it seems that they're not looking to use ARM for their next handheld and console but rather it might actually be Power PC based again!

 

Doesnt this negativly effect third parties who will be developing games for platforms which are not Power PC?

Edited February 3, 2014 by liger05

[Dcubed]

I really am excited by the fact that their next console and handheld are likely to have similar architectures and a unified OS. This allows for easier porting, asset sharing, connectivity, and, if necessary, scalability on various titles and so forth.

 

Unified Virtual Console, here we come

 

The surprising part is that it's gonna be based on the Wii U's hardware architecture and NOT the 3DS though. So will that mean that their efforts on the 3DS VC will be going to waste when the next handheld comes along, while their Wii U VC efforts will continue to bear fruit on both next generation machines even after the Wii U is gone?

 

I'd suspect that they plan to emulate the 3DS on the next console/handheld in order to maintain backwards compatibility as it would probably not be cheap to keep both sets of hardware on-board (at least not on the handheld anyway...)

[Serebii]

Iwata's doesnt re-assure anyone other than by feeding investors absurd forecasts which the product had no chance of hitting.

 

 

 

No I want him to explain how they come to the conclusion that releasing the hardware as it was the right thing to do?

No. Iwata doesn't re-assure you. There's a difference.

 

The surprising part is that it's gonna be based on the Wii U's hardware architecture and NOT the 3DS though. So will that mean that their efforts on the 3DS VC will be going to waste when the next handheld comes along, while their Wii U VC efforts will continue to bear fruit on both next generation machines even after the Wii U is gone?

 

I'd suspect that they plan to emulate the 3DS on the next console/handheld in order to maintain backwards compatibility as it would probably not be cheap to keep both sets of hardware on-board (at least not on the handheld anyway...)

What they could do on the handheld is do what they have done with other devices and also include a downsized version of the past console's hardware within it to allow for backwards compatibility, and then upgrade it as it's ready on NintendOS for download titles, akin to how Wii -> Wii U works.

 

Either that, or it explains why we've had no 3DS VC titles the past two weeks :p

Edited February 3, 2014 by Serebii
Automerged Doublepost

[Dcubed]

No. Iwata doesn't re-assure you. There's a difference.

 

 

What they could do on the handheld is do what they have done with other devices and also include a downsized version of the past console's hardware within it to allow for backwards compatibility, and then upgrade it as it's ready on NintendOS for download titles, akin to how Wii -> Wii U works.

 

They don't like doing that though because it's expensive to include two sets of hardware on the one console. The Wii U's BC works by downclocking the Wii U's CPU and using just one of the cores to run Wii games on (since the Wii U's CPU is actually a tri-core and upgraded, in other respects, version of the original Wii's CPU) and the GPU includes all of the original hardware features that the Wii's GPU did - it's binary compatible. Likewise the Wii's GCN BC works the same way, it just downclocks the CPU/GPU to match the original GCN hardware.

 

I suppose that it's possible that they might include the 3DS CPU/GPU and put it to use for background processing tasks (much like Sony did with the PS2 - which included the PS1 hardware that took care of background tasks like sound processing), but that seems like a pretty expensive approach to take since it would significantly increase their BOM and motherboard complexity...

[Serebii]

They don't like doing that though because it's expensive to include two sets of hardware on the one console. The Wii U's BC works by downclocking the Wii U's CPU and using just one of the cores to run Wii games on (since the Wii U's CPU is actually a tri-core and upgraded, in other respects, version of the original Wii's CPU) and the GPU includes all of the original hardware features that the Wii's GPU did - it's binary compatible. Likewise the Wii's GCN BC works the same way, it just downclocks the CPU/GPU to match the original GCN hardware.

 

I suppose that it's possible that they might include the 3DS CPU/GPU and put it to use for background processing tasks (much like Sony did with the PS2 - which included the PS1 hardware that took care of background tasks like sound processing), but that seems like a pretty expensive approach to take since it would significantly increase their BOM and motherboard complexity...

Well I'm sure Nintendo would find a way. They're ones who truly stick with backwards compatibility

[Dcubed]

Well I'm sure Nintendo would find a way. They're ones who truly stick with backwards compatibility

 

That's true. At the very least, Wii U BC is seemingly assured with the next console (and it also means that there's a possibility that a future handheld might even be able to play GCN/Wii/Wii U games natively depending on what kind of hardware configuration they go with!)

 

DS/GBA/NES/SNES/N64 VC compatibility will also already be there from the outset too! (What a beastly lineup that would be. They could potentially have a device that is compatible with almost every single Nintendo console ever made right from the outset! )