Nintendo still dedicated to hardcore games
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 1:33pm by Blake
GameSpot on Tuesday published a lengthy, candid, and informative interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Here are the parts I enjoyed.
With regards to the perceived alienation of long-time gamers, Iwata said, “Nintendo has teams working on meeting the needs of more hardcore gamers. The big complaint from them now may be that we’re not pouring all of our resources into that sector exclusively, but I feel that it’s Nintendo’s mission to make both kinds of games.”
He added, “Every experienced gamer today was a beginner at some point, who encountered an experience that made them fall in love with games.”
Still, the Nintendo bossman hopes to do more in terms of appeasing traditional fans. “Smash Bros. Brawl is just around the corner, waiting to show everyone that claims of Nintendo not caring about hardcore gamers are indeed misunderstandings, but I feel like we need to go even further,” he said.
When asked if he knew if Wii would be a hit, Iwata replied, “I would sound so cool if I could say, ‘Oh, I knew it all along,’ but it is not necessarily so. [Laughs] It was more of a conviction that somebody needed to go there and push things in this new direction.”
February 5th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I read the interview a few hours ago. It was excellent, and I’m glad that Nintendo is led by such an idealistic and logical President.
VIVA LA IWATA!
February 5th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Whatever happens in the future, we can at least be impressed at the fact that Iwata is an absolute genius, and certainly the only leader of the big three games divisions (in Nintendo’s case all of Nintendo) who consistently talks sense and has a fully functional thinking cap. By comparison Robbie Bach is stupid and evil (certainly evil what with his shares sales), Ken completely lost the plot, and Kaz is just a bit directionless.
A truly savvy man.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I for one welcome everything Nintendo has done and will continue to do with Wii. In the past I have owned pretty much every console since Colecovision thru PS2, GCN, and Xbox. However that changed this Generation since I feel the other guys feel very stale in comparison to the experience Wii offers. Need I say that the only console I have and want this gen is that wonderful little white box. As long as they continue to pour out the great ones like Galaxy, Prime, Zelda, and hopefully some new IP’s (like Disaster) I will be satisfied. Mini games are fun too (WarioWare) and of course WiiSports. In just that last sentence I think I pointed out more variety than both other consoles combined offer with their old-school control schemes. To me the other guys are just boring as hell. Woopdy Doo with their overpriced graphics. Wii is capable of AWESOME graphics. Since when do graphics need to look real to be good? Besides a world composed of grey, brown, and black is not even close to real. I’ve seen more bright and crystal clear colorful graphics on Wii than any other system ever. Now if only the 3rd parties would realize that and get off their lazy porting asses and put out some NEW games. A few have, and they are truly unique experiences (Zack & Wiki for one). We haven’t even begun to see what Wii is really capable of because barely anybody but Nintendo themselves have even put the effort to find out. Regardless, even some of those ports’ best versions are found on Wii. And if that’s the case, imagine something that’s not a port. I’m thinking 1:1 motion is entirely possible with the Wiimote, atleast to an extent, and somebody needs to go there.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I’ve said it before, the Wii is not lacking in hardcore games any worse than the GameCube was, so there’s no reference point or basis for the complaint.
Within a single year, we got Zelda, Metroid, and Mario. Brawl and Kart are just around the corner. Even 3rd parties are making some mature/hardcore titles (Godfather, NMH, MOHH2, etc). This is all certainly much more than the GameCube could claim, making us wait years between major franchises, with no 3rd party support.
All these casual games are just in ADDITION to the usual hardcore offering.
If you didn’t ask for a salad with your steak, but they gave you one anyway, would you complain that the steak doesn’t exist anymore?
February 5th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
People feel that the Wii isn’t meant for hardcore gamers because of all of the gimmicky games, like Carnival Games and WarioWare. But they fail to see how, in less than a year, we’ve gotten Zelda, Mario, and Metroid, and Brawl and Mario Kart are right around the corner. I know it’s sort of inevitable that gimmicky games will be made for a console like the Wii, but it’s really third-party that are ruining the Wii’s reputation.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
It’s not Nintendo I”m worried about. It’s 3rd parties. We already knew Nintendo is mostly keeping up their end, but it’s the third parties that need to give us “gamer” games and not the barrage of puzzle/mini-game/kiddy games that I’ve grown so sick of seeing.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Looking at the controller and how it actually makes you practice to get a special move right is way more hardcore than people want. Waggle is easy but mastering a 3d movement is way harder and more can be done with it. I mean if you wanted to make a street fighter and make it organic you could have punches that actually land higher by moving your controller higher. The main problem is once you make a game organic like this how do you control the rules and balance? Thats another topic yet this controller all of these control options and the VC by it self is so hardcore. The PS kids are just showing their age. If all of these VC games where available on one system back in the day it would have totally won.
Then we got almost every good nintendo franchise with in a year…WOW