Nintendo is continuing its Iwata Asks Wii U series with a new discussion about the console’s chat feature.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s talk with Fumihiko Tamiya and Atsushi Watanabe reveals the technology behind Wii U Chat, how it came about, and more. We also have a confirmation that , but Iwata hinted that this is something they’d like to change in the future.
Read on below for the goods. You can read the full discussion here, by the way.
Fifteen Years of Emotion
– Takeda was interesting in looking into a TV phone type capability for years
– Integrated Research and Development Division thought of adding that in one day
– Takeda talked about this even during the N64 days
– As the team was beginning to talk about adding a camera, they looked into communication tech with NTD and Vidyo
– At the end of 2011, they thought it could work
– Takeda knew someone who worked at Vidyo
– Watanabe likes how Vidyo’s tech doesn’t black out during a problem with the network
– Instead of black noise, the resolution is slightly lowered
– This allows you to still see the video without noticing a big difference
– Once the connection is initiated, the rest of the session doesn’t contact the server
– P2P connection allows for a system to have a less likelihood of a problem
– Otherwise, there would be server fees, and the service wouldn’t be free
– Nintendo of America informed Tamiya that a team at Next Level Games had an open line
– Next Level asked them if the team could do anything with the open line, and the team then thought maybe they could do built-in video chat
– They then officially decided to pursue this feature
– Nintendo Zone Viewer was made with the Project Engineering Department at NOA
– Bilingual staff member from NOA helped coordinate things for the team
– Every three months or so, Tamiya met face to face with the team
– Working on the project made Tamiya realize how important being able to talk while looking at a person’s face is
– Most members were overseas, but the director was Japanese
– As a result, Wii U Chat was made the opposite way Nintendo usually does things
– Overseas version was made first, then it was localized for japan
– NST from NOA helped out with Japanese localization
– Took some doing to integrate Vidyo’s tech into Wii U
– This is the first time the tech was integrated into a video game console
“What Makes a Family Happy?”
– Decided to have the GamePad and TV show the same images for simplicity
– When you’re with your family, you can use the TV
– When you’re alone, you can use the GamePad
– Tamiya thought it was most important to concentrate on what you’d do before a chat rather than what you would do during the chat
– Iwata says that a difficult connection process could dissuade people from using video chat
– Therefore Nintendo wanted Wii U Chat to be something that could be used without any trouble
– The team called the process the “2 Step Connection”
– When you boot up the app, you’ll see a list of all Mii characters you have as friends
– Step one: pick the friend
– Step two: press the Call button
– You will then be connected
– Miis are listed in order of video chat frequency
– Mii character you chat with most displays up front
– Could have added an option to sort alphabetically, etc. but wanted to keep things simple
– Tamiya: “So the development team took that idea and thought, “What makes a family happy?” The conclusion we came to was, “Being together.” So the feeling we wanted to create with Wii U Chat was that of two separate living rooms connected through the TV screen. Of course we want all sorts of people to use it, not just family members, but we took this direction because, to begin with, we wanted to give people who were really close something that was really easy to use.”
– If you get a call in the middle of a game, the Home Button flashes
– Open the Menu to get a message about the incoming call
– Answer it to start the chat
– Have to end the game to chat
– Iwata: “There must be technical hurdles involved, but I hope this is an area that we can improve on in the future.”
– If your Wii U isn’t turned on, you can leave a message that appears in the messages list of Wii U Chat
– Also shows through a message on Miiverse
– Iwata: “Video chatting has already become pretty commonplace these days, but this does feel a little different, doesn’t it? Something about seeing the other person on my huge TV screen felt really new to me. When I first experienced it I thought, “Wow! They’re huge!” And until then a video chat with multiple people on each end was something I had only experienced on a business video conference session, so being able to have an experience like this at a home living room felt very fresh.”
A Tool to Communicate Feelings
– Wii U Chat lets you draw pictures
– Initially wanted to make a simple, whiteboard feature
– You would press a button to switch modes to have the whiteboard appear on the TV
– Both sides could raw pictures on it as they liked
– During testing, “because there was a white screen in front of you it was a bit much for customers who weren’t confident in their drawing skills, and it was even more so because you were being put on the spot by the other end watching you.”
– People also became too preoccupied in drawing, which slowed down the conversation
– Tamiya: “On the contrary, by placing an image in the background in advance, the pressure of feeling like you’re forced to draw something lessened than when a whiteboard was shoved against your face. Some people were of the opinion that it sounded difficult to draw on top of a moving image, but when we tried it out, we found all sorts of amusing things to do with it, like have the person move along with what you were drawing.”
– Swapnote director Imai and Kitai were involved with the drawing aspect
– When you draw, the line glows slightly and seems a little hazy
– This was Kitai’s idea
– Was originally a flat line
– Tamiya requested that it needed to be visible on every kind of background
– There were lots of other ideas for features inside/outside the company, but decided against including them
– Different ideas were tried, but the team felt it would have taken away from the simplicity and how it’s so easy to understand
– Iwata thinks it’s important how you don’t have to download it from the eShop
– When you connect to the Internet, Wii U Chat is automatically downloaded from the network
– Iwata: “I think one of the reasons that TV phones up to now didn’t become widespread is because people thought you had to clean your room, but because the camera is in your hands, you can turn it any direction you want, it’s made so that you don’t have to show anything you don’t want to. And on top of that, being able to project the recipient onto a large TV screen created an interesting balance.”
