Miyamoto on introducing new control schemes

During the last hardware generation, Nintendo was known for its unique control schemes. The Wii introduced motion controls. The DS provided dual-screen gameplay.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke about the company’s approach to new control types at a recent investor briefing Q&A. His comments came in response to one attendee who expressed disappointment in how these new schemes contributed to the creation of fresh experiences.

Iwata said:

Since Nintendo DS and Wii, we have been trying to reach out to a wider audience by recreating the control schemes in which people play games. In terms of combining new controls with more traditional games, “Mario Kart Wii” features what is called the “Wii Wheel.” You can place your Wii Remote in the Wii Wheel and this enables you to play the game by simply turning the wheel as if you were driving a car. As a result, we managed to appeal to a wider range of consumers including those who could not play racing games with traditional controls. However, I take it that you were unable to see how other titles benefited from these new features and you would like to know what we think of the future of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Whenever we launch a new hardware system, we also consider various new input methods. We have, for example, the touch screen we first introduced on Nintendo DS, or the camera feature (introduced on Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS). The Wii Remote incorporates an accelerometer, and (from Wii Remote Plus) we also have a gyro sensor built into the controller. This enabled us to measure the trajectory of the controller as well as the angle at which it is held. As you can see from this, we have always been considering how more intuitive input schemes could change games. Apart from “Mario Kart Wii” that you specifically mentioned, some say that first person shooter games, for example, became more intuitive by combining the ability to point at the screen with the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk as opposed to controlling two analog sticks at the same time. And with other software, there are also certain elements that, in our opinion, changed significantly as a result of introducing a new control scheme. To give another example, the dual screens on Nintendo DS have enabled us to show two different things at the same time, and this has had a tremendous impact as it created new game mechanics and made games easier to understand. One can say that we have been trying to lower the barriers to playing games in order to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

On the other hand, I believe that you were speaking as someone who has been playing games for a long time and you felt that the benefits of introducing a new control method were in fact not significant. We feel that any form of entertainment that fails to attract new consumers on a continuous basis will eventually go into a decline, so we will continue to make efforts to make it easier for new consumers to enjoy our products. However, we would also like to think even more carefully about making our franchises new and refreshing even for those who have been enjoying them for a long time. Thank you for your candid opinion.