Iwata doesn’t think Wii U’s concept and potential have been rejected, development talk
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently conducted a wide-scale interview with Toyo Keizai Online. Among the topics discussed include the Wii U and his thoughts when it comes to being a developer.
You can find a few tidbits below, courtesy of Kotaku. We’ll have more quotes from the interview over the next few days.
On Wii U…
“It’s difficult to say ‘the Wii U is a system that does such-and-such’ in a simple manner, and understanding it takes time.’ While we unfortunately had a period in the first half of 2013 where releases were sparse and hardware sales have lulled, I don’t think that the concept and potential of the Wii U have been rejected.”
(Iwata also said that there aren’t a ton of Wii U users, but those who have the system are largely satisfied. In the second half of this year, he hopes these opinions will spread.)
On how making a product that resonates with customers is one of the core principles in creating a successful game or console…
“Nintendo developers are extremely insatiable when it comes to whether what they make resonates with customers or not. They’ll do anything to achieve it. Both Miyamoto (Shigeru) and I repeatedly say, ‘It’s not like we are making pieces of art, the point is to make a product that resonates with and is accepted by customers.'”
On his stance when it comes to development…
“Creating is like an expression of egoism. People with a strong energy to create something have a ‘this is the strength I believe is right’ sort of confidence to start from. Their standpoint is that ‘this is the right thing to do, so this must be what’s good for the customer as well.’ But the final goal of a product is to resonate with and be accepted by people. You can’t just force your way through. By saying ‘the point is to be accepted’ I mean, if you go to a customer with your idea and you realize they don’t understand it, it’s more important that they do and you should shift your idea.”
Iwata says he could no longer enjoy games as a customer and has a tendency to look at things from the eyes of a developer…
“To take an extreme example, if I go to Disneyland and look at the rides, I think about what the people who made them must have been thinking. I can’t be a normal customer.”
