Iwata on Wii U NFC and amiibo
Nintendo was asked to comment on the capabilities of amiibo during the Q&A portion of its latest financial briefing.
President Satoru Iwata first addressed the topic and touched on how the Wii U’s NFC features have not been truly utilized until now. He also discussed the instantaneous speed of the read/write process for amiibo figures, and teased that Shigeru Miyamoto “has been considering multiple ways to use the GamePad, and using the NFC reader/writer function more aggressively is one area he has instructed his teams to focus on.” Nintendo could bring out some titles next year that focus on NFC functionality.
Head past the break for Iwata’s full comments.
We have a pre-installed NFC (Near Field Communication) reader and writer in the Wii U GamePad as a standard function. When we launched Wii U, we were not able to demonstrate to our consumers sufficient ways this NFC reader/writer functionality would be used in the future. We released “Pokémon Rumble U,” which became one clear way to use the technology, but other than this, we had not yet shown the world how this unique functionality could be used in a more extensive way. This year, we started a new service in Japan so that Japanese Wii U owners can now purchase digital software and applications available in Nintendo eShop by holding their Suica-compatible transport e-money cards over the NFC reader/writer. And now that amiibo, which is our first foray into the toys-to-life category, will launch around the world at the end of this year, we have finally come to the point where we will significantly take advantage of the NFC functionality. In the base of the amiibo figure, is an NFC chip that recognizes the type of amiibo that is being placed on the GamePad. The NFC chip also includes an area that can be accessed by the game software so that certain data can be written into the chip from the game. Both this reading and writing can be done instantaneously. As soon as you place amiibo on the NFC, something happens. When we demonstrated amiibo to the overseas media recently, they were very surprised at the rapid speed at which it could read and write data. However, this process should be instantaneous because when we go through the train ticket gates using e-money cards, if the data cannot be read instantly, it means the gates are probably jammed. So, we should think about the reading/writing of amiibo data as being similar to our experience at the ticket gates. When we can link the world inside a video game with a physical object in the real world (like a figure), a number of unique approaches can be taken. The simplest way is by tapping amiibo on the GamePad NFC reader/writer just for something to “appear” in the game, but we have already announced how amiibo will be used in a number of different ways in “Super Smash Bros.” for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. You can use your amiibo character as your rival and your partner in the games. When you are playing “Super Smash Bros.” for Wii U or Nintendo 3DS by yourself, your amiibo character can become your opponent, and by battling against this rival in the game, you are also training your amiibo to learn new moves and level up, which is important because your amiibo can be your ally when you compete against your friends. amiibo are used to multiply the fun of gameplay by expanding the way games can be played. We are thinking about making many more games compatible with amiibo from next year. We do not think amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure, either. We believe that amiibo could take a variety of different forms. Mr. Miyamoto has been considering multiple ways to use the GamePad, and using the NFC reader/writer function more aggressively is one area he has instructed his teams to focus on. Some of our products in 2015 might be a result of this new focus.
It is not the case that one amiibo can be used exclusively with only one compatible game. In fact, the world of amiibo is broader than that. We want consumers to be curious about what will happen when they hold the same amiibo over the NFC reader/writer when playing many different games because we believe that this particular feeling of trying out amiibo in new ways is the “sense of wonder” we were just talking about. Ever since we first came up with the idea of amiibo, we have been repeatedly saying to our internal developers that we are creating a new entertainment category by tapping into that feeling. And our tendency to think about new ways to take advantage of amiibo has been spreading. Thank you very much.
