Augmented reality titles the next big casual project for Nintendo

The quotes below come from Satoru Iwata, who provided the following information at a recent investor Q&A…

“And, you said that you are yet to see the software lineup for Nintendo 3DS which can be compared to representative titles for Nintendo DS such as “nintendogs” and “Brain Training” that were announced around the time of the launch of Nintendo DS, which were originally not conceived as games. In fact, however, I think that we have already shown you a glimpse. For example, “AR Games” (temp; direct translation from the Japanese) that we showcased at Nintendo Conference 2010 is one of our new trials in such endeavors. How such new trials shall be materialized in the form of packaged software is something which will become important in the second phase of Nintendo 3DS proliferation. By now, because more Nintendo 3DS software which will cater to the needs of avid game fans has had a lot of public exposure, you may hold the impression that our Nintendo 3DS software lineup currently lacks such software (which has the potential to change the definition of video games). The company, of course, has been paying attention to such software. On the other hand, for those who seldom play video games, the fact that they can see 3D moving images on Nintendo 3DS itself must have a tremendous impact. I understand that those who have had hands-on experience feel the same way. So, Nintendo 3DS will probably be appreciated first with such functions, and then, as the next step, we will need to launch software that can expand the users.”

I personally find the prospect of AR games to be very, very exciting – Much more so than Nintendogs and Brain Age. It also helps that Nintendo will be bundling cards with each system.