Eguchi on not selling Wii U at a loss, VC, resolution, Nintendo Land mostly at 60 FPS
Katsuya Eguchi has fielded a number of questions about the Wii U in a new interview. Eguchi was asked about the Virtual Console for Wii U, resolution of games, and framerates.
We’ll mention a few things here right off the bat: Nintendo would like to avoid selling Wii U at a loss, VC games may run on the GamePad screen, Nintendo may consider 1080p resolution for their games, and almost all of Nintendo Land’s attractions run at 60 frames-per-second.
You can Eguchi’s quotes about these topics and more after the break.
Eguchi on what he’s been playing lately…
“Recently, I’m playing Monster Hunter Tri G for the 3DS. I’ve been playing it for quite a long time, actually, since it came out.”
Eguchi on how it’s been working on more casual games these days…
“I like core games. Sure, I miss working on them a little bit. But my role in the company now is a role I’m comfortable with, making the types of games I’m making. I enjoy my role. Be they core or casual games, from a player’s perspective, I like both kinds of games.”
Eguchi on the possibility of packing in Nintendo Land with Wii U…
“That’s really something that’s up to the people in charge of sales and those sort of things. The development staff aren’t so involved with those decisions.
“One thing that we have to consider when introducing software, especially at the launch of the system, is something that can satisfy a wide array of players. Now, with Wii Sports, we kind of felt like it may have erred a bit too heavily on the casual side. So with Nintendo Land one of our priorities was keeping in mind core gamers and focusing on putting a lot of depth into attractions and giving them more longevity.”
Eguchi on why the Wii U GamePad is single-touch…
“The number one priority we focus on in considering the touch interface is the precision of where you touch and the precision of how that’s reflected in the game.”
Eguchi on what the GamePad will cost when sold separately…
“Honestly, I really don’t know. What I can say though is that the GamePad really does have a lot of different functionality and technology packed into it. But yeah, I really have no idea what a price could be.”
Eguchi on how willing the company would be to take a loss on any piece of hardware, whether it’s the Wii U itself or the GamePad…
“Wow! You ask some very detailed questions! Well, considering the tech packed into the console and the GamePad, we’re considering a lot of options regarding price. But I don’t want you to misunderstand; we’re really not out to profit selling this hardware. That being said, I really don’t know this is something we would sell at a loss.
“We’d like to avoid taking a loss on the hardware, so we’re gonna be seriously considering how its priced. I can’t really comment further than that.”
Eguchi on the possibility of taking the GamePad away from home and continue playing Virtual Console games…
“At this E3 we haven’t announced any plans for Virtual Console for Wii U, but from my perspective from a gamer, if I have a Wii U console, I would certainly want to be able to play any sort of virtual console title on the GamePad… so I would have that expectation. But unfortunately, I can’t give any specifics here… but I’ll add that one of the general concepts of the Wii U is being able to play games solely on the GamePad screen. That’s a big priority for us, freeing the player from the television. The Wii U has been designed to support all sorts of different configurations.”
Eguchi on the length of the Wii U charging cable…
“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about the length. We’ve definitely taken that into consideration.”
Eguchi on the Wii U price…
“I totally understand the curiosity regarding price and I apologize, but I personally don’t know.”
Eguchi on Wii U resolution/framerates…
“As far as the resolution and framerates for any of the software goes, it’ll obviously depend on whatever the developer feels is the best way to get the best experience to the player. I can’t personally speak for third-parties and their circumstances, but at Nintendo we have different teams working on different games that take into consideration the resolution… and if they think that by focusing on 720p and a certain framerate to get a certain experience, than that’s ultimately how they make their decisions. It’s worth it to point out that we might consider using 1080p, but, for example, if we want to get 60 fps, at a particular stage of development, it may seem 720p is more realistic.”
Eguchi on Nintendo Land’s framerate…
“To be precise, almost all of the attractions will run at 60 fps. There’s just one particular case of an attraction that, playing at the absolute maximum number of players, would take a framerate drop… but by and large, all will run at 60 fps. But for example, in the attraction that does have a framerate drop, we wouldn’t make that concession unless we were sure the experience to the player was still up to our standards.”
