Iwata Asks: Wii U – Internet browser discussion now live

Yet another Iwata Asks discussion focusing on the Wii U has been published tonight. The latest talk covers the console’s Internet browser.

We do have a summary of this Iwata Asks for your convenience. It’s posted below. Read the full discussion here.

Hiding It Becomes a Strong Point

– Sasaki was in charge of the 3DS browser
– Halfway through the 3DS browser’s development, he began work on the Wii U one as well
– Simultaneous development of the 3DS and Wii U browsers
– Wii U has higher specs, so the team had an idea of making a browser that can be used daily and can handle everything you’d expect from a browser while doing things more naturally
– The staff began talking with Access and HAL Laboratory
– Was the same process with the 3DS
– Original theme: “We want to make something that you can use then and there if you suddenly want to look something up while you’re playing with your Wii U.”
– Watching smooth video was an important point
– Iwata knows that the Wii’s browser “was never quite what it could be”
– Tsuda got the specs together
– Another big point was taking advantage of two screens
– Tsuda: “The question of how to best utilize the two screens was already the main idea at that point. We thought about ways like connecting two screens in one like on Nintendo 3DS, and tried showing two different websites on each screen. But we came to the decision comparatively quickly that it would be easiest for the users if the TV and the screen in your hands showed the same thing. That’s because we thought that for one, the browser would be controlled using the Wii U GamePad, so it needed to be usable without the TV, and that we wanted to use the TV in a way so everybody could look at webpages at the same time, and for watching videos. Although, because TVs can be viewed by a group, but the Wii U GamePad is for one person to hold in his or her hand, we needed to add the ability to multi-task, in order to make it possible to play a video on the TV and do something different on the screen in your hands.”
– Ran into problems in terms of ease of control
– One of the ideas the team came up with was hiding what’s on the TV screen
– That’s how the curtain came about
– Not all of the staff agreed with this concept
– Tsuda decided to make a demo on the computer showing the two screens
– Once people actually looked at it, most people understood
– Sasaki was wondering how they could implement it from a technical standpoint
– Sasaki: “Showing a webpage takes a lot of memory. These days, computers and smart devices have a huge amount of memory, which is meant to be shared between multiple applications. For example, if it’s affecting usability like a lack of memory, it’s often left it up to the user, like a message telling you to close a certain application.”
– Sasaki didn’t think this could be accomplished with a Nintendo product
– He had a personal policy of wanting to make something that customers can use without much of a hassle
– Tab browsing uses more memory
– Tabs allocate available memory per tab
– Working with the 3DS’ limited memory for its browser helped

Control It in Your Hands, See It Enlarged on the Screen

– When the browser was first up and running, Sasaki felt like it was the best the team could do
– Once the team connected with the 3DS browser staff, Sasaki looked at the browser six months later after it had been fined tuned, and was surprised how much it had improved
– Has a really good frame rate
– Some overseas staff came to visit Nintendo and one of them said that in terms of features, they were most excited for the browser
– The team thought about increasing the browser’s operating speed from the beginning
– Before E3 2011, Miyamoto asked if you could take small text on the TV and enlarge it on the GamePad screen and move it life a magnifying glass
– They tried implementing the feature, but they felt something was missing
– Sasaki suggested taking away the freedom of movement and set some limits
– Tsuda decided to limit vertical scrolling
– This resulted in a dramatic improvement functionality
– The team created the gyro scroll mode
– Scroll by pointing the GamePad up or down
– Scrolling changed several times during development
– Sasaki feels the browser is perfect for content to view on a computer/smart devices and things you want to see on a larger screen
– The curtain feature left a huge impression on Iwata the first time he saw it
– Tsuda came up with the idea since when he thought about hiding the TV, it made him remember the old CRT TVs
– He wanted to bring back that old atmosphere, back when the TV was stored away behind a curtain or cabinet

The Definitive TV + Browser

– To test the browser, the team visited a bunch of different websites to see if they displayed and functioned properly
– Can’t do any public betas like you can with ordinary computer browsers
– Tsuda knew they would need to test for at least six months
– Tsuda: “Right. With websites, even though they may look the same, a lot of changes are being made and reflected to the site from the server. The more popular the website, the more likely this tends to be the case. HTML is an industry standard, so you would think that everything should be fine as long as you’re following those standards. However, that’s not the case in real life. Each browser renders HTML specifications differently, and many websites are made with technology before such a standard was made. It was a bit of a vicious cycle, but we tested everything over and over again.”
– At peak time, over 30 people tested over 5,000 websites
– They tried to mechanize as much as possible
– Machine can only test for an error in going to a webpage
– Needed personnel to check the errors as well
– Testers visited and verified each website with their own eyes
– Can use the GamePad buttons to control the browser
– Control pad: toggles focus
– L/R: adjust zoom on the entire website
– A: confirm button
– Press the L stick to hide the tool bar
– This gives more room to display the site
– Browser has a unique Wii U JavaScript extension
– Websites can detect the buttons and gyro sensor used by the GamePad with it
– People can therefore make websites and take advantage of the GamePad
– A Mii is displayed on the lower left side of the GamePad screen
– Shows the Mii of the current user
– Tsuda: “We also made it so that the Mii would represent the user’s feelings, like when a website would take a while to load the Mii would nod its head, and if it takes a really long time to load it would fall asleep! The Mii would sometimes also tell you about some hidden features. And, if you take a closer look at the Mii, you can tell that it’s holding a book. By touching the Mii, the bookmark will open. The bookmark is designed like an actual book, so I’d like people to keep a collection of their favorite websites.”
– Nintendo European Research and Development SAS France helped with the video player
– Nintendo Software Technology (NST) helped with WebKit’s JavaScript
– Iwata: “I want a variety of different people to experience the convenience of this function so that they can very casually use it, even to a point of almost not noticing that they are surfing with a video game device and, furthermore, we want to prove to them through this Wii U Internet Browser that browsing itself can be an entertainment. Thank you both so much for coming today.”