Kaigler: No plans for Wii HD, Nintendo keeping HD in mind for the future, gameplay matters the most
This information comes from Denise Kaigler, NOA’s vice president of corporate affairs…
“When Wii launched back in 2006, the household saturation of HDTVs was much lower than it is now. Nintendo didn’t include HD capability back then because that would have been a cost that everyone had to pay, whether or not they had an HDTV. There’s something not very fair about that. As Mr. Iwata has said a number of times, we have no current plans to launch an HD version of Wii, but HD is one of the things we’re keeping in mind for the future.
I think questions and concerns like these might be unique to the medium of video games. No one rates books by the design on their covers. And no one would suggest the most engrossing movie is the one with the most special effects. Certainly these elements can draw your eye, but in the end we judge a book or a movie on the way it makes us feel, whether we’re laughing, shedding a tear or shouting with excitement when the bad guy gets what’s coming to him.
No matter what new technologies are developed or how video games look, in the end gamers will decide if it’s a good title based on the experience. Ultimately, pretty pictures don’t matter. It’s all about the game play. Just think of the pixels of the original Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros. Those games hold up years later, and no one would say they’re on the cutting edge of graphics. Even modern games like Super Mario Galaxy and Punch-Out!! play so well that you’re not thinking about TV specs or cables – you’re just having fun playing a game. And that’s the way it should be. That’s one of the reasons Wii Sports and Wii Fit are among the most influential games of this console generation: They deliver fun experiences that go well beyond the way the games look. For the most part when gamers look back and recall their game play-experiences, they remember the new interfaces and the fun they had playing with other people, not the graphics or the type of TV they played on. It’s always about play, not pixels and polygons.”
