“I don’t think anyone should write off anything Nintendo does as a gimmick. Nor should they assume anything Nintendo does will be successful. You’re talking about guys who came up with the concept called the Wii, and made it one of the most successful things to get new gamers into gaming. If I had a dollar for every time I had mocked both the controller and the console, I would feel silly, because we’d have lots of money, but we would have been really wrong. However, they also did the Virtual Boy. Everything about that, which seemed cool, wasn’t.
I am excited about it, though, because of what they’ve shown with the DS. I wasn’t a big believer. I thought, ‘Man, the PSP is going to destroy it,’ and I was wrong. And with the Nintendo Wii I thought the name was really bad, but now it doesn’t sound as stupid as when they first announced it. I’ve been proven wrong enough times by Nintendo.” – co-founder John Vechey
“On the other hand, the Wii is really great for everybody, but only Nintendo and a couple of other developers are making money off it.” – PopCap CEO David Roberts
“Nintendo is the only company that’s had great success on the Wii.” – co-founder John Vechey
A lot of people had doubts about the Wii and DS when they were announced. Dual screens? A console called “Wii”? Gradually, Nintendo was able to put much of the skepticism to rest. I have a feeling the same thing will happen with the 3DS.
Source, full interview here with more discussion including WiiWare/DSiWare
