Trinen on third-parties, Wii U’s last-minute update, more

Prior to the launch of Wii U, Nintendo of America director of product marketing Bill Trinen answered a few questions about Wii U. Trinen talked briefly about third-parties, Wii U stock, and even the console’s last-minute update that went live just a few hours before the system officially reached consumers.

For all of Trinen’s comments, head past the break.

Trinen on Wii U stock…

“The fact that we’re trying to match [the Wii] is, I think, a step in the right direction. Our goal, of course, is to manufacture as many as we can as quickly as we can.”

Trinen on Wii U’s launch lineup…

“(Wii U’s slate of 29 games is) one of the strongest launch lineups for any console in I-don’t-know-how-long.”

Trinen on long-term support from third-parties and multiplatform games…

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re building Wii U to be a strong platform where people are coming to get that content.”

Trinen on making a positive environment for third-parties…

“(The idea is to cultivate an environment in which third-party studios come to) [want] to bring their content to Wii U. I think it’s gonna be a strong first year, and I think there’ll be more to come after that as well.”

Trinen on how the Wii U day-one update didn’t go live until a few hours before launch…

“If it’s live the moment they bring the system home, that’s what really matters.”

Trinen somewhat implying that Nintendo’s software engineers were working on the update until it was almost too late…

“They’re craftsmen. And as craftsmen, they want to use every last possible moment to continue to make things the best that they can possibly be.”

Trinen on the twofold “driving concept” behind Wii U’s features…

“We are always looking at, ‘How can we bring our ability to create fun experiences and apply that to something […] in a way that we can make it fun, we can make it more convenient, we can make it more intuitive than perhaps it currently is?'”

Trinen on how Wii U and its “broader offering” of networked services make for the all-encompassing set-top box…

“We want Wii U to be a device that everyone in the house is interacting with on a daily basis. I think that’s going to be sort of an evolving epiphany for people in the next few years.”

Trinen on launching the Wii U…

“On the one hand, it’s a relief. On the other hand, you know, the work’s not going to stop for us on November 19th. I’m excited, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Other notes:

– Nintendo thinks the Wii U hardware functionality and varied lineup will attract ouside devs
– Important for Nintendo to do the “initial legwork”
– Nintendo’s licensing department is in “constant contact” with third-parties to see “what content they’re working on and what content they can bring to our platform”
– Nintendo wasn’t solely concerned about the “proper moment” to discuss any particular Wii U feature
– The Big N needed to decide which key features should be talked about at the right time for consumers
– Nintendo followed a similar schedule of releasing information during the run-up to its previous hardware launches

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