Topic: Iwata talks to developers about Wii (official expanded info.)

[trip1eX]

I saw some of this series of roundtable discussions on various sites, but here's the offical one.  There's aproximately 8 parts to it. Hopefully this 'official' version hasn't been posted yet.

Iwata asks, Why we came up with the Wii?  

[AnyoneEB]

Interesting read. I especially like the comment at the end of the 8th part about the internet channel. Basically, it is interesting because it makes it simple to watch YouTube videos with your friends. (Not sure what else you would want to gather around a web browser for.) I have a friend with a fancy TV set-up that we watch movies on a lot and he can hook up his laptop to for HD (via HDMI)... and we usually end up watching a few YouTube movies. Yes, he has an expensive plasma HDTV set-up with surround sound and we use it to watch low quality flash movies on YouTube.

It says to be continued at the end of part 8, so I guess the will be more than 8 parts.

[MarioAllStar]

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Wii's Channels won't end with the first 12. Up to 48 channels can be added at the moment.

This suggests a limit of 60 channels. If each virtual console game occupies one channel slot, then that could become a problem for people who really like to download classic games. Then again, they do say "at the moment", so maybe more spaces could be added.

[IceCold]

I have wondered why they don't just make a Channel for VC games and in that one you can have Sub-Channels for your games..

[Ceric]

Wait.  Isn't there just a VC channel for each system?  I'm sure that under that is where buying games will be but I'll bet there is just one for your actual games.

[MarioAllStar]

From what we have seen, there is a seperate channel for each Virtual Console game you have purchased. I do not think we have seen how you actual buy the games.

One channel for all of that would definitely make more sense and reduce clutter.

[Edfishy]

Heheh, more than likely, Nintendo will charge 1,750 Wii points for each additional channel past the initial 60, or 150,255 Wii Points to get an "All-in-one VC" Channel.

Hey, with the abillity to buy third party SD Memory sticks rather than Nintendo's proprietary memory cards, they need to find some way to make you pay (them) for your storage.

[wulffman04]

[wulffman04]

oops, my bad im new

um if you notice in one of the demonstrations of the channels, either e3 or sep. 14, they sow a channel highlighted as "n64 games" implying either that thats a channel for buying 64 games or for storing them

[Bill Aurion]

From what I know, you can sort your VC games any way you want...They do NOT need to be all laying loose on the Wii Interface...

[Kairon]

They are working under some definition of "channel" though. Observe:

Quote
That and the Wii Message Board, although this is, strictly speaking, not a Channel.

I don't think they count VC games as channels either... I hope, lol.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[ginx619]

That was a nice read.Ever since the Wii was announced I've been flip flopping on whether I want one or not.On the one hand I've been really interested in the new control scheme based simply on the fact of how much I love the DS but at the same time I've been leary of the console because of the poor software support of the Gamecube.

The more I read about it though I realize that the Wii is definitely for me.I love the ability of surfing the web on my television. It seems like either my wife or I am tying up the computer,this way we won't have to,in fact we'll probably start fighting over who gets to use the Wii and who has to use the PC.

I really do believe that this system will bring in a more diverse audience.My mom has already bought a DS because she likes the simplistic controls and the style of games that it gets.She's actually the one that cemented my choice on the Wii as her interest in it has nurtered mine.I live 600 hundred miles away from my family and being able to connect with each other online and play games is going to be great.

[ThePerm]

is there a java nes emulator ? hehehe

[couchmonkey]

I'm reading over these again (I've read a few before, but not all), and this is my favourite quote so far:

Iwata: But it's not so easy for a hardware maker to, in a sense, turn their back on the past and race in an entirely different direction. Why do you think we've been able to do this?
Ashida: ...Isn't it because we're Nintendo?
Iwata: That's not an answer! (laughs)

These discussions are great for fanboys, and for anyone interested in the inner workings of the industry.  I should probably save them.  It's awesome to see how much work Nintendo put into this system.  This is going to be a brilliant system.

[ginx619]

Quote
Originally posted by: ThePerm
is there a java nes emulator ? hehehe

I believe there is.

[MarioAllStar]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon

Quote
That and the Wii Message Board, although this is, strictly speaking, not a Channel.

I don't think they count VC games as channels either... I hope, lol.

It is not strictly a channel because it does not appear as a box with the others. It has its own icon in the lower right. By this definition, the virtual console games are each still indvidual channels (I haven't seen that "N64 Games" one)

[BigJim]

As I was reading through them, I still had a hard time understanding their starting point. They did a good job explaining their ways of thinking through the process, but they didn't start at the beginning. In other words, what was the genesis behind the Wii?

I think I eventually realized that they had decided, intentionally, to run against the norm. They droppen zal bomb on the rulebook and threw it out the window and decided to start fresh, rather than build on what already was. They also knew it was going to be a pretty big "love or hate" risk, which is actually a bit comforting to know, because their poker faces in the last year made them seem a little too confident.  Soooo maybe I am dense but I think I'm finally catching on.

[Kairon]

Yeah, early on they talk about the genesis of the hardware design for the Wii Console, and it sound much like what you suggest Big Jim, that their genesis was really the urge to do something different from simply throw more specs into the hardware. Where this urge came from one can only speculate, whether it be a prescient Iwata or a realization that compared to Sony and MS, they had to do something different.

Also, it seems that there were also several different motives within Nintendo that drove them to the Wii's present form. They were already intending to get motion control in the controller, but even as early as merely implementing it in a traditional one-piece controller: motion-sensing was a concept that predated the Wiimote.

Also, I think someone mentioned getting their grandfather to play on it with them, and how isolated playing games makes them feel compared to the world around them, an impetus which manifested not just in interface design and Wii channels, but also coincided nicely with where the controller was heading independently.

If we had DS development interviews then we might have a mirror to use to see if this was an internal concrete message by Nintendo to go blue ocean, or merely lucky coincidence!

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Hostile Creation]

I read through all of this at three in the morning the other night, completely absorbed.  I love this stuff, and I love that they took the time to talk about it, for those who would be interested.
Anyway, lots of really cool things in this, and I enjoyed all of it.  But news-wise, my favorite part of all this is them saying that they could create new channels and make them available for download.  That never occurred to me, and the idea is really exciting.