Awesome news! Very many people will be quite pleased by this.
Nintendo's hitting bulls-eyes left and right.

This little tidbit gives me hope.

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Though I'm aware this may be misunderstood, Nintendo is not working on a next-generation console. "Next-generation" implies that the console is an extension of previous installments. We believe that extending our current line will not lead to larger markets, and could possibly even lead to smaller markets. We need to introduce innovative appeal if we want to increase the number of people enjoying games.

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I'm sure most of us expected this to happen and it sounds pretty cool, as long they have good demos. Like the VC this is another rumor that has turned into a plus.

I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!!

*cough*

hooray! now i don't ever have to step into a Ebgames or Gamestop ever! Thank you Nintendo! lol

I was counting on this. This has to be the single best way to use the Wii-DS connectivity.

You don't ever have to leave the house now. Have a DSL and a Wii, get delivery Chinese and pizza, order everything else from Amazon and you can have everything delivered to your door...brilliant Nintendo. They found a way to keep people in their homes at all times.

This isn't that great. I mean it's great for people planning to get both the DS and Wii, but to everyone else, it's just another bell and whistle. If Nintendo announced that the VC games can be transfered to the DS, then we might have something to celebrate.


Still....for those of us alike, this is great news!

Yeah, yeah.

I wouldn't put much stock into this. I'd bet Nintendo is pretty much fully into "make empty promises to hype up the Wii that will never materialize" mode by now.

Remember the SD card expansion for GC?

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Remember the SD card expansion for GC?

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Iwata: When creating a packaged game to be priced at 5,000 yen, developers tend to feel the need to create a rich game. Yet it is possible to create a reasonably entertaining game in 2 months with a team of three. Offering such games for 500 yen over a network could lead to a reasonable number of people purchasing it. By offering an environment that allows this, we hope to encourage more developers to pursue basic yet enjoyable gameplay.

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BTW, about the downloads, I think that Nintendo should do what they can to make them seem as "real" as possible, so I think that once you buy a VC download it should be "registered" with Nintendo, and you should be able to re-download it at any time (within reason, like they should give you a monthly bandwidth cap).

Like they do with the iQue?

Oh and, is it just me, or did Iwata just say that better graphics would drive people away?

No, he said they'd lose marketshare if the Wii was a conventional console with better graphics (within the limits of what Nintendo can afford). Because they'd have the weakest console unless they wanted to go bankrupt and because they'd have the worst third-party support.

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Originally posted by: wandering

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Remember the SD card expansion for GC?

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Hey, that materialized. On the Wii.

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"Though I'm aware this may be misunderstood, Nintendo is not working on a next-generation console."

I'm aware this may be misunderstood but I'll say it anyway even though there is no real advantage to me saying it in the first place. That's pretty much Iwata in a nutshell. Anytime he wants to say something he should just tell Reggie and have him "translate" it into something more marketable. Reggie has been very good at extenuating the positive in Nintendo's ideas. Iwata has an unfortunate knack of making Nintendo's ideas sound really dumb.

It's just OBVIOUS that when the general assumption is that the Wii is pretty much just a souped up Cube with a new controller that LAST thing you want to do is describe it as not being "next generation".

The DS download stuff sounds cool. Though I hope we can get Wii demos as well. And I want PERMANENT Wii demo downloads. I want to be able to keep the demo if I want to without Nintendo deciding to pull the plug and deciding what demo I want to play. The WiiConnect24 stuff is neat but I don't like the idea of Nintendo deciding what demo I want to play or forcing me to upgrade a game when perhaps the upgrade removes some bug I like exploiting or censors something. I want control over what gets downloaded.

I also hope we'll be able to play VC NES and SNES games on the DS. I doubt we'll be able to, however. I also doubt Wii demos. DS demos are only a couple of MB. I'd expect many Wii demos to at least be over 50.

Ian, if you had actually read the entire interview, Iwata says some pretty advantageous things that also make alot of sense.

His next-generation comment was to differentiate between the Wii and the rest of the next-gen consoles. You misundertood what he said....just exactly like he said you would do.

"You misundertood what he said....just exactly like he said you would do."

No I understood exactly what he said. I was just pointing out that if he has to say "this might be misunderstood" prior to saying something that really isn't advantageous to say in the first place then maybe he shouldn't say it period. I'm not talking about the rest of the interview, just that one piece. I'm just remarking on how Iwata always says potentially damaging things and since he appears to be aware of that maybe he should stop it.

What I liked at E3 was how they said it wasn't a "next generation" console, but a "new generation" of consoles. In Standard or Enhanced Definition, the Wii will be reasonably competitive with the 360 and PS3. I think it's good to differentiate this point with Wii, because otherwise people will simply say "it's not as strong" -- it's not a competitor for your "first console" position if you want the high-powered specs. But I'm not going to spend $1000 to get a 360 Premium package and a non-gimped PS3 -- I'd rather spend the $800 for PS3+Wii or the $600 for 360+Wii IF I was planning on buying two systems. Anybody who buys all three systems and complains about not having money, I will laugh at, because they're a little...

Iwata is aware that in the traditional market, Nintendo has been losing footing ever since the NES, and especially since the SNES. If you look at Sony and Microsoft, they're both already half-assuming people will get a Wii along with their respective consoles. They already see that Wii isn't a competitor, and are endorsing it to their market because of that. Nintendo established that it's not trying to be competitive, but to expand the market. The people who get a Wii and not a 360 or PS3 are who Nintendo is targeting as their new market, and they weren't going to buy a "next generation" console anyway.

My favorite quote was at the end. Iwata said that they want a system people will turn on every day. I know what he means about gaming sessions around major releases and then not playing for a while. I live it. Especially on my GameCube, but also on my PS2. The only thing that would bring me to PS2 on a daily basis would be Final Fantasy XI, and right now only because of the recent expansion pack. Animal Crossing doesn't even do it anymore on my GameCube (but it does on my DS). I'm waiting for the Wii eagerly.

I reallylike this, when I wake up and see the wii blue light I know a) I got free demos or b) reggie set a new record in butt kicking