The Seattle Post-Intelligencer caught up with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to discuss the company's E3 showing, thoughts on competitors and what Nintendo announcements are still to come. The most notable comments are below.
Q: When you look at market share, a lot of people in the industry have been assuming that Nintendo might come in third in this upcoming generation. Are people underestimating you as a company?
A: People will probably come to understand the merits of what Nintendo is trying to do. For our part, our goal isn't to have a certain percentage of the market or to be a certain number. ...Of course, we'd like to be No. 1, but we ourselves look at the results of what we've done, and we think the important thing is whether we've increased the number of people playing games and whether we've succeeded in breaking down the barriers to people playing in their homes.Nintendo's approach to our work is to greatly increase the population of gamers. When we've created a new market from the increase, the result will be the possibility that Nintendo will be the No. 1 market leader. I think that's my secret.
Q: How do you feel about the negative reaction to the name Wii?
A: I thought there would be various responses. For example, I knew people who had hoped for a more game machinelike name would think it was an incompatible name. What I wanted to have happen was that people who didn't know that Game Boy Advance and GBA are the same thing would remember Wii right away because it doesn't need to be abbreviated. Also, we wanted to express that it was something for everyone. So even if people initially oppose it, if they come to accept the name, we thought it would become a big strength. That's why we decided on it. By the way, I've heard that in America, people initially didn't like the name Game Boy.
Q: Sony showed its own motion-sensing controller this week. What do you think?
A: A motion-sensing controller that you hold with both hands is completely different from one that you can use with either your right or left hand. Worldwide, bloggers have been writing that they copied us, but I don't really think we've been copied. I don't think at all that we've lost Wii's advantage. We've come out with a unique, new innovation. I think the fact that a company would do something similar is an admission from the outside that it has value. So instead of getting angry, we should celebrate.
Q: Unlike Sony, you did not announce pricing or the launch date for your new console this week. On pricing, can you give a general sense for how you might compare to something like the $600 version of the PlayStation 3?
A: First of all, all we've said is that we'll have an affordable price range. We're using "affordable" in the sense that the price won't be significantly higher than Nintendo's prices have been historically. Compared with $600, anything is affordable, so it's absurd to even compare our price.
Q: When do you plan to announce the pricing and launch date?
A: Microsoft didn't announce Xbox 360's price at last year's E3. And the year before that, the prices for the PSP and the DS weren't announced, so I don't think it's unusual at all that we're not announcing the price at E3 this time. But the Wii will come out in the fourth quarter, so I expect to talk about it around summer.