[chickdigger802]

Update:

http://andriasang.com/con1fx/wii_u_hard_drive/

It looks like this English translation had an error. In Nintendo's Japanese Q&A transcript, accessible here, the question and most of the response are the same, but the first sentence reads: "We have not said that we will be including a hard drive with the Wii U system." The rest of the reply is the same.

So yeah, Harddrive... maybe, maybe not. I guess they are probably gauging response.




http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/libr...6qa/index.html

a lot of interesting tidbits. Reading it now.

Without Friend Codes, can consumers be connected easier than now? We’re not completely getting rid of Friend Codes, but a function of the “Miiverse” will simplify the process of making friends with another user in the platform by eliminating the need to input Friend Codes.

Evaluations in interactive entertainment have come down significantly. Nintendo has the strongest balance sheet of any of the companies directly involved in interactive entertainment. Is there an opportunity today to employ that balance sheet? I know asking about share buybacks is not a popular question, but if not for share buybacks there’s an opportunity strategically for other acquisitions or, as Microsoft has done with their balance sheet, co-promotions with third-party publishers, with buying exclusive rights. Is there a way to creatively leverage your balance sheet strength in the interactive entertainment industry, which is a relatively depressed environment? First of all, I do see that there are a variety of possibilities in which we could use our financial resources. Having said that, please understand that due to fair disclosure rules I can’t go into detail on any of those possibilities today. Then the question becomes some of the specific examples that you raised such as the question of obtaining exclusive rights. While Nintendo is not entirely opposed to exploring that option, I don’t think it would be an appropriate course of action for Nintendo to get into a battle with a company like Microsoft over the cost or the expense of trying to go head to head in a situation to try to obtain exclusive rights. However, now we have a totally new device, the Wii U GamePad. If a third-party developer or publisher has come up with an idea of a potentially very unique use of the Wii U functionality with such a device, there is a high possibility that Nintendo will be a partner with that third party in an unprecedented manner (thereby reducing their development risk significantly). I do intend to work hard so that next year you will not criticize Nintendo’s use of its resources.

I do hope this applies to indies as well.

Here at E3, Microsoft announced SmartGlass, which appears to take away or minimize one of the Wii U’s key differentiators, the type of game play and entertainment by using two screens of a device at hand and a TV. Are you worried about SmartGlass? How does Nintendo intend to differentiate its hardware system? One thing that I can say is that previously, after we’d introduced motion control, it took the other companies about three years before they introduced their own style of motion control. This time, the fact is that we’ve seen something of this nature come out within a one-year time frame from when we first announced the Wii U. That suggests to me that they clearly see value in what we’re trying to do. I think that an approach that nobody follows is one that few people see value in. So the fact that we have so quickly seen somebody following in the footsteps of what we first introduced with the Wii U, suggests that there are people who see great appeal in what we’re offering. I think that’s proof of that. On the other hand, the question is, is what they’re offering truly capable of doing everything that we’re offering? From what we have seen so far, it looks to us as if what they are able to offer really is only a small facet of what the Wii U is capable of. We know that the core users who love playing video games like controllers that you hold with two hands. But what you don’t have on smartphones and tablets are the buttons and the control sticks that they prefer to use. Now, if they could hold a controller with two hands and hold a tablet or a smartphone with another hand, there would be no issue. Unfortunately, since it is not possible for humans to do that, you can’t play a game in a way you can play with the Wii U. The other thing that’s important to know is that with the Wii U GamePad we have paid particular attention to the latency (the time to be spent for wireless communication between the Wii U system and the Wii U GamePad) issues to allow the Wii U to truly create seamless gaming experiences on the Wii U GamePad. What that means is that when the user presses the button on the Wii U GamePad, the signal of the button processes a transmitter to the Wii U hardware, and the Wii U hardware draws graphics in reaction to the signal received from the Wii U GamePad and transmits those graphics back to the screen in the Wii U GamePad. If you have latency within that process, or lag within that process, it’s no longer a quality game. So clearly and naturally the latency for a situation like that is going to be very different from a device that has specifically been designed to achieve that type of seamless interaction versus a device that simply has conventional technology layered for each device to be purchased for individual reasons. If you were just talking about streaming movies, there would be no issues because there would be no interactive development for that. The moment that you look at an interactive experience, people become very sensitive to the lag and the latency, so that’s the reason why we thought it would be meaningful to create the Wii U GamePad. The advantage of the Wii U system and the Wii U GamePad bundled together is to ensure that everyone will have the same experiences. I believe that even if Microsoft is able to bring SmartGlass to their console or if, according to the Sony story, the company is able to connect two different consoles, the advantage that we see in the Wii U will not be taken away.

BAM. sold me. Latency is music to my ears~

Responsiveness > Graphics


And yeah, having messed with airplay and a few ios games. It's impressive tech, but the lag is extremely noticeable.

[Rösti]

I was wondering when they would upload this. Thanks for the link.

I was hoping to get some more details about the hardware, so in other words, the processing power and the GPUs. There’s been a lot of speculation about the power of the Wii U relative to current generation consoles or what may be coming down the pipe. I don't know if you can comment on this, but I would appreciate any details you might be able to provide about the relative power to 360 or PS3, or some other benchmark, to give us a sense of its capabilities other than the HD graphics. Iwata: Of course, because we have designed a new hardware system, we are using new technology and we are using new GPUs.　But as we have to devote significant costs to the Wii U GamePad, if we were to apply the same level of enhancement that other console manufacturers shoot for to the processing power component, the Wii U would become extremely high in price, and it would not be affordable.　In other words, we think that the way that the various console manufacturers are allocating their budgets to the hardware is different from the way that we allocate our budget to the hardware. Ultimately, we’re looking to maintain a price point for the Wii U that is reasonable in comparison to the value to be offered. There is also another differentiation point here. While existing platforms have engines that development teams have tuned and optimized for six to seven years after their respective launches, the Wii U is a new platform that has slightly different architecture and, since development teams have only just begun development on software for it, they are only at the halfway point to utilizing its full potential. Despite this fact, however, if you look at the game “Assassin’s Creed III,” which was recently announced or shown, you can’t see much difference when you compare it with games for other companies’ systems. I hope that helps you to understand a little bit better.

[Erethian]

The bit about providing financial/material support to third parties if they approach Nintendo with a unique use for the GamePad is interesting.

[grimshawish]

So what IS friend codes? Is this a communication misunderstanding? Do they use friends codes but give you an original account name? Or what?

Just some clarity Ninty, please!

[Penguin]

So what IS friend codes? Is this a communication misunderstanding? Do they use friends codes but give you an original account name? Or what? Just some clarity Ninty, please!

From the sounds of it, and this may be off the ball

It would be like the 3DS meets Rivals system.

So to add friends, probably both need to do Friend Codes, but can probably befriend a friend of a friend on the MiiVerse by just clicking on their name or something.

[cw_sasuke]

Concerning the current stock price, is there any scenario that you may want to go private? If that is the case, can you explain what that scenario would look like? Iwata: First of all, I can say that I myself have never considered making the company private. However, I also don’t think that the current market value is in a negligible state. We would like to have people specifically understand our future scenario and show them evidence that we can realize it as soon as possible in order to turn the situation around. Please understand that we are looking at a number of different options, including our capital strategy, but we can’t specify them here.

Would love to see them go private - screw those shareholders.

[Spieler Eins]

So what IS friend codes? Is this a communication misunderstanding? Do they use friends codes but give you an original account name? Or what?

It will most likely be the equivalent of an email adress. You can search for a person in detail, but add anyone else you meet without barriers.

[Bending_Unit_22]

Would love to see them go private - screw those shareholders.

I'd like to see that also. They just take food from Yamauchi's table, pick his pockets, and take his towels and ashtrays on the way out.

[Captain Smoker]

Would love to see them go private - screw those shareholders.

[Penguin]

For the launch of the Wii U, we are putting a strong focus on how we can avoid a similar situation. As you can see from our software lineup at E3, we have a number of titles which will help drive the hardware sales. While some titles were able to showcase their unique appeals to the audience, people do not yet fully understand the appeal of some of the other titles. Between now and the launch, we’ll continue to work to make sure that people clearly understand the appealing elements of that software. So what I can say here today is that we’re doing our utmost to avoid a situation where we have to cut the price of the Wii U hardware shortly after its launch, as we had to do for the Nintendo 3DS. We are going to ensure that consumers will consider the Wii U price reasonable for what they are able to do with the system and will not expect a price drop very early in its life cycle.

Good to see him realize that not all games had the best showing at E3.

Though I imagine they will have a show focused on NFC/online stuff.

[Erethian]

Currently, we are not actively looking at free to play for our first-party content and I don’t think that’s a direction that we should go in right now. But that doesn’t mean for the future that there may not come a time where we have specific content that might be suited to that model. If there are some people who feel that Mario is something that should be available as a free-to-play type model, I would have to clearly say that I disagree. But in the future if we come up with a very interesting idea of a novel game with totally different value and structure that would potentially be very well suited to free to play, we might go in that direction.

Huh. So aside from confirming that the WiiU will support F2P games in the answer to an earlier question, it'd be interesting to see what Nintendo might do someday with a F2P game since Iwata certainly isn't ruling it out.

[chaosblade]

Would love to see them go private - screw those shareholders.

Completely agreed. I think that is/was one of Valve's biggest strengths, and I think Nintendo could seriously benefit from it as well.

[Bending_Unit_22]

Good to see him realize that not all games had the best showing at E3. Though I imagine they will have a show focused on NFC/online stuff.

That's good and all but it seems like Iwata is continually in a state of learning the importance of showcasing games only to have to relearn it in 6-12 months.

[jonno394]

Huh. So aside from confirming that the WiiU will support F2P games in the answer to an earlier question, it'd be interesting to see what Nintendo might do someday with a F2P game since Iwata certainly isn't ruling it out.

Animal Crossing will one day be free to play, with bells earned slowly ingame or bought with real cash.

[specialguy]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

[schuelma]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

Let's be honest, you love it.

[Goodlife]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus?

Did you actually read the whole statement?

[Captain Smoker]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

[InsaneZero]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

You must be reading a different statement than I am.

[Mpl90]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

You should take a visit at the Speculation thread in the Community side, since from the last news we collected / analized, the hardware has a good architecture, projected in the future.

No joke.

EDIT: Aaaaaaand you really read it in such a special way.

[Penguin]

That's good and all but it seems like Iwata is continually in a state of learning the importance of showcasing games only to have to relearn it in 6-12 months.

I don't know
I think e3 was a wash
But maybe they had a different strategy in mind for prolonged momentum building?

[Alrus]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

That's not what it said at all...

[Tim-E]

Animal Crossing will one day be free to play, with bells earned slowly ingame or bought with real cash.

*baaaaaaaarf*

[watershed]

Interesting to read about Nintendo devoting money/development resources to third parties who come up with innovative uses of the gamepad, I wonder if that is already happening, maybe with Ubisoft in particular.

[Sammy Samusu]

First, I have to say that if I didn’t have faith in what we’re doing, I wouldn’t continue in my role as the president.

#POW

[Mpl90]

Interesting to read about Nintendo devoting money/development resources to third parties who come up with innovative uses of the gamepad, I wonder if that is already happening, maybe with Ubisoft in particular.

Probably Ubisoft is one of them, seeing Zombi U.

[Mafro]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

I had to re-read that section twice to make sure I hadn't misunderstood it.

[Spieler Eins]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

That's not what he says...
It's about developers still in progress of learning fully about the new hardware, but already making AC3 look as good as other systems nevertheless.

[chickdigger802]

So it seems like nintendo spend a fair chunk of R&D money on making sure latency is awesome for the controller.

That statement alone sold me on this gamepad thing.

Responsiveness over graphics.

I wish nintendo was my dad.

[gogogow]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

The fact that developers could port an engine, which is optimized for other platforms for years, to the Wii U in a short period of time, have it working, graphically almost on par, is what's impressive, not so much the graphics of AC3 per se.

"halfway point to full potential", so twice as powerful as the PS3/360?

[Rocket Scientist]

The answer to the question about power is pretty scary. pushing the fact AC3 looks identical to PS360 as a plus? Or even worse as "you cant see much difference".

Just quoting because everyone is.

[radioheadrule83]

I got more information ans reassurance from this little Q&A than anything they actually said at e3 to the media.

[specialguy]

Let's be honest, you love it.

Oh even I am starting to think Wii U is def more powerful than Ps360 (1.5X GPU?)

I'm just saying his answer was kind of twofold, one, basically an excuse that "hey we're not going to have as much power as the other guys cause the tablet is expensive" (a fact I've been touting all along, but still new to see an admission)

And then the 2nd thing about AC3.

It would be better if he said "we feel our console is very much an upgrade on the competition, and you will start to see that as developers begin to master it" or something like that.

[fabricated backlash]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/libr...6qa/index.html a lot of interesting tidbits. Reading it now. I do hope this applies to indies as well. BAM. sold me. Latency is music to my ears~ And yeah, having messed with airplay and a few ios games. It's impressive tech, but the lag is extremely noticeable.

I love the jab at Microsoft: It only took them a year to copy us this time. lol.

Highlights:
Friendcodes stay, but no need to type them in.
All games can be DD from day one with the inclusion of retailer offerings (potential discounts, clearance sales)

What I'm missing is information about the mentioned DRM. How will it be handled? Will licenses be usable for all local accounts or tied to a single account. If so, how will local MP games work when different accounts are logged in?

[Penguin]

Interesting to read about Nintendo devoting money/development resources to third parties who come up with innovative uses of the gamepad, I wonder if that is already happening, maybe with Ubisoft in particular.

I imagine that's what Project P-100 was/is. And I imagine SiNG

And I'm sure we'll see more of it. Its a way to gain support. And I guess exclusives.

[Sammy Samusu]

Furthermore, for example, our goal is that, in the future, you will also be able to purchase games found in the “Miiverse” from that smartphone or tablet device and, by the time you arrive home, that game will already have arrived on your Wii U system through SpotPass.

The "SpotPass" part is news to me. This is great! :o

[chickdigger802]

Oh even I am starting to think Wii U is def more powerful than Ps360 (1.5X GPU?) I'm just saying his answer was kind of twofold, one, basically an excuse that "hey we're not going to have as much power as the other guys cause the tablet is expensive" (a fact I've been touting all along, but still new to see an admission) And then the 2nd thing about AC3. It would be better if he said "we feel our console is very much an upgrade on the competition, and you will start to see that as developers begin to master it" or something like that.

The thing is, shit is complicated. the up to 2 gamepads adds a lot of additional variables. If the wii U was just a 'gamecube' like system with just the controller pro, then yes he can easily say that. But with up to 3 screens... stuff ain't that simple.

if you want a lot of shit happening on 1 or even 2 tablets, naturally stuff must be sacrificed for good performance.

[Keyouta]

What's the point of friend codes if you don't have to type it in to add someone?

[Captain Smoker]

I understand for the Wii, Mr. Miyamoto designed a system with about five or six key titles in mind: “Wii Sports,” “Wii Sports Resort,” “Wii Music” and several others. Has something similar occurred this time? So far, obviously we’ve seen “Pikmin 3,” but is there a similar strategy of a range of titles that he is playing a role in to create that is the plan for the next two or three years for the Wii U? Iwata: First, what we’ve shown at the E3 show are both the launch titles that will be released with Wii U hardware this holiday season and the launch window titles that will be released early next year or not long after the hardware launch. We do have ideas of what kind of software we will be releasing after those two periods, and Mr. Miyamoto as well as I are both directly involved in the development process. Those include both our traditional franchises and of course new propositions as well. However, because we are now in the era when similar proposals can be made by the others just one year after we introduced a brand-new hardware system proposal, please understand that we really can’t say much about what else we are planning.

Can someone explain the last part?

[shinra-bansho]

Re: comment about the price of the UPad - interesting to see what BoM is and consequently what a standalone unit will be priced at.

Interesting to read about Nintendo devoting money/development resources to third parties who come up with innovative uses of the gamepad, I wonder if that is already happening, maybe with Ubisoft in particular.

They appear to be publishing 4 externally developed titles so far - based on the list of launch window games released.

Although I'm not sure what's particularly innovative about Lego City or sING.

[chickdigger802]

I love the jab at Microsoft: It only took them a year to copy us this time. lol. Highlights: Friendcodes stay, but no need to type them in. All games can be DD from day one with the inclusion of retailer offerings (potential discounts, clearance sales) What I'm missing is information about the mentioned DRM. How will it be handled? Will licenses be usable for all local accounts or tied to a single account. If so, how will local MP games work when different accounts are logged in?

I think in kotaku interview they mentioned used game is cool. I assume 3rd party 'online passes' will still be here though.

I'm curious how DLC will work now that memory is 'optional'. Same with game installs.

[radioheadrule83]

Can someone explain the last part?

We're not going to unveil all of our (software) ideas too far in advance, as ideas can be copied very quickly. Essentially.

[ShellyDeKiller]

Can someone explain the last part?

From what I understand they'll try to avoid announcing things too early to prevent copy-cats.

[gogogow]

Can someone explain the last part?

I think Iwata is talking about Sony/MS with their new consoles coming a year later, and the possiblity of them having tablet controllers So Iwata don't want to show all their games with unique ideas yet?

That's what I think Iwata meant.

[watershed]

Can someone explain the last part?

We don't want someone else to steal our idea for a new game/new styles of gameplay.

[chickdigger802]

Can someone explain the last part?

uuh.. I think he was talking about how MS 'stole' their idea with project glass in an earlier question.

He wants to keep his cards hidden for a bit longer, which could mean some big things in the coming months.

[Captain Smoker]

Thx.
Would be one explanation why they only showed launch (window) games.

I wasn't sure, because who is going to copy Metroid or Zelda if they're are around for many years? (on the other hand, they have a new concept for other gaming ideas)

[watershed]

They appear to be publishing 4 externally developed titles so far - based on the list of launch window games released. Although I'm not sure what's particularly innovative about Lego City or sING.

You are joking right?! Now you face your audience and sing while reading lyrics off the gamepad! And your audience can even clap along if they want to! How is that not innovative?

[rpmurphy]

What's the point of friend codes if you don't have to type it in to add someone?

One purpose of a server-assigned ID is that there is no need for the end user to manually register a unique username with Nintendo's servers prior to using any of the online functions like multiplayer gaming, the online shop, etc. Players can set up a system account at a later time, for example, like linking to a Club Nintendo account, or a system account that Nintendo is currently working on.

[vareon]

Huh. So aside from confirming that the WiiU will support F2P games in the answer to an earlier question, it'd be interesting to see what Nintendo might do someday with a F2P game since Iwata certainly isn't ruling it out.

They are thinking a long-ass time about paid DLC, and the result is Fire Emblem DLC -- which is free for the first few months (do GAF like this?). And their solution on downloadable full games are interesting too. I'd like to see Nintendo's steps in F2P (if they're going that way) but I have a feeling it's going to be a long time.