1st Course
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Nintendo's english IR site updated with official translation
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/140627qa/index.html
Thanks for the heads up, Turrican3.
Some selected Q&As
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/140627qa/index.html
Thanks for the heads up, Turrican3.
Some selected Q&As
Q3:When will you announce more information about the new Legend of Zelda game for Wii U? Will it be before E3 next year?
Miyamoto:
Although this Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is a special opportunity, I am afraid I cannot give you any information other than what has been officially announced. At this point, there are a few titles under development in The Legend of Zelda series, so please look forward to their completion.
Hyrule Warriors, a tie-up with another companys Dynasty Warriors series that we have shown at E3, is more or less an action game in which you cut down enemies, and it received very positive reviews at E3 for enabling players to choose from a variety of characters and for offering exhilarating action.
In addition, we have already announced that we are now developing the next title for the orthodox The Legend of Zelda series for Wii U, and that it will be an open world, as announced at E3. I prefer not to use the generally used term open world when developing software, but we used this term in order to make it easier for consumers to understand. This term means that there is a large world in which players can do numerous things daily. In the traditional The Legend of Zelda series, the player would play one dungeon at a time. For example, if there are eight dungeons, at the fourth dungeon, some players may think, Im already halfway through the game, while other players may think, I still have half of the game to play. We are trying to gradually break down such mechanism and develop a game style in which you can enjoy The Legend of Zelda freely in a vast world, whenever you find the time to do so.
At the halfway point to achieving this goal, we released The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for Nintendo 3DS last year. We created the games in the traditional The Legend of Zelda series in steps that players could easily understand and follow; the player would obtain a new item in each dungeon, use the item to clear that dungeon and be able to enjoy applying the items in different ways after acquiring about eight items. However, in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, we broke that down and let the player rent different items from the beginning, so the player could use different combinations of items. In this way, we are gradually changing the structure of The Legend of Zelda series, and we are preparing to newly evolve the series for Wii U. In addition to that, we have ideas for Nintendo 3DS which we have not announced yet, so I hope you will look forward to them.
Q 7:I would like to ask about the lineup for Wii U software. For Wii, a few games like Xenoblade and Zangeki no Reginleiv (Japanese title), which provide more immersive experiences when played alone, rather than when played with your friends and family in the living room, were released in a row. However, there are no games like those ones for Wii U. Has the policy changed for Wii U? Regarding the type of games that you play by yourself, I know there are plans for the release of the sequels to Xenoblade and Bayonetta 2, but it has been two years since the Wii U was launched, and I would like to hear an explanation for this blank period. Mr. Miyamoto mentioned earlier that he does not like to use commonly used terms like open world for games, but I think that this is both Nintendos strength and weakness. People are hesitant to buy a game when the title and the game screens do not give any clues about the game content. However, if words like open world are used, for example, consumers will be more comfortable and will be more likely to buy the game, because they can relate to other open world games and imagine that it would be fun. Hereafter, how do you plan to appeal to such emotions when you develop games in which people enjoy playing by themselves?
Takeda:
These questions cover different fields, so first, I would like the development division to answer and then the sales division will follow. First, lets hear from Mr. Takahashi.
Takahashi:
Regarding your question on the lateness of Wii U titles for advanced game players, you are absolutely correct. However, at E3 this year, we announced Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is being developed under Mr. Tetsuya Takahashi from MONOLITH SOFTWARE INC. I hope you will think of this game as one in the Xenoblade series, not a sequel to Xenoblade for Wii. We are planning to announce details of this softwares content through various channels.
Also, we announced Devils Third (temp.), which is being developed under Tomonobu Itagaki from Valhalla Game Studios Co., Ltd. The announcement of these titles may have been late, but I hope consumers will be able enjoy software titles like these ones from now on.
Miyamoto:
I received a comment on my previous remark, so please let me explain what I said. (Regarding the new Legend of Zelda title for Wii U,) I intentionally used the term open world so that it would be easier (for consumers) to understand, just as the shareholder has pointed out. Please understand I meant that when the development teams have discussions, I dislike heavily using terms that are commonly used (when developing something new and surprising).
I suspect that software makers that develop game software (for advanced game players) for the game systems from Microsoft and Sony must have actually been having a harder time than we think. It takes a year for the development teams to get used to high-performance graphics using recent shader technology, and afterwards it requires two or three times the time and labor costs to develop a game. According to one theory, since some projects even require the budgets of over 10 billion yen, not all projects will be profitable. It is a harsh world, in which a game can hardly survive if it doesnt make it into the top ten of the sales rankings.
However, I am not saying that Nintendo will not work on this. As Mr. Takahashi previously said, our subsidiary, MONOLITH SOFTWARE INC., is working on several projects, and PlatinumGames Inc. has announced two titles for the Bayonetta series. It took time, but we are now able to develop software suitable for Wii U, and we would like to release new titles from now on.
Q 11: I do understand that Nintendo is planning to improve its performance with Wii U and Nintendo 3DS for this fiscal year and the next, but in the long term, I, as a video game fan who wants Nintendo to keep on running a game business, am worried that Nintendo might be going to become a manufacturer of health devices in the future. I would like to own Nintendo stock for as long as ten years, so please show game fans like me something that will convince us that the game business will have a bright future in that period. It seems to me that the hardware-software integrated platform business will not last forever. Is Nintendo not going to change this business model? If not, I am concerned that failure of the next hardware system could be critical. In order to wipe away my anxiety, I would like to hear about Nintendos dreams for the future, especially from Mr. Miyamoto.
Miyamoto:
Thank you so much for expecting a lot from the future of the game business. My comment relates to the comment made by another shareholder today, and I believe that these kinds of questions on video games from shareholder are not irrelevant to our company management. This is because, for an entertainment company like Nintendo, the most essential question is not to improve our profitability but how to maintain a high level of sales and sustain the company over a timespan of, for example, 10 years. The entertainment business inherently has a lot of ups and downs. When I joined the company over 30 years ago, Nintendo had a great amount of debt loans. Now, it is sometimes said that Nintendo is too cash-rich, but this is essential for us to try new endeavors. I am sorry for the shareholder who just asked this question, but I cannot predict what is going to happen 10 years from now. It is true that I have a sense of fear in that hand-me-down smartphones, as pointed out by another shareholder, are becoming hardware systems on which to play games due to their prices being lower than that of our most inexpensive video game system in our history. However, I do not believe that will completely control the future of video games. Of course, it is important to gain profit in effective ways, but Nintendo always has to take seriously, for example, network security for children. Taking into consideration that more and more children have a good command of these kinds of media, which help these media to spread, the most important task for Nintendo is how to provide new styles of entertainment by using these technologies, and how to make these new kinds of entertainment yield significant sales and profits. It goes without saying that Nintendo has been trying to improve its profitability at the same time. For example, at E3 this year, we were able to obtain more page views on our website while considerably reducing our E3-related costs.
About the prospects of ten years from now (which were mentioned in the question), I believe it will work itself out because new forms of entertainment are always born. But, we always need to work with a clear consciousness that we have to act now to make that happen. This consciousness is mounting high among people at Nintendo now, so please wait for our next move. I believe the appeal of video games is not transient and human beings have an instinctual love of games. I would like to keep on producing new products that surprise people all over the world.
