WII VIRTUAL CONSOLE TO BE A FRIEND TO SMALL DEVELOPERS

In an interview with Japan’s Nikkei Business Publications, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata discussed a wide range of Wii topics, including the effect the Wii’s Virtual Console feature will bring to the game industry. As per 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.” -Satoru Iwata

For those unfamiliar with current conversion rates, that 500 yen comes out to about $4.50 U.S. One thing I’ve got to wonder on that end is whether Microsoft is going to view that feature as a threat to the Xbox 360 Live Arcade experience, which has similar goals and concepts, and end the current love-fest the two companies have been engaging in since E3.

Iwata also touched on several other insights into how the Wii evolved into it’s current form, that the Wiimote speaker was added fairly recently, the reasoning for Nintendo calling the Wii a “New Generation” console as opposed to “Next Generation” as well as how Nintendo’s recent struggles for market share in the industry has led them down the path of looking to innovate rather than just create;

“Nintendo once was the champion in the console market, yet is now the challenger. Challengers have a hard time getting the market to listen to them. Our intent was to revolutionize the user interface in the portable games market, where Nintendo is the reigning champion, and follow that up with the Wii’s success in the console market. “ -Satoru Iwata

Finally, to help use the widespread popularity of the Nintendo DS to help push the Wii, Iwata revealed that the Wii will wirelessly be able to download DS demos on it’s own overnight and have them ready for the user to upload to his/her DS the next day.

“Let’s say your Wii is connected to the Internet in a mode that allows activation on a 24-hour basis. This would allow Nintendo to send monthly promotional demos for the DS, during the night, to the Wii consoles in each household. Users would wake up each morning, find the LED lamp on their Wii flashing, and know that Nintendo has sent them something. They would then be able to download the promotional demo from their Wii’s to their Nintendo DS’s.” -Satoru Iwata

Before you get creeped out about your Wii working on it’s own without your consent, the statement implies that there are different online modes users can set on the Wii, which would control or curtail this ability. This feature also finally makes sense of the downloadable demo concept that Nintendo unveiled awhile back via retail outlets. It may have been somewhat of a useless idea at retail, but in your home it’s one hell of a selling point – just ask Xbox Live users about the marketplace demos – they’ll tell you all about their love of free demos.

Click here to head over to Nikkei Business Publications to read the whole article. For those who are looking for some first hand details on what Nintendo plans on having the Wii offer, it’s a must read.

MICROSOFT TO RELEASE PORTABLE GAME CONSOLE?

An article over at Gamasutra takes a look at a report entitled “On the Future of Portable Game Consoles: Analysis & Forecasts” from the consulting firm, The Diffusion Group, which states that they predict that Microsoft will be entering the handheld game business sometime in 2007 or 2008 once they fully stabilize the console end of their business.

By piecing together that report with recent comments made by Bill Gates as well as the noticeable absence of J. Allard from the public scene since the Xbox 360 launch, it’s easy to further support the concept that Microsoft is at the very least looking into the possibility of entering the portable market. One thing I like about the supposed approach Microsoft would be taking this way is waiting until they can focus on the handheld entirely, rather than trying to fight two battles at once.

Check out the Gamasutra article here, and a Gamasutra article regarding Bill Gates earlier comments on the portable market here