Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has distanced the Wii game console from the rest of the next gen pack by surprisingly stating that the Wii is not a next gen game console. In comments made to Japanese business news service Nikkei Business, Iwata said, "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."While Nintendo,s Wii has been constantly referred to by the press and public as a next gen console, Iwata,s comments are sure to throw some game industry watchers off their stride. But Iwata,s point is valid, from his perspective. While game machines are getting more and more complex, his concern is that the non-gaming public is left behind. The Wii,s targeted audience is planned to be those who are not mainstream gamers.The direction Nintendo is taking is to provide a friendly, entertaining game platform that will reach out to the huge untapped non-gaming public. To bolster this philosophy of getting the non-gamer involved, Iwata pointed to the huge success of its handheld game device, the DS. Iwata said, "When Nintendo opted for the dual screens for the DS, more people were shaking their heads. Yet the market turned out favorable to the DS.” The Nintendo chief also promoted the Wii,s unique ability to continue to be alive and functioning while going to a lower level of power. "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 Wiis to their Nintendo DSes."Iwata has mentioned in previous interviews that the environments of games could be altered in an overnight download session conducted by the Wii. Game characters and situations would be different than the day before, offering, as Iwata has stated in the past, “a new game console everyday.”The Wii machine, if anything, is charting a fresh course with many of its concepts dealing with a “console which never sleeps”, its new motion sensing controllers, full backwards compatibility to a game library reaching back three decades, affordable games and a console price point lower than its competition.
Iwata is taking the stance that the Wii is not a next gen console, but if it isn,t a next gen console, than what is it? Perhaps the most appropriate title for the Wii would be to label it as a new-gen game console.
