Back in the days of the Nintendo SNES, high quality graphics were in short supply due to the limited technology available at the time. Because of this, game companies focused on content and gameplay to make up for this constraint on graphics. According to Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, his company plans to on encouraging developers to go back to the grass roots of good content at reasonable prices for the Wii.
Nintendo,s next gen machine has the capacity to become a “virtual console.” This concept was first described by Iwata as the ability of the Wii to emulate any of the previous Nintendo game consoles released, thus opening up games made for Nintendo machines over the past three decades. However, Iwata has expanded the idea of the virtual console by stating that the Wii can be used as a vehicle for developers to produce games that would be fun as well as being inexpensive.
Iwata said, "When creating a packaged game to be priced at 5,000 yen ($45), developers tend to feel the need to create a [full featured] 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 ($4.50) 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."
But Iwata was quick to point out that the Wii would still have high quality games developed for it, but that Nintendo,s next gen machine would be more flexible in its game content. Iwata brought this point home by stating, "Content-rich games have their own merit, and I have no intention of discrediting them. Such games are important in their own right, and will continue to be in demand. Still – think about it – eating French cuisine or a full dinner each day would quickly lead to boredom, wouldn’t it? You’ll want a simple bowl of rice and soup every now and then."
The reverse thinking of Iwata in bringing back simple games in this present age of high tech mega processing CPU power is an unlikely direction for a game company to take. However, beneath this seemingly odd, if not contrary logic, lies a simple truth; games will be played by people if they are fun. Iwata seems to understand this basic building block of game development and is banking on people who are not mainstream gamers to buy the Wii for its inherent entertainment value.
Or, in words that Iwata himself might have used to describe Nintendo,s philosophy about their next gen game console, “Wii is having fun.”
