Nintendo Prepares for Wii U

The challenges of software development and a system launch.

January 30, 2012

The arrival of Wii U marks a new era for Nintendo. That's the message Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been stressing for months, and in his company's most recent meeting with investors, he emphasized it again.

One of the key concerns facing Nintendo (as well as its investors) right now is how to allocate titles between the actual launch of the Wii U and the launch window. 3DS owners will recall that the system launched with a fair amount of software, but then had a drought for months.

"A new platform is likely to have a gap between the launch titles, which many developers want to release, and the second wave of software," Iwata acknowledged. "It is indispensable to avoid such a gap in our future business. In determining the launch date of the Wii U, we need to take into account not only what to release at the launch period but how to keep the sales momentum after then. In the past, I mentioned that having strong momentum is very important for game platform businesses, and as a matter of course, we are now more convinced of that and we need to have a backup plan ready."

This Was E3 2011. What Will We See in 2012?

Continuing from announcements made during his presentation, Iwata once again brought up the idea of downloadable content as a way to extend the lives of titles. One of Iwata's key concerns is making sure Nintendo platforms have momentum through continuous software releases. The executive believes DLC could be an effective way to not only keep momentum going, but expand the relevancy of an existing title as well.

"If we could announce some big news in connection with the add-on content for such software, many people would start playing it again, which could be an opportunity to revive the momentum," Iwata said. "In this context, the add-on content should be considered as a key to extending the lifespan of products and to maintaining the sales momentum, as well as a chance to earn additional profits."

With game development costs increasing with every generation, particularly in an era of HD graphics, investors have reason to be concerned about Nintendo's strategy in the coming years. Given Nintendo's current financial struggles, an investor asked company executives how they plan to manage those development costs. Though somewhat hesitant to answer, and quick to point to E3 2012 for more details, the executives did provide a few details.

Nintendo Won't Hesitate to Show the Power of Wii U

"As far as graphics capabilities are concerned, there are already other hardware systems with similar functions," said game development manager Shigeru Miyamoto. "Therefore, we have designed the Wii U to be recognized as being different from any other hardware system. Although I cannot elaborate on its network functions today, as we are preparing for the launch of the Wii U, we are taking into consideration its network-related capabilities.

"In short, the bottom line is the number of new things which are possible only on Wii U we can create, and our basic policy is to nurture the younger people who can think about the ways to create such things."

Iwata focused his Wii U comments on Nintendo's approach to development, and that the resources needed will be determined by the type of game being made. He again pointed to E3 2012, but noted in the interim that "we are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons."

Does that mean Nintendo will avoid using the full power of Wii U? Not at all. "As I mentioned, it is true that, in some software areas, we need to be engaged in the power games. Take The Legend of Zelda franchise, for example, the fans must be looking for the graphic representations that they do not see as cheap at all when the title is released for the Wii U. When it is necessary, we do not hesitate to roll out our resources."