IN JAPAN he's mobbed like a rock star. To the rest of the world he's the talented video game creator who put Nintendo on the map more than two decades ago with characters such as Super Mario and Donkey Kong.
In person, Nintendo general manager Shigeru Miyamoto is an unassuming man whose youthful appearance belies his 53 years.
Miyamoto showed off Nintendo's latest creation, the Wii games console, at the recent E3 games expo in Los Angeles and talked to Email.
Q: At press briefings, one of the things you said Nintendo intends to do with the new Wii console is change conventional thinking. Can you explain?
SM: For years there's been a separation of people who play video games and then everybody else in the world who doesn't play video games.
Nintendo, as an entertainment company, is really interested in providing entertainment to everyone. We want to appeal to not only people who play games but to people who don't play games, people of all ages and interests.
When we thought about what we want our next home console to be, we had different ideas and different thinking, but ultimately our plan was to turn this into the device that would be the most fun for everyone to have attached to their TV set.
We've also decided to forget the old style of controller that has been around for so long and instead we've decided to go with this completely new interface that will change gaming. The idea is that it's almost like a remote control and you would able to leave this sitting out on your coffee table and it would be like totally natural and be there for anyone to just pick up and use.
Q: Sony and Microsoft are promoting high-definition games and how good games can look. Nintendo has stated it is more interested in how a game feels. Is that accurate?
SM: It's true that a lot of companies are talking about high-definition and graphics and Nintendo thinks graphics are very important too. You have to look at the number of consumers who actually have access to the type of TV that can allow them to enjoy those high-end graphics.
We thought it was too soon to focus on the high-end graphics.
Maybe a few years down the road then definitely we will probably look in that direction, but at this point in time we thought it better to use technology not to simply try to re-create the same games over again with better graphics but instead to try and do something new and unique.
Q: In your opinion, what makes a game good?
SM: Two things. Number one, the game allows the player to experience something they've never felt before, whether it's some kind of new experience in the game or new emotion. And number two, that the game be very easy to play and easy to control.
Q: Will there be a lot of launch titles when the Wii is released?
SM: Because the Wii was designed in a way that the architecture was very similar to the GameCube but more powerful and expanded beyond that, developers are requiring less time to get their games going and because of that we'll be looking at a large number of games at launch.
Q: Is there a risk of games being developed for the Wii that make use of the movement controls just for the sake of it?
SM: We're taking all that into consideration when we're developing games. On the show floor we have the sports games with baseball, golf and tennis and it feels very good to swing very hard and it's fun doing that, but at the same time you can play those games with as much or as little effort as you like.
A good example is the Zelda game. You might play for hours and hours at a time and players would get very tired of the only way they can swing their sword is just to continue to go back and forth with the remote. But for advanced moves, like the spin attack and down thrust, you get to handle that with the nunchuk motion sensor and so you get that immersive feeling but at the same time it's not just using it for the sake of using it.
Q: Not much has been said about the Wii's connectivity. Will you be able to play online with the Wii?
SM: Of course, the Nintendo Wii will be able to go online in the same way the Nintendo DS goes online with a WiFi connection.
It has that functionality built into the hardware. If you're able go online with your DS at home you'll also be able to go online with the Wii. On top of that, since you mentioned the word connectivity, the DS and the Wii hardware have been designed so that two of those will also be able to connect.
Q: Will there be a way to connect the DS to the Wii for the same game?
SM: That's something we have to think about going forward and the challenge will be what to do to games like Nintendogs and Animal Crossing and all that, so we're still looking at that and hopefully we'll be able to make some announcements in the near future.
Q: Will we see the Wii in Australia before the end of 2006?
SM: We've announced that we'll be launching worldwide by the end of this year.
Q: In terms of pricing where will the Wii sit compared to your competitors?
SM: We have a lot of leeway to do what we want with our price. We've designed the machine to be a really affordable system because we want it to be a system that anybody and everybody will want to buy, so in that sense everyone can look forward to a very affordable price for the Wii.
