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Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata had an investors call recently in which he discussed three topics of interest: digital distribution on the 3DS, cloud computing and who Nintendo considers its rivals to be.
Topic 1: Digital Distribution
Iwata emphasized that digital distribution will be an important feature for the upcoming 3DS handheld while acknowledging the company’s lack of effort in the area thus far. He went into further detail saying that their goal is to have better wireless communication to inform users when new digital content is available, even when their 3DS is closed up. In some respects, what Iwata was describing seemed similar to the current WiiConnect24 service, only for handhelds.
Source: Siliconera
Topic 2: Cloud Computing
Iwata mentioned that he doesn’t see much potential for gaming from cloud computing, which is a growing internet-based computing and sharing form (e.g. Google Docs). His primary concern is that lag in responsiveness and limits in transmission speeds will disrupt the gaming experience. However, Iwata maintained that Nintendo would use the technology where appropriate and would likely find an outside provider should they need to use it.
Source: Eurogamer
Topic 3: Rivals
Iwata once again deflected grouping Nintendo with a set of competitors. From Iwata’s view, “We ourselves assume that our rival is everything consuming people’s interest, time and energy. If we were to consider one specific thing as our rival, we would do nothing but think of how to beat it.” He further outlined Nintendo’s philosophy and how it guides their objectives, “Even if we ask customers what kind of games they want to play and develop one game as they requested, it may not always greatly excite them. Instead, we should develop what is beyond their imagination and let them say, ‘This is unexpectedly interesting,’ or ‘This is the very thing I have been wanting.’ We can say that our business is very unique.”
Source: Eurogamer
