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Iwata's GDC Keynote

DS, Wii, Gamecube

25th March 2006, 12:56pm
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 Just yesterday Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, made a thirty minute speech at the Game Developer's Conference in San Jose. Here's a rundown of the speech, covering the most important bits of news:
  • Brain Training for DS was designed and tested with the help of a brain scanning machine that tested the impact of the activities, with a positive result. Shows off the game, with maths, counting and reading demos. Promises every attendee at the conference would get a copy to share with their friends and family.

  • Network gaming has been around since 1998, he claims, but stresses that the connection process needed to be more accessible and simpler, hence the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Says that while some people enjoy playing strangers, others just want to play with friends. One million unique players and 29 million sessions in only 18 weeks. Competitors more than a year to reach those numbers.

  • Metroid Prime Hunters is displayed, and Bill Trinen of NOA shows off the new bounty hunters and modes.

  • New Zelda game for DS announced: Phantom Hourglass

  • Says he's often asked about how they came up with the controller concept. The answer: they worked out what the needs of the gaming community and industry were, and worked towards the remote design.

  • In addition to NES, SNES and N64 support in the Virtual Console, as well as Cube support in the hardware, SEGA Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 titles will be available for download.

  • Reiterates that Nintendo understands the importance of graphics, and says that fan favourites Mario, Zelda and Metroid will be gorgeous, but that Nintendo aims to provide a solution for people with great ideas too. Stresses the importance of innovation and expanding the market to older and younger people. He then thanks everyone for inviting him to speak, and heads off the stage.