GameSpot on Tuesday published a lengthy, candid, and informative interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Here are the parts I enjoyed.
With regards to the perceived alienation of long-time gamers, Iwata said, “Nintendo has teams working on meeting the needs of more hardcore gamers. The big complaint from them now may be that we’re not pouring all of our resources into that sector exclusively, but I feel that it’s Nintendo’s mission to make both kinds of games.”
He added, “Every experienced gamer today was a beginner at some point, who encountered an experience that made them fall in love with games.”
Still, the Nintendo bossman hopes to do more in terms of appeasing traditional fans. “Smash Bros. Brawl is just around the corner, waiting to show everyone that claims of Nintendo not caring about hardcore gamers are indeed misunderstandings, but I feel like we need to go even further,” he said.
When asked if he knew if Wii would be a hit, Iwata replied, “I would sound so cool if I could say, ‘Oh, I knew it all along,’ but it is not necessarily so. [Laughs] It was more of a conviction that somebody needed to go there and push things in this new direction.”