I don't mean to imply at all that there was no value in making the GameCube or the other products that were made for it. But in the end, the GameCube was built as an extension of its predecessors. With Wii on the other hand, I feel as if we have broken with tradition, taking a jump to a different dimension. I think we feel such excitement, as well as a sense of achievement, precisely because we have made this leap. Once Wii is actually released and we have a chance to see the reactions and criticisms of the consumers though, I am sure that everyone, myself included, will feel as if we should have done some things a little differently. Really, there is no such thing as a product that everyone is completely satisfied with. But with Wii, I have a feeling that the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that has come with developing something so new and unusual will not dissipate even after its release. That's what the mood is like around here.
When you try to do something that has never been done before, it goes without saying that there is no guarantee of success. It also becomes more difficult to defend your efforts by saying that you know they will result in at least a certain amount of success. For all you know, it might turn out to be a complete failure.
At that time, I wasn't so blissfully optimistic to think that the Nintendo DS would be so well received to the point that it would become a social phenomenon even in Europe and America. And the same is true now just before the launch of Wii. As the developers have mentioned several times in these interviews, we are anxious about how the world is going to react to something so unconventional. But at the same time, that's also the reason why we have this burning desire to tell the world about it.
It does seem that there is a level of misunderstanding among some people. I am concerned about this. It's true that Nintendo is reaching out to non-gamers, but this does not mean that we are ignoring game fans. I believe that if we don't make moves to get people who don't play games to understand them, then the position of video games in society will never improve. Society's image of games will remain largely negative, including that stuff about playing games all the time badly damaging you or rotting your brain or whatever. If that happens, then even people who enjoy games will start to feel a strange guilt when they play them. If people who haven't played games up til now start playing them, and appreciate how enjoyable they are, it is highly likely this situation will change. Society will be more accommodating towards people who play games, and it will become even easier to produce "traditional" games. In reality, while Nintendo is looking to reach out to people who don't play games, it's not as if we've become less committed to Zelda. On the contrary, we've invested four years and a huge amount of effort into developing the new Zelda. There's no question that we are passionate about it. For the people who are willing to wait for them we will absolutely continue to produce games like that. But I think if we don't also develop things for non-gamers, the future for game fans will become bleak.
But having said that, we don't develop games with two categories in our mind: "This one's just for people who don't play games..." or "This one's just for gamers..." Take Wii Sports, for instance. I think gamers will enjoy the Target Practice mode more than anyone else. Even with something like Brain Training, which generally isn't seen as being a game, lots of users recognised that there was the same excitement in trying to beat the clock, as there is in a racing game, to put it in very basic terms.
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