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New speech from 'Reggie'
all QUOTES:
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Hello, my name is reggie…and i'm addicted to my blackberry. in fact,
to me, it's a crackberry.
(holds up blackberry…)
since i was given my first taste of the blackberry, i haven't been
able to put it down. sure, the constant email connection is a rush…but
i also have to admit, when i first got it, i just loved the attention
it generated. every time i pulled it out and explained what i was
doing, people would say, "wow!"
now, i'm no techie poseur, but that reaction made me kind of feel like
i belonged. for the moment, i was cool.
then, not long ago, i was sitting in a meeting where everyone had
their cell phones in front of them on the table, like cowboys
displaying their pistols at a poker game.
I thought that made me at least equally cool as everyone else until
the guy who runs our european operation confessed that while we were
discussing business…he was using his phone as a modem to connect his
p-d-a online. while we all talked, assuming he was taking notes, he
was simultaneously surfing the net.
this time, it was my turn to say, "wow!"
And the experts say we're on the cusp of seeing both those devices—the
phone and the browser—being incorporated into one wireless package
simple enough and affordable enough for the mass market.
to that…again i say "wow!"
These moments matter to me, /because like everyone else in our
business, i live and die by the ability to generate that same
reaction.
we're all looking for a way to make them say, "wow!" /today i'd like
to share a few thoughts on how nintendo approaches that challenge…how
our take might differ from those of our competitors…and finally, how
this all applies to the upcoming introduction of two new handheld
gaming devices…the nintendo ds…and the sony psp. let me begin by
returning to /the blackberry example. this is a wonderful device…but
it did not invent email. what it did was to give me a new way to
connect to my email. in the same sense, /apple's i-pod invented
neither music nor even portable music play.
But it did revolutionize access because of how much music it
transports…and because apple figured out how to un-tie the legal knot
between rights owners and music lovers.
these two devices—the blackberry and the i-pod—deserve their success
and their hip status because their developers were both
innovative--and patient.
despite critical acclaim from the start, the i-pod spent a year and a
half in sales obscurity before it began to take off. and few people
realize that the blackberry line is already five years old.
well, they did succeed…but success inevitably breeds competition. as
hot and dominant as these products are right now, there is no
guarantee that they will stay that way—no more than wang's word
processing program…or texas instrument's portable calculator…or
netscape's browser.
/what is rare in the technology world is a product line than can
maintain its dominance.
If you do that for five years, it's called amazing.
if you succeed for a decade, it's called unprecedented.
but if you do it for 15 years, you can only call it one thing—/game
boy.
i say that not just because it makes me feel good…but also to draw a
distinction. game boy has not succeeded because no one else cared
about our multi-billion dollar global market. not because people
thought they couldn't chip off a decent piece of our effective 100%
market share. over the years, we count nine serious contenders to our
portable game line. none succeeded.
They didn't fail because they were undercapitalized…or
unsophisticated…or backed by unintelligent people. they were all
playing for keeps. but one difference between game boy and those
contenders was a differing perspective on what business we were in.
most of them saw themselves in the technology business…and competed
accordingly. we do not for a minute argue /that sega's game gear in
the 90's wasn't technically superior to our game boy—after all, it
featured a color screen. back then, game boy's screen was color,
too—as long as you didn't want more than one color.
Recently nokia married a game machine with a cellphone and other
devices—clearly something game boy did not. but as yet, n-gage has not
made a ripple in the market. in the near future, sony's game boy rival
will also come to market with a better spec sheet. but the question of
better market performance remains, at best, unproven. /the distinction
is this: while we've steadily improved the technology of game boy,
nintendo has never considered itself in the technology business. we
are in the entertainment business .
The difference is telling…and i can use the recent history of sony to
illustrate the point. over the last year or so they introduced two
very different kinds of video game products. the first was the p-s-x
in japan…likely the most advanced game-based device ever devised. it
promised video game play with a recordable d-v-d, a tv tuner, built-in
ethernet capability and a 120 gig hard drive. believe me, the techies
said, ‘wow!'
The second was a simple camera attachment for the playstation called
the eye toy…technology at least one serious reviewer unkindly referred
to as ‘primitive'. yet, the eye toy is a wow product, and is having
inifinitely larger market impact…because it's far more entertaining.
/what this again underscores for us at nintendo is the eternal
distinction between high performance…and high entertainment.
technology should and will continue to improve over time. but alone,
it's no guarantee of success, whether your business is games or music
players or wireless email.
Now, as i said, technology should and will continue to improve.
historically, the most notable technical advances in our business have
come from on-screen graphics. /what donkey kong country did for 16
bit…/what super mario 64 did to invent 3-d graphics…/what madden
football is doing right now blurring the distinction between video
game and real game—all those things produced millions of ‘wows!".
in fact, when asked to identify the most /important advance in game
play over the last 10 years, 90% of both p-c and console players said
graphics.
but in terms of onscreen display, consider where we now stand. in a
business where artists and game designers were always forced to
compromise—how many pixels to do this? how much shading can i afford
for that?—the compromises are all but gone.
If you can see it or imagine it, you can probably put it on screen—in
convincing fashion. /from this point forward, graphical advances may
be far more theorhetical than observable. just like a consumer hooking
up a progressive scan dvd player to a non-progressive scan tv, better
technology may be there—but you can't see it. and this isn't lost on
the players. asked what they expect /the most important advances of
the next ten years to be…virtually none said graphics. but this maxing
out of screen display doesn't mean better technogy doesn't matter—or
won't come into play. it will just evolve in a couple other important
areas.
The first /is interface—where consistent evolution has already
occurred over the years…but with substantially less fanfare than on
screen imagery.
in short, interface is how a player connects with his game. how can we
make that better—more entertaining? traditionally, this comes first
from the controller. nintendo is justifiably proud, i think, of the
advances we've introduced here.
/the original cross pad…the ‘a' and ‘b' buttons…even the inclusion of
a joystick right in the middle of a controller were all innovations
available on the original n-e-s home system two decades ago.
/so was the step-activated ‘power pad'…a precursor to recent dance
game peripherals. seven years ago /we brought the rumble pak to market
to add some buzz to the controller interface. and two years ago /we
were credited with finally giving the industry a stable and reliable
wireless controller with our wavebird. no more wires to trip over?
everyone said ‘wow' to that!
and by the way, we're not stopping—/you'll soon see a brand new kind
of party game operated remotely-- by bongo drums…
(roll dk video from e3 sound up)
/we believe these kind of advances—improving the way a player connects
to his game—are at least as vital as enhanced on screen graphics
because they make games play better—not just look better. and as i'll
explain in a minute, we think the new nintendo d-s amply expands on
our legacy of interface innovation.
The other area where the industry will continue to see enhanced
techical improvement can be roughly defined /as interaction. in other
words, not how a player connects to his game…but how players connect
to each other.
one of the signature breakthrough games of the last decade was
/goldeneye on the nintendo 64. it sold more than five million copies
in america alone.
for a time, /its hold on late teens and early 20-somethings was so
hypnotic that we received countless complaints from young women that
their boyfriends and husbands were paying much less attention to
them…and much more to beating their buddies on four player goldeneye.
the james bond license and excellent game design certainly didn't
hurt…/but the key to success was nintendo's decision to put four
controller ports right on the n-64 console. that made four player
competition instantly availabe to all older goldeneye gamers…just as
it did for players of all ages with mario kart a short while later.
an equally interesting connection story is playing itself out right
now…/with the advance of online gaming. its adherents are simply
expanding the same dynamic that exploded with goldeneye to unseen
rivals in unseen locations.
nintendo has not been at the forefront of this push…i guess that's
putting it mildly…and the questions we and others have raised are well
publicized:
• /how much is online tied to broadband penetration?
• /how much of an investement is needed to maintain and upgrade game
worlds over time?
• and in the end, /how many people prefer playing against strangers
rather than friends or the computer console itself?
/some of those answers are updated with an e-s-a study released in
june.
/first, among those who do play games online, there is an overwhelming
preference to do so on their p-c's, as opposed to their game consoles.
/second, despite some rosy predictions, growth in online gaming is
relatively flat year-on-year.
/third, the favorite genres are puzzle, board and trivia games…not
action fare.
and fourth, /less than 8 percent are paying to play online.
while there is nothing terribly earthshaking in these numbers…that
doesn't mean there isn't a future in head-to-head play over long
distances.
but what if you could do it with no wires at all? in the current
vision of gamers…that ‘wow' would be the holy grail.
/right now, some of the most popular names in massive multiplayer
online games are available for wireless devices—but as yet, only as
single player adventures. we're not at a point where multiple players
can battle over realistic distances wirelessly.
as an industry, we'll see small steps toward full wireless
competition. and as i'll discuss in a minute, we think nintendo d-s
represents one of those important first steps. but before i do that,
allow me one more important point concerning nintendo's long history
of using game technology to wow gamers.
in short, technical advances tend not to grow and thrive in a vacuum.
in order to prosper, game technology is always nurtured and nourished
by the same thing—the presence of a great game.
/why did the original game boy succeed? its incredible surge of
acceptance was probably due to one factor over all others—the
/packaged tetris game that came with virtually every one of those
millions of initial game boy purchases.
if we didn't have tetris then…we might not have game boy as we know it
now.
/in 1998 we gave game boy a color screen…and immediately recognized
record system sales. but to credit the new screen for its sales
explosion is to ignore the real reason for the leap—/the worldwide
introduction of pokemon. remember, game gear boasted a color display
in 1990--but it didn't have pokemon to build the wow.
to bring this necessary association of hardware and software full
circle, /let me point out that so far in 2004, once again game boy is
the world's best selling video game system. and helping fuel those
sales is the reintroduction of /great nes classic games including
super mario brothers and zelda and excitebike and pac-man. for us in
this room, they're nostalgic.
but for many other younger players, they are brand new thrills…like
reading harry potter or watching star wars for the first time.
now, as always, software sells hardware—no matter what the hardware
technology.
/that's why nintendo and all subsequent competitors came to the same
conclusion about how they advertise their products—technology is
always dressed in the appeal of the latest hot game.
i want to stop briefly to show you how we're again showcasing the
nintendo gamecube with great games this fall…and how we even wrap the
dominant gameboy in entertainment imagery…
(roll gcn and freeboy spots sot…)
/so now, let me shift focus to the future—specifically to the upcoming
hardware launches…for nintendo d-s and the sony p-s-p.
in particular…what is it from these machines that's going to make
players say, ‘wow!'? in order to answer that, we at nintendo believe
there are four key questions that have to be answered…no matter who's
manufacturing the technology. the first is /multifunctionality.
i don't know any fellow blackberry owner who doesn't love his machine
for what it does. and most of them say they'd love it more if it could
do more—specifically, if it could also replace their cell phone. well,
new blackberries do combine wireless text and voice functions…but you
don't often see someone holding his blackberry up to his ear and
talking into it.
i'm not smart enough to know exactly why…but you can bet there are a
lot of interested people at blackberry trying to find out the answer.
and so are their rivals.
sometimes technology just doesn't belong together. you could
manufacture a combined toaster and espresso machine, but i don't know
how many people would pay to have that in their kitchen.
for nintendo and sony and every other player in the handheld wireless
world, this issue is central—what technologies belong together? how do
we make them work together? and what will people pay for it? the
second issue / is content transportability. for whatever reason, there
is no history of hit software maintaining its popularity once it
leaves its native technology.
a few quick examples. i imagine there might be someone out there who
once upon a time after a few too many beers dropped a few too many
quarters in pacman and pong machines in a local watering hole. but
those same games never significantly drove sales of any home game
system. why does flight simulator seem to work on p-c…but have little
or no value anywhere else?
tetris was a phenomenal success on game boy…but a lesser success
elsewhere.
what this says to manufacturers of new game devices is that it's
terribly risky hoping that hits from any existing system will help
establish a new one. native technology seems to demand native content.
that doesn't mean the games can't have familiar names…but that
character or challenge has to be presented in a fresh and compelling
way.
third, /there is the issue of the older demographic. everyone
understands that over the years, the largest demographic of game boy
users has been younger players. sony has been very gentlemanly in
saying that they don't intend to compete for that audience…that their
sights are set on players from the older teen years and up. and in
fact, we aim to have the d-s markedly increase the average player age
when compared to the traditional game boy.
but the key question is this: what do those older players want from a
portable game machine…if, indeed, they want a portable game machine at
all?
we believe sony is choosing to hedge its bets with the inclusion of
video and music playback in the psp…a ‘game' machine, perhaps, for
those who really aren't that much into games. but to be clear, i'm not
implying that that approach doesn't make sense. on the other hand, if
we are talking about a hard core 20-something gamer, the question of
consumer desire becomes more pertinent—just what, exactly, does that
avid player want? the initial thought is pretty obvious—if they love
grand theft auto on their playstations…they should love it just as
much on the psp, right?
well, leaving aside the issue of specific content not jumping
platforms very well, game developers have to consider how these older
consumers will play.
the vast majority of older hard core players have made a leisure time
commitment to gaming. your mother may play solitaire or hearts for ten
minutes at a time. your most passionate gaming buddies probably play
for entire nights or weekends at a time…because that's what they love.
now, consider those games they play to immersion—halo, grand theft
auto, madden, zelda—and ask yourself this. are they away from home for
sufficient blocks of uninterrupted free time to repeat that immersion
on a handheld device?
how many 20 year olds really take regular three hour plane flights?
eleven-year-olds spend half-day car trips in the back seat, playing
game boy.
21-year-olds spend half-day car trips in the front seat, driving.
even if those blocks of time were available to them, how many older
gamers wouldn't really rather wait and play those games at home, lying
on the couch, blasting away on their big screens?
the less obvious answer here—but perhaps the more accurate one—is that
older gamers may well expect and accept a different kind of game
experience on their portable. probably games that offer limited but
still exciting play sessions…and ones that don't pretend to match the
environment of their high tech living room setups.
we call this ‘inter'-tainment—action occupying short bursts of time
between other activities. which leads to the final issue--/the ‘wow'
factor itself.
if history is any teacher, no matter how the crowds at e-3 reacted to
the double screens of the d-s or the design of the psp…once they've
had those devices at home for more than a day, the enduring thrills
are going to come only from the games.
(pause)
/with this preamble then, let me explain how nintendo is approaching
our future with d-s.
/on the issue of multifunctionality, our intent is to market the d-s
clearly as a portable game-playing device—just as we have done with
game boy.
but there will be one important distinction this time. and that
difference is the socialization factor.
/the d-s will be equipped to wirelessly connect 16 players in close
proximity to a single game. this, to us, marries the same excitement
of competing side by side with your friends in goldeneye—but expands
it fourfold.
it's such a good idea, in fact, that even sony has paid it the
sincerest form of flattery.
the d-s will also be equipped to allow long distance connections via
wireless internet browser…but as we know, we're still some time away
from actually having wireless head-to-head play in any contemporary
game sense.
so, our answer on multifunctionality is pretty simple—it's designed to
expand the sole function of playing games in compelling new ways.
on the issue of native content, /many of you know we recently released
the list of more than 60 nintendo d-s games in development from more
than two dozen companies in japan. and today we're issuing a companion
list for games underway here in the western hemisphere. among more
than 75 games in total, there are familiar names—final fantasy and
madden and castlevania and harvest moon—and familiar genres—sports and
racing and role playing and adventure.
but what isn't represented in those lists are the novel ways in which
those games will play on nintendo d-s. fresh approaches owe to the way
these games are reinvented by the technical innovations of d-s.
/because the interface is altered by the inclusion of two screens…one
of them a touch screen…and wireless multiplayer…and the possibility of
voice command. that means that you can literally experience these
adventures like never before—no matter how long you've been playing
games. developers feel like they've been given a new canvas to paint
on. they're jazzed. and if they're saying ‘wow' right now…gamers will
be doing the same thing very soon.
/on the issue of older gamers, we're aiming squarely at those who
clearly put game play first…those who are most hungry for a new
approach. the earliest adopters for d-s will be those who are also the
freest thinkers. the trendsetters.
The same people, i guess you could say, who were first to snap up
their blackberries and ipods. /on the last issue—games—i'd like to
give you a sneak preview of the great things that are already in store
for our d-s launch this year. but hey, i've got bills to pay too!
thus, i regret to inform you that you're just going to have to wait a
little longer for a full preview of d-s software. but with more than
75 games in development worldwide…with brand new player interface and
brand new player interaction…i can promise you you'll see things
you've never seen before.
A recent online poll by gamefaqs-dot-com puts buying intent for
nintendo d-s at twice that for the our new rival…but like the upcoming
election, it's still too soon to make any firm predictions.
what i can tell you is this--for the next fifteen years…just like the
last 15…handheld gaming will be known by one name—nintendo.
/because nintendo has always made handheld players say the same
thing—‘wow!'
/thanks so much for your attention…"
New speech from 'Reggie'
all QUOTES:
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Hello, my name is reggie…and i'm addicted to my blackberry. in fact,
to me, it's a crackberry.
(holds up blackberry…)
since i was given my first taste of the blackberry, i haven't been
able to put it down. sure, the constant email connection is a rush…but
i also have to admit, when i first got it, i just loved the attention
it generated. every time i pulled it out and explained what i was
doing, people would say, "wow!"
now, i'm no techie poseur, but that reaction made me kind of feel like
i belonged. for the moment, i was cool.
then, not long ago, i was sitting in a meeting where everyone had
their cell phones in front of them on the table, like cowboys
displaying their pistols at a poker game.
I thought that made me at least equally cool as everyone else until
the guy who runs our european operation confessed that while we were
discussing business…he was using his phone as a modem to connect his
p-d-a online. while we all talked, assuming he was taking notes, he
was simultaneously surfing the net.
this time, it was my turn to say, "wow!"
And the experts say we're on the cusp of seeing both those devices—the
phone and the browser—being incorporated into one wireless package
simple enough and affordable enough for the mass market.
to that…again i say "wow!"
These moments matter to me, /because like everyone else in our
business, i live and die by the ability to generate that same
reaction.
we're all looking for a way to make them say, "wow!" /today i'd like
to share a few thoughts on how nintendo approaches that challenge…how
our take might differ from those of our competitors…and finally, how
this all applies to the upcoming introduction of two new handheld
gaming devices…the nintendo ds…and the sony psp. let me begin by
returning to /the blackberry example. this is a wonderful device…but
it did not invent email. what it did was to give me a new way to
connect to my email. in the same sense, /apple's i-pod invented
neither music nor even portable music play.
But it did revolutionize access because of how much music it
transports…and because apple figured out how to un-tie the legal knot
between rights owners and music lovers.
these two devices—the blackberry and the i-pod—deserve their success
and their hip status because their developers were both
innovative--and patient.
despite critical acclaim from the start, the i-pod spent a year and a
half in sales obscurity before it began to take off. and few people
realize that the blackberry line is already five years old.
well, they did succeed…but success inevitably breeds competition. as
hot and dominant as these products are right now, there is no
guarantee that they will stay that way—no more than wang's word
processing program…or texas instrument's portable calculator…or
netscape's browser.
/what is rare in the technology world is a product line than can
maintain its dominance.
If you do that for five years, it's called amazing.
if you succeed for a decade, it's called unprecedented.
but if you do it for 15 years, you can only call it one thing—/game
boy.
i say that not just because it makes me feel good…but also to draw a
distinction. game boy has not succeeded because no one else cared
about our multi-billion dollar global market. not because people
thought they couldn't chip off a decent piece of our effective 100%
market share. over the years, we count nine serious contenders to our
portable game line. none succeeded.
They didn't fail because they were undercapitalized…or
unsophisticated…or backed by unintelligent people. they were all
playing for keeps. but one difference between game boy and those
contenders was a differing perspective on what business we were in.
most of them saw themselves in the technology business…and competed
accordingly. we do not for a minute argue /that sega's game gear in
the 90's wasn't technically superior to our game boy—after all, it
featured a color screen. back then, game boy's screen was color,
too—as long as you didn't want more than one color.
Recently nokia married a game machine with a cellphone and other
devices—clearly something game boy did not. but as yet, n-gage has not
made a ripple in the market. in the near future, sony's game boy rival
will also come to market with a better spec sheet. but the question of
better market performance remains, at best, unproven. /the distinction
is this: while we've steadily improved the technology of game boy,
nintendo has never considered itself in the technology business. we
are in the entertainment business .
The difference is telling…and i can use the recent history of sony to
illustrate the point. over the last year or so they introduced two
very different kinds of video game products. the first was the p-s-x
in japan…likely the most advanced game-based device ever devised. it
promised video game play with a recordable d-v-d, a tv tuner, built-in
ethernet capability and a 120 gig hard drive. believe me, the techies
said, ‘wow!'
The second was a simple camera attachment for the playstation called
the eye toy…technology at least one serious reviewer unkindly referred
to as ‘primitive'. yet, the eye toy is a wow product, and is having
inifinitely larger market impact…because it's far more entertaining.
/what this again underscores for us at nintendo is the eternal
distinction between high performance…and high entertainment.
technology should and will continue to improve over time. but alone,
it's no guarantee of success, whether your business is games or music
players or wireless email.
Now, as i said, technology should and will continue to improve.
historically, the most notable technical advances in our business have
come from on-screen graphics. /what donkey kong country did for 16
bit…/what super mario 64 did to invent 3-d graphics…/what madden
football is doing right now blurring the distinction between video
game and real game—all those things produced millions of ‘wows!".
in fact, when asked to identify the most /important advance in game
play over the last 10 years, 90% of both p-c and console players said
graphics.
but in terms of onscreen display, consider where we now stand. in a
business where artists and game designers were always forced to
compromise—how many pixels to do this? how much shading can i afford
for that?—the compromises are all but gone.
If you can see it or imagine it, you can probably put it on screen—in
convincing fashion. /from this point forward, graphical advances may
be far more theorhetical than observable. just like a consumer hooking
up a progressive scan dvd player to a non-progressive scan tv, better
technology may be there—but you can't see it. and this isn't lost on
the players. asked what they expect /the most important advances of
the next ten years to be…virtually none said graphics. but this maxing
out of screen display doesn't mean better technogy doesn't matter—or
won't come into play. it will just evolve in a couple other important
areas.
The first /is interface—where consistent evolution has already
occurred over the years…but with substantially less fanfare than on
screen imagery.
in short, interface is how a player connects with his game. how can we
make that better—more entertaining? traditionally, this comes first
from the controller. nintendo is justifiably proud, i think, of the
advances we've introduced here.
/the original cross pad…the ‘a' and ‘b' buttons…even the inclusion of
a joystick right in the middle of a controller were all innovations
available on the original n-e-s home system two decades ago.
/so was the step-activated ‘power pad'…a precursor to recent dance
game peripherals. seven years ago /we brought the rumble pak to market
to add some buzz to the controller interface. and two years ago /we
were credited with finally giving the industry a stable and reliable
wireless controller with our wavebird. no more wires to trip over?
everyone said ‘wow' to that!
and by the way, we're not stopping—/you'll soon see a brand new kind
of party game operated remotely-- by bongo drums…
(roll dk video from e3 sound up)
/we believe these kind of advances—improving the way a player connects
to his game—are at least as vital as enhanced on screen graphics
because they make games play better—not just look better. and as i'll
explain in a minute, we think the new nintendo d-s amply expands on
our legacy of interface innovation.
The other area where the industry will continue to see enhanced
techical improvement can be roughly defined /as interaction. in other
words, not how a player connects to his game…but how players connect
to each other.
one of the signature breakthrough games of the last decade was
/goldeneye on the nintendo 64. it sold more than five million copies
in america alone.
for a time, /its hold on late teens and early 20-somethings was so
hypnotic that we received countless complaints from young women that
their boyfriends and husbands were paying much less attention to
them…and much more to beating their buddies on four player goldeneye.
the james bond license and excellent game design certainly didn't
hurt…/but the key to success was nintendo's decision to put four
controller ports right on the n-64 console. that made four player
competition instantly availabe to all older goldeneye gamers…just as
it did for players of all ages with mario kart a short while later.
an equally interesting connection story is playing itself out right
now…/with the advance of online gaming. its adherents are simply
expanding the same dynamic that exploded with goldeneye to unseen
rivals in unseen locations.
nintendo has not been at the forefront of this push…i guess that's
putting it mildly…and the questions we and others have raised are well
publicized:
• /how much is online tied to broadband penetration?
• /how much of an investement is needed to maintain and upgrade game
worlds over time?
• and in the end, /how many people prefer playing against strangers
rather than friends or the computer console itself?
/some of those answers are updated with an e-s-a study released in
june.
/first, among those who do play games online, there is an overwhelming
preference to do so on their p-c's, as opposed to their game consoles.
/second, despite some rosy predictions, growth in online gaming is
relatively flat year-on-year.
/third, the favorite genres are puzzle, board and trivia games…not
action fare.
and fourth, /less than 8 percent are paying to play online.
while there is nothing terribly earthshaking in these numbers…that
doesn't mean there isn't a future in head-to-head play over long
distances.
but what if you could do it with no wires at all? in the current
vision of gamers…that ‘wow' would be the holy grail.
/right now, some of the most popular names in massive multiplayer
online games are available for wireless devices—but as yet, only as
single player adventures. we're not at a point where multiple players
can battle over realistic distances wirelessly.
as an industry, we'll see small steps toward full wireless
competition. and as i'll discuss in a minute, we think nintendo d-s
represents one of those important first steps. but before i do that,
allow me one more important point concerning nintendo's long history
of using game technology to wow gamers.
in short, technical advances tend not to grow and thrive in a vacuum.
in order to prosper, game technology is always nurtured and nourished
by the same thing—the presence of a great game.
/why did the original game boy succeed? its incredible surge of
acceptance was probably due to one factor over all others—the
/packaged tetris game that came with virtually every one of those
millions of initial game boy purchases.
if we didn't have tetris then…we might not have game boy as we know it
now.
/in 1998 we gave game boy a color screen…and immediately recognized
record system sales. but to credit the new screen for its sales
explosion is to ignore the real reason for the leap—/the worldwide
introduction of pokemon. remember, game gear boasted a color display
in 1990--but it didn't have pokemon to build the wow.
to bring this necessary association of hardware and software full
circle, /let me point out that so far in 2004, once again game boy is
the world's best selling video game system. and helping fuel those
sales is the reintroduction of /great nes classic games including
super mario brothers and zelda and excitebike and pac-man. for us in
this room, they're nostalgic.
but for many other younger players, they are brand new thrills…like
reading harry potter or watching star wars for the first time.
now, as always, software sells hardware—no matter what the hardware
technology.
/that's why nintendo and all subsequent competitors came to the same
conclusion about how they advertise their products—technology is
always dressed in the appeal of the latest hot game.
i want to stop briefly to show you how we're again showcasing the
nintendo gamecube with great games this fall…and how we even wrap the
dominant gameboy in entertainment imagery…
(roll gcn and freeboy spots sot…)
/so now, let me shift focus to the future—specifically to the upcoming
hardware launches…for nintendo d-s and the sony p-s-p.
in particular…what is it from these machines that's going to make
players say, ‘wow!'? in order to answer that, we at nintendo believe
there are four key questions that have to be answered…no matter who's
manufacturing the technology. the first is /multifunctionality.
i don't know any fellow blackberry owner who doesn't love his machine
for what it does. and most of them say they'd love it more if it could
do more—specifically, if it could also replace their cell phone. well,
new blackberries do combine wireless text and voice functions…but you
don't often see someone holding his blackberry up to his ear and
talking into it.
i'm not smart enough to know exactly why…but you can bet there are a
lot of interested people at blackberry trying to find out the answer.
and so are their rivals.
sometimes technology just doesn't belong together. you could
manufacture a combined toaster and espresso machine, but i don't know
how many people would pay to have that in their kitchen.
for nintendo and sony and every other player in the handheld wireless
world, this issue is central—what technologies belong together? how do
we make them work together? and what will people pay for it? the
second issue / is content transportability. for whatever reason, there
is no history of hit software maintaining its popularity once it
leaves its native technology.
a few quick examples. i imagine there might be someone out there who
once upon a time after a few too many beers dropped a few too many
quarters in pacman and pong machines in a local watering hole. but
those same games never significantly drove sales of any home game
system. why does flight simulator seem to work on p-c…but have little
or no value anywhere else?
tetris was a phenomenal success on game boy…but a lesser success
elsewhere.
what this says to manufacturers of new game devices is that it's
terribly risky hoping that hits from any existing system will help
establish a new one. native technology seems to demand native content.
that doesn't mean the games can't have familiar names…but that
character or challenge has to be presented in a fresh and compelling
way.
third, /there is the issue of the older demographic. everyone
understands that over the years, the largest demographic of game boy
users has been younger players. sony has been very gentlemanly in
saying that they don't intend to compete for that audience…that their
sights are set on players from the older teen years and up. and in
fact, we aim to have the d-s markedly increase the average player age
when compared to the traditional game boy.
but the key question is this: what do those older players want from a
portable game machine…if, indeed, they want a portable game machine at
all?
we believe sony is choosing to hedge its bets with the inclusion of
video and music playback in the psp…a ‘game' machine, perhaps, for
those who really aren't that much into games. but to be clear, i'm not
implying that that approach doesn't make sense. on the other hand, if
we are talking about a hard core 20-something gamer, the question of
consumer desire becomes more pertinent—just what, exactly, does that
avid player want? the initial thought is pretty obvious—if they love
grand theft auto on their playstations…they should love it just as
much on the psp, right?
well, leaving aside the issue of specific content not jumping
platforms very well, game developers have to consider how these older
consumers will play.
the vast majority of older hard core players have made a leisure time
commitment to gaming. your mother may play solitaire or hearts for ten
minutes at a time. your most passionate gaming buddies probably play
for entire nights or weekends at a time…because that's what they love.
now, consider those games they play to immersion—halo, grand theft
auto, madden, zelda—and ask yourself this. are they away from home for
sufficient blocks of uninterrupted free time to repeat that immersion
on a handheld device?
how many 20 year olds really take regular three hour plane flights?
eleven-year-olds spend half-day car trips in the back seat, playing
game boy.
21-year-olds spend half-day car trips in the front seat, driving.
even if those blocks of time were available to them, how many older
gamers wouldn't really rather wait and play those games at home, lying
on the couch, blasting away on their big screens?
the less obvious answer here—but perhaps the more accurate one—is that
older gamers may well expect and accept a different kind of game
experience on their portable. probably games that offer limited but
still exciting play sessions…and ones that don't pretend to match the
environment of their high tech living room setups.
we call this ‘inter'-tainment—action occupying short bursts of time
between other activities. which leads to the final issue--/the ‘wow'
factor itself.
if history is any teacher, no matter how the crowds at e-3 reacted to
the double screens of the d-s or the design of the psp…once they've
had those devices at home for more than a day, the enduring thrills
are going to come only from the games.
(pause)
/with this preamble then, let me explain how nintendo is approaching
our future with d-s.
/on the issue of multifunctionality, our intent is to market the d-s
clearly as a portable game-playing device—just as we have done with
game boy.
but there will be one important distinction this time. and that
difference is the socialization factor.
/the d-s will be equipped to wirelessly connect 16 players in close
proximity to a single game. this, to us, marries the same excitement
of competing side by side with your friends in goldeneye—but expands
it fourfold.
it's such a good idea, in fact, that even sony has paid it the
sincerest form of flattery.
the d-s will also be equipped to allow long distance connections via
wireless internet browser…but as we know, we're still some time away
from actually having wireless head-to-head play in any contemporary
game sense.
so, our answer on multifunctionality is pretty simple—it's designed to
expand the sole function of playing games in compelling new ways.
on the issue of native content, /many of you know we recently released
the list of more than 60 nintendo d-s games in development from more
than two dozen companies in japan. and today we're issuing a companion
list for games underway here in the western hemisphere. among more
than 75 games in total, there are familiar names—final fantasy and
madden and castlevania and harvest moon—and familiar genres—sports and
racing and role playing and adventure.
but what isn't represented in those lists are the novel ways in which
those games will play on nintendo d-s. fresh approaches owe to the way
these games are reinvented by the technical innovations of d-s.
/because the interface is altered by the inclusion of two screens…one
of them a touch screen…and wireless multiplayer…and the possibility of
voice command. that means that you can literally experience these
adventures like never before—no matter how long you've been playing
games. developers feel like they've been given a new canvas to paint
on. they're jazzed. and if they're saying ‘wow' right now…gamers will
be doing the same thing very soon.
/on the issue of older gamers, we're aiming squarely at those who
clearly put game play first…those who are most hungry for a new
approach. the earliest adopters for d-s will be those who are also the
freest thinkers. the trendsetters.
The same people, i guess you could say, who were first to snap up
their blackberries and ipods. /on the last issue—games—i'd like to
give you a sneak preview of the great things that are already in store
for our d-s launch this year. but hey, i've got bills to pay too!
thus, i regret to inform you that you're just going to have to wait a
little longer for a full preview of d-s software. but with more than
75 games in development worldwide…with brand new player interface and
brand new player interaction…i can promise you you'll see things
you've never seen before.
A recent online poll by gamefaqs-dot-com puts buying intent for
nintendo d-s at twice that for the our new rival…but like the upcoming
election, it's still too soon to make any firm predictions.
what i can tell you is this--for the next fifteen years…just like the
last 15…handheld gaming will be known by one name—nintendo.
/because nintendo has always made handheld players say the same
thing—‘wow!'
/thanks so much for your attention…"
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