Nintendo's own engineers talk Wii

Nintendo is putting out a three part series of interviews with their internal engineers behind the Wii. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president, is conducting the interviews...

In a nice PR move, Nintendo's president sits down with some of the engineers and talks about their upcoming product. It is good publicity and it helps the Wii fanbase understand the product and why Nintendo is enjoying it.

A little history, some facts and a nice read. Currently, there are two parts to the interview so far on Nintendo's european site. Here is a bit from "Part 1 - USING STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGY IN UNPRECEDENTED WAYS":

Iwata:

Iwata With the final model of Wii in front of me, I cannot help but think, “This could not have been accomplished if we had tried to make a new game console in the conventional manner.” Why is Wii the way it is? What kind of idea was the basis for the development of Wii? I hope I can deliver the answers to these questions with this series of interviews. First of all, I would like to ask some questions to Mr Takeda, who has overseen and coordinated the entire project. How did you feel when you had the initial idea to develop this kind of console? And what are your impressions as you look upon Wii in its completed state?

Takeda:

We started developing Wii right after Nintendo launched the GameCube. You know, as soon as we complete one system, we start thinking about the next one. Needless to say, we don’t design new components or technologies from scratch. Rather, we have to base our designs on existing technologies. In the world of technology, there are so-called Roadmaps (overviews of proposed technologies/products) that are used by each industry in order to make general forecasts about where semiconductor technology is heading, as well as the evolution of disc and wireless technologies. Engineers and developers normally refer to these Roadmaps while developing hardware that they plan to release in the future. Looking again at the completed Wii, I feel that it has turned out to be something completely different from what was predicted in the mainstream technology Roadmaps.

Iwata:

What gives you that impression?

Takeda:

This may sound paradoxical, but if we had followed the existing Roadmaps we would have aimed to make it “faster and flashier.” In other words, we would have tried to improve the speed at which it displays stunning graphics. But we could not help but ask ourselves, “How big an impact would that direction really have on our customers?” During development, we came to realise the sheer inefficiency of this path when we compared the hardships and costs of development against any new experiences that might be had by our customers.

Iwata:

When did you start feeling that way?

Takeda:

It must have been about a year after we started developing Wii. After speaking with Nintendo’s development partners, I became keenly aware of the fact that there is no end to the desire of those who just want more. Give them one, they ask for two. Give them two, and next time they will ask for five instead of three. Then they want ten, thirty, a hundred; their desire growing exponentially. Giving in to this will lead us nowhere in the end. I started to feel unsure about following that path about a year into development.

To read part 1, and 2 in completion check out the interview here.