Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told investors that the successor to the Nintendo Wii is currently in the works and will inevitably surprise consumers once it’s announced.

Satoru Iwata also mentioned that the company has kept completely silent on the project due to the natural fear of its competitors stealing the unique ideas behind the forthcoming console.

“We are of course studying and developing the next console to Wii. However, there is a big difference between studying a product and announcing what it is and when we will release it,” added Iwata. “I am afraid to say that the history of entertainment is also the history of imitation. A great idea will promptly be copied unless protected through patents.”

“At the same time, it is really important for our business to positively surprise people. Will you be surprised by our completed product if we told you how it is surprising three years in advance? Therefore, we basically disclose information on our products as late as possible. We believe this is the best approach for the entertainment products we are developing. Again, we are planning the next products for Nintendo’s continuous growth, but we cannot tell you what, when and how we will release it here. Thank you for your understanding.”

- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata

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An inquisitive Nintendo shareholder directed a question to Satoru Iwata at a recent company meeting, asking how Nintendo plans to respond to the wealth of fan fiction and Nintendo tributes.

In connection with Nintendo’s basic strategy of “gaming population expansion”, I would like to ask about the handling of fan activities and intellectual properties. Recently, there are many fan magazines, original short movies, music bands, cosplay activities, websites, orchestras and so on, based on Nintendo’s titles. If these activities threaten Nintendo’s intellectual properties or licenses, will Nintendo crack down on them aggressively, or just view them as fan activities? If Nintendo has any policies, please let us know.

As the principle, please understand that the question is regarding a rather delicate issue to which no one can perhaps identify a clear-cut criterion. Of course, we cannot say that we can give tacit approval to any and all the activities which threaten our intellectual properties. But on the other hand, it would not be appropriate if we treated people who did something based on affection for Nintendo, as criminals. It is true that some expressions are detrimental enough to diminish the dignity of our intellectual properties, and others destroy our intellectual properties’ world-views by connecting them with something not based on fact. We think one of the criteria for deciding how to respond is whether the expression in question socially diminishes the dignity or value of our intellectual properties or not. Of course, it is very hard to have a blanket standard as this problem involves many complex elements that are very difficult to judge.

In these meanings, we cannot say OK to any and all such activities and, at the same time, it is not feasible for us to immediately respond to each small issue of this nature every time. However, these days an individual can easily transmit information through the Internet. Hearing your question today, as we cannot find these problems only by ourselves, we feel that a kind of contact window should be set up so that people can somehow report to us any inappropriate uses of Nintendo’s intellectual properties which diminish their dignities or values, so that we can respond appropriately.

- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressing a shareholder regarding fan fiction

Speaking to Japanese publication Sankei Biz, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai revealed rather predictably that he isn’t entirely won over by glasses free 3D technology.

“Naked-eye 3D for portables does not have high precision, and at present there are limitations,”

- Sony’s Kaz Hirai

On the subject of 3D, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata still has the technology in mind for the future successor to the Nintendo Wii, but, he says it’s unlikely that we will see glasses free 3D TV’s anytime soon.

“With parallax barrier technology the LCD must be a certain distance away from the screen. It also needs a certain viewing angle. We think it is not a great match for the home TV set.”

“As one of the engineers, I can anticipate that someone will invent a 3D TV that does not require you to wear 3D glasses. As far as today is concerned I do not think they can do it well. We need an invention to make it happen. If you ask me when, I have no idea.”

- Satoru Iwata

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has explained to analysts why Nintendo decided not to announce the whole host of titles that are currently being developed by Nintendo for the 3DS at the Nintendo press conference.

“In terms of our own internal software development, we will be devoting much of our resources to support Nintendo 3DS. From our historical perspective, since we thought it is obvious that first-party software lineup needs to support the new platform to expand its installed base, we did not emphasize that in our [E3] presentation. We will of course introduce quality first-party software.”

“Our internal teams, which have created series titles supported by Nintendo fans, are now beginning their work on development, very excited about the various types of things that they’re going to be able to achieve.”

- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has informed Forbes magazine that it is technically possible to have 3D video chat with the highly anticipated Nintendo 3DS.

“Technologically speaking, a variety of different things are possible with the 3DS, for example, 3D video chat.”

- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has spoken honestly to online gaming publications about the price point for the 3DS.

Whilst Nintendo have yet to give a specific price point or release date for the 3DS,  Iwata did confirm that the technology residing within the machine inevitably costs more to produce than the technology powering the DSi.

“I have to refrain from talking specifically about the price point. What I can confirm is that, in terms of the production costs, it will cost more than the costs for the Nintendo DS today. Having said that, we believe we will produce enough value worthy of the production cost. We do not think we have to sell the products below cost.”

- Satoru Iwata

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Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has informed Japanese business publication Nikkei that he’s closely monitoring the 3D TV market, and depending on consumer uptake, 3D could well be a prolific feature of the Wii’s successor.

“If you display a 3D image, the image quality becomes extremely bad, so we’d probably do it with the next system”, he said. “We’re thinking that the timing should be once the 3D television adoption rates crosses the 30% mark. We’re looking at the adoption trends.”

- Satoru Iwata

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has reiterated to investors that the 3DS is only a temporary name for Nintendo’s forthcoming 3D handheld gaming device.

“I think the formal name [for the 3DS] will be made public in the not so distant future.”

- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata

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Nintendo president Saturo Iwata has told British newspaper The Times that the company is stepping up its development and marketing campaigns in a bid to thwart the iPhone and iPad, which Iwata claims are the ‘enemy of the future’.

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Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, has revealed that the Nintendo Gamecube had hidden 3D capability’s build into the hardware that were never utilized.

“To tell you the truth, GameCube is secretly designed to load graphical circuits which display graphics for right and left eyes respectively, for a future possibility of realizing 3D gaming experience. So actually we have had interest on this technology, but I have some doubt about everyone needing glasses to play.”

- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata

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