If Apple’s iPad is the next big video game platform in disguise, Nintendo’s president doesn’t see it.
“It was a bigger iPod Touch,” an apparently unimpressed Satoru Iwata told the Associated Press, referring to the tablet device unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday after months of speculation. “There were no surprises for me.”
Nintendo has faced mounting challenges recently, with solid year-end sales but weak financial results in the first part of the fiscal year, a rising yen and a long-overdue Wii price cut just to keep up with competitors.
Iwata also dismissed recent speculation in the Japanese press that a new motion-sensitive DS is in the works — a move that would surely be designed to compete with Apple’s accelerometer-powered iPhone, iPod Touch and the forthcoming iPad, which all can play games based on motion.
He also has doubts about the future of 3-D video games, despite the success of James Cameron’s 3-D epic movie “Avatar” at the box office and plans from Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic for 3-D television sets in near future.
“I have doubts whether people will be wearing glasses to play games at home. How is that going to look to other people?” he said in the AP interview.
It’s odd to see Nintendo’s chief downplaying the prospects for cutting-edge technology, seeing as the company pioneered motion control in the home console market with its Wii. However, the console has been derided for its lack of high-definition — and Iwana denies speculation that an HD Wii is in the works. It’s such an attitude that has kept the Wii firmly entrenched in the casual gaming category and keeps it from catching on with more “hardcore” gamers.
