Iwata Interviews Wii's Designers

In a rather clever little conceit, Nintendo's esteemed President Satoru Iwata recently conducted a series of interviews with the Wii's design team, the first of which SPOnG has helpfully highlighted for you below. Of course, we'll be sure to bring you more highlights from these made-up-but-still-quite-interesting 'interviews' as soon as Nintendo releases them.

Firstly, Genyo Takeda, head of Wii development, tells Mr Iwata about that controller. "The DS had a big influence...When making the Wii controller, the Nintendo DS concept was already around. We kept in mind how we could follow the DS's path. As many people had been predicting, we even considered including a touch panel on the controller and even considered something that's like a PC mouse or track pad in that can be used as a pointing device."

Talking about the history of the Wii controller, Takeda added: "When developing a game machine, you need an interface between the human and machine. Years back, we created over ten teams of three people, and had them freely consider plans for including special controllers or peripherals with GameCube software. From this project came things like the Donkey Konga controller and the Dance Dance Revolution with Mario mat controller, but they also had numerous ideas and plans that were used for the Wii controller."

Designer Akio Ikeda also admits to being heavily influenced by the DS, noting that: "Personally speaking, when my parents had an interest in the DS, I was surprised. It seems that they first began to have interest when seeing the DS on television and in magazines and thinking 'If it's a pen, I can also use it.' I thought this to be very important."

Finally, the one we've all been waiting for. Mr Iwata goes on to quiz chief software producer and all-round gaming god Shigeru Miyamoto, who had the following to say regarding the major hurdle facing the Wii controller: "How to persuade users and designers who've gotten used to current interfaces. This was an extremely high hurdle."

Indeed it is, and only time (and the quality of Wii's games) will tell if Nintendo is able to overcome this hurdle. Whilst it does seem right now that Wii can do no wrong, it is not until the consumers and the critics get their sweaty mitts on the games this November that we can seriously start to pass judgement on the success and longevity of the console.

Of course, like most games journalists (and like Mr Iwata himself) the majority of SPOnG staffers are hoping and praying that Nintendo manages to pull it off. The industry desperately needs to expand and grow into new, non-traditional markets, which is exactly what Nintendo's plan is with Wii. Let's hope they manage to pull it off, without losing touch with their core market. This is the great challenge for the Wii.

SPOnG will have its men on the ground to bring you word from Nintendo's Wii press conferences taking place in New York and London this coming Thursday and Friday respectively, so make sure to check back later in the week for the full rundown of all the official (and the unofficial) announcements we hear from Nintendo and its partners.

We will also make sure to playtest as many of the Wii games on show as we possibly can, and make sure to bring you our detailed first impressions as soon as we get dragged away from the test machines by the drooling fanboys.

What's more, we will be catching up with some of the key players responsible for putting together the Wii's marketing and PR campaigns, so do be sure to let us know in the forums below if there is anything in particular you want us to ask them on your behalf. Or if you have any particular ideas for games you would like to see developed for Wii, just tell us about them (in as much detail as you like) and we will make sure to pitch them to Nintendo and sell them as our own.