Nintendo board member and EAD Manager Shigeru Miyamoto is not shy talking about the company’s failures with the Wii U in a new interview. He also shares some of his ruminations regarding VR.
If you thought Miyamoto was going to compare his console to the PlayStation 4 however, you would be wrong. In fact, Miyamoto sees Wii U’s position relative to tablets, and this should be no surprise, since the console’s main controller, the GamePad, is transparently designed with tablets in mind.
The GamePad was a solution to a uniquely game console problem: game consoles usually take some time to load up, so they wanted a console with tablet-like functions, such as quick bootup, touch controls, etc.
So, what happened? Aside from the Wii U’s firmware not being ready to boot up quickly at launch, the console was simply left behind with the rapid pace that tablets evolved in the marketplace.
In the end, this is a consequence of Nintendo’s high-risk, high-reward philosophy. Miyamoto cites the company’s desire to do something different, and not really participate in the console wars. As Miyamoto puts it, sometimes it’s a huge success and sometimes it’s not. Of course, he hopes their next bet will be successful.
You may be wondering, then, what Miyamoto and Nintendo thinks of VR. Miyamoto states that Nintendo is definitely interested in the technology. However, Nintendo also wants to make games that can be played by everyone in the living room, and VR doesn’t fit that philosophy.
Miyamoto says this is why Nintendo had nothing VR related to show at E3, but that may change yet. Nintendo already has a patent filed for VR like technology, using the same stereoscopic 3D and head tracking technologies in the New 3DS. You can read more about that here.
