Join in live for Iwata's GDC 25th anniversary keynote address.
9:01:00: The keynote will begin shortly. Really.
9:01:29: It begins.
9:02:25: Happy birthday to Gordon Walton.
9:02:47: Skyward Sword trailer accidentally appears. Whoops.
9:03:11: History of Iwata's GDC experiences.
9:03:28: Here comes Iwata.
9:04:24: His job all year is to "speak to people"
9:04:40: He finds GDC special since he can speak to his developer colleagues.
9:05:05: All developers can learn from each other, Nintendo is not an exception.
9:05:24: It is very confusing, much bigger gambles, and it is getting scary.
9:05:56: When they focus on what they are passionate about, it keeps working.
9:06:06: Remember 3 words: "Content is king."
9:06:20: Without quality content, there is nothing, no industry.
9:07:01: 25 years. He's been a developer the whole time.
9:07:24: He and his friends formed HAL when still in college.
9:08:01: He was preoccupied with programming, and thought he was better than anyone at Nintendo.
9:08:36: He thought he was technically better than Miyamoto and thought this would be proven in the market.
9:09:11: He found out that engineering isn't as important as imagination. Content really is king. He was ashamed.
9:09:38: 25 years ago, it wasn't a profession, everybody did what needed to be done.
9:10:23: Game design, artist, sound design, ordering food, cleanup, paying the rent. Now he's sounding "like your grandfather"
9:10:36: "We were video game cavemen."
9:11:26: Graphics and memory aren't limitations now, but cost and development team sizes have increased dramatically.
9:12:01: They have to worry about more than just paying the rent. Luckily more people play games today.
9:12:53: Nintendo has been carrying out large scale surveys, starting in May 2005 in Japan, now worldwide to figure out demographics.
9:14:31: Range 6-74... in Nov 2007 gamers were younger, under 140 million, now 160 million.
9:15:28: In Europe, 100 million active gamers in Oct 2010. US has more growth opportunity.
9:16:29: Social networks... computers and mobile... and video games.
9:16:53: 1962, Space War was the first head to head game, existed in lab.
9:17:13: Even networked games that were only text-based, people still had fun.
9:18:10: Atari 2600 and TV Game 6/15 in Japan followed by NES and eventually N64 brought gamers together.
9:18:27: And of course, Wii.
9:18:43: With Tetris on Game Boy, social only meant competing... but then came Pokemon.
9:19:11: Nintendo is not trying to take too much credit for social gaming.
9:19:35: Call of Duty is an online phenomena, and Microsoft should be recognized for its considerable investment in Xbox Live.
9:20:33: Must-Have. Something every passionate gamer feels they must have.
9:20:59: Sometimes this is hardware, such as Game Boy.
9:21:18: Creating this only with technology is not easy -- games themselves can be must have.
9:21:52: There are few universal games, Sonic, Zelda, Tetris, GTA, Just Dance, Guitar Hero, and Angry Birds.
9:22:08: Third source: the player and the social appeal.
9:22:35: Remarkable that over 12 million people still subscribe to World of Warcraft.
9:23:17: From the dev side. What will it cost, what about employment and keeping the business alive.
9:23:22: #1. Mario
9:24:05: He remains popular because he changes, evolves.
9:24:10: #2. Pokemon.
9:24:36: Appeal comes from collecting, training, and competing.
9:24:58: Popularity can be explained by its social nature.
9:25:08: #3. Tetris
9:25:23: First video game to attract a female audience in a meaningful way.
9:25:41: Only available for 5 months in 1989 in North America, 45% were female.
9:25:56: #4. The Sims from Will Wright
9:26:24: 125 million sold and people thought it wouldn't sell.
9:26:53: Must haves offer: constant improvement, social connections, expanded audiences, challenge to existing notions.
9:27:23: Universal appeal, he hopes we can attend the DKC Returns panel.
9:28:27: At HAL, Kirby, with 26000 purchase orders. They showed it to Nintendo, they offered suggestions and offered to publish it.
9:28:48: They cancelled the orders with the opportunity to reach a wider audience.
9:29:11: Original name, Tinkle Popo, not the best name in English.
9:29:32: A floating pink blob was also changed to white for the American release.
9:29:40: They thought he wouldn't notice. He did.
9:29:59: But 5 million were sold instead of 26000.
9:31:01: Just as stressful and frustrating at Nintendo... Always feel like there's not enough manpower and resources, and they haven't discovered a way to make it easy yet, if it exists.
9:31:06: Nintendo 3DS.
9:31:40: Hits the must-haves and they believe it will have universal appeal.
9:32:04: AR Games, Mii Maker, Face Raiders, designed to compel social interaction.
9:33:29: Nintendo employees leave with their 3DSes to see what will appear. Iwata would normally advise against this, but he does it too.
9:33:41: Improving connectivity.
9:33:47: Reggie appears!
9:35:00: You won't find the 3D experience and technical things elsewhere, but make no mistake, the focus is on games.
9:35:14: Games they make, and games players make with each other.
9:35:26: Consider two words: Content and location.
9:36:02: Streaming from Netflix, starting this summer
9:36:57: 3D programming is on the way.
9:37:06: First, movie trailers, Green Lantern.
9:37:38: Offering studios a distribution vehicle to promote their releases to a modivated userbase.
9:37:57: Short form video service, wireless Nintendo channel only on Nintendo 3DS.
9:38:06: Comedy, music videos, curated by Nintendo
9:38:24: They do the selection, not users
9:38:56: Want to accelerate 3D adoption.
9:39:09: Can record video in 3D on 3DS.
9:39:30: Stay tuned for an update.
9:39:43: Second concept: Location
9:40:23: Nintendogs and Dragon Quest IX features turned into StreetPass... Konno's talk is later today.
9:40:51: Street Fighter IV 3D uses it.
9:45:26: In one test, 50% of owners tested it, and sales where demos were available, they sold up to 6x more.
NOTE: Wi-Fi connection became spotty at this point.
Over 10000 Wi-Fi hotspots from AT&T.
SpotPass doesn't require games to be inserted.
eShop: DSiWare, Virtual Console - will include Game Gear and TurboGrafx, 3D Classics
Devin's notes during the internet outage follow.
ability to play games with others “whether across the room or across the country”
all other elements of 3Ds connectivity will also be available
3 new aspects of Nintendo 3DS will maximize your distribution opportunity
1. thousands of new points of wi-fi contact
2. user will be automatically connected and spot-pass content will download in the background even when the system in sleep mode
3. the push content doesn’t require the corr game be inserted in the hardware
when you create spot-pass content, your dist reach will be broad and automatic, like no Nintendo handheld before
reach of the eshop - means to access game software in different ways
DSiWare is included
We’ll provide access to selected GB and GBC titles with Nitnendo 3DS Vritual Console
Game Gear and TG16 [no applause!]
some of your favorite titles - 3D classics - will also available, remastered in full 3D
new games - game promotion - trailers, screenshots, background info, links to websites [no demos???]
unique and nostalgic game experiences
not every feature will be available out of the box
worldwide system update for late may will deliver most of these updates - DSiWare, DSiWare software transfers
web browser and e-shop also coming in May
Unparalleled ability to promote your work
[he wants to get people to buy by advertising the 3DS ability to advertise their games and thus increase theri sales]
“win-win for everyone”
9:46:47: Iwata is back.
NEW GAMES
introduce new elements when we do a new Mario game
this process will continue
Since 1996, when Mario appeared in 3D in Super Mario 64, it’s always been ahrd for players to judge how to jump and hit a jump floating in a 3d space
Miyamoto looked at 3DS in dev and said ‘we can finally solve this’ [this is the day we can]
game developres can invent any world we imagine
9:49:17: Super Mario for 3DS, by the Galaxy team.
this leads to a new super mario
Super Mario - tail! - tanooki!? - will be revealed at E3 this year
Zelda - Ocraina of time 3D
25th anniversary of Zelda - plan so all Zelda fans can celebrate together
Skyward Sword
nice - the sword slices things straight through - this is the new mechanic
balancing, knocking people off
zialafos
electric rolling thing
bombs to blow up armor
dragon lock - opens the door - lots of use of cutting
4-armed stalfos!
press guy: “O MY GOODNESS!!”
some thoughts about the future - to be clear, our immediate future
rather than offer you only a rosy picture of the industry, I want to discuss 3 specific concerns
1. craftsmanship
over the past 25 years, we developers have gained a lot but also lost something
one major loss is craftsmanship
as projects become bigger and more complicated, often the option of working over and over again to polish a game to make it the highest quality it can be is disappearing
this is not the criticism of the kind of people developing games but the circumstances in which they operate
no matter how much time is involved, the nubmerof people, the needed flexibility will not be available when an unexpected development arrives
small details can get lost even in huge projects
career at HAL and early days at Nintendo watching Mr. Miyamoto work
no-one was selfish - everyone was generous
we could all comprehend what everyone else was doing
better artists, better producers
but this era of specialization makes it much more difficult for single individual to sense entire nature of a game
developers know specific roles much better, but are much ahred to understand everyone else's
#2 - talent development
what will the next master game crators come from?
#3 - when I first spoke at GDC in 2005, very few in the audience were involved making games for mobile downloads or social networks
today, maybe the majority of you are
the industry has expanded
but, it also gives me concern because I fear this business is dividing in a way that threatens the continued employment for many of us who create games for our living
development times too long, stress is too high
but there has always been a way ot make a living
will that still be the case moving forward?
a few games become megahits, but it is not easy
with so much competition, being noticed is extremely difficult
huge investments promise nothing
corresponding number of games to download is in the 10s of thousands
game development is drowning
every one of these downloadable games is far less expensive to create
but what revenue will they generate?
screen digest -
92% of games downloaded was free
most software that is sold is sold at extrmely low prices
two ways of looking at our business
these approaches focus on a single question
is maintaining high-value games a top priority or not?
at Nintendo - hardware is something consumers reluctantly purchase only to enjoy the games they like to play
hardware design is the surest way of providing meaningful surprises
game designer first, manufacturer second
premium [value] of software
although the hardware is diff from PS3 and 360, they share the same idea
high-value of high-quality vg software
value of software -
platforms have no motivation to maintain high quality of game software
content is created by someone else
goal is to gather as much software as possible b/c quantity makes the money flow
investment that is offered
games that don't maintain high value
what we produce was valuable, and we should protect that value
getting noticed
1. central appeal must be evident almost immediately
if the player is engaged more than 10 min to understand what you have to offer, it may be too late
the first sequence is more important
2. must be quick and easy for people to simply describe the unique nature of your game to others
social recommendations are far more presuasive than others
but idea must be simly understood
if both conditions are met, you can reachc the tipping point for your game to be noticed and sell itself
simple solution
INNOVATION
there are many definitions - how we define innovation at Nintendo
1. we always ask yourselves the same question: is there something considered impossible that we might make possible?
our belief is that is that accepting possible limits to our thinking sets up barriers to true innovation
at one time, it was thought people could only view one screen at a time - many people scan tv, computer, tablet at same time
2 screens are popular for 150m DS games
what is possible is hiding behind false conclusions
“we always have a game concept that we’re very excited about, and then we validate it as a real business opportunity. the opposite apprach - identifying a hot business trend and then trying to decide how to capitalize on it...is a scary proposition!” - time gate CEO
trust your passion
believe in your dream