Infamous surprise Iwata announcement strikes again!
Satoru Iwata's announcement of near field communication being built into the Wii U GamePad came as a shock to Product Development staff at Nintendo. Staff of this division saw the announcement as being too early in comparison to how far along they were with its implementation.
When announced by the Nintendo President this January, the Wii U's NFC capabilities had not caught up to the levels of software development in other areas, such as the TV control button or geomagnetic sensor.
Toru Yamashita, a staff member of the Product Development Department, admits this in the recent Iwata Asks focused on the Wii U GamePad. He says that at the time of the announcement, he and his coworkers had thought, "Huh?! He's announcing that?!"
This news perhaps explains why we have not heard much on what Nintendo intends to do with the technology, a fact lamented by our own James Charlton.
Iwata previously shocked Super Smash Bros. creator, Masahiro Sakurai, when he announced the development of Brawl without discussing the title with Sakurai first.