Iwata discusses the balance between DS/DSi, expected increases in Wii software sales due to first party titles, nurturing new game creators aside from Miyamoto, and the slow build of third parties creating Wii games

Iwata on balancing the DS and DSi…

“We still need some time before we can determine the sales ratio between Nintendo DSi and Nintendo DS Lite. In the U.S. and Europe, portable game machines can sell relatively well in June and first half of July. Sales last year during this period were high, and we expect the same level of sales this year.”

Iwata discussing an expected 40 million unit increase in Wii software…

“I can say that it would be a mistake to think that the increase of 40 million units will be wholly attributed to first party titles. However, we can say that we are expecting the whole market to grow because Nintendo is preparing for its software.”

Iwata on new game creators aside from Miyamoto…

“Certainly, when it comes to identifying and verbalizing some of the important major findings, few people can easily succeed him. For example, few people other than Shigeru Miyamoto can declare that weighing yourself everyday must be fun for everyone. However, the fact that Nintendo software is always full of unique and fun ideas attest to the fact that there are many good game creators at Nintendo. Together with Shigeru Miyamoto, all of them have been making what are called Nintendo software. So, I have never thought that we have not fostered game creators at the company.”

Iwata on third parties being slow to create for the Wii…

“I understand that two things are different when compared with the situation of Nintendo DS. One is the time needed for development — it often takes longer to develop software for a home console than for a portable system. Another thing is that home console software development teams of third parties were more focused on making software for other companies systems until quite recently… Nintendo thought that the situation would change in about two years after launch. While our assumption turned out to be correct with the portable system, it did not progress as we anticipated for the [Japanese] home console market. Fortunately, the U.S. and Europe are showing completely different scenarios in this regard.” - Saturo Iwata

You can read some more thoughts from Iwata that we’ve previously covered right here