Dear Reader:
Nintendo on possible Switch peripherals, lifespan, wooing 3rd parties/indies, Snipperclips could be at launch & more
Coming from a TIME interview with Nintendo Director Shinya Takahashi and Switch Producer Yoshiaki Koizumi...
The importance of playing with others (Yoshiaki Koizumi)
"Of course, Nintendo as a company is one that we've always put a tremendous amount of emphasis on playing together with others. Even going back to when we were making cards [starting with Nintendo's inception in 1889], playing cards for use with card games, those were geared towards playing with other people.
As we were talking about creating a system that you can take with you, the other thing that we felt we had to continue to place tremendous amount of emphasis on is this nature of playing with others. We felt it was important that we include two controllers with the system right out of the box because if you have a system that you can take with you anywhere and you have two controllers, you can hand the controller to somebody you know or even somebody you don't know and instantly be able to play right there.
And so I think the story that we wanted to tell was this idea of bringing the system with you and sharing it with others. Switch has become the platform for telling that story."
On Switch lifespan and possibility of upgrades
"Certainly, we've designed Nintendo Switch in a way that it can be used by consumers in the way that best suits them. I think we may see that people who have bought a Nintendo home console in the past traditionally, they may treat Switch like a home console and buy it and use it for a long period of time.
Whereas people who have been traditionally Nintendo handheld gamers, they may buy Nintendo Switch and then for example, if a new version were to come out later, then maybe they would decide to upgrade to that. Or, for example, because you can take the Joy-Con off the system, then I guess that leaves open the possibility of something else that might get attached. There's obviously a lot of different developments that we could look at from that perspective as well." - Shinya Takahashi
"We're hoping that Nintendo Switch will be a system that will be the constant in your gaming life. Whereas previously, you would play certain things on your home system and certain things on your handheld. Our hope is that Nintendo Switch can be the system that bridges both of those and becomes the constant system that you're always using." - Yoshiaki Koizumi
On potential peripherals (Koizumi)
"Because you can remove the controllers from the system, it opens up a lot of possibilities for expansion of what you're able to do with the controllers or what you're able to connect to the system. I'm sure a lot of people have lots of different ideas about what might potentially get connected to the system, and perhaps suddenly one day, we'll just pop up and say, 'Hey, now there's this', though I can't give you any examples right now.'"
On reaching out to third parties
"The two of us have met with a large number of third-party developers directly and done our Nintendo Switch presentation to them face-to-face directly. There were many overseas developers who we presented the system too who were very happy to see it." - Koizumi
"We did a number of these presentations last year, and we were actually pretty nervous doing them, because we didn't know how the overseas developers were going to respond to it and in each presentation, one of the last things that we showed was 1-2-Switch [a Nintendo-developed party game that makes use of the removable controllers advanced "rumble" feedback and motion controls]." - Takahasi
On wooing indies and Snipperclips making launch
"Snipperclips is one that's very fun, and the interpersonal communication is a lot of fun. But it's also an example of some of the work that we've been doing upfront, as Mr. Koizumi mentioned, to get the development environment to a place where small teams like that can create the game for Nintendo Switch. Our hope is that we'll start to see more and more indie developers coming to Switch and preparing content for the system as well." - Takahasi
"That's a game that's being developed in Unity that's on pace to be available for launch of the system. I think that with the tools being available earlier in the life cycle of the system, it's going to make it a lot easier for developers to create a variety of different games of varying scope for Switch." - Koizumi
On Nintendo striking a balance between horsepower and creating fun games
"You're asking this question to two individuals at Nintendo who come from an art background and the computer graphics background. We tend to be among the pushiest when it comes to graphics within the company. That being said, as we mentioned before, at Nintendo we feel like we're an entertainment company rather than necessarily a games or a graphics company. Our priority is always on trying to create new and fun forms of entertainment. That's the top priority.
Certainly, graphic quality falls somewhere within our priority, but our feeling is that Nintendo Switch is a system that really has the best balance of being able to create fun and new ways to play, but doing so with the graphic quality that's still good enough while also being one that's easy to develop for." - Takahashi
"Graphics and frame rate are important in terms of how you're connecting with or how you're moving the heart of the player who's immersed in that world. Nintendo Switch also has something else that can connect with that player in the form of the HD Rumble, where you can be immersed in that world, but you can actually feel in your hands the sensation of something in that world that you haven't been able to feel before that adds a new layer of immersion to go along with the graphics and the frame rate.
I think when you start to look at the total package of tools that Nintendo Switch has to help bring those worlds to life, I think you'll find that it has some unique ways to connect with you as a player and move you in ways that you haven't necessarily experienced before." - Koizumi