Nintendo always working on new hardware

By Ellie Gibson Published 22 May, 2009

Plus: 'I've never ruled out cutting the price.'

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed the company is always developing new hardware - even though they end up throwing some of their ideas in the bin.

Speaking in an investor call he said, "We do not think that Nintendo DS and Wii will last forever. Our internal hardware teams are always researching and working on new hardware so that we can launch them whenever we find a very interesting idea.

"You may not be able to believe this, but even when Nintendo has completed a hardware, it does not mean that we will surely launch it," he added. Apparently it takes up to three years to develop a new piece of hardware. Then an internal team decides whether they'd be better off sticking with the hardware that's already on the market. If so, they might still end up using some of the new ideas and custom chips in future products.

"[New] hardware is not needed until the time our software developers see the end in making new software with the existing hardware, or unless we have no more new market to explore and all the potential consumers have purchased our hardware," said Iwata.

"The more decisive factor is when the software developers will start demanding for new hardware as they cannot create any more software with surprise factors with the existing one. Nintendo has always been making the hardware in order to prepare for that day to come."

Speaking of existing hardware - any chance of a price cut? "I have never said that cutting the suggested retail price is not in the cards," Iwata said. However, he added, there are problems with applying price cuts on a global basis, and the effect doesn't last long anyway.

"Accordingly, if we really do enact a price cut, it must be exactly when it can maximise the business. At least for now, I have no specific ideas about the price cut at all." Apart from, 'Let's not do one,' presumably.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Vice.Destroyer #1 3 years ago

    Price cut? On the Wii? Be honest and say what you think. "Not bloody likely". If he ever lets himself get quoted like that, I'll buy every single version of the DS as a mark of respect for his candidness.

  • spidermanalf #2 3 years ago

    Looking forward to the DS WII, a portable WII that is DS sized, just watching all the spazzes on the bus flailing about!

  • Xerx3s #3 3 years ago

    "Looking forward to the DS WII, a portable WII that is DS sized, just watching all the spazzes on the bus flailing about! "

    So the only difference will be that they have a ds in their paws then?

  • systems #4 3 years ago

    They don't really need to do all that much. Just integrate Motion Plus into the Wiimotes, add internal storage (integrated 16GB?), increase the controller sound and rumble a notch and away you go.

    What happened to all the extra colours though? Did they ever come out?

  • alimokrane #5 3 years ago

    price cut ??? yeah right ......

  • malexous #6 3 years ago

    @systems

    Surely you know the answer to that. New colours aren't out yet but are likely to come before a price drop once sales have dropped. It was hard enough for them to meet demand with white Wiis.

    Edited by 1 at 22/05/09 @ 10:36

  • chrisjm #7 3 years ago

    still waiting for the red wii's that they teased us with. not that i'd actually buy another, i barely need 1.

  • IneptPercy #8 3 years ago

    If the colour of your console isn't what you want then change it, mine is now blue because I felt like it and the warrenty had ran out anyway.

    As for a price drop, if people keep buying at the rate they are they will never drop the price, It must be costing them less to produce now but they don't need the extra sales a price drop will bring as they can only just keep up at the current price.

    As for new hardware, does that mena they migth actually come up with a new GPU, there is only so far you can push the gamecube... I mean Wii GPU you know.

  • Alkeno #9 3 years ago

    Sensible words. No expected price cut (obviously).

    They are always developing new hardware, that's the way it goes. This applies to Sony and Microsoft as well, PS4 and Xbox720 should be well into R&D stage now. We should expect an incoming new generation within 2 years (I know companies and analysts say otherwise, but they are lying as always to protect their business, the cicle is the cicle and current-gen is halfway there).

    Big questions... Is Sony going again for an impressive machine with an odd architecture and costly parts? Will Microsoft learn from the past and make its next machine a silent and RROD-free beast? Will Nintendo use all the cash to produce some decent hardware instead of overclocking their previous-gen?

  • peterfll #10 3 years ago

    I'd love a new Game Boy. Remember when that was on the cards?

  • jonsaan #11 3 years ago

    Cuts to scene in Ninty HQ

    'Hey I've just finished this Wii model that has HDMI out, what do you think?'

    'Bin it dude. What a stupid idea.'

  • owl #12 3 years ago

    @ peterfil

    yeah, me too. the gameboy is too iconic to let it die off like this. sad face.

  • BonzoBanana #13 3 years ago

    I think the revamped ps3 will have an effect on nintendo. I'm not saying it will kill wii sales of course just dent them a fair bit and so nintendo will need to do something to make the wii more interesting again. More colours etc.

  • Rewind #14 3 years ago

    I think in January I read in a Japanese newspaper that Nintendo was buying a new R&D building and also it was one of the top companies that Japanese Engineers wanted to work for. I think it was rated Number 1 for future potential or something similar.
    Edited by 1 at 25/05/09 @ 03:33

  • layleeloo #15 3 years ago

    Price Cut? Does anybody think £180 for a console is expensive? Especially at launch. it isnt. Its ludicrously cheap, regardless of the hardware in it.

    Remeber when all consoles were £400. Saturn for example. Cant remeber if the dreamcast was or not? £180 was cheap as chips at launch and although people think that becasue it has been out a while it should have a price cut is mad.

    Just becasue something ages doesnt mean it should be cheaper. Classic cars? haha. I know techology isnt the same, but if it was cheap enough to start with, why should it deserve a price cut when it consistantly sells at the cheap price it already is?

  • saiwn #16 8 months ago

    New or old,I still have issues with it.For the past two days I’ve been wracking my brain trying to get my Nintendo WiFi USB connector software to install on my Windows XP system but keep running into the same issue. I’ve tried all sorts of solutions from forums but every time the installation got to “Setting up Internet Connection Sharing” it choked and died with the “Internet Connection Sharing Error” problem message without ever installing the USB Connector Registration Tool.Trying to get it fixed involves messing about with the Windows Registry, so always backup the registry.I'm using regcure registry and it works for me.So before thinking of new hardware,what about resolving the existing software problems?

  • paragonofwar #17 7 months ago

    I think that the marketing campaign conducted by Nintendo is very effective, in that they will wait for new software titles and hardware to be available before conducting a launch. Compare this to say Sony and Microsoft who launched their respective consoles without any new hardware, and the Wii which contained many motion sensing functions at the time of launch. For this reason the Wii picked up amongst families and less full time gamers.