Digi disti will take over in 20 years - Iwata

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said there's still life in the old shops yet, predicting it will be decades before we're buying all our games over the internet.

"Most radical people even dare to say that retailers will be replaced by digital distribution in no time. But personally, I think it will still require a significant amount of time," he said, speaking during a recent Q&A session.

"In short, in 20 years or so I might say it will have probably changed. But in 5 years or so, I do not totally agree with opinions that no one will purchase titles at retailers by then. Habits of life do not change such radically and quickly."

That's not to say Nintendo isn't keen to increase the popularity of the Wii Shopping Channel and the DSi Shop, of course. "Internally we have been discussing that we have to engage customers with less information to purchase. And as an experiment, we will be offering demo versions of specific titles next month on a trial basis to see if it can widen the customers," said Iwata. "But I don't think that the demo version is the final solution."

So what else has Nintendo got up its sleeve? Well, there's the Wii Vitality Sensor - which is "not a simple pulsimeter", according to Iwata. "It is a tool to analyse various biological signals by scanning the pulse, in order to make something invisible visible. The point with that is you can figure out your current conditions... I have a strong feeling something fun will appear around this gadget."

As for Shigeru Miyamoto's future plans: "Because Dragon Quest IX made Passing-By Connection much more popular, there has been an increase in people carrying around their DS, and we are trying to develop something unique around that factor," said Mario's Dad.

"And, recently I have cats. That's all!"

Nintencats, then? Wii Pussy? Shigeru Miaowmoto's Amazing World of Cats? Who knows.