Nintendo talks about the state of the industry (again) and drops a few tidbits on what's coming in the future.
Nintendo held a media briefing today, and outlined the company's strategy. Japanese magazine and website Famitsu has covered the event extensively and Planet GameCube is currently awaiting news from out Japanese Correspondent on it. In the mean time, Reuters has also covered the event, although with less details.
Iwata started by voicing his opinions on the current state of the industry. They haven't really changed. The company still believes that the video game industry is stagnant and needs major change to move forward. He promised that Nintendo's "Revolution" console will bring this change. Nintendo wants to attract casual gamers as well as the hardcore audience, and they're going to do it with "next-generation gameplay," and not just bigger, faster technology.
On the technology side of things, GameFront is reporting that Nintendo's Managing Director Genyo Takeda has told Bloomberg that the "Revolution" console will be able to hook up to a PC monitor as well as the traditional television screen.
Nintendo is already starting their new strategy. The Nintendo DS is one showing of this, with its innovative dual-screen and touch screen technology. In addition to this, Nintendo plans to release Mario Party 6 this winter and mentioned that the game will not require a controller. According to Iwata, "In the past, there have been people who have felt controllers are hard to deal with and did not play games, but this (game) will seek to appeal to those people." Speculation has risen as to how this game will actually be played and many believe that it will involve a camera and be similar to Sony’s EyeToy games.
Keep checking Planet GameCube for updates to this exciting story!