Thanks to Steven Langhorn AKA the Galloping Gaijin of Tendo Box, we have another great translated Famitsu interview. This time it is with Satoshi Iwata, who has a few details that will help chase those pre-Spaceworld blues away! Enjoy!

FAMITSU: First of all, what is so special about GameCube?

IWATA-SAN: A lot of people said that the N64 was difficult to develop for after the Super Famicom. The fact of the matter is that the N64's games introduced a phase in which games became more complex, and with that came extended development times. Although a lot of great games were produced, it seems the game makers were struggling to get games produced in a short time cycle. As for Gamecube, the first thing we did was to discuss with developers as to what the machine should be.

FAMITSU: I see.

IWATA-SAN: What we aimed for is an efficient and well-balanced piece of hardware, which meant concentrating on things other than statistics and numbers, which don't really mean anything when we develop games. What we did do was show exact performance figures that developers could expect to apply to real games (not demos). This allows us to predict the (technical) quality of titles, and allows game makers to make good games without any unnecessary effort, that will in turn satisfy consumer's needs (for titles). That’s our philosophy with GameCube, and I believe it will set the example for hardware in the future, and that other companies will adopt this model.

FAMITSU: E3 was very exciting wasn't it?

IWATA-SAN: I was surprised; the reaction far exceeded what I expected. I think we were accepted because we did our best. The excitement wasn't really reported in Japan, so what we need to do next is to show the public, and gain their acceptance. As for software, Shigeru Miyamoto said that when people tell him his stuff is great; he always maintains that it's still not good enough (laughs), so I think the software will be getting even better.

FAMITSU: So, what is the current situation with third party software?

IWATA-SAN: SCE released their machine last March, and it seemed to be the only thing in the world, didn't it? The third parties thought they had to do their utmost to produce PS2 titles, so getting them to suddenly change their minds is hard. They might have worked for one year developing a game that should have taken six months to finish, so I think that more and more (third party) software will be announced within the next few months.

FAMITSU: So you mean that the GameCube line up will get bigger from now on?

IWATA-SAN: The games coming from third parties will be clear by Spaceworld. It may happen that some will wait until the show to announce their titles. We don't think that the number of third parties and third party titles are the only factors, which decide a platforms success, but we give them as much help as we can. Although there won't be much in the launch line-up from our licensees, a lot more will be arriving before the end of the year and next March.

FAMITSU: Speaking of Spaceworld, how many titles will we actually be able to play?

IWATA-SAN: We cannot say for sure at this point, as we've yet to decide (laughs), but sheer numbers don't concern us, as we see this as a problem in the gaming industry right now. Hundreds of titles are being released, but people only want a handful of them. What we need to do now is show games that people will want to pay for. We want to have the best launch line-up to attract people to GameCube. At E3, the popularity of the games was balanced (at each booth); this is what I want to see at Spaceworld.

FAMITSU: It was announced that GameCube can be connected to Gameboy Advance, is there any new information about this?

IWATA-SAN: Well, we'll have the answer to that question at Spaceworld as well. It's going to become clearer than what's been announced so far. We'd like to show you things that make the connection unique.

FAMITSU: That sounds good. One more thing I'd like to ask you concerns the launch titles. I think I'm sure that they will include the games displayed at E3.

IWATA-SAN: Well, the time has come to decide the launch line-up, so that announcement will arrive soon (launch titles were announced June 29th). It's not going to be difficult, as there isn't a huge amount to choose from right now (laughs). We still regret that after we released Super Mario 64 for the N64, there was a long period between new titles, so we've been thinking a lot about our release strategy.

Check out the Galloping Gaijin’s latest column for even more news from Japan!