Iwata: DS Lessons Will Power Revolution

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has explained how the DS has paved the way for the looming Revolution, with the games firm now able to communicate non-traditional game system concepts to a mainstream and hardcore gamer audience.

"It's going to be a challenge to take something that's a new concept and new idea and convey to the public ... how to understand it, but honestly I think the Revolution controller is going to be a lot easier to convey to the public than the DS was as a system," Iwata told CNN this morning. "We've learned a lot in terms of how to communicate to people these new and different ideas and because of the experience we had with the DS, we're much more prepared."

Iwata moved on to underline his dream of (profitably) making every member of every able to jump into videogames. "Until now, within a single household, we've had family members who play video games and family members who don't play video games - and they've been very separate," he explained. "Gradually, the barriers between those two have gotten stronger. Today, if you don't understand the controller, you're not able to enjoy video games. We expect the Revolution controller to become the standard in video game controls," which is something of a bold claim given the 'joypad' is pretty well understood by everyone. It's just that they have too many buttons on them for grandma to comprehend.

Seriously, Nintendo could save itself loads of time in the expensive arena of hardware research and development if it released a cut down version of the NES pad with its next machine, featuring two buttons: one emblazoned with the word 'START' and the other with 'DO'. Grandma would get that in a flash.

Joking aside, Iwata did mention that the controller can open doors to those unhappy with controlling first-person shooters with standard gamepads. “I was a developer for many years before my current role, but I've never been a very good gamer," he said. "I've never been able to control a first-person shooter, but as soon as I used the Revolution controller, I found it very easy to control the game. So, I think that's a genre that's particularly well suited for the controller.”