Another week's edition of Board Member Roundtable is over! This week's edition was particularly appealing in view of the fact that the topic was "What do you make of Satoru Iwata's recent comments?".

Thanks to all participants: Darkcloud, Dacman, King of the Swing, Omario, X-tacy, Ryz, Mayjest, Edge, ModoX, Heales (great writing!), Mattcube, DSN2K, and Mits.

Here we go!

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Darkcloud: In my opinion some of the comments that have been made have been quite confusing, for example when he said that Nintendo are going to concentrate on games rather then new consoles. This could be taken differently depending on how you think about it. One way is that they are going to stop making consoles altogether, this would be a stupid thing for Nintendo to do as the GameCube would die after a while and they would have no where to go unless they made a new console. Another way it could be taken is that Nintendo are going 3rd party, this is not the case though as they would have stated that they were. Another example is when he commented on on-line gaming. On this instance he said that they weren't going to pursue it at all. But at the same time they have Sega making PSO for the GameCube. Hopefully Nintendo will talk more about these two subjects as I would like to know exactly what they meant by them. I would especially like to hear more about on-line gaming as it is without a doubt a good idea and if Nintendo aren't willing to take a chance with it then they are being a bit foolish.

DacMan: I think that his comments are really just re-enforcing what Nintendo have already said and done. The GameCube is not the most powerful machine available in terms of raw processing power but it has been specifically designed to allow developers to get the most out of the machine as easily as possible, thus allowing developers (Nintendo and 3rd party included) to concentrate on the gameplay rather than the whiz bang factor of flashy graphics and huge polygon counts.

I can see how the comments could be taken out of context especially as Sega's decision to quit the hardware market is still fresh in memory, but I don't think that we need to worry that Nintendo will quit the hardware market altogether.

Personally my opinion is that they can see that the technological improvement between each new console and the last is getting less and less - and that the differences between the various makes of console are minimal and so they need to concentrate on what they do best - making innovative games. Ultimately it is the games, and not their polygon counts, that sets the consoles apart from each other and will determine which console is 'better' than the others.

King of the Swing: I feel that the decision is for our own good, but is a strange road to turn on.
When Iwata said that Nintendo want to concentrate on games, not consoles; he was making a strange and controversial point.
With Nintendo's short game policy (Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion), it was made clear that Nintendo wanted to pile out as many games as possible in the life of the GameCube. But now, if Nintendo want to stick with the 'Cube for a long time, will they drop that short policy?
Also, Iwata said that the GameCube was as powerful as it could be and consoles were at their limits - how come we get the PlayStation 3 by 2005?

I think that those comments are interesting: I'm not bothered about not having to start saving for the next big N console this Christmas; I'm happy with my GameCube thank you very much.
Whatever happens, remember: we have never been screwed by Nintendo.

Omario: I reckon that Mr. Iwata san isn't going to change much of Nintendo's status. He may be less conservative than Yamauchi San and more business man like. I believe he will bring new developments and ideas to Nintendo GameCube. But I don't see the reason for people worrying about Nintendo never making a console again. That would be a totally daft thing for Nintendo to do. In my opinion, he means that he's going to fully exploit the GameCubes capabilities and try to as much as possible, expand its horizons to the very furthest. I don't see Nintendo making new consoles as quick as before. I think we will be seeing 7 year gaps between consoles, rather than do what Sony do, and make PS1,PS2 within 3-4 years. So the main change I think we will see Is there being a longer delay between the launch of console to console. And a larger range of games for the GameCube. I believe whatever Nintendo its for the good of gaming community, and its definitely the most trustworthy game company out now.

X-tacy: My favourite part of that announcement, if you read the hole thing not just the part most websites put up about Nintendo concentrating on games rather than systems, is when Satoru Iwatas talked about since Microsoft has so much money they may have to make some big investments soon. I think that means they are going to try and buy out a few major developers or maybe just some big game rights.

Ryz: King of the Swing, I think it is clear that if they want to stick a longer time with the GameCube they are dropping the short-games policy, although I wouldn't go calling it this way...

And I don't think Iwata actually meant that you can't enhance consoles anymore, I think he meant the Graphics will be prettier per generation, but it won't be as often as in the past that with one look at a screenshot you will see a difference in graphics. Meaning, the graphics won't take big leaps anymore, but it will go slower. Thus the GameCube graphics won't become very outdated too soon.

I think he might be wrong... Screens is the first thing you see of a game� and beautiful games are instant hypes. Still, I think the GameCube has a lot of Power in it to be revaluated by developers(I'd especially like Rare to see pushing the GameCube to it's max).

Perhaps in 3 years we will see the GameCube is near the PS2 in units, and Nintendo had a super secret console in the making backwards compatible. I really think it is better to wait and see at least 6 months, and speculate further about Nintendo's future. At least by then we will have more statements on our hands, probably anyway, and thus we will be to speculate with more information. Right now everyone refers to Iwata's statement which has been interpreted in 20 different ways...

Mayjest: I think that the sooner there is a final format for consoles, the better. That way all games will have the same graphics (unless it's cel-shaded vs. photo-realism) and developers will have to concentrate on gameplay and peripherals. We will know when consoles have reached the golden age of hardware when the leading player join together to form a single company and produce a single console. The next jump in console hardware will be better input systems. Some sort of virtual reality, where you control the characters using your own body movements. Therefore, in an FPS, you will become incredibly good at shooting, as you will be aiming, if you are an awful shot, your character will be too. This may present a problem to some (those who cannot shoot a gun to save their life, those who spend too much time playing games to exercise) but I personally am looking forward to it.

And DacMan is right, we suspected this all along, this is just conformation. Nintendo (and their 2nd party's) to me is not about the hardware, but the games. The games are what counts. If the XBOX had the best games, I would buy that.

Speaking of the XBOX, it appears to be taking the hardware in a new direction. The hard drive etc has given it the name pc-in-a-box, but i can almost guaranty that the next Nintendo and Sony consoles will have those features. And when all companies do it, the price will go down because of competition.

Ryz is also right, the graphics will not take big leaps anymore, and personally, i reckon that anti-aliasing will become a big feature in all graphics chips/cards in the future.

Hardware innovation will no longer be a revolution, it advance slowly. Ten years from now we could say that we have reached the equivalent of a revolution, it just took us a lot longer this way. The road to games with perfect graphics is a long way away, but we are getting closer.

Edge: People seem to be forgetting that Nintendo never announced a 'short games policy'. This 'policy' was made up by games journalists due to Ninty's current leanings to shorter games.

What they have revealed is that they're giving away some of their biggest brand-names to 3rd party developers to give them some space to experiment with new ideas. This way they can please their fans by supplying big-name games, improve relations with big 3rd parties and continue to innovate games. Do you notice how different Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin are to the rest of the games market?

I think that Iwata-San was just trying to re-iterate Nintendo's focus on games. They've made a definite point of selling the 'Cube as a games machine, nothing more and nothing less. The announcement could also be seen as a way of Ninty confirming their dedication to the GCN. If you remember Sony started planning PS3 before the PS2 was even out on world-wide release.

I'm afraid that a user-console - made as joint venture between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft - is highly unlikely. Videogames are all about business, even if the aforementioned companies did make a unified console another company would see a relatively open market and decide to crash it. Also, even if there wasn't competition this would still be bad news. Who's going to push Nintendo and the like into cutting prices and making innovative games? You should remember that games companies aren't in it for the warm feeling they get from pleasing gamers, they're in it for the money. If communism has taught us anything its that collectivisation is doomed to failure.

I don't think the 'Cube is lax when it comes to the power department. Look at how beautiful Rouge Leader is, Factor 5 said they were only using the machines basic graphical effects. The best that the 'Cube has to offer, graphically at least, won't appear until well into the console's life.

...

Of course the announcement's confusing contents could just be the product of crappy translation...

Ryz: Yes indeed. I agree with Edge. 'People seem to be forgetting that Nintendo never announced a 'short games policy'. This 'policy' was made up by games journalists due to Ninty's current leanings to shorter games'

I think this also enforces the fact that we have yet to see what Nintendo has to offer us in the future. The GameCube has just launched in Europe, and if you take the planned console lifespan for the Gamcube, it is the very beginning.

While indeed I also think the GameCube has enough power in graphical terms, you might never know what the future has to offer. Or what concurrent companies of Nintendo will do to be exact. Now we have seen Nintendo had to react to the price cuts of other companies, with this I am saying - 7,8 years is a very long time for a console. And we might be surprised sooner or late when actions will be taken that would never even be discussable in a serious way now, that far off it would seem right now.

And about Graphics in terms of reaching 'a golden age':
I think it won't be the hardware that will reach the end, but the costs for making enough use of the advanced graphical system. Of course progress in hardware will allow for easier development. But I think the growing line for time and money will be steeper than the easier to develop line so to speak. So games will not push it fully because the costs of doing all those amazing details the hardware can pull off would make the game too costly. On the other hand that might mean cuts on gameplay or other parts of the game. Like length. It's of course not a fact that this already has happened to a few games, but in general one can state in some games sacrifices have been made to present good graphics.

ModoX: I believe Iwata hit the nail on the head with his recent comments. Hardware in the video game industry has improved so quickly since it began, this has allowed game designers to constantly bring new concepts to each game, just think of all the possibilities the jump to 3D brought about in gaming.

We have, however, reached the end of the road. Hardware is simply slowly improving the great things we already have. I personally don't see any huge jumps in technology happening in the foreseeable future. Because of this the industry needs to focus less on improving the near perfect hardware and more on doing new things with what we already have.

Iwata-san said that game developers are running out of ideas, and he appears to be right. Years ago almost every other game brought something new to the world, nowadays games like Pikmin are a very rare breed, often being overlooked in favour of the latest FIFA, Tony Hawks or whatever. People will get bored of this eventually though, and are already starting to. By spotting and beginning to solve this problem before it gets out of hand Nintendo could be the only ones to survive if anything similar to the crash of the early 80s happens.

Heales: Hiya all,

I have already posted earlier about this issue, and until anything is proven in the future it is impossible for any of us to really know what Nintendo will do.

Without going into a GameCube discussion I want to share with you some of my thoughts about future hardware, and my own thoughts about why there is still room for some major improvements on the hardware.

In terms of graphic power and overall processing power we have reached pretty far already, but there is still room for some much needed improvement before we are "there".

In many ways I believe that Doom 3 is the first game that show us the way into a very exciting future with real-time 3D graphics, and there is every reason to believe that the 2005 console generation will run stuff like Doom 3.

The hardware we will be seeing in 2005 will move the limits for what we think is possible, and personally I think that the 2005 generation is the first generation that will start to reach some sort of "limit". By saying that I don't think it will stop there at all, cause it won't. There's still so many things that can, and will be improved in the future...until we are finally "there".

The future hardware generation won't just be about graphics. Here is a list of stuff i personally hope to see in the future...stuff that we also will see in the future:

Voice recognition
Improved graphics on 2-4 player split screen gaming
Improved hard disc capacity for storage
Improved shadows and lightening technology
Better water, hair and 3D-modelling

The list can be made longer, and this is just some of the things I hope to see improved.

We can expect better AI and physic models, and this will demand more and more CPU power.

We will see F1 games that will look like the real thing on TV. We will play online soccer games with 22 people in the same match.

Those that enjoy fighting games will see fighters being close to being real.

RPG games will move closer and closer to the stuff we have seen in movies such as "Lord of the Rings" and "Final Fantasy".

We will see a lot more realism in the games of the future. After having ran through one track in a snowboarding game we will see the snow having marks from our first run. If we damage a sign beside a F1 track we will see it being damaged the next time we drive that track.

We will start to see more NPC individuals in the games, each one of them "living" their own life inside the game - in parallel with our own unique game experience.

We will see more and more MMORPG's and those games will reach new levels of complexity on the road towards the "global digital village". Those villages will end up with photo-realistic graphics presented in real-time 3D.

We will see "real" dragons flying through the air, and in the background we might see literally hundreds of players marching up toward the final assault on the dragons lair.

Those are just some of the things we will see in the future.

We're living in a world that seldom is black or white. Most of the great technical innovations doesn't happen overnight. Things usually takes some time, and the revolutions usually happen over time...like the PC technology have evolved since the early 80's.

This is still happening, step by step the technology is improving by bits and pieces, and the best and most exciting stuff is still ahead of us.

Many of us want new and exciting challenges. That being inside the magic world of Mario, or in the kingdom of the Zelda universe. Or it might be inside a MMORPG together with millions of other people, or driving a sports car across the Alps.

Whatever the future is going to bring us we will for sure see new hardware coming, better graphics and new games.

Some of those games will be great, and some of them will be mindless crap.

But from the possibilities we will see in the future we will also be fortunate enough to see some games that will bring us brand new experiences that we've never seen before.

With all of this stuff coming we should also expect some new and fresh ideas to be born..ideas that will take us gamers beyond what we think is possible for a game to be.

Happy gaming

Mattcube: I think that Iwata's move to the company was a mistake. My initial reaction was that Nintendo needed some new blood and that it was Yamauchi's time to go. He nurtured Nintendo into gaming and made them a successful gaming company but Nintendo needed some new direction since the industry has become well established and the gaming industry has started to slow down. Now however I'm against Iwata's new position. I think that he lacks leadership and he doesn't seem to have the same confidence as Yamauchi and i think this shows in the vagueness of his recent comments. I know that Nintendo are not fully committed to online gaming but since Sega is making an online cube game and the GameCube will be going online soon you think he might be a bit more supportive. Not only are they shooting down their own online plans but he also bashed Squaresoft's. Seems a bit daft when Nintendo and Squaresoft are only recently on speaking terms. Also to think that Nintendo might stop producing consoles is unthinkable. I don't want to feed the Microsoft machine and Nintendo are the only other respected well established games company i trust. Their hardware has always been ground breaking and without it I don't think there will be enough innovation and compition to keep the market a float. Although I believe that the race to create more powerful games machines is over I do not believe that a single format would be a good thing for consumers and that an industry with 2 thriving formats is the best solution (3 is jjust too many). I just hope that Nintendo will play a bright and important part of the game industry's future. Whether Iwata will play a major part - only time will tell.

DSN2K: Really I cant pass judgement till the end of the Fiscal year when we see if he makes a difference. On the comment he has made I personal agree. What he said is true to a certain extent.

Yes its becoming harder to make great unique games

Yes we have reached a point where no console really has a lead in Graphics or sound etc.

One problem, Yes online gaming has had a slow start on consoles, but Nintendo cant just close the door on this, If they do they might not be able to open it again. Nintendo are not stupid and I hope they don't make the same mistakes others have gone before them, yes making unique quality games can be very good for the industry, but will it make the money, sometimes you got to give the people what they want, even if comes as a loss. Nintendo have stated before they are a money making company and wont do anything unless it makes a profit. They might just have change there policies in the near Future if they hope to keep and gain market share.

Mits: I think that Iwata should stop sending mixed messages and sort out a few things once and for all:

1. Are RARE leaving the company? Everyone are eventually going to find out the true answer, whether sooner or later. So he should come clean with it instead of dragging it on and making it even worse if you think about it.
2. I disagree with his statement, which is leading people to think that this maybe Ninty's last console, as someone of Iwata's calibre should have seen that what he said would cause some disruption and disagreement, again sending out mixed messages.
3. He said later that Nintendo will continue to innovate gaming without the need to upgrade their consoles consistently. But Iwata has to think about it realistically. In a few years time, if the GameCube is still available, I doubt that people will buy it as they will go for the technically superior and newer systems which are likely to beat the GameCube in every way, except maybe price. Even the biggest Nintendo fan cannot say that they would be prepared to stay with their GameCube for over 6 or 7 years without needing a new console with better technologies. It will look completely dated by that time so they cannot do this. OK, Nintendo will release a new console later, but how much later?
4. Online capabilities. Iwata says that this is not what he is concentrating on, yet he is still trying to pursue it as much as possible with the likes of PSO I & II and maybe Mario Kart GC.

Personally, I think that Iwata shouldn't have really commented on a few issues, as these have actually put more pressure on him because many people disagree, including me.
I am actually quite concerned at some of the things said, as they don't exactly paint a pretty future for Nintendo. Only time will tell...

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As you can see, this week's Roundtable provided some great writing from out board members. Remember, you can join too! All you have to do is visit our board and check out the GameCube Discussion forum!