Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto confirm that development on the Nintendo Wii U began three years ago.

A few years into a console's lifespan Nintendo is always asked about their next one and they often say "it will be released when sales dry up" but confirm that they are always working on something new. Yesterday saw the official unveiling of the Nintendo Wii U and in the newest Iwata Asks it is confirmed that development began three years ago.

The initial idea was to allow for a small monitor to display the status of the Wii console and it evolved from there. Along the way a lot of ideas were discussed, researched and scrapped before they decided upon what we now know is the Wii U.

Having been in development for a number of years the controller actually pre-dates the current tablet surge that arguably owes a lot to the iPad's release last year, although tablets have existed in other forms before that. Mr. Iwata discusses this with Mr. Miyamoto:

When we were first talking about this, tablet devices weren't very common. It's a classic controller with a screen. But because people outside the company do not have an insight into our development process, when people see this for the first time in 2011 when this is revealed, they might think, "Oh, Nintendo is going to add a tablet to their console". I think that's how people may see it.

Elsewhere in the discussion Shigeru Miyamoto appears excited by the future prospects the new console will bring. While he can't outline specific details about franchises such as Mario he does note that the new console brings up a lot of possibilities in terms of how it can be played. In addition to this he discusses the excitement of HD graphics and the new avenues this opens up.

Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata also talk about the variety of ways the controller can be used for more than just gaming. They both comment on the ability to use it as a magnifying glass to see things on the screen clearer and also a keyboard, as well as a stylus that was shown off yesterday.

The full interview contains many other titbits of information, including the possibility of facial recognition.