Both Hiroshi Yamauchi and Satoru Iwata have been interviewed separately recently. Find out what they had to say about the gaming industry, the DS and more.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun has interviewed former president Hiroshi Yamauchi about many things gaming related. Read the highlights below.

"I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories," he said, speaking about the current gaming industry. "Cutting-edge technologies and multiple functions do not necessarily lead to more fun. The excessively hardware-oriented way of thinking is totally wrong, but manufacturers are just throwing money at developing higher-performance hardware."

"Nintendo has no plans to release a so-called 'next-generation' videogame console at the next year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. We will rather make a new proposal that uses the GameCube at its core. Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies."

Finally, speaking about the DS he said, "If we are unsuccessful with the Nintendo DS, we may not go bankrupt, but we will be crushed. The next two years will be a really crucial time for Nintendo."

Whereas current President of Nintendo was also interviewed by The Nihon Keizai Shimbun. He said that price cuts have "been going as we intended," but Nintendo are "having a hard time reading the Japanese market."

"The development of the Nintendo DS, which features a unique videogame experience, is one of our attempts at it." He was referring to increasing the customer-base in Nintendo. He also stated, on commenting about what customers want "My predecessor was a genius at sensing what people want, but I want to take a more scientific approach to read customer needs."

When asked about the next-generation console he stated "I do not believe releasing a higher performance machine is the solution. Our hardware development team is thinking about the next move, but I cannot tell you about it." He continued to say, "Many people believe that online games are the next big thing. But I wonder how much revenues Microsoft and Sony have made from online games. I don't think the current online games have adopted the right business model, and people will not pay money for them."

He promised however that Nintendo will keep looking into networking technologies, by stating "For example, we may think about using wireless communications to enhance the enjoyment of a videogame."