Following yesterday's conference Satoru Iwata is interviewed about topics he keeps getting asked about.

Following yesterday's conference, which saw a number of new game announcements, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata was interviewed by Nikkei, available courtesy of Andriasang. A few months ago Mr. Iwata took personal responsibility for the lower-than-anticipated sales of the Nintendo 3DS and yesterday's conference was designed to boost confidence in the machine so Satoru Iwata had a big investment in it going well.

Speaking to the newspaper Satoru Iwata responded to criticisms that the Nintendo 3DS has been lacking software by stating that the console is due to have a strong period from November through to the first half of next year, with titles such as Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Monster Hunter 3G due for release.

He also referred to the previous price point as a "hurdle" that they have now overcome, a decision which he personally feels was the correct one. Mr. Iwata stated that Nintendo intends for the recent price drop to be the first and last for the console, so don't expect the RRP to drop any further.

Once again Satoru Iwata was asked about smartphones and whether Nintendo would move into that area, something which he has spoken against on a number of occasions. He responded by saying that he doesn't feel the existent business model will suddenly disappear, although he knows it may change in the future, and points out that they intend to show that the packaged software business is still healthy this holiday period with the 3DS. When Satoru Iwata was once more asked about releasing Nintendo games on smartphones he argued the following:

"This is absolutely not under consideration. If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It's probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we'd make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo's mid and long term competitive strength."

Briefly touching upon the Wii Nikkei notes that the Wii's software lineup has been rather weak lately and momentum must be kept moving into the Wii U launch, something Mr. Iwata agrees with. However, he argues that the forthcoming Wii line-up is stronger than it has been in some time.