Iwata:

  Answering your question is very difficult because there are no concrete definitions of casual gamers and core gamers, or light users and heavy users. Each person has his or her own vague notions which differ from others'.

  Let us assume here that heavy users can be defined as those who proactively collect game-related information. People who purchase game magazines or who proactively access web sites of Nintendo and other game software publishers must have relatively strong interests in video games. On the other hand, the majority of the people in the world are passive receivers of relevant information. In other words, most of them see TV ads but are not willing to purchase game magazines nor bother to read game web sites. With this definition, I'd like to explain a bit.

  From this definition, the percentage of heavy users among total game players in Japan are much smaller when compared with other countries. There is also a difference depending on the sex. Male players tend to proactively collect information, while more than half of female players are just passively receiving it.

  Also, we have investigated how people voluntarily answer the question, "Are you an advanced or a novice player?" We noticed that not so many people declared themselves to be advanced players. Roughly, a quarter of game players in the U.S. and in Europe answered that they are advanced players. In Japan, one-eighth responded as advanced players. As the percentage of the Japanese self-declared advanced players was much smaller than that in the U.S., I had to wonder if the Japanese were more modest by nature. Until now, however, I have yet to know if national dispositions have anything to do with the research results.

  When we compare the owners of Nintendo platforms and of other platforms, the percentage of so-called advanced players is a little less for Nintendo than for other systems, and so is the percentage of those who proactively collect game-related information. However, that gap is narrower in the U.S. than in Japan. In other words, as a general trend, Japan shows more distinct difference in the results.

  Having said that, however, I am concerned that such terms as casual gamers and core gamers have wings. For example, if you ask me, "Has Nintendo been developing its software by simply identifying which is for casual gamers and which is for core gamers?", the answer is, "Not necessarily." Many people in the world like to categorize everything and they tend to label games for casual gamers and others for core gamers as if core gamers can never enjoy playing casual games and vice versa. Not all games can be categorized into two such simple groups. To be more specific, there must be more categories, such as software that can be enjoyed by both novice and advance players and software that cannot be enjoyed by novice nor advanced players, in addition to software that can only be enjoyed by novice players or only by advanced players. As long as Nintendo is concerned, we are always trying to propose a variety of different things to the world without unnecessarily narrowing down the targeted audiences.

  When we developed Brain Age and Wii Fit, some so-called core or heavy gamers complained that such titles could not be considered as video games. Simultaneously, some of those who love to play video games also said that "Calculations x20" in Brain Age is very fun because it gives them a similar sensation that they felt when they were challenging time attacks in racing games. So, I believe it dangerous to simply differentiate games by "casual" or "core". It can even be risky because, if we try to make something based upon such a stereotypical view, we tend to be dragged into unwanted competitions where people tend to compare our products with others in terms of the similar unfunded ground. So, like I said before, we at Nintendo are trying to see things from a wider perspective as possible. I have answered your question based upon a rather vague definition of users, but what I really mean to say is, while there are certain such tendencies, we should not think that there are such clear distinctions as games for core and for casual gamers, which are two completely different things, and each software must belong to either of them.

Iwata:

  Very high percentage of those who have purchased Wii are installing Wii hardware in their living rooms. More specifically, more than 80% of the households with Wii are connecting the hardware with TV sets in their living rooms. This number is far higher than those of GameCube and Nintendo64, which used to be placed in children's rooms and bedrooms. It appears that they find Wii is well suited in their living rooms.

  I explained this before, but since Wii is a hardware with many users per household, many people in a family think that Wii is something relevant to him or to her. Increasing number of households are purchasing big screen TV sets for their living rooms, and one of the strengths of Wii must be the fact that people feel like connecting the hardware with such TV sets in living rooms.

  As for internet connection, although Nintendo has been trying many things, the net connection ratio for Wii has not drastically increased. By collaborating with NTT, we are seeing a gradual increase in Wii's internet connection in Japan. In general those who purchase new video game systems at launch are more willing to connect Wii to the internet than those who purchase later on. Without making any efforts, the net connection ratio could gradually be decreasing. Realistically, we have been able to stop that from happening and even slightly increase the connection rate.

  Another point I should note here is that WiiRemote is probably the controller which all family members have the least hesitations in picking up and using. No other device so far has realized such intuitive control in terms of its ability to point at some object on the screen, and as you mentioned, this accessibility to the general public creates a great potential for Wii with such broadcasting service as well. If Nintendo actually does something in that field, we believe that we will need to do a lot of other preparations in advance, or we will fail to make enough impact on the world.

  On the other hand, in the case of the service that will be started by FUJISOFT, INC., it was proposed to us just when we opened up the license opportunities for the relatively small-sized software called WiiWare that was to be sold to Wii owners and downloaded onto Wii's internal memory storage. In other words, they were willing to start the service by taking advantage of the business environment we have offered. Of course, we are looking forward to how people will react and appreciate this kind of offer and how similar services can be developed in the future.

Iwata:

  There is also the question of whether advancing into broadcasting-type service is really what Nintendo should do in the first place. We will also need to make enough preparations if we will do that at all. In terms of our priority order on our Wii platform, it is not among the top.

Iwata:

  Since the local subsidiaries will announce their local launch plans, I cannot talk about them today. The only thing I can say today is that I have an impression that launching in fall or year-end is too late. Generally, I have an image of spring to summer launch. Again, details shall be announced by the local subsidiaries.

Hatano:

  Regarding Nintendo DSi that we will launch in Japan tomorrow, we have prepared 200,000 units for the launch date. It depends on the initial sales pace, but we are planning to ship additional 100,000 units in the week of November 4. We are making efforts to prevent stock shortages on the market although we are hopeful that the initial sales will be very strong with this number. Since we have just started the business with Nintendo DSi in Japan, it is too early for me to make future forecasts as to how many units we can sell in the overseas markets as well as how many we should be producing.

  As for the color variation, as you pointed out, we start with the rather staid white color and black color. In the future, there will be additional colors, but we are right now reviewing color deployments in the future.

  As to when we will expand the color variations, it must be determined by reviewing the situations in the market. Also, in terms of production capability, we will not be able to add any color in the near future. So, I cannot tell when today, but as a future plan, we will add new colors to the initial two colors.

Iwata:

  I think it too early for us to discuss monthly unit productions. Also, one of the reporters asked us yesterday when we made the semi-annual financial announcement at Osaka Stock Exchange, "Does the fact that Nintendo did not change DSs' annual shipment forecast from the previous 30.5million mean that the company thinks the increased DSi unit shipment will be offset by the decrease in DS Lite?" To this question, we answered that it was premature to discuss how the launch of DSi will affect the overall DS sales because no single DSi unit has been delivered to our customers yet.

  Of course, we want Nintendo DSi to expand the market. Even if the total size of the market cannot be expanded this year, we would like DSi to expand it next year. However, we do not have enough materials and information to announce today how many DSi we will make each month and how many DSi we will ship by the end of this fiscal year. Like we told yesterday, we would like you to wait until around the start of the next calendar year, when we can start talking on this subject.