-= Der Interview-Thread =-

[TheSmashmaster]

Respekt, hab es nicht am Stück geschafft. Level 8-4 (Bowser Castle) war jawohl der Hammer! Und dann wurde es beim wirklich letzten Lvl (ich glaube D-4 oder so) noch mal schwerer (so ne Art Remake des Lvls).

[SoulBringer]

Respekt, hab es nicht am Stück geschafft. Level 8-4 (Bowser Castle) war jawohl der Hammer! Und dann wurde es bei wirklich letzten Lvl (ich glaube D-4 oder so) noch mal schwerer (so ne Art Remake des Lvls).

Jepp aber genau deshalb liebe ich das Level 8-4 bzw. D4 oder was auch immer das war, weiß es selbst nicht mehr so genau, is ja immerhin schon ca. 6-5 Jahre her^^

Ich glaub ich muß ihn übereden nochmal durchzuzocken!

[MFauli]

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager....=1&cId=3145154

Reggieeeeeeeeeee !

[Spike]

Besserer Link:
http://cube.ign.com/articles/664/664495p1.html

Video Download gibts da auch, falls sich jemand die Rede ganz antuen möchte.

[Fabicom]

Interview mit Reggie Fils-Aime von Nintendo

11.11.05 - MoneyCNN sprach mit Reggie Fils-Aime, dem Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing von Nintendo of America. Die wichtigsten Aussagen in der Zusammenfassung:

- Fils-Aime erwartet, dass Revolution günstiger angeobten wird als die Next Generation Konsolen der Konkurrenz; der Preis des Nintendo-Systems steht aber noch nicht fest.

- Die Strategie bei Revolution will man gegenüber der des Gamecube ändern. So muss sichergestellt sein, dass in den ersten sechs Monaten nach Auslieferung genügend starke Spiele erscheinen, welche die Verkäufe auch ankurbeln. Dann soll die Konsole auch optisch attraktiv sein.

Schließlich muss man die richtigen Bedürfnisse der Verbraucher befriedigen: Beim Gamecube dachte man, dass Tragbarkeit ein wichtiger Faktor wäre - deshalb hatte die Konsole einen Griff. 'Offensichtlich war das nicht der Fall', kommentiert Films-Aime.

- Revolution soll eine größere Zielgruppe ansprechen als Gamecube oder irgendein anderes Nintendo-System zuvor.

- Im Gegensatz zu Sony und Microsoft wird Nintendo kein High Definition unterstützen: Fils-Aime betont, dass Gelegenheits- und Nicht-Spieler weniger Interesse an solchen auffallenden HD Grafiken haben. Sie wollen stattdessen unterhaltsame Spiele. Außerdem würde es bei High Definition Video fast ständig lange Ladezeiten geben.

'Was wir im Hinblick auf Spielmechanik und Zugänglichkeit anbieten werden, das wird das Fehlen von HD mehr als wettmachen', sagt Fils-Aime.

- Laut Fils-Aime untersucht Nintendo seit der Markteinführung des Nintendo DS, wie man den Handheld vom Aussehen optimieren kann. Wann ein optisch überarbeiteter Nintendo DS erscheinen könnte, sagt er nicht.

- Derzeit gibt es keine Pläne, die Preise für Gamecube, Game Boy Advance oder Nintendo DS für das Weihnachtsgeschäftz 2005 zu senken.

...naja...was wirklich neues is nich unbedingt dabei....nur wissen wir jetzt, dass der Revolution keinen Griff bekommen wird

[Gin]

Ja, echt nicht viel neues, außer dass wir vielleicht bald nen Nintendo DS SP bewundern dürfen

[Dolphin5]

Das schönste Gerät ist der DS ja nicht geworden... Da sehen GBA SP und Micro deutlich besser aus! Vielleicht ist es einen Tick zu "erwachsen", eine kindischere Fassung des DS wäre ganz cool...

[SoulBringer]

Zu erwachsen isser sicherlich nicht, der Micro is keinesfalls kindisch, eher im Gegenteil, und sieht doch imo deutlich am besten aus (von den GBAs)

[Olschi]

Interview mit Reggie:
Ich schreib' das hier rein, weil es in keinen anderen Thread passt. Es geht um DS Lite, GBA, Revolution, Zelda usw. das Übliche eben.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/20/the- ... e-preside/

Thank you for taking a few minutes to chat with me today, I know you have a very busy schedule right now. One of the first things I wanted to ask you about is the new Nintendo DS Lite which was announced in Japan a couple of weeks ago. Is this what the DS should have been when it was first introduced back in 2004?

When the DS was first announced our focus really was on communicating to consumers and to developers the innovation that’s in that unit: two screens, a touch screen, voice activation. And we’ve certainly done that to the tune of multi-millions of units sold across the world. We really a leadership position in every market we compete in versus our competition.

In terms of the physical unit itself, from the day we first showed pictures we’ve been ongoing making tweaks and adjustments, looking to get it as beautiful and as distinctive as possible. What we showed at E3 ended up being different than what we launched with. And certainly what this iteration represents is our ongoing effort to leverage product design to make our innovations and products as attractive as possible.

We will continue to make ongoing adjustments and tweaks to our product design, always with the eye of the consumer in mind.

Does that mean we could probably expect a third iteration of the DS about 18 months from now?

I wouldn’t say that that’s an unreasonable assumption. Look at how many times we’ve improved on the Game Boy Advance in terms of the look, the feel, screen changes, and everything else. We believe that type of constant innovation is critical to driving this industry, and certainly if you look at the world wide sales of Game Boy Advance, I don’t think anyone would disagree.

Have you set a timetable for when the DS Lite will be available here in North America?

We have not announced the date and we won’t be announcing a date for the foreseeable future. We are working through our inventories and our allocations of product and frankly, we are doing everything we can just to meet current demand. Japan has already announced that they will launch in early March and they have the same challenges of meeting that very high level of demand.

We need to make sure that we have enough product in hand for us to launch effectively here in North America and as soon as we feel we are in that position we’ll announce it.

Nintendo DS LiteDo you think that announcing this new version so early, before it comes out, risks cannibalizing sales of the current DS?

Yeah, that is certainly a risk. But unfortunately it was a situation that couldn’t be helped in that our Japanese sales have been so strong, we’ve been out of stock essentially since the last few days in December. And that’s what drove us to announce the new design as early as we did so that we could let those consumers know that it was coming.

What sort of response have you gotten to the new Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service for the Nintendo DS?

We feel the launch has gone spectacularly well. We launched Nintendo Wi-Fi connection with advertising that communicated the ease, the accessibility, and the match-up service that allowed consumers to play against people of their own skill level. The launch of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in the U.S., in Japan, and in Europe has been phenomenal. We are on track to break all types of records in terms of number of connections and number of unique users. And the software that we’ve launched is what’s driving really it.

The Tony Hawk title from Activision, our own Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing DS and we’re quite excited with the titles coming up. We’ve announced Metroid Prime: Hunters and Tetris DS, both WiFi compatible, both launching on the 20th of March. So we think we’ve launched extremely well, we’re quite happy with the numbers. And quite frankly, we’re prepared to bring out more and more titles to drive the service and ur objective is to get every single consumer to try Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection at least once, that’s our objective.

Now how do you respond to some of the criticisms of the service, like the lack of persistent friends?

Well, a couple of things. First the number of concerns or questions that have been raised by consumers who use the service are extremely modest. I mean we are talking hundredths of a percent of actual connections in terms of any consumers who are saying something negative about the service or the approach.

And the second point, in terms of having to have new friend codes for every game, quite frankly, what that does is put control in the hands of the gamer. So there are some people that I want to let into my house with Animal Crossing and others that I don’t, and that friend code set up allows me to manage that title by title. We think that’s the appropriate way to go.

Nintendo Revolution Where is Nintendo right now with the development of the Revolution?

We have been sharing the controller mechanics with developers across the world. We have shipped over a thousand controller dev kits to developers so that they can begin getting experience with the controller mechanics. The response to the controller has been fantastic. Developers are truly embracing the innovation. They’re embracing the approach and quite frankly, they’re embracing our vision; our vision of creating games that are as sophisticated as the core gamer wants it to be but could also be as straightforward and as accessible as brand new gamers. And that vision, that strategy is what Nintendo is all about. We want to create a system with Revolution that appeals to all types of gamers versus going down a path that, frankly, is a bit exclusionary.

You mean in terms of the competition and what they’re doing?

Exactly. They have gone down a path that is very expensive for consumers, very expensive for developers to create content against, and they're providing a level of horsepower technology that not many consumers want. We in providing to consumers and to developers an approach that is certainly high-tech and certainly powerful enough to create the most sophisticated games, but also has an approach that is open for developers to create whatever type of content they want.

Do you think that not having support for high-definition will put the Revolution at a disadvantage with respect to the PS3 and the Xbox 360?

Not at all. Only a very small percentage of homes currently have high-definition televisions. All of the next-generation systems will look great, but HD games don't look as good on the majority of regular tv's. The question is which one will have amazing new kinds of games with innovative experience. The answer is Revolution.

You must be examining what Microsoft has done with Xbox Live and Xbox Live Arcade. At last year's E3 you announced that Nintendo was going to offer downloads of games from previous consoles directly to the Revolution, but what kind of support for the overall online experience are you building into the console?

Sure. In terms of the details of Virtual Console, how it will work, the titles available, the entire environment and experience, we plan on sharing much of that detail at E3.

Ok.

I’m certainly not going to get into it today but, suffice it to say, the approach we’ve taken with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which is all about great game play, ease of access, total control in the hands of the consumer and a fantastic experience, all of those principles will be applied to the virtual console. We fully expect that consumers who are exposed to the approach will love it. And we’ll be prepared to share that information at E3.

So networking and all that other stuff will be built into the console?

Well, you’ll see more at E3.

Has the release of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess been pushed back once again?

No, it has not. We have gone on record that we are launching it in 2006 on GameCube and that is still the plan.

I ask because some retailers are showing June 1, while others are showing May 15. Is that about when we should expect it?

No, we have not told retailers a specific launch date and we’ll be working with all of our key retailers and sharing that information shortly, getting pre-sales set up, and really driving the buzz and the interest in this title in the way our fans want it to be. We know -- and our fans know -- that Zelda certainly will be the biggest and best title ever for GameCube. And we will market it as such and we know the consumers won’t be disappointed.

Speaking of GameCube, if you play a GameCube game on the new Revolution console, will you be able to use the Revolution controller or will you have to use the older style of controller?

Well, all of the GameCube games will be compatible only with GameCube accessories, so whether it’s a WaveBird or whether it’s a wired controller, you’ll only be able to play those titles with those accessories. Essentially what we’re saying is that Revolution titles are the only ones that will leverage the new controller.

Nintendo has said all along that the Game Boy and the DS are of parallel platforms and that the DS is not the next Game Boy, but how long will it be until we see a new Game Boy come out?

You know, that’s a great question better posed to Mr. Iwata. From my perspective, our focus is on driving Nintendo DS, launching the plethora of titles that we have coming up for this platform over the next time period, as well as driving Game Cube successfully until the Revolution launch, as well as driving Game Boy Advance.

We’ve just talked to retailers about some new titles coming for Game Boy Advance; obviously Drill Dozer has just launched and is getting very positive reviews out in the marketplace. Our plan continues to be to support all three lines of our business; the home console, DS, as well as Game Boy Advance.

Do you ever think that having two different portable platforms is confusing for the average consumer, at least from a marketing standpoint?

We have not seen that at all. Consumers understand that Game Boy Advance today really is a mass market platform. The titles available, while there are RPGs and other, more complex games, but certainly what is selling most right now are games targeted to a slightly younger demographic and it’s doing extremely well. DS, with all of the innovation, commands a higher price point and has a variety of different titles to meet those consumer needs. We have not seen any consumer confusion or misunderstanding of exactly what those two platforms are all about.

Game Boy Micro How have sales of the Game Boy Micro been?

Sales of Game Boy Micro have been exactly where we predicted them to be. It's ten to fifteen percent of total Game Boy Advance sales, targeted against a very specific demographic who want something high image, who want something unique, and that’s exactly where that product has delivered. We continue to sell it and we will continue to sell it for the foreseeable future.

Earlier you touched on the difference in philosophy between Nintendo and Sony and Microsoft. Lately when people from Sony and Microsoft talk about Nintendo, it seems like they're always trying to position the company as creating games solely for a younger demographic. How do you respond to that?

It’s categorically false. I find it quite interesting that our competitors are more interested in trying to pigeonhole us versus articulating a clear strategy amongst themselves that differentiates where they’re trying to do in the marketplace. We have been very clear in our positioning. Nintendo is about innovation and bringing new and unique game play to the consumer -- both the core gamer, as well as new gamers. And we view that mission as critical because as you look at all the demographic data, this industry can no longer rely simply on more and more young men coming of age to try gaming, and being in that, call it ten to twenty year old demographic. The fact is that that demographic is shrinking and the next cohort, their younger brothers, is even smaller.

So, for us, we view it as critical to find new ways to bring gaming to the masses. That means women, as we’ve successfully done with Nintendogs. That means older consumers, as Japan has successfully done with Brain Age and that product’s sequel. That is exactly what we will be doing here in this marketplace, not only with DS, but with Revolution as well: bringing innovation to the marketplace that satisfies the hardest of the hardcore as well as brings new consumers into the marketplace.

Mario Is there an over reliance on Nintendo’s long established franchises and characters, like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and the others? It seems like we see a new blockbuster franchise like Nintendos with decreasing frequency.

Absolutely not. Nintendo has an enviable position of having the best franchises in this industry in terms of Mario and Zelda and Metroid and Donkey Kong and all of those great franchises. Together those are a library that any developer would kill for. In addition, we have the ability to create new franchises; Nintendogs, a great new franchise and the innovation that’s captured in that software is fantastic.

The Brain Training series is another new genre that has taken Japan by storm and I’m firmly convinced will take the U.S. and Europe by storm. So if anything, what we have seen from Nintendo is an ability to innovate its greatest franchise characters in brand new ways, as well as develop brand new franchises that create million unit selling titles. That’s a very enviable position to be in.

Will we see some brand new franchises for the Revolution?

Yes we will.

Something that will be as big as a Nintendogs or a Zelda?

That is certainly the goal, but you’ll have to tell me when you see it at E3. We will be showing a lot of information about Revolution at E3. You know we’ve said publicly that this year’s E3 will be Revolution’s coming out party. Now, we’ve also been quite clear that there are innovations inherent in Revolution that we will be sharing ongoing. That it is simply not a one time event for us to share information about Revolution and all of its innovation. I have seen blog entries on your site and other sites that criticize us for that, but quite frankly, it’s just good business. In terms of letting the consumer know what’s involved and sharing that information all the way up until launch.

Is Revolution going to be the final name or is it still a code name?

It is still a code name.

Will you unveil the new name at E3?

Maybe.

Have you played with the Xbox 360?

I have played with a 360.

What did you think about it?

Honestly, I was underwhelmed. And let me be clear: I played with pre-production units at last year’s E3 as well as at other industry events, I’ve played with production product, and while certainly some games look fantastic, I found the game play for many of the titles lacking. And so for me it was not something that held my interest for very long.

We certainly are looking at what they’re doing from an online perspective and I think to give Microsoft some credit, what they’ve done with Xbox Live has been very intriguing. But as a console, as a consumer, would I have shelled out what is close to $700 when you look at the premium unit, some software, some accessories? If I would’ve done that I’d be disappointed right now.

If you'll indulge me, I wanted to ask you something that I also asked Miyamoto when I sat down with him a few months ago, and that's about that Nintendo ON video that was circulating around E3 last year . It's the one where all the game play is done wearing a sort of virtual reality helmet. Have you seen it?

I have not seen that one.

You haven’t seen, but are you aware of it?

I am aware that it was done, but I have not seen it.

It sparked a lot of speculation and enthusiasm from the Nintendo community. Why do you that something like this resonated so powerfully with your fan base?

Well, a number of things. First, Nintendo is blessed with the best, most dynamic, most vocal community of players and fans of any brand in this space. And quite frankly, I am always in awe of what our fans come up with and share. It really is compelling and it really highlights the love that they have for this brand. And it’s a situation that most companies would, they certainly envy our position. Second, in terms of an innovation like a virtual reality helmet, I think that the industry, our fans – and even our competitors -- expect that type of innovation from us. They expect that we will be the ones pushing the industry and pushing the envelope with brand new ideas. And I think that’s another reason why that video resonated out in the marketplace. That’s my reaction.

So it wasn't passed around the office there?

I didn’t get a chance to see it but who’s to say if either Perrin [Kaplan] or some of my other executives didn’t get a chance to see it.

I know we don’t have a ton of time left, so one of the last things I wanted to ask you about was about how Sony and Microsoft are positioning their new consoles as multimedia digital entertainment devices in addition to gaming devices, something which Nintendo has not emphasized. Sony talks about the PSP and how it can play music and video, and while the DS can have those capabilities, it's not something Nintendo talks about very much. What is Nintendo's philosophy about all this stuff going forward? Do you see multimedia as a distraction from gaming?

Our philosophy is that consumers want great gaming experiences and our passion is delivering great gaming experiences. In the home console space, we believe that the best way to do that is with a dedicated machine. In the handheld space, as you’ve said, the DS does have other capabilities in the multimedia area, but we believe it’s important to first establish its credentials as a superb game playing device.

To be perfectly clear, the Microsoft and Sony strategies are based on overall corporate objectives versus what’s right for the consumer. That’s a reality. Microsoft is essentially trying to get you to put a PC in your living room because they are fundamentally a PC software company. Sony is trying to get you to put an entertainment hub that has Blu-ray technology because that’s important to their movie business and the rest of their entire electronics business.

We are a gaming company. We are gamers at heart. We love creating great, innovative content and superbly designed hardware, that’s what we do. And with that passion comes a laser like focus to do things that are right for the consumer and right for the business. That’s the fundamental difference in our strategy versus our competition.

Thank you so much for your time. I know this was very short notice, but it’s very much appreciated.

I have to tell you, I read both Engadget and Joystiq on a regular basis. So keep up the great work.

[Fabicom]

Interview mit Iwata über die Zukunft von Nintendo und so.......nich sehr aufschlussreich, nix neues........abba mit genialer hintergrundmusik

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php? ... e&type=wmv

[sylviosan]

weiß nicht, ob das hier schon die runde gemacht hat, aber da es recht interessant sein dürfte für alle die auf wario ware twisted warten und vor allem sich fragen, warum es denn seit mehr als einem jahr immer wieder verschoben wird... auszug aus einem interview mit laurent fischer von nintendo.de

Apropos Erscheinungstermine, können Sie uns die Verspätung von Wario Ware: Twisted auf dem europäischen Markt erklären?

"Das hat mit einem technischen Problem zu tun, nicht mit der Software-Entwicklung. Zurückzuführen ist die Verzögerung darauf, dass wir aufgrund europäischer Regularien die Rumble- und Tilt-Mechanismen überarbeiten mussten. Daher müssen wir verschiedene Dinge neu entwickeln und erneut vorlegen. Wir hoffen, dass wir kurz nach der E3 schon mit weiteren Infos über das Spiel aufwarten können."

Was auch immer das genau heißen mag..., aber die Veröffentlichung an sich ist scheinbar weiterhin geplant... Hoffen wir, dass es bald auch zu einigen anderen allzu plötzlich nicht mehr genau datierten Titeln wie dem neuen Harvest Moon und Electroplankton aufm DS der Fall ist...

[Spike]

Spiegel.de Interview mit Miyamoto:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzkult ... 53,00.html

[Metal B]

Spiegel.de Interview mit Miyamoto:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzkult ... 53,00.html

Man kann noch soviel Interviews über diesen Menschen lesen und trotzdem bleibt er immer Sympatisch.

[America`s Most Wanted]

Die Mühe, bei diesem alten Interview den "Revolution" in "Wii" umzunennen hätte sich spiegel.de aber schon machen
können.

[Radiant]

Das Interview wurde Anfang Mai von der GEE geführt (die ja ohnehin eine Kooperation mit Spiegel-Online hat), deshalb steht das noch "Revolution" etc.

der radiant

[America`s Most Wanted]

Was meinst du wieso ich "altes Interview" geschrieben habe. Vieleicht weil ich weiß, das es von einer früheren GEE-Ausgabe ist?

[Coyote]

Damit der Interview Thread nicht ganz ins Nirvana abtaucht:
Wem das Interview hier zu steril ist,hier:
http://wii.ign.com/articles/732/732391p1.html
gibts das ganze mit ein paar netten Pics.


Interview: Madden NFL 07
Producer Jason Armenise reveals all about the Wii version of Madden in this epic interview. Plus, 10 exclusive new Wii screenshots!
by Matt Casamassina and Mark Bozon

September 12, 2006 - Electronic Arts hasn't always made Nintendo's platforms a priority where its lucrative Madden NFL franchise is concerned. The company's GameCube iterations of the videogame football king oftentimes lacked some of the extra bells and whistles of their counterparts. But as Jason Armenise, producer for the upcoming Wii build of Madden NFL 07 explains below, that's all about to change.

Madden NFL 07 for Wii not only features enhanced gesture-based controls, but includes all of the gameplay modes of the other versions plus brand new ones, such as multiplayer centric mini-games like two-on-two and kicking combine. And as readers will see, EA has not sacrificed on graphic quality in Madden's transition to Nintendo's new generation console.

IGN Wii: All right. If you could, please gives us a basic overview of Madden NFL 07 for Wii. Why is this game different from any of the other Madden titles in your view?

Jason Armenise: Gosh, there are whole bunch of things that differentiate Madden NFL 07 Wii from the other versions. One, it's been retooled to take full advantage of the Wii controllers. So using our FreeMotion control system you'll be able to do many of the actions that happen in the real game of football, and as a result you feel like you're in the game. It's very immersive to play Madden that way.

IGN Wii: Can you break down the running and passing controls, as well as how you hike, juke, and stiff arm with the Wii-mote?

Jason Armenise: So, have you played Madden Wii before?

IGN Wii: Yeah. We played it at E3 2006 and liked it.

Jason Armenise: Okay, right on. So I'll just go through some of the different controls. Obviously, you guys have probably seen hiking. To do this, you pull the controller back up to hike. To pass you make a throwing gesture.

And just to make a small point here, when we demonstrate these controls we show big movements. We show somebody actually making a throwing motion with the controller. Those will all work, but wrist flicks will all work as well. At first, when you're showing your friends how to play, you're going to say, "Hey, you throw just like this!" Right? But once you've played for a couple hours, you're going to be like, "Wow, this is kind of tiring." I refer to it as the couch potato syndrome. People play want to play relaxed, and so all of our controls can be done with very small movements, too.

IGN Wii: So are you using the Wii-mote's rumble feature as a means of feedback when you're performing these in-game gestures?

Jason Armenise: We do them, but the rumble feature isn't usually associated with a FreeMotion gesture. Usually, they're associated with getting hit. We use it actually in some of our Wii-specific content. For instance, when it's your turn, we'll rumble the controller to let you know it's your turn. Most of them we don't have tied specifically to a FreeMotion gesture.

IGN Wii: Can you speak specifically to throwing passes with the FreeMotion system?

Jason Armenise: Yeah, let me really talk about how passing is done because I haven't read any interviews that have really broken down the passing system. I want to make sure that people really understand the passing system.

If you hike the ball and just want to throw, touching no buttons, you will throw to your primary receiver. So whenever you call a play, one of your players is listed as your primary receiver. That primary receiver is usually orange on the play diagram and before the play, pre-snap, if you hold down the Z button it will pull back the camera and you'll actually see your play arc; that's typical Madden. So when a user is new to the game and they don't know how to change receivers - because there is a way to change them - all they need to do is hike and throw and the ball will go to their primary receiver.


Prior to the snap, if they want to they can change their primary receiver. So to do that you hold down the Z button or the C button, which activates the Coach's Cam - that's where you don't see the play arc and you just pull the camera back to see where your receivers are. When you pull back using Z or C (and hold the button), you can change your primary receiver by tapping one of the D-Pad directions or the A button. Each receiver has a D-Pad direction over the A button icon above their head and that's how you change receivers prior to the snap. So let's say you're playing the game and you want to make Randy Moss your primary receiver during a play when he isn't. He's lined up to the rightmost on the play. You'll tap right on the D-Pad and he'll become your primary receiver. So, again, when you snap the ball, all you'll have to do is make the throwing motion and you'll throw to Randy. It's very easy for people to do that.

Now, as people play, of course they're going to start scrambling. And just like a real quarterback they have to evaluate the field and decide where they're going to throw the ball. In that case, when you identify which receiver you want to throw to, you tap his direction on the D-Pad (or potentially A button) and then make the throwing motion. By tapping on the D-Pad or A button, you're changing your primary receiver on the fly. So now when you do the throwing motion it goes to your new receiver, who you've called up as you're scrambling around. This means, for instance, that if you knew you wanted to throw to Randy Moss, but didn't do it at the beginning of the play, you could select him in mid-play and then throw.

IGN Wii: Sounds great. Now if you're playing local multiplayer, is that going to highlight? In other words, will it give any visual tip to the defense, or is it all kind of covert?

Jason Armenise: Just like on regular Madden, what'd you'd do in that case is you'd want to pre-snap and press the C button, which wouldn't give away your play arc. Just like on regular Madden, there's a slight warble on the icon for the guy who's actually the intended receiver. It is kind of a giveaway to the defense if they're very quick in observing it, but if you know what you're doing you'll just tap to the other guy you want. When the play is actually on, there is no indication to the defense that you changed receivers.

IGN Wii: So it's like the QB vision precision you had before, but without the giveaway.

Jason Armenise: You do not know who you're throwing to, correct. Vision precision is an option in Madden Wii, but it's not the default option.

IGN Wii: Great. So continue on with your breakdown of the passing mechanics.

Jason Armenise: What we found is that first people just want to throw the ball so naturally they're throwing to their primary receiver. As they become a little more advanced they start to mix it up and throw to different guys. Once they understand how to do that, what we found is that it feels a little slower than passing in the other versions of the product, but it also makes you think a little more about where you're throwing. And when you're scrambling, you are really scrambling. You're really affected by that.

IGN Wii: Tell us about the intricacies of hiking in the Wii version of the game.

Jason Armenise: You just pull the Wii remote up and you hike the ball. But in order to do a hard count, or a fake snap, what you do is hold the B button on the trigger of the Wii remote and then you do the snap. And so to somebody who is sitting on the couch watching you, it looks like you've just snapped the ball. And then you've got the sound of the guy doing the higher hut and the camera pulls back. I think it's by far too easy to fool a human player with a fake snap in the Wii version of the game because you've sold it with your entire body and they believe it. So if you're really looking for them to jump across the line, you'll get them with that.

The same thing applies when you want to do a pump fake. You hold the B button down and you throw and your guy is going to do a pump fake.

Our B button is kind of our fake button throughout the game. So, for instance, if you're playing against another human player and you're looking at the play picker, what you do is point to a play that you want and you press the B button, but the player picker doesn't go away at that point. What the play picker is waiting for is for you to press the A button and that will dismiss the play picker. So what you can do is go and navigate through the player picker and get to a running play, press the B button and then back out to a passing play. If your cheating friend next to you is watching what you're doing, the last thing they see the play picker on when you press the A button is a passing play. The cheaters will think you've picked a passing play but meanwhile you've actually picked a running play.

This is especially good when you're in the formation playbook. We have two playbooks in the game now: play type playbook and the formation playbook. Classical Madden is the formation playback where each team has its own playback and there are hundreds of plays in there. It's especially effective here because you can call an I-form play that's a running play or an I-form passing play. They see your guys line up in I-Form and they believe it's one or the other, but only you know what you've actually done.

IGN Wii: What kinds of passes can you throw with the FreeMotion system?

Jason Armenise: Bullet, lob and normal. So most of your passes will probably be normal passes. In order to throw a lob you need to do the throwing motion softly. In order to do a bullet, you really need to put some acceleration on the Wii remote when you're throwing. You can also do precision passing, but that's not part of the FreeMotion system. That's actually done on the joystick. We didn't want to make it any more complex than lob, normal and bullet because there are so many controls in Madden for Wii and we really wanted to make it extremely approachable and easy to play. Being able to softly gesture with the Wii remote and then see the quarterback kind of lob it - it's such a visceral connection. We wanted to hold off on making anything more complex than that at this time.

IGN Wii: All right. Tell us about the running game in the Wii version of Madden.

Jason Armenise: The running game is great. So, you can sprint by holding down the Z button and cover by using the C button. You can spin with the A button and dive with the B button. But those aren't the controls you probably want to hear about.

What you want to hear about is how you juke. To juke left you flick the nunchuck controller to the left. To juke right you flick the nunchuck to the right. If you pull it back, your runner will do a back juke.

There's going to be a learning curve for people to get into the Wii. It's not the typical setup. These controls are new and they're awesome, so people are going to have to learn them a little bit. We've done some things to make the learning process easier. One thing we've done for jukes for instance - and all of our FreeMotion controls - is we've created in-game tutorials where the first time you go to run the ball, a tiny little piece of text will pop up and tell you to press the 1 button to learn how to run. If you hit the 1 button, it'll stop the game, bring up a tutorial, explains to you how to juke, and you'll actually have the chance to practice juking in the tutorial. You can practice as many times as you want. So let's say you're not feeling comfortable with juking. You can bring up the tutorial and it'll lead you through it - it'll tell you to juke to the right and will give you a success or failure. If you fail, it will give you a tip on how to do it correctly. You can do this as many times as you want. If you want to practice 100 jukes before you start the game up again, you can practice 100 jukes - it's up to you. When you're done, you go right back into the game, just as you were before. This all happens while you're playing the game. All the tutorials are also in the pause menu so you can practice everything from there, too.

Besides juking, there are stiff arms and stiff arms are done with the Wii remote pretty much exactly the same way as juking is. So if you want to stiff arm to the left you flick the Wii remote to the left and if you want to stiff arm to the right you flick it to the right.

Then there are the power moves, which are called highlight sticks. We've broken this up into a couple different things. There are double jukes and power moves, which enable guys to duck under or avoid the oncoming defender. These are done by taking both the nunchuck and Wii remote and jamming them forward. So just as the player in real life is ducking their head down, bracing for impact, you do kind of the same thing when you take both controllers and push them forward quickly. Once again, that can be done with a big or small gesture depending on how you play the game. It feels very good because you're in this situation where you want to stick it to somebody.

If you want to do a double juke, you use both controllers as well. If you flick both controllers to the left, it'll do a quick sidestep to the right and then a juke to the left and if you go to the right it's the opposite.

IGN Wii: Very cool. So are you using FreeMotion gestures for defense, too?

Jason Armenise: What we found is that when we put all these FreeMotion controls in for offense, it felt like the offense had a whole list of weapons. Offense has stiff arms, jukes, back jukes, double jukes and power moves and defense seemed like it didn't have as much action with it. Defense had big hits and dives. Big hits and dives have risk/reward system associated with both moves. With big hits, your reward is that you could cause a fumble and your risk is that you may miss the hit. With dives, your reward is that you may be able to tackle someone outside of your tackle range and potentially cause a fumble, and your risk is that you could miss the device completely, go flying away and then you're out of the play.

What we wanted to do - and this is something we actually haven't talked about at all, so you guys are getting the scoop here - is make every part of the game in which you have an interaction with the ball or somebody to have some action with it. We wanted you to feel like you're constantly engaged with the game. One way we do that is that you can catch. Catch assist by default is on, but you can tap into your guy when you're catching and if you take both controllers and raise them up quickly, your guy will cue a catch up, which feels very satisfying. You're like, "I caught that. The AI didn't do that - that's me."

We wanted to do that throughout so one of the things we looked at was tackling. Like I said before, the offense has all these weapons that make them more effective at running, but we felt the defense didn't have as many. So one of the things we've added for Madden 07 for Wii is the ability to do what we call a tackle boost. So as a defender you say, "You know what? I'm going to do whatever it takes to tackle this guy and I'm going all-out for him." Typically in Madden you run into a guy and that's how you tackle them. With the tackle boost, when you're running into a guy, you jam both controllers forward, kind of like you'd do with a power move. And what you've done is increased the ability for your guy to tackle for a brief second. The reward there is that if they are stiff arming or juking, you're helping to balance that equation.

In any videogame ever, when it's one player versus player there are a set of calculations that go into determining who is successful. With sports videogames, when it comes to two players interacting over something, they take into account the attributes of the players, situations, animations, etc, etc. With this version of Madden, we wanted to give something do defense that said, "You know what? You, for this brief period of time, are actually going to boost up your tackling, but you've got to time correctly." This keeps you engaged in the game. So when you're running in for a tackle and don't want to take any chances, you try to tackle boost. You try to get in there and add onto your tackle.

Or, if you want to do a big hit, all you do is hold the Z button down and then do the tackle boost move and that will do a hit on somebody. Same risk and reward. You could make them fumble. You could get a big hit on them. But you could also miss.

IGN Wii: Is the tackle boost a safer way to do that or more dangerous?

Jason Armenise: It's a safer way. It's more of a benefit to tackling. It has no benefit to fumbling or anything like that. Boosting your tackle is simply about making that tackle happen. And we found that people really like the ability to do that.

IGN Wii: We seem to remember previous mentions of mechanics that challenged two players to shake the Wii remote faster than each other in order to win-out during offense/defense match-ups. Is this still in the game or did we stumble upon an unconfirmed rumor?

Jason Armenise: Yeah, what you're talking about there is breaking tackles. They have that in Madden this year, in the running game. You tap the A button and try to run through it. It's the same thing, but what we've done is when you lock up with someone else, a little pop tells you to drum your controllers. It's an up and down motion with both the Wii remote and nunchuck. They represent your legs. You're basically powering up the legs in your guy to see who's going to win.

IGN Wii: How are you handling audibles and hot routes in the Wii version of the game? Can you draw your own hot routes on-screen using the Wii-mote?

Jason Armenise: All of our audibles, hot routes and formation shifts come down to one set of controls, which has greatly simplified things. You point to who you want to control. So if you wanted to audiblize the entire side you'd point to your quarterback. Let's say you wanted to do a hot route or shift your alignment. On the field you'd have a little reticule that's your player color. So you'd point to your lineup and hit the A button and all of your linemen would line up. On the right-hand side you'll see the audible menus come up and you'll be able to use your joystick or D-Pad to indicate which audible or hot route you'd like to do.

Basically, instead of being a whole bunch of different button presses you control every different audible whether you're on defense or offense by highlighting the guy and pressing the A button. It is a little bit slower than doing it the traditional way. There are a lot of hardcore Madden users out there who can do audibles in a half second. But once again, we're trying to make this easier for everyone to use and we felt that having one system was easier.

IGN Wii: When you're navigating the playbook, are you doing that with the D-Pad and joystick, or can you actually use the Wii-mote and simply point?

Jason Armenise: Either. With the new play picker, you point to the play you want with the Wii remote and press the A button or you can use the joystick and D-Pad.

IGN Wii: Are you able to draw your own plays using the Wii-mote? Is this something you've thought about?

Jason Armenise: You know, we thought about that early on and there were a lot of things that we wanted to do with the game this year that we got into the game. Once we can go through and show you every feature in the game you'll see that there is just a massive amount that's been done this year. Very early on people were like, "Hey, you should be able to draw your plays." And that would be a great feature. I think that probably will be a feature that will come out for Madden Wii next year or the year after, who knows. But for this year it wasn't something that fell into our three high points. We wanted to make the game Wii usable, to make the controls very deep and still very accessible, and then to focus on the multiplayer fun in the game. So it didn't come in this year. You can still make your own hot routes and you can still make your own plays, like you could, but you're not drawing on the field or anything like that.

IGN Wii: When EA brought Madden to 360, the game lacked a number of gameplay modes. It almost felt like a barebones rendition of the football franchise. Will the Wii version of Madden NFL 07 include all the features of the others?

Jason Armenise: This is something we're going to talk about this week with folks. The fact is that we do have what we think is going to be an incredibly stellar list of features that are part of this game. The features that people have come to know for Madden will be found in Madden NFL 07 for Wii.

IGN Wii: Can you be a little more specific? EA sent us over the official fact sheet for the Wii version and we know, for instance, that franchise mode, lead blocker control, and NFL Superstar modes are all included in the title, which is spectacular.

Jason Armenise: Basically, they're there. [Checks with public relations representative to make sure he can go into detail. She gives him the go ahead.] I can definitely say that yes, we have lead blocking. Yes, we have franchise, superstar, tournament - it's all there. There has basically been no loss of features at all for Madden Wii. In fact, because of the Wii-only content in Madden, I'd say that Madden Wii is the most feature rich version of Madden that's out there.

IGN Wii: That's really fantastic news. Now, tell us about the Wii-specific multiplayer modes.

Jason Armenise: Yep, so this Thursday at EA event I'm going to show one of the multiplayer mini-games in the Wii version off. So I'll talk about one of them first with you guys. The one I'm going to be showing off is called two-on-two. It's exactly what you think it is. It's a multiplayer version of the schoolyard game two-on-two, which is basically a quarterback and a receiver versus somebody rushing the quarterback and a safety or defensive back trying to cover the receiver.

IGN Wii: So are you going to be counting bananas?

Jason Armenise: It's Mississippis. And it's funny you mention that because I'm an American, but I work with a Canadian team and the Canadians love steamboats for some reason. They wanted steamboats. So I had a hard time convincing them it's Mississippis. But luckily Gatorade put out a commercial recently that had Mississippis, which pretty much ended the debate.

IGN Wii: Well, apple and banana have always been nice, but you could cheat by saying them really quickly and rushing forward.

Jason Armenise: It's funny you mention that because there is a way to cheat on the counting. This is one of the features I love about two-on-two. You know it's a five-Mississippi count and they actually pop up - text pops up and counts to five Mississippis. When you were a kid, you would quickly say the Mississippis as one word in order to cheat and speed up your rush. So in order to do that for Wii, you do the drumming I was talking about for break tackles. If you're the defensive end, you drum up and down with the controllers as fast as possible and the faster you drum up and down the quicker it cuts the Mississippi count. You can go from a five-second Mississippi count to a two-second Mississippi count if you bang up and down with the controllers really, really fast.

IGN Wii: That is really cool. Any game that encourages cheating is a winner in our book. So after the play, does the quarterback get to complain that your rush counted as your blitz?

Jason Armenise: [Laughs] Basically, it's fun. As the guy who is sacking, every time you want to drum it as fast as possible. The quarterback, meanwhile, is trying to scramble from the left to the right because once they cross the line of scrimmage they can't throw.

We wanted to make the game fun for multiple people. So two-on-two is built toward that. Two-on-two is all about that. You don't have to worry about anybody else. It's all about burning your friends and making those deep passes.

IGN Wii: And two-on-two takes place on the football field, right?

Jason Armenise: Yeah, you're on a football field. One of the things you can do in this mode is something we call buzz your buddy. When you're on the offense, you can tap the A button on the Wii remote and it rumbles the Wii remote of your partner. So, at first you're wondering what the hell is that used for. Well, what it's good for is that when you're playing four-player you can talk to your friend before the play and tell them to cut on the buzz. If I buzz twice, cut left or when I buzz, just throw the ball because I'm open. You can go back and forth and buzz each other. It's useful and fun. The two-on-two game is hard to talk about without playing. But at our event you'll be able to play it. It's all about smack-talking with your friends and it's a lot of fun.

IGN Wii: So can you compile your favorite two players from all the NFL teams in two-on-two or do you have to simply choose your favorite team and use their players?

Jason Armenise: We tried being able to put together mixed teams and it just turned out that the feature became too big and expensive. So what you do is pick teams. You pick the Raiders, the Vikings, etc. and you get their best quarterback and their number-one receiver. You'll also get their best rusher and their number-one guy on safety, or that sort of thing.

IGN Wii: Will created players be accessible in two-on-two?

Jason Armenise: If they're in your roster, yeah.

IGN Wii: How does the kicking function work in the game?

Jason Armenise: So for the kicking function you wait until your guy is set and then you point down with the Wii remote, press the A button, and then swing the controller up in an arch. The faster you swing it up, the more power you put onto your kick. Now, what you want to do is hold the Wii remote as level as possible because if you tilt it to the left or right while kicking it will add slice onto your kick. So basically when you swing it up you want to keep it straight. It feels very good to kick and you figure out the power really quickly, but there is some difficulty in that you need to keep it level. This way, it's not a timing thing - it's completely up to you.

I think kicking overall seems like a deeper experience on Wii. For certain things it's easier, like when you're kicking extra points. Extra points are pretty easy in the NFL - not many kickers ever miss extra points. But when you're trying to punt to a certain location, it takes a little while to learn that. There's a challenge to it. It gives the game depth and it feels good.

IGN Wii: Let's talk about graphics. Right or wrong, Madden for Wii is undoubtedly going to be compared to the GameCube build. Meanwhile, we've been playing a lot of the 360 version. In terms of visuals, where does the Wii incarnation fit in?

Jason Armenise: We get the graphics question all the time. Every time we talk about the game we get the graphics question. A lot of people - even passionate Nintendo fans - are kind of dismissing the graphics, saying, "We know it's going to be third, yadda, yadda, yadda." We didn't take that attitude. Right from the beginning, we said, "You know what? We need to make this game look better than Xbox at the very minimum. And if possible, we need to challenge the Xbox 360 version." That was our goal from the first day.

So we've done a whole host of things that put the game far in advance of the GameCube and we think better than the Xbox. And in some cases, we're challenging the Xbox 360 on graphics. First of all, the game is HD compliant. You can play 480p and 16:9 widescreen. That means everybody who has a HDTV can play the game with their component outputs and play in 480p and 16:9 widescreen while running at 60 frames per second, which is awesome. Additionally we've upped the texture quality on players. Textures are a higher quality. In many cases, they are higher than the Xbox version. We've added a whole host of features like depth of field. We've added a feature we call cinematic lens effect, which is like when you look through an actual television camera and straight lines get a little bit bowed in real life. We've increased the shadows. The shadows are better. We have something called contact shadows so that if two players get close to each other you'll see the shadow of one bleed onto the shadow of another. We've increased the grass. Our grass looks like it has more depth to it. It looks more lush than GameCube. It's definitely a much better looking game than on GameCube and we think that it really is challenging Xbox 360 in some places.

IGN Wii: Great. Any chance we're going to see an online mode for the game this year or is that pretty much out?

Jason Armenise: You know, we really haven't talked about online too much. At this point, we're not talking about it.

Jason Armenise: Is it something that has been ruled out - can you say that?

Jason Armenise: I think for now I'm not going to discuss it. Anything that has to do with online, for now no comment.

IGN Wii: Tell us about the Learn Madden mode in the game.

Jason Armenise: When you first turn on the game, the top-most item in the main menu is called Learn Madden. When you go into the Learn Madden menu you'll see four mini-games that say learn how to pass, learn offensive running, learn how to tackle, and things like that. These games are basically versions of the mini-camp games that have been retooled a little bit to be easier and they have tutorials in them. We know there's going to be a learning curve to Madden Wii so we've made it so that when somebody first buys Madden Wii they'll put their disc in and they can go through Learn Madden mode and when they come out they will have the basics of playing Madden for Wii down. They'll know how to pass, select receivers, run, they'll know how to do stiff arms and jukes, how to kick and how to tackle. With those abilities, they'll be able to play the game. The basic needs, in other words.

We know there will be new users who never played Madden before. Ideally, you'll have people who played GameCube and never gave Madden a try because it was too hard to play. So this is a way for users to go in, enjoy themselves - you earn trophies inside the games - and quickly go from not knowing anything to being able to do the basics in about 15 minutes. So if you sat down with your friend who loves the NFL, but never played Madden, you could convince him to play. Or your girlfriend. Your father. This is opening Madden up so that anybody can play the game.

IGN Wii: At the end of the day when you're playing Madden for Wii, do you feel that the new controls make the experience better?

Jason Armenise: You know, it's very different. I know there are a lot of Madden hardcore out there that love the way the controllers work on PlayStation, Xbox and GameCube. I know there will be some of them who want won't to play the Wii because it is so different and unique. From my perspective - you're talking to the guy who's passionate about making Wii Madden great - so I love playing it on Wii. I think it's a unique way to control the game. I feel very immersed in the game all the time. It's just fun.

IGN Wii: Thanks so much, Jason. Finally, do you have any closing comments for fans interested in the Wii version of Madden NFL 07?

Jason Armenise: The biggest thing we want to do is to make people aware that Madden for Wii is a new chance to try Madden. If you were on the Nintendo platform before and didn't try it, now's your chance. If you are somebody who loves Madden and want to play it in a new and unique way, you should try it for Wii. We're going to be doing things differently than they have been done before and I think some people may not like that. But if you come with an open mind, you're going to find Madden NFL 07 for Wii to be a really fun experience.

Quelle: http://www.ign.com

Und noch eins von http://www.gamefront.de

Interview Todd Hollenshead von id Software

13.09.06 - Cubed3 hat mit Todd Hollenshead von id Software über die Wii- und NDS-Pläne des Unternehmens gesprochen.

- Es gibt noch keine handfesten Pläne für Nintendo DS: id ist immer noch dabei, die Plattform zu untersuchen. Ein potentielles Spiel wäre Orcs & Elves, das aber ein neuer Titel in dem Spieluniversum und keine Umsetzung wäre.

- Im Moment bestehen auch keine Pläne, ein Spiel der Doom- oder Quake-Serie für NDS herzustellen; keinesfalls würde so ein Spiel aber nicht Frage kommen.

- Über Wii weiß Hollenshead nur so viel, wie er auch gelesen hat. Er denkt, dass die Konsole eine Menge cooles Potential und Nintendo schon immer großartige Spiele gemacht hat. Wii wird erfolgreich sein, auch wenn die Konsole nicht so leistungsstark wie Xbox 360 oder PS3 ist.

- id Software hat keine Wii-Entwicklungs-Kits, mit denen man arbeiten würde.

[Spike]

Spiegel.de Interview mit Iwata:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/technolo ... 11,00.html

Sehr schön nochmal diese Aussage hier, die man allen Fuchtelskeptikern auf die Stirn nageln sollte:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Nintendo ist als Unternehmen stark in Japan verwurzelt, sie haben dort eine Menge Fans. Aber sind die Wohnungen in Japan nicht zu klein für den Bewegungsradius, den man bei manchem Wii-Titel braucht?

Iwata: Es stimmt, dass uns dass am Anfang etwas Kopfschmerzen bereitet hat. Aber jeder Spieler hat mit dem Controller die Wahl, wie viel Dynamik er ins Spiel einbringt. Wenn man eine einfache Handbewegung macht oder wild mit den Armen rudert, erzeugt das im Spiel den gleichen Effekt.

[Spike]

Interessantes Interview mit Miyamoto:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ ... 750580.htm

[Raptile]

Ich hatte die Gelegenheit mit Kenny von Agora Games zu reden. Zieht's euch rein und verbreitet bitte die Links! Danke!

Deutsche Version

Englische Version

[Spike]

Gutes STERN Interview mit Iwata!

Irgendwie ist mir der Kerl sympathisch

[Cubestar2003™]

Spike, genau denselben Artikel von genau derselben Quelle hast du hier schonmal gepostet. Passiert Spiegel.de sowas öfter? o.O

[Spike]

Spike, genau denselben Artikel von genau derselben Quelle hast du hier schonmal gepostet. Passiert Spiegel.de sowas öfter? o.O

Ich glaube nicht, das ich einen aktuellen Stern Artikel vom 06.12.2006 schonmal als Spiegel Link gepostet habe.

[Cubestar2003™]

Und ich glaube nicht, dass ich kein déjà-vu habe, wenn ich einen Artikel beim "ersten" Lesen schon fast mitsprechen kann. Die Überschrift kam mir gleich bekannt vor.

[Spike]

Kann ja nix dafür wenn der Herr Iwata immer das gleiche sagt