Nintendo Honcho laughed at Natal
Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata didn’t like the idea of Microsofts next-gen interface, Natal, when approached to put it on the Wii a few years ago. 3DV Systems is the company behind the technology used in Microsofts effort. In late 2007, they showed it off to Nintendo. Iwata was interested by the technology, but he refused it nonetheless. Why? Here’s what the source had to say:
“Iwata-San only ever invests in something he can guarantee will work for a Nintendo audience,” and “Iwata-San was unconvinced he could sell it at a Nintendo price point. He also had some worries around latency during gameplay.”
Price is a big issue here, with Microsoft removing the “on-board” chip to keep costs down in recent demo’s. This has apparently taken out a lot of the abilities the system might have had, essentially making it a cleverly-marketed EyeToy. The fact that latency during gameplay (i.e. the time it takes for you to gesture and get a reaction on-screen) worried Iwata has to send bad smoke signals out from people interested in the Microsoft implementation. Could this is be dog slow while playing?
AH Iwata, ever so subtle
The man knows his gaming after all, He is basically in charge of the Zelda franchise and is partners with Miyamoto on EVERY Ninty game….
Removing the on-board processor sounds like a bad idea, I wonder what % of the 360s CPU is needed to run Natal? Taking that away from developers won't go down well I imagine.