We can't confirm the statement, but if you're inclined to believe
GoNintendo's report, apparently at a financial press conference Nintendo head Satoru Iwata invited
Sony's departing Ken "
PlayStation" Kutaragi to join up with the Wii-maker. The irony is, of course, rich. Besides being bloody rivals for over a decade, Ken Kutaragi was also the dude who hooked Nintendo into its fabled (failed) late-80s partnership with Sony to add CD-ROM capabilities to the SNES; the eventual demise of that business relationship resulted in the original PlayStation, and Nintendo's biggest single competitor since. So will Kutaragi join up with the 117-year-old upstart from Kyoto? Something tells us probably not, but man, would that first day of work ever be
aaawkwaaard.
[Via
PS3 Fanboy]
Update: Our
Japanese bureau had a crack at this one, and they found the story is pretty wrong, to say the least. According to a
Bloomberg report, Iwata-san was asked whether Nintendo would make a bid for Kutaragi; the answer, which we found to be a little more realistic, had Mr. Iwata saying, "I don't think that will happen." Sorry Ken, doesn't look like anyone wants you right now. Have you thought about Microsoft?
posted Apr 29th 2007 5:13PM
"Welcome, Mr. Kutaragi. We know you'll enjoy it here at Nintendo.
Now, over there is the closet, and here's your mop. GET TO WORK!"
-llamapalooza
"Tell us, Kutaragi-san, how does Paper Mario play in the fourth dimension?"
image the interview:
Interviewer: "So Kutaragi-san, what do you see Nintendo console can do in 20 years"
Kutaragi: "here's what I see.. quad core, 2gb memory 360 degree precision motion sensor, 1-1 action to animation rendering with no limitation of the TV"
Interviewer: "geez, I said 20 years, not 200 years, so for now, how do you implement CD playback into your console?"
Kutaragi: "This interview is OVER"
;)
In 20 years the Nintendo Console will be able to play DVDs, and instead of Friend Codes you will have to get direct permission from Jack Thompson in order to play multiplayer. And every time you buy VC games without leaderboards, multiplayer, and such Iwata will teleport to you home and piss on your face while he laughs out loud. It'll be the revolution the Wii only dreamed to achieve.
Is it me, or does Kutaragi look like Chairman Mao in that picture?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON'T WANT A $600 WII!!!!!!!!!! DON'T DO IT IWATA!!!
bu seriously.....this will be interesting....
I can't wait for the Wii 2. It'll have double the bullshit games. Yayyyy, and maybe it'll come with DVD playback in 2012.
Waaah. DVD players are like $30.
I was being sarcastic seeing how Nintendo seems a decade behind when it comes to technology. I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled some bullshit move and put a damn DVD player in there.
>Waaah. DVD players are like $30.
woah woah, walk before you run please.
Let's put a CD playback in there first.. ;) then we can consider moving to DVD.
oh.. xbox and PS3 owners, feel free to explain to us this weird storage unit Nintendo calls "megabyte"?
Thats the plan. A revision of the system with DVD playback is scheduled for sometime in 08. Honestly a DVD player is not a must have feature, its just stupid that it doesn't have the capability. Whats stupid is that the wiimote uses so much of the already limited processing power that there is no room for things like enemy AI that can do more than 1 thing at a time. Whats stupid is that nintendo believes the internet is a fad and so while they give you useless "wii-channels" your still completely without any games with online functionality. Its ok though, Pokemon: who cares is set to realease in japan before too long...and that is supposed to have some, so grab all your buddy's with wiis and add them to your buddylist (all you gotta do is remember the crazy long string of numbers on the back of their system...usefull) and go and catch them all.
The reason the past 2 Nintendo consoles have failed despite being quite well designed (Gamecube had amazing hardware, I still enjoy my N64) is because Nintendo tries to stop third party game developer's from making games for their consoles, so you only get 1 or 2 titles worth playing a year and those are from Nintendo. This is less true with the Wii, but they are still blocking other company's from including any online capabilities, thats the only reason why games released for both consoles have absolutely no online mode only on the Wii version, Nintendo won't allow them to include it. Hope you enjoy your sans-multiplayer , minigame filled technology demo of a system. I love the Wiimote...I hate that Nintendo treats other developer's like crap and tries to beat them out of making games that would only help make their console succeed. I hate that nintendo remade a last gen console and claimed it was next gen (don't worry the PS2 is still outselling it...and they are in the same generation) and I realy hate that its taking the fun of competition of varying skill levels (or even a need for skill) out of games...no to mention making them graphically underwhelming children's games, but most importantly I hate that I can't hook it up to my HDTV cuz it looks like vomit on it (all SD signal does and it can't do HD resolution)
um, the wii does have a dvd drive, a simple firmware update would theoretically allow it to playback dvd movies... Why it didn't launch with this is beyond me however...
Actually you will have to buy a separate dongle to enable DVD playback. The reason Nintendo didn't include it is because the cheap bastards don't want to pay a licensing fee. They want you to pay for it.
agreed on the friend code thing though, that is pretty retarded. =P
Dude... You almost got chocolate in with my peanut butter!
Damn, Nintendo is 117 years old? That's ancient for a tech-oriented company, you learn something new every day.
@Castle:
It's because they started as a playing card company and then moved to electronic games (after experimenting with things like taxis and instant rice). They were founded in September of 1889.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo
A dvd player cost $30, a decent stereo system cost around $150. If you can't afford to buy them, then I know you can't afford a PS3 or Xbox 360. The reason the Wii doesn't have those capabilities, is because nintendo makes games, period. Dvd players been out for years, if you don't own one yet, you never will.
"Sorry Ken, doesn't look like anyone wants you right now. Have you thought about Microsoft?"
Hell Sony still 'Wants' him. The media is still so bad about bashing Sony they are acting like he was fired because of the PS3 launch. The man retired, even if both companies were 'Bidding' on him, he didn't leave cuz he wasn't making enough or because Sony dropped him, so I doubt he would accept any bid from any company.