Hideki Konno
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Nintendo's Hideki Konno discusses the 3DS and the element of surprise
As E3 was coming to a close, we sat down with one of the men responsible for Nintendo's 3DS, Hideki Konno. Konno's official title is manager / producer, but because he's involved at such a high level with both software and hardware development on the 3DS, our conversation covered quite the range of topics. When asked about the handheld's performance in the last year, he drew parallels to the success of the DS that preceded it and he hopes that the 3DS will experience a similar growth curve. Due to the mention of the DS, we inquired about the possibility of a larger 3DS. While Mr. Konno wasn't able to confirm plans for a super-sized version of the current-gen handheld, he did express his affinity for the DSi XL's increased real estate -- he finds the larger screen is much easier to gaze upon. You can draw your own conclusions as to exactly what that means. When chatting about mobile gaming, we asked about the impact of smartphones on the outfit's handheld. Konno offered that Nintendo prides itself on surprising gamers with new "compelling experiences" that handsets can't provide. We asked if any of these new experiences would involve the integration of both 3DS and the Wii U, and Konno replied that he's confident about those explorations taking place in future. In fact, a version of the Smash Brothers series is currently being developed for both 3DS and Wii U simultaneously. He indicated that it would be hard to believe that the two versions being developed in parallel wouldn't provide some unique interactions between them and their respective platforms. Additionally, while it sounds like the Miiverse will only be available on Big N's next-gen console at launch, Mr. Konno communicated that -- depending out how well it's received -- we're likely see the social element brought to the mobile gaming arena, too. Michael Gorman contributed to this report.
Nintendo 3DS has resistive touchscreen for backwards compatibility, what's the Wii U's excuse?
In case it somehow snuck in under your radar, E3 just happened. The LA-based gaming extravaganza is where Nintendo introduced its next generation of home console, the Wii U, also served as the location where our buddies from Joystiq caught up with Hideki Konno, the company's 3DS hardware chief. When queried as to why the 3DS uses the same, nowadays archaic, resistive touch technology as in the original DS, Mr. Konno answered candidly that "it's all about the backwards compatibility. We have to play DS games on this and we want to make sure they work." Not an unreasonable assertion by any means, however those same Joystiq sleuths also determined pretty conclusively that the Wii U's bodacious 6.2-inch controller also uses a resistive touchscreen -- could the primeval tech be getting recycled again for similar reasons? Nintendo's made no announcements about game compatibility on the Wii U beyond confirming that it'll play all Wii titles, but this at least it gives us some extra food for rumination (and speculation) while we wait for the new console's 2012 release.
3DS touchscreen tech chosen for DS compatibility
The 3DS, despite being a higher-end piece of hardware than the DS -- and, yes, bearing a much higher-end price -- still bears the same resistive touchscreen technology as its seven-year-old forebear. Why would Nintendo opt for older touchscreen technology, eliminating the possibility of multitouch and forcing the use of a stylus? 3DS hardware producer Hideki Konno told Joystiq it's because of that seven-year-old DS screen. "Really, it's all about the backwards compatibility," he said during an E3 interview. "We have to play DS games on this and we want to make sure they work." Konno said that Nintendo didn't think there was currently sufficient technology to both enable a more feature-rich touchscreen and accurately emulate the touch interface of the legacy DS. "Now that technology may come out sometime in the future, but when we were making our decision on what kind of touchscreen to implement," he said, "that was one of the deciding factors." That, of course, doesn't explain at all why the Wii U uses the same vintage touchscreen technology. Unless the Wii U is secretly capable of emulating DS games! We're totally onto you, Nintendo.* *We're probably not actually onto you.
Nintendo's 'goal' for Mario Kart 3D: eight-player online
Mario Kart 3D has more improvements in store than just hanggliders bolted to the backs of all the cars. It currently features eight-player local wireless racing, and, if everything goes as planned, it'll feature eight-player online as well. Joystiq asked Mario Kart 3D producer Hideki Konno if the kart racer would feature online play, and he responded "Of course!" Though the current online configuration isn't quite set, "our goal right now is to have the same number of players for both local wireless and multiplayer over wi-fi." The bottleneck at the moment is making sure the game can handle smooth 60FPS frame rate with eight players in both online and offline, 2D and 3D.
Reggie: Nintendo's next home console unlikely to feature 3D
Nintendo believes strongly in glasses-free 3D. The company wouldn't be able to achieve this feat on a home console, short of shipping an innovative TV in the box, so ... it's probably not going to do that. "I think at Nintendo, we realize that any sort of goggle-type 3D technology was not going to work," 3DS hardware producer Hideki Konno told CNN. "In order to make 3D technology viable with video games, we thought we needed to have glasses-free 3D." Konno and his team at Nintendo did experiment with a 3D display tethered to a Wii before development of the 3DS began, but purely as a proof-of-concept for glasses-free 3D. Echoing Konno's remarls, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told CNN, "Glasses-free is a big deal. We've not said publicly what the next thing for us will be in the home console space, but based on what we've learned on 3D, likely, that won't be it." It probably won't be 4D either -- that's been done.
Nintendo 'moving away' from insisting on 3D to play 3DS games, wants them all playable in 2D
The Nintendo 3DS has a slider in its side. A slider that adjusts its namesake feature, three-dimensional imagery, up and down in intensity relative to the user's preference. Now, although the 3DS' screen doesn't force glasses on you, it does demand that it be held just right in order to get the most out of the 3D effect and we can imagine plenty of people might neglect its extra dimension in favor of old-fashioned 2D (not to mention those who can't tolerate the third D for health reasons). It's encouraging, therefore, to hear that Nintendo has taken the stance that no game should require 3D as part of its gameplay mechanics. That's the word from Hideki Konno, one of Nintendo's veteran producers, who says the company wants all of its 3DS games to be playable in 2D, essentially reducing the 3D aspect to an aesthetic enhancement. Some might argue that's underusing the portable's hardware potential, but Nintendo has always been in the business of pleasing the mass market -- there's nothing preventing some daring developer from making a game entirely dependent on a three-dimensional perspective.
3DS producer reveals Wii-based, arts-and-crafts 3D prototype
Previous "Iwata Asks" interviews have brought up several previous 3D prototypes from Nintendo, including GBA and GameCube-based versions. During his talk about the 3DS's development, hardware producer Hideki Konno revealed another prototype, designed before the 3DS was even a glimmer in Nintendo's collective eye. Nintendo wired up a glasses-free 3D display to a Wii, and set it up on a cart to wheel around the company for demonstrations. And then, because it wasn't hacky or impractical enough, the team hooked a proof-of-concept version of the 3D depth slider to a Nunchuk -- with hot glue.%Gallery-118279%
The 3DS originally lacked 3D and tilt controls
Even though Nintendo has been experimenting with 3D for years, and working on the DS successor for years, the two ideas weren't always connected. Speaking to Famitsu, 3DS hardware producer Hideki Konno revealed that early versions of the hardware were designed without 3D in mind. "I became involved with development starting in 2008, but at that time, it didn't have 3D visuals," Konno said. "From Nintendo's perspective, they've released [3D racing game for Famicom] 3D Hot Rally and the Virtual Boy; they've had a history of experimenting with 3D visuals." With the advent of glasses-free screens, Nintendo decided this would be a good time to try again. The same is true of the gyroscopic motion sensor. It was added just before E3. " The boat had really left the port by that point -- the hardware team had the final specs and just had to work it all out," Konno told Famitsu. "Then, in the midst of that, Miyamoto said 'This isn't enough; we can really change things if there's a gyro sensor in there.'" After playing with a prototype gyro-enhanced DS, Konno agreed. "We had a prototype for the sensor already, so we got everyone together to try it out, and the conclusion we came up with was 'Well, if we can do things this fun with it, I guess we've got no choice.'"
Nintendo considering future 3D video recording 'update' for 3DS
In the latest excerpt from Nintendo's "Iwata Asks" interview about the 3DS, Shigeru Miyamoto excitedly revealed that "Iwata-san also wants to include 3D video in the future!" Iwata tempered that exclamation by saying, "I think it will be fun if we're able to include video recording capabilities with future updates." Clearly, that's no guarantee that such a feature will be added to the handheld's 3D camera functionality, but if Iwata thinks it would be fun, then don't be surprised if you find yourself shooting low-res 3D video with your 3DS at some point in the future! Later in the interview, Hideki Konno joined the group and discussed the StreetPass feature in Nintendogs + Cats. "When you're using StreetPass and exchange data with someone, in walk mode, that person's Mii is walking whatever puppy he or she has chosen," Konno explained. "Then your Miis and puppies talk and exchange gifts." The feature is designed to imitate the random meetings of people walking their dogs on the street ... without having to actually meet random people walking their dogs on the street.
3DS producer explains new Tag Mode, confirms final hardware shape
While that big 3D screen is the most noticeable new feature of the Nintendo 3DS, the company has some other ideas for extending the boundaries of gameplay past the flat screen -- like Tag Mode, a passive wireless communication feature that allows DS systems to talk to each other and beam game data back and forth. Speaking to Wired, platform producer Hideki Konno offered additional details about the hardware's expanded implementation of Tag Mode. "In the hardware," Konno said, "we have the capability that when you first play a game that supports Tag Mode, it will save to a Tag Mode data slot in the hardware system. We are planning to support multiple games at the same time: Mario Kart, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing, etc." The current DS system allows Tag Mode-enabled games to communicate only when that game is running, with data saved to the cartridge. Konno said that Nintendo was planning a "Tag Mode Viewer" that would allow users to manage the data received in this way. He hopes the use of Tag Mode will "bring consumers a sense of wanting to play a game again, after they get new data from games that they'd forgotten about." At the end of the interview, Konno said about the design of the 3DS shown at E3, "You can take this as the final shape." Nintendo has previously said (and is still saying on its E3 site) that the design was "TBA." %Gallery-95697%
