id's Hollenshead Questions Nintendo's Strategy to Unite Gamers

Todd Holllenshead, CEO of id Software, has said that the differences between novice and veteran gamers may present challenges to Nintendo's plan to "destroy the psychological barriers" than separate them.

Speaking at Nintendo's E3 press conference, company president Satoru Iwata said that innovative consoles like the Wii and DS were creating a "paradigm shift," and that Nintendo was working toward bringing together gamers of all levels. "We must accept that games are for everyone," he said. "The best game designs let users of all skill levels play together."

But Hollenshead believes it will be a difficult task. "That's a tough one," he said to GamesIndustry at E3. "I don't know that it's a solvable problem, because I think that the thing is, is that your tastes change from a novice gamer to a veteran gamer or a hardcore gamer."

"When you first get in and play a type of game, everything is new and a challenge, but as you get experience you want different and greater challenges, which necessarily make a game hard to approach as a novice gamer."