Nintendo Is Always Working On New Hardware

Worried that Nintendo is too busy sitting on piles of money and riding rollercoasters made of gold to think of some new ideas for hardware? Worry not. Nintendo's dreaming up new wonder machines at all times.

Nothing lasts forever, especially in this industry where one minute you're the top of the pops and the next you're shilling real historical battles with giant enemy crabs. Nintendo is undoubtedly the top of the pops right now, but having been there and lost it before, they know that success isn't permanent.

"We do not think that Nintendo DS and Wii will last forever," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in an investor call. "Our internal hardware teams are always researching and working on new hardware so that we can launch them whenever we find a very interesting idea."

According to Iwata, Nintendo sometimes even completes new hardware, but then chooses not to release it. It takes three years to develop a machine, and then the company decides if it's worth putting out or not. If it's not, they can always save the ideas and technology for another day. Does this mean that there's a room at Nintendo HQ full of Nintendo systems that never saw the light of day?

The deciding factor for when to release new hardware, Iwata says, is when developers start asking for it because they've done all they can with the current consoles. "Nintendo has always been making the hardware in order to prepare for that day to come," Iwata said.

What about the day when a price cut will come for the Wii, a day GameStop expects to happen this year? "I have never said that cutting the suggested retail price is not in the cards," Iwata remarked.

[Via Eurogamer]