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Even Nintendo are surprised at Wii's flexibility

by Steven Williamson on 27 September 2006, 16:07

Tags: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo (TYO:7974), Wii

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The Wii development team at Nintendo in Japan have talked about the Wii's Message Board, a feature which they hope will attract the whole family, but this is first time we've heard anything about a new feature called Play History, which will track and remember those games you've played and how long you've been playing them.

The Message board will collect "Memories over time, recording what different family members have done," said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. The Japanese giant have said that they "envision the Message Board helping everyone in the family communicate with each other. These days, because everyone is so busy, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to take the time to sit around the table and chat."

Shinichiro Tamaki, who directed the Wii's menu has said that the board will feature date sorting and will be interactive with games, "If you're playing Animal Crossing, a message like “Concert next Saturday in town” will automatically be posted on the Message Board," he said.

This system could be used to keep other friends informed of your latest purcases, for example "Let's say someone buys a new game. When they switch on their console, a question could appear on the screen: "Do you want to let your friends know you have bought this game?" If you select "Yes", the message "X has bought the game Y!" will pop up on your friends' Message Boards," said Tamaki. Users will also be able to exchange screenshots or game data with their friends.

The Play History feature will allow users to track the games that have been played on the console and how many hours you've been playing them for; this is ideal for bragging to friends but also ideal for those strict parents who may want to limit your time in front of a TV screen.

"It's just really fun for users to be able to see the record of how long they played. In the future, we could make it possible to plot on a graph how much you've played. Also, with users' cooperation, we could compile data on which game was the most played that year," enthused Iwata.

Even Iwata seems surprised at how flexible Wii is, in the interview he said, "I would say that in all honesty I did not expect to see the hopes that I had for Wii in the beginning so fully realised in the finished product. I can hardly wait to see how people respond to the console. I don't mean whether they like it or not; I mean it in the sense of wondering what uses people are going to find for Wii. I think we've really come up with something pretty special."

For more information head to the Nintendo Europe website


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