Nintendo To Focus On Content Over Technology, Execs Say

Iwata also said that the company would not develop online games for the Gamecube, stating that the audience for online games is still too small to justify the technology investment. Instead, Nintendo will continue to work on games for consoles and handhelds that interact with each other. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's recently retired president, expressed a cautious outlook on the state of game development. "The element of surprise is critical. But delivering surprise is becoming extremely difficult," Yamauchi said. "Game developers are running out of ideas." Yamauchi went on to say that creating games has become too time-consuming and expensive. To combat that, he said Nintendo will try to accelerate its game development process without sacrificing quality.