Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Nintendo has transcribed a Financial Results briefing given by president Satoru Iwata. Being a Financial Results briefing, it of course focuses on sales history, but it is also loaded with information that may be of interest to you beyond the charts and graphs detailing how awesome Nintendo is.*

This includes Iwata's new philosophy of the roles of Nintendo's gaming systems. The DS is now being seen as a "machine to enrich its owners' lives," in ways beyond gaming. Nintendo's plan for new DS-based utilities is an instantiation of this idea, allowing users to carry their DS systems around for many purposes, improving the quality of their lives. The Wii, on the other hand, is seen as the "Machine to put smiles on people surrounding it," meaning that entire households should be encouraged to interact with the Wii, even when not playing games. You are free, of course, to moan about this being the death of gaming or whatever.

Spreading happiness is the goal of the two new updates headed to the Wii. Check pages 6 and 7 for video of the gift-giving function of the Wii Shop Channel, which will work for both VC and Wii Ware games, and a demonstration of an early version of the TV Program Schedule Channel. It allows users to search by genre or keyword, and to mark their favorite programs with a color code.

*For an analysis of the charts and graphs detailing how awesome Nintendo is, check out this Gamasutra feature from our own Eric Caoili!

Nintendo has gone ahead and transcribed the entire management briefing, which consists of a rather large, and thankfully in-depth, question and answer section in which all aspects of the company are discussed. Iwata reiterated that we wouldn't see an exact release date and price for the Wii until in or before September, commented on increased R & D budgets, and proudly proclaimed his choice for the name Wii as the console's title.

OK guys, no more paraphrasing from me, you'll have to put in the work and read the rest yourselves.

[Update:Fine reader sotiri has informed us that an English transcript is freely available via Nintendo's Japanese site. The links have been adjusted and balance has been brought back to Nintendo Wii Fanboy.]