Satoru Iwata, who recently dropped several bombshells at last weeks GDC event in San Francisco, has discussed the new DSi and the future of Nintendo’s handhelds in an interview with, er, Nintendo. Sitting down with Yasuhiro Nagata- the man responsible for the Mother/Earthbound series- Iwata has described what they saw as an increased demand from consumers for greater functionality within single portable devices. More inside.
Iwata wasn’t shy about his affection for Apple and their range of do-it-all portable gadgets like the iPhone, and talked about how such devices had an influence on the development process of the DSi hardware. But when pressed about whether the future of the DS may involve a phone, Iwata was starkly realistic- ‘Ha ha ha! Well, if our customers didn’t have to pay monthly fees, I wouldn’t mind. Right now, however, they would have to. That’s why the Nintendo DS family doesn’t have a phone.’ Check out the rest at Nintendo's DSi Website