A box to play Mario

From the latest Iwata Asks…

Iwata:In Nintendo’s past history, (Hiroshi) Yamauchi-san has said, “The hardware is just a box you buy only because you want to play Mario games.” Those were his exact words. (laughs)

Miyamoto:I remember that! (laughs)

Iwata:Though the way he said it may be a bit rough around the edges, it was a very easy-to-understand explanation of the business model at the time.

Business model at the time?

Then what is this?

Or this?

And I don’t understand why what Yamauchi said is considered ‘rough around the edges’. A game console is just a box people buy in order to play video games. Sounds right on to me.

No one bought the DS because of Pictochat. Once people got tired of it, they never used pictochat again.

No one bought a Wii for the Miis or the Weather Channel.

So it is very likely no one will buy a 3DS for these ‘features’ built on it.

I don’t want my hardware to be charming. I don’t want it to be cute, to play little cutesey tunes, or to ask me about my day. I just want to play games.

The name of the game is games. Why doesn’t Nintendo say that anymore?