"No one else can match the environment we're creating for expanding the game experience to everyone. Our path is not linear, but dynamic," said Iwata in a very forward-looking sound bite.
Comparing his company to Pepsi in the 1980s, Iwata illustrated how the cola company went from market leader to follow-up drink. Coke had Pepsi beaten with cola. So what did it do? Became number one with sports drinks (Gatorade), bottled water (Aquafina) and snack foods (Doritos). So, widening the audience meant more options to us and, of course, more money for them.
Above: Iwata demonstrates the DS wireless play at the 2005 Game Developers Conference
We all thought Nintendo DS was a two-screened nightmare, inferior to PSP in every way when it debuted. Now, the damn thing's sold 10 million units, the three Brain games have sold five million copies in Japan alone and the WiFi Connection has logged one million users in record time. Breaking the mold paid off.
And that's what Revolution should do, too. Its one-of-a-kind controller and gameplay-over-graphics approach could very easily suck up a whole new audience that hasn't played a game in years - or ever.
