Interview with Kiyoshi Saruwatari

2 months ago, I asked Saruwatari for make him some questions. He accepted. But, the 2nd part of the interview wasn't answered. So, I will post only the first questions. If you reed the interview with osoko tanaka that I have, you can see many same questions.


2006/6/11, Link Tortus :


Hi "Kiyoshi"!
Here is TorTus.
Sorry if my english isn't too good. ;P I hope you can understand me well.
I like your attitude, now, we will see if you can approve the quality tests
(XD). Here wii go!


-First of all, are you working inside Nintendo? why a Nintendo Insider is
blogging info of the Wii?


Yes Im working at Nintendo. I think it's wrong of Nintendo to keep all information to try and build up hype. I want to give more information to all the loyal fans that just want something to talk about. But I only give info on patented things so Nintendo wont suffer from it.



- If you're a Ninty's employed, how the hell can you post all that info? It's too
much info for a Nintendo's employed (who are always very busy) You surely have a lot of work. And maybe you're watched. Don't?


Yeah, I could be watched but noone inside Nintendo (except me) known who I am. Because Kiyoshi Saruwatari is not my real name and I use special software to hide my IP. And it's not too much info for a Nintendo employee, most of us know a lot on Wii.


-Have you met Reggie or Matt in person? do you speak or chat with 'em?


I haven't met Matt but I've met Reggie several times. We dont really know each other well, but he's very friendly and has much humor. I've met Miyamoto and Iwata more times and Miyamoto is really nice to just sit down and chat a little about everyday life.


-If you finish as a fake when Nintendo reveals all about Wii, what will you
do?


I wont finish as a fake. But if I was a fake I would tell all of you right now and then close my blog.


-PS3 and 360 will have great graphics... very, very beautiful graphics. Will
Wii have the same quality of graphics as KillZone 2, Gears of War, Elder
Scrolls, Sonic the Hedgehog?


Im not really sure how good all those games look, but if they look as good as the rest of the PS3 and Xbox 360 games - no Wii will not look as good. But it will come very, very close and this is amazing with its $199 price tag and size.


-Oh, I reed another developer studio (not HAL) is developing Super
Smash Bros Brawl. And you said that HAL is developing SSBB... to who
will we believe? to Nintendo or to you?


This is embarrasing because I think you have corrected me on this one. The correct fact is that SSBB will be developed by Sora Ltd. The head for the company and also the director of SSBB is Masahiro Sakurai, who used to be a large name of HAL, but quit a while ago. So you can see where the misstake was made.


-Which was the name of the project that had the ideas and development
studios of the Wii-mote?

The name was 自由, which mean free.


-When was the idea of the Wii-mote became to be used on Wii? I know that
Iwata talked about a date, and I know too that some ideas are in development
for years. But, about what Iwata said… which one is the RIGHT date (not only
the one that Iwata said): mid 2004, last 2004 or begins 2005? Who was the
one that exposed the idea of the controller?

That would be mid 2004, but I believe it was earlier. If you mean by exposing the unveiling it was Iwata who showed the controller to the world.


-Which was the name of the project that had the ideas and development
studios of the speaker in the Wii-mote? Btw, (month if you can) when did
Nintendo realized to put this speaker in the Wii-mote?


The name of that project was 実現することを鳴りなさい, which means something like "sound to see". Nintendo decided to use the speaker not too long ago, more precisely March 2006.


-Do you know something about Mr. Inc? He really knew the secret of the
speaker? (the secret above the buttons "a" and "b", now called "1" and "2").
The game "No End Soon" really exists?


I dont know much about him, but I believe he was a real insider. As you say, he predicted some secrets correctly, though I've never heard of the game "No End Soon" before he mentioned it.


-If you're working only in the hardware area, how do you know info about
some games?


Well, I have a large passion for games and we believe that the best way to develop great hardware is to tailer it to the software. This means that the "hardware people" tries the games and see how the ideas work really. Also, we work closely with software departements and developers to exchange information to each other how to optimise our work. Nintendo is like no other game developer. We develop our hardware for our software.

And though my connection to the Nintendo software teams I also hear a lot about what other developers are doing, and I also have presentations with them where we tell them what you can do with our hardware.

-For a moment, I will believe that you're real. What about "RS"? We can see
that may be Nintendo had something with this name. I think this is why
Ubisoft is developing a game called Red Steel (RS). What does this mean? Is
this the name of a project inside Nintendo? I got the info that RS is
"Reality Simulation", and this is the name of the project that became to
reality the DS and Wii. BTW, I want to know from your words, when did this
project (Wii-DS or RS) begun?


No, but RS used to be the codename of Wii. It was short for Revolutionairy System, before it was changed to Revolution. It was used early in the development process.

Wii and DS dont come from a single project but rather an entire philosophy that we have now adopted at Nintendo. The philosophy is to make fresh and new things that are different. And we make this with such a finish that the final hardware works great for most traditional software, as well as great new gameplay.


-What will reveal Nintendo at TGS? Will they have the Wii in this expo for
people to play it?


I dont know exactly what Nintendo will reveal since Im not in marketing, and they usually keep quiet. But I think you can expect a great deal of new things, and confirms of what I've already posted on my blog. Wii will be playable to showcase some of the new tehnology.



For the moment, this is all. I ask you to don't post this questions and
answers in your blog now, not now. May be I will do more questions based in
your answers. Well, the point is to wait to post the questions until the session is finish. OK?

But he didn't answer the other questions, so, I post 'em there.

the other questions are:

--I thought you ran away, now, I hope not, but well, I have more questions…

--so, isn't it a plan from Nintendo to build hype? are you working alone, then?

--Well, and you, (an employed of Nintendo) that surely has a lot of work, have you time to post all that? and read all the comments? And reply ‘em? I see this very strange.

--So, how great the graphics of the Wii can be (i.e. compared with Super Smash Bros Brawl)?

-- Sorry, surely I did a mistake with my english. When Nintendo said "oh yeah, we will use this free-hand controller in Revolution"?. Iwata said a date when they decided to use it...
And who said "I have this idea for the controller, it’ll be used only with one hand"?
And the idea of the nunchuck of who is?

-- So, Mr. Inc was a real insider, uh? the price that he said about the SDKs is correct?

-- And do you know any info about second and third parties games?

-- RS was first used by Pablo Belmonte in the ON video before all people talked about "RS" and in this moment the console was named Revolution. As I can remember. So, according to that, I can say that strongly Pablo Belmonte is an insider or had insider info.


-- When did begun the project of the Wii? Did it begun at the same time that the DS Project?

-- Besides the new secret of the Wii that you talk about in your blog, is there any other feature of the Wii that we don't know about?



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--Tortus
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