PART FIVE

Q: So kits are already being given to third parties?
M: It's going fine. The chips are working fine and everything. We're using them, too.
Q: I see. Thank you.
M: They're pretty inexpensive. I think they're the most inexpensive devkits we've ever released. And I don't think we'll need to make as many as before. There's only one CG CAD tool necessary. Well.. if you want something really extravagant, you can group a bunch of tools together, but basically development costs will be about a tenth of the N64 costs; that's very poor budgeting on my part, but (laughs) I think it'll be under a tenth. Our managers are really happy about that. He asked if that kind of estimate is for real, but he signed off on it anyway. He signed off even though it's a whole digit off from five years ago, so it's probably all right.
Q: Is that just part of development, or a total figure?
M: A total figure, yes. This is how we experience it, so it's definitely not a lie. You can't write it, but (laughs).

Q: Out of the five titles for the Gamecube, which ones are you deeply involved with, Mr. Miyamoto?
M: Five of them (laughs). I don't know if it'll be five, or six, or seven, but I'm involved in all of them, so there's that many.
Q: Are there any you're particularly involved with?
M: Not really. More like, how much can I reduce the paperwork I have, sort of thing. (laughs). Of course, I have to do things like the demos yesterday.

Q: How much do you think the Gamecube will cost?
S: To be honest, it's still undecided. We've obviously gone away from cartridges, so the materials will be that much cheaper. There's no worry about that, but if it comes to me... Miyamoto says this too, but I think it'd be best to base prices on the value of the game. But that's the opinion of the creator, after all. As a company we have to balance the price with how many we want to sell, and we have our own costs too, so we will announce that at a more pertinent time.
Q: Will it be shooting up?
M: Well, I'd like to make games that are good enough to merit the price shooting up. If we had free media, like Aibo, I bet we could sell them at 250,000 yen too. (laughs). Really. I think it's really like that. What I'm afraid of are the makers waging price wars, reducing the system prices, and when that happens, the software will go to 980 yen and everyone's out of business. In the N64 days, we really didn't want to sell games for 9800 yen but we had to. I think prices have matured greatly now, as a result. But, still, if we sold games at 1900 yen everyone would die. On the other hand, if you come up with an idea that you can sell at 1900 yen and profit, that's a different story. Yamauchi's been telling me to do some monthly series, but I find that pretty tiring. You can sell that at 1980 yen, then. That's why, in the purest fashion, I want to do business based on the value of games, but that's beginning to fall apart. What happened in England five or six years ago is about to happen in America, although it hasn't quite reached Japan yet. That's why I want fathers to be able to buy software for their kids. Giving 2900 yen to your kid for a game is no fun, but if you can play it with him, then I think even 10,000 yen is fine. Right now I think Samba de Amigo is the greatest game ever. (laughs)

Q: The Gamecube's coming out next year, but how will the Nintendo 64 develop after this?
S: It'll keep on going. Things made this year will come out, but the Gamecube is coming out in July, and of course that's all Miyamoto is doing (laughs). I'm always saying this, and Miyamoto, who's usually working on 20 things at any one time, says this a lot too, but he definitely won't be saying "OK, the Gamecube's out. Let's go to something N64 now" or anything.
M: Maybe it's better if I answer. To put it another way, a little while ago I had to give up on something that really pained me to do so on, but if I didn't give it up then there's no way anything else could have been done. That title will come out. Conceptually it'll be out next week. Next week I think it'll be taking place, but really, everyone's buying millions of the cutting-edge machines, and not that many were made, and I know there're still more Super Famicoms being played out there. I'm not worried about it, but. So as far as the stores go, what's number-one to me is what's going on sale next year. Whether that's N64 or Gamecube or GB Advance, as far as the user's concerned there's already lots of carts available at the store. There's lots of new titles, too. I think we'll be OK, but.
S: As you saw in the show, our demos were filled mostly with characters everyone knows, and that's what we're keeping most important. We're not worrying as much about the hardware behind it. As N64 goes, there are definitely more titles coming out for it.
M: Can I do all the PR about the amazing titles we have in store? (laughs)

Q: About the GB Mobile System, I saw that a specialized homepage was being prepared for it, but will things like GB-specific tags for homepages, or image capabilities be made available?
M: I'll let PR handle that.
S: Well, as far as distribution methods go, we haven't talked at all about homepage creation yet, so it's a little difficult to answer that right now. As far as the Mobile Adapter goes, it's in the show, but it's mostly in the Pokemon Crystal section so children can understand what it's about easily, so you might want to take a look there. It might depend on your magazine's audience, but we're showing it in the simplest manner possible, so if it's possible for all of you to introduce it in the same fashion... Basically, there'll be mail servers, routers, I think news releases will also be available, but as I mentioned earlier, Nintendo is most concerned about how to use the system for play, so right now it's at the point where you can play Pokemon Crystal and trade Pokemon with people far away, so once the service is more focused, we will announce the details at that time.
Q: Thank you.

S: We're almost out of time, but are there any more questions?
Q: I noticed that there were no Landnet DD [64DD system] games shown.
S: Unfortunately, the timing of the show did not match the development of Landnet DD games, so we could not show anything this year. What about the Gamecube?
M: With the broadband adapter, as I said earlier, people will wonder if this isn't really a multimedia machine. (laughs) That's the key feature, but it's already all set. And, as Hagishima mentioned earlier, we're not intending to do any PR like "Connect to the Internet and do anything you want, even with the Mobile Adapter". Right now, all we're saying is that a connector's coming out. However, naturally we're working with hosts, trying to get things together. So look forward to more announcements. Right now, though, there's nothing to say, so no PR's taking place.

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