1UP: My final question is for all of you: Hudson has become increasingly involved in downloadable games, and I wonder — could you see a point where you could be one of the first “old guard” game companies to go completely digital?
Takahashi Meijin: Based on my own experience, what I remember fondly is when I saw the kids who grew up on the NES. They would get the actual cartridge, write their name on it, and then sort of have a swap meet with their friends. They had this agreement based on their friendship: “Well, we have these limited resources; I have this much money, you have this much — why don’t we share what we’re going to buy?” I think that is one way to make sure that kids don’t become completely digitally isolated from real people and real friends, because when you can just download and not really see anyone, you lose that personal touch. My prediction — or hope, really — is that we don’t become completely digital, because that will take that personal feeling from the gaming experience. But I do predict that half of the titles released in the future will be digital.
Kazufumi Shimizu: When we package a game, we’re not just working on the game, but also on the manual, the disc label, and what visual you get when you first open the game. We spend a lot of time on the package, and we really think about the experience of when people are really excited to open a game. I hope that never goes away. Much like with CDs, yes, it becomes easier to buy a CD or game at the touch of a button, and it’s great and convenient. But I think that the gamer’s experience of grabbing your cash and running out to the physical store, and then to grab that game in your hand, just doesn’t compare to doing it with the touch of a button and not really seeing the transaction. If you experience that once, you remember what it’s like, and you don’t get the same sensation from buying it off the internet. Much like Meijin, I do predict that a lot of titles will go digital, because it is cost-effective and convenient, but my hope is that also we can keep the real human experience that comes with gaming, and I hope that won’t go away by digitizing everything.
Takahashi Meijin: Sony has the PSP Go now, but I predict that the sales of the regular PSP that accepts discs will probably still be higher, because I think that people still do want both functions. If you’re listening to music, you’re probably buying a little more on iTunes than before, but you still want both.
Mike Pepe: From an American perspective… well, America is where most of our digital download development happens. We do have some WiiWare development back in Japan, but most of the XBLA, PSN, and also some WiiWare titles are being developed here in North America. Some games are probably better off as digital download than in retail. For instance, Bomberman — Bomberman, in the U.S. at retail, probably maxed out at something like 100,000 units [sold] for one title. Then take Bomberman Live for the 360, which is well over half a million units right now. It kind of found its niche. The same goes for [Bomberman] Ultra. Ultra is doing very well on PSN, even though the audience on PS3 is much smaller than on 360. But then you take it to a platform; what platforms are good for downloads? Not Wii right now; Wii doesn’t have the hard drive that 360 and PS3 do. So I think you’re going to see some platforms have better results as digital downloads, such as 360 and PS3. We’re going to see more games actually leave retail and go to digital download.
Whereas with Wii, you have a different platform, different specs, and then you also have a different customer. Wii has a very casual customer base, where they’re not getting a lot [of users downloading]. I mean, we go to tons of shows where we’re showing off 360, PS3, and WiiWare games, and people are like “wow, I’m going to go buy this in the store!” And we’re like, “well, you can’t go buy it at the store, but you can go home and download it.” “Really? How do I do that?” “It’s called WiiWare…” And you have to educate them that you can actually go buy this from your home and download it there. That’s an example of someone who would just like to go and buy a physical product, and that’s actually what Nintendo is catering to right now. Again, I think [with] some platforms, you’re going to see more digital download than retail, and then others you’ll see far more into retail than digital. I know that’s kind of a political, standing-on-the-fence way [of putting it], but there are some types of games that are going to be much more suited for digital download.
Read the full interview at 1up
-Justin
