In an interview with a Japanese game magazine, Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that he wishes Nintendo would have gone HD with the original Wii console, instead of the Wii U. He mentions that HD became very popular about 3 years before the company expected it to, which led to development of the Wii U in order to keep up with the HD craze.
He goes on to mention that the rapid change in technology from standard definition to high definition led Nintendo to be caught somewhat unaware, as they were in the middle of promoting the original Wii as Japanese TV sets were becoming HD sets. He says in America the transition was even faster, which would certainly explain why the last year or so of the Wii’s life was almost dead in the water.
“I felt like I wanted to go to HD sooner. Even for the Wii, no matter how much it made the system cost, it would have been great if it were HD in the first place. However, it was going to take some time for HD televisions to become common and we felt that until that point was reached, there would have been no point for Wii to be HD.
Nintendo is currently dealing with the growing pains of transitioning to HD content, as many of the studios biggest titles that were supposed to be released within the launch window of the Wii U have since been pushed back to summer and fall release. If you’re interested in reading the full translated review where Miyamoto discusses Pikmin 3 as well, you can find it here.
