Atsushi Inaba talks about game-making on the Wii

We didn’t expect this to come out from an interview about God Hand for the PS2, but it’s nice to know he’s got next-gen in his mind. Atsushi Inaba, head of the recently-closed Clover Studio, talked to Wired News about God Hand, but also took the chance to reveal his thoughts on the Wii.

At the end of the interview, Wired News asks Inaba, “Would you like to make a Wii game or does that go against the notion of making games for hardcore gamers?” His answer showed a lot of thought into the process of making games for the Wii, given Nintendo’s own history of game-making; he says that making games for the Wii would be difficult.

Before the fanboys start running towards Inaba (or myself) with pitchforks, it would be good to see his reasoning. He says that the initial reaction towards the Wiimote control scheme was positive, but he knows that those demos were only for short bursts. Gamers, however, aren’t necessarily the type to play in short bursts. “Whether you can make a game for Wii that somebody’s going to be able to play for an hour or two hours, nobody really knows,” he explains. “If we were to make a game for the Wii, we’d have to think about how to make it inside of that context.”

It might not be completely positive, but it does give us hope that Inaba-san will keep an eye on next-gen gaming for the Wii. In the meantime, he’s probably going to watch the launches of the Wii and PS3 and see what he can improve on, based on the first generation games of each console.

We didn’t expect this to come out from an interview about God Hand for the PS2, but it’s nice to know he’s got next-gen in his mind. Atsushi Inaba, head of the recently-closed Clover Studio, talked to Wired News about God Hand, but also took the chance to reveal his thoughts on the Wii.

At the end of the interview, Wired News asks Inaba, “Would you like to make a Wii game or does that go against the notion of making games for hardcore gamers?” His answer showed a lot of thought into the process of making games for the Wii, given Nintendo’s own history of game-making; he says that making games for the Wii would be difficult.

Before the fanboys start running towards Inaba (or myself) with pitchforks, it would be good to see his reasoning. He says that the initial reaction towards the Wiimote control scheme was positive, but he knows that those demos were only for short bursts. Gamers, however, aren’t necessarily the type to play in short bursts. “Whether you can make a game for Wii that somebody’s going to be able to play for an hour or two hours, nobody really knows,” he explains. “If we were to make a game for the Wii, we’d have to think about how to make it inside of that context.”

It might not be completely positive, but it does give us hope that Inaba-san will keep an eye on next-gen gaming for the Wii. In the meantime, he’s probably going to watch the launches of the Wii and PS3 and see what he can improve on, based on the first generation games of each console.