Nintendo President Says 3DS Is Social, Creates Relationships

Nintendo has been accused of having missed the social gaming wave that is currently sweeping the industry, but the leader of the company believes that both the consoles it creates and the video games it launches are designed to allow gamers to create connections with others and then play together.

Speaking to investors after his company announced the 3DS price cut, Satoru Iwata, who is the president of Nintendo, said “The keyword 'social' has rapidly become very popular in these last two years and some say that Nintendo may be behind the social age.”

He added, “They might mean that Nintendo, uninterested in so-called social games from a business standpoint, fails to ride on the boom of social games. However, I have a totally opposite view - Nintendo has been a company attaching a high value to human relationships for a long time.”

The executive went on to deliver a sort history lesson about Nintendo, saying that the roots it has in the playing cards business make it interested in creating human connections with its video games and its consoles.

But Nintendo continues to be distrustful of the virtual social networks, like Facebook, because, says Iwata, the company does not know whether there is a clear connection between real-world communities and online ones.

In the new Nintendo 3DS handheld, the company has introduced two new features, called SpotPass and StreetPass, that are designed specifically to allow players to contact other gamers as long as they have the device with them, even if it is turned off.

But Nintendo is still careful about making it easy for those who use its devices to insulate themselves from others and there's less of a virtual community built around the Wii than around the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

The company has not talked about how friend lists and multiplayer gaming will work on the upcoming Wii U home console.