Mistwalkers Hironobu Sakaguchi likes Zelda, not Wii Sports
March 17th, 2007
Mistwalkers Hironobu Sakaguchi sat down with GameSpot to discuss a number of things, the Wii being one of them. Take a look at a portion of the interview below.
GS: The Xbox 360 is the only console that currently has a really solid integrated online platform. The PlayStation 3 and Wii are certainly less fully featured in that sense. How important do you think the online stuff is for this generation of consoles and also for the games that you want to make?
HS: You know, when working at Square, I tried, or in fact, we tried to set up numerous servers and create live environments, but it was very costly, and the operations were very difficult. But Microsoft has solid ground in the online feature aspect. It has got the solid Live servers that developers, including myself, can rely on. So it makes it really easy for me to create games that cater to the audience that likes online connectivity.
GS: With this generation, Sony and Nintendo are doing different things from each other and also from Microsoft. Each has its own strategy this time. What do you think of their individual approaches? Do the things theyre doing make you want to develop for either of their systems?
HS: [in English] Ah, Kutaragi-sans architecture
seven DSPs and a low-powered CPU. I dont like the PS3s architecture.
[in Japanese] First off, with Sony, programmers want to do well and want to create good software, but Kutaragi-san makes the final call and [designs] the [hardware and software] environment himself. So thats been really challenging.
And with the Wii, the system is not that powerful, and its not HD. But the fact is that there are not a lot of homes that have HD TVs. So I feel, for example, at my place, the screen I have is not in HD. So when I play the games, both for the Wii and 360, its hard to tell the difference. But with the Wii, its relatively cheaper to make. Its less costly. So thats one of the attractive things about the Wii.
HS: [English] I like Zelda. I dont like Wii Sports. [laughs] But I do like Zelda.
GS: What dont you like about Wii Sports? Is it too simple?
HS: The characters are bad. They look like dolls