Iwata hints at desire to return to game development

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has announced that he's recently considered getting back into game development - but said he's too busy concentrating on his business role for the time being.

In an interview with MTV, Iwata said: "Recently I have gained a little bit of interest in getting more involved in game development again." However, he added, at present all his spare time is take up with preparing speeches.

Iwata went on to defend the number of sequels Nintendo releases for popular franchises such as Mario Party, stating: "We have a very large fanbase of people who expect to see sequels to those games."

"It is our responsibility to meet the expectations of that fanbase, but in doing so, the one thing we absolutely focus on with every one of those sequels is finding ways to innovate within that franchise."

"If all we were to ever do is just continue to make sequels and not do anything new or different, people would view us as a very conservative company and a company that is unwilling to really take new initiatives and embark on new adventures. That's not the type of person I am and not the kind of company I want Nintendo to be."

Turning to the Nintendo Revolution, Iwata confirmed that further "unique features" of the console will be announced at this year's E3.

"Up until now, we've seen when there's a video game console in the home, there's people who play the video game console, but then there's a distinct wall," he said.

"There's people in the house that don't play video games whatsoever. And when people see what we have to offer at E3, they're going to understand that that wall's been broken down and we now have created a system that's going to allow for a much, much larger user base than any system we've seen before."