Iwata promises to continue to surprise customers

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said that the key to attracting new gaming audiences is to surprise them with new entertainment ideas.

Iwata was discussing how Nintendo could "do the easy" by creating great products and sequels to popular games, but it wouldn't necessarily mean reaching new customers.

"Our mission is to surprise people in a good way, and this became very clear as we made Nintendo DS and Wii. You can't open up a new market of customers if you can't surprise them," he said in an interview on Shigesato Itoi's blog.

"Even if we make great products, if the number of new customers doesn't increase, it won't reach people. That was clear to us, so doing the easy was not an option," revealed Iwata.

But Iwata was honest in admitting if the company wasn't currently enjoying the global success its found with the Wii and DS, it would fall back on safer sequels to make easy money.

"I think we can say 'we won't do the easy' because we are currently making profit," he commented.

"If we were having a hard time, maybe we will choose the easy, so that we can make profit for certain."

Discussing sequels to popular games such as Wii Sports, Iwata said that taking the easy route of adding polish and a few extra features wasn't the way to deliver new entertainment experiences.

"If you start making such decisions without thinking, you start doing the easy stuff. You disengage yourself with the pursuit of true entertainment," he said.