PS3 announcement 'will affect Nintendo', says Miyamoto

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has admitted that the recent announcements regarding the PS3 "will affect Nintendo" - but added that the company doesn't see itself as being in direct competition with Sony.

In an interview with the Guardian Games Blog, Miyamoto said: "Any announcement about PS3 will affect Nintendo. But we don't see it as a competition between the two consoles, although the customers always do."

"It depends on what expectations people have of the PS3 and Revolution. Sony has taken a long time to create their machine but it is obvious that the direction we are taking is different to the PS3."

Miyamoto reaffirmed Nintendo's commitment to creating games that have a wide appeal rather than attempting to compete in the technology stakes, stating: "For a long time now we have been concerned by the direction of the industry. Our competitors are talking about beefed-up graphics and better technology. We could fight in that area but we think it is not necessary and we would rather focus on what Nintendo can do uniquely."

"We want to get a balance between powerful CPUs or beautiful graphics and making the technology comfortable and appealing. We created the DS and Revolution with this philosophy and concept in mind."

Miyamoto also said that Nintendo is committed to online gaming, despite the difficulties involved: "Until recently we have felt that we couldn't make money out of online gaming. It has been very difficult for online games to become an authentic business in this industry."

"I am a game designer myself and what I want to do is make a variety of new games. If we have an online game I would have to spend all my time looking after one game," Miyamoto continued.

"There are a lot of hurdles to be crossed to run an online game but we have fixed some of these, such as ease of connection and security. Now that the Nintendo wi-fi service has done so well we are ready to develop it further."