Iwata Asks is a series of interviews conducted by former Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata with key creators behind the making of Nintendo games and hardware.





Wii U: Internet Browser

Hiding It Becomes a Strong Point

Iwata

Today I'd like to talk about the Internet Browser, which comes standard in the Wii U console. Browser technology changes so quickly, and I'm sure there was a lot of drama before completing it. Please start off with introducing yourselves.

Sasaki

I'm Sasaki, from the Software Development & Design Department. I put the original team together and was in charge of overseeing the entire project, until the second half when I turned direction over to Tsuda-san, while I controlled the technological aspects.

Iwata

Sasaki-san, you were in charge of the Internet Browser for the Nintendo 3DS system, right?

Sasaki

That's right. I was involved with the Nintendo 3DS first, and then halfway through I began working on both simultaneously.

Iwata

Thank you very much. Now, Tsuda-san.

Tsuda

I'm Tsuda, from the Software Development & Design Department. As you just heard, I was the director, which meant I was in charge of specification generation and collaboration with the other companies.

Iwata

Thank you. Sasaki-san, could you tell me how you assembled the team and how development started?

Sasaki

All right. For me, I would say that it started when we began simultaneous development with the browser on Nintendo 3DS. But since Wii U has higher specs, we began with the idea "Let's make a browser that users can use on a daily basis, something that can really handle everything we've come to expect from a browser and do it more naturally."

We began development with two outside partners, Access1, a company using cutting-edge technology based on WebKit2, and HAL Laboratory3 for the UI4 as with the Nintendo 3DS. 1. Access Co., Ltd.: The company offers a cloud service, and performs research and development of software and integrated browsers for cell phone handsets and specialized devices. Began in 1984.

2. WebKit: The term for a group of open-source HTML rendering engines developed by Apple, among other entities.

3. HAL Laboratory, Inc.: A video game developer that has worked on such products as the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series. Satoru Iwata once served this company as president. Also called Haruken in short in Japanese.

4. UI (User Interface): The look and feel of the screen, windows, and menu etc., when operating a computer.

Iwata

You told me that the original theme you had imagined was "We want to make something that you can use then and there if you suddenly want to look something up while you're playing with your Wii U."

Sasaki

That's right. These days it's become common for people to use their computer or smartphone while watching TV, and we wanted users to be able to do the same with their Wii U.

Iwata

Those who are reading this interview may have their laptop computers and tablets by their side in sleep mode. Sasaki-san and myself are among those types of people, but that doesn't mean all the Wii U customers will have an environment like that. We talked about how users may find it beneficial if you were able to look something up on the Internet really quick without having to stop gameplay. By the way, what did you think was most important when you thought about being able to browse the web on Wii U?

Sasaki

Many things, but to give one example, I thought, "Being able to watch video smoothly will definitely be a really important point here." Up until now, the Internet was mostly about being able to read text, but I think that lately a lot more people are using it to watch video.

Iwata

I have this impression that Nintendo too has increased the number of contents that contain videos, including the Nintendo Direct5 videos. It's common to browse the Internet with such devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets, but TVs are made for watching videos, so they should be a perfect fit for watching video files. 5. Nintendo Direct: A series of Internet broadcasts by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata regarding the latest game related news from Nintendo. Nintendo of America President and COO, Reggie Fils-Aime present the broadcasts for the North America region. For more info, visit the Nintendo Direct website.

Sasaki

Yes, exactly.

Iwata

Of course there have been many devices with Internet browser features for the TV, but I didn't think any of them have really been quite right. Here at Nintendo, we put the Internet Browser on Wii, but candidly speaking it was never quite what it could be.

Sasaki

The challenge this time was to find an answer to the question: "What is a browser that the people can use on a daily basis on the TV?"

Iwata

And there was also the idea of how to use the asymmetrical screens, in terms of the Wii U console and the Wii U GamePad that are far apart from each other. I'd like to hear what Tsuda-san has to say about that aspect.

Tsuda

All right. I joined in spring of last year, and at that point we were still in the midst of developing the Internet Browser for Nintendo 3DS. At first Sasaki-san said to me, "I'll work on the technology, so I want you to get the specs together."

Iwata

That's a bit of a challenge. It was quite a request! (laughs)

Tsuda

The question of how to best utilize the two screens was already the main idea at that point. We thought about ways like connecting two screens in one like on Nintendo 3DS, and tried showing two different websites on each screen. But we came to the decision comparatively quickly that it would be easiest for the users if the TV and the screen in your hands showed the same thing. That's because we thought that for one, the browser would be controlled using the Wii U GamePad, so it needed to be usable without the TV, and that we wanted to use the TV in a way so everybody could look at webpages at the same time, and for watching videos. Although, because TVs can be viewed by a group, but the Wii U GamePad is for one person to hold in his or her hand, we needed to add the ability to multi-task, in order to make it possible to play a video on the TV and do something different on the screen in your hands.

Iwata

So you mean that normally the two screens show the same thing, but if you want to, you can use the screens separately?

Tsuda

Yes. Although we ran into all sorts of problems when it came down to making that happen, in terms of its easiness to control, and other things.

Iwata

If you forced that separation and made it really complicated, you lose the point of it.

Tsuda

So one of the ideas that came up was "Why don't we hide what's on the TV screen?"

Iwata

Oh, and that's how that curtain6 came about where you're able to hide things. 6. Curtain: The Wii U Internet Browser has the capability to temporarily hide the Internet Browser on the TV screen behind a curtain.

Tsuda

Yes, that's the function of the curtain. I thought that there was a strength in the ability to hide the screen when the content didn't need to be shown to other people.

Iwata

That's a groundbreaking idea there. We usually focus on being able to do things together, but not showing that screen becomes one of the great merits of having a two screen set up. But did the other staff members agree when you first explained it to them?

Tsuda

Not at first. So I read up on things, also as a way to further my knowledge, and used HTML7 and JavaScript8 to make a demo on the computer which showed the two screens. 7. HTML (HyperText Markup Language): A markup language developed for displaying web pages.

8. JavaScript: A computer language for putting together moving pictures, and performing various calculations and information searching on a website.

Iwata

And after you actually had people look at it, did everyone understand?

Tsuda

Yes, for the most part. But I think that Sasaki-san was a bit confused by it...

Sasaki

I may have looked it. (laughs) Because despite my smile, I was thinking, "How are we technically going to make that happen?"

Everyone

(laughs)

Iwata

What was it that made it so difficult, from a technical point of view?

Sasaki

Showing a webpage takes a lot of memory. These days, computers and smart devices9 have a huge amount of memory, which is meant to be shared between multiple applications. For example, if it's affecting usability like a lack of memory, it's often left it up to the user, like a message telling you to close a certain application. 9. Smart device: A collective name for items like smartphones and tablet devices.

Iwata

Right.

Sasaki

But I didn't think we could do that with a Nintendo product. Having worked so long to make hardware features, I have a personal policy to make something that customers can use without having to go to any trouble on their end...

Iwata

And this browser has a tab browsing10 feature, and that also uses more memory. 10. Tab browsing: A feature that displays multiple websites in a single window.

Sasaki

Right, even though we have more memory, the amount of memory we can use for the browser is limited compared to a PC, so we've worked in ways that efficiently allocates the available memory per tab. To work on this, the experience working on the browser for the Nintendo 3DS system under a limited memory constraint helped us greatly.

Iwata

Even though a lot of features were added, the last thing you want it to say is, "Not enough memory. Please close and re-boot."

Sasaki

Right. And because Wii U is a game system, the games must come first. The thing we really envisioned was being able to use the Internet Browser while playing a game...

Iwata

There would be no point if console functionality dropped just for a browser that shoehorned in during the middle of a game.

Sasaki

Exactly. These days browser technology requires all sorts of advanced capabilities, so we were only able to achieve simultaneous performance with a video game after a lot of conflict between the two.