Wii U

I wanted to take the opportunity to ask what kinds of tests you did for the Internet Browser. Testing a browser seems like it would be cumbersome and a lot of work.

We visited all sorts of different websites, and checked carefully to see whether they display and function properly.

Hmm. When it comes to ordinary computer browsers, in most cases they go live with the public beta¹⁶ and say, "Please let us know if there are any problems." Right? But game consoles can't do things that way. And there are as many websites are stars in the sky... 16. Public beta: Releasing a beta to the public while still in development, and getting the public to lend a hand in testing it out.

The experiences with the Nintendo 3DS Internet Browser did come in handy here, but I spoke with Sasaki-san and we decided that we really would need to test it out for a minimum of six months.

You tested it for six months? But didn't the websites change in that time?

Right. With websites, even though they may look the same, a lot of changes are being made and reflected to the site from the server. The more popular the website, the more likely this tends to be the case. HTML is an industry standard, so you would think that everything should be fine as long as you're following those standards. However, that's not the case in real life. Each browser renders HTML specifications differently, and many websites are made with technology before such a standard was made. It was a bit of a vicious cycle, but we tested everything over and over again.

Hearing you talk about this, I would think you would need an insane amount of manpower for this. (laughs)

You would be correct. (laughs) During peak time we had over 30 people test more than 5,000 websites. Of course we tried to mechanize it as much as possible, but there was only so much we could do with certain sites...

You could use a machine to test for an error in going to a webpage, but you couldn't do much else.

That's right. And we also needed personnel to check those errors. We actually had the testers visit and verify each website with their own eyes, and made sure there wasn't any issues when comparing it to how they are displayed on a standard browser. In order for people to feel safe using our Internet Browser, we needed to do a thorough, at least, six months of testing and make sure our security was as tight and that it was as stable as possible. That's what we worked hard to do.

That makes sense. Finally, could each of you tell me why you want people to use this?

I'll go first. Since this browser involved a large touchscreen, I think that would be considered its main control method. We made it so that many people can use most of the browser's functions with just the touch controls with ease. On the other hand, physical buttons like the +Control Pad are for those who're accustomed to traditional gaming controls, and even for those who are not, we also thought of the physical buttons as a way for users to be able to gradually control the browser more easily as they get used to it.

What functions have you assigned to the buttons like the +Control Pad?

It's made so you can navigate it as if it was a video game. The +Control Pad toggles the focus, the L and R Sticks will adjust the zoom on the entire website, and the A Button is the confirm button.

Of all the built-in applications, I think the Internet Browser is the only one with this much buttons that can be used with it. Like pressing the L Stick will hide the tool bar, which will give more room to display the website.

Is it like you can make new discoveries the more you use it?

I think so. I think it has turned out to be an application that has depth yet easy to get into, so all sorts of people from beginners to experts can enjoy its ease of use. Also, thanks to a JavaScript extension, which is unique to Wii U, websites can detect the buttons and gyro sensor used by the Wii U GamePad.

In other words, people building websites will be able to build sites that take advantage of all the capabilities Wii U GamePad allows them.

That's right. I'd like people to be aware that building a site for Wii U GamePad will offer them vastly improved functionality, and to take advantage of that.

Site builders may be able to do something really interesting with a few tweaks.

We tried it out a lot at the office. For example, if you have a site with a map and if you can make it so that the Wii U players can use the analog stick to zoom in and out on the map, the operation becomes very smooth. It's a totally different style from the mouse or touch screen we've had up until now, and it felt really new.

That makes sense. In the same way that we've seen a lot of sites formatted specifically for smartphones now that smartphones are so common, perhaps as more people browse with their Wii U, we'll have a lot of sites formatted for it.

Yes, It would be great to see a lot more of those sites. Also, in the sense that this is from Nintendo, a Mii is displayed on the lower left side of the Wii U Game Pad screen. There's a lot of meaning to this Mii.

Wii U supports multiple user accounts, so it displays the Mii of the current user, right?

Right. We also made it so that the Mii would represent the user's feelings, like when a website would take a while to load the Mii would nod its head, and if it takes a really long time to load it would fall asleep! The Mii would sometimes also tell you about some hidden features. And, if you take a closer look at the Mii, you can tell that it's holding a book. By touching the Mii, the bookmark will open. The bookmark is designed like an actual book, so I'd like people to keep a collection of their favorite websites.

Sasaki-san, what about you?

I didn't really go into this today, but Nintendo European Research and Development SAS France (NERD)¹⁷ helped us with our video player and Nintendo Software Technology (NST)¹⁸ helped with WebKit's JavaScript JIT¹⁹, so this new Internet Browser really came about with help from so many different people outside the company. 17. Nintendo European Research and Development SAS France (NERD): Development subsidiary of Nintendo located in Paris, France.

18. NST (Nintendo Software Technology): Development subsidiary of Nintendo located in Washington state.

19. JavaScript JIT: A technology to run JavaScript programs at high speed.

NERD has a number of skilled engineers with experience and expertise in video playback technology, and they have helped us to resolve various problems we encountered around video playback. By the way, partway during development you also received the JavaScript JIT that was being developed for another project, right? (laughs) Building a browser is a huge undertaking, but sticking with it opens up all kinds of possibilities. I really felt that was the case this time.

That's right. It's really deep. Technologies like this have so many applications, and the more you work with it, the more skilled you get. If we're counting from the Nintendo DS system, this is Nintendo's fifth Internet Browser, and I really hope a lot of people use it.

I want a variety of different people to experience the convenience of this function so that they can very casually use it, even to a point of almost not noticing that they are surfing with a video game device and, furthermore, we want to prove to them through this Wii U Internet Browser that browsing itself can be an entertainment. Thank you both so much for coming today.

Thank you very much.