Wii U

Now with that context, another question for you. As consumers prepare to engage with Nintendo TVii, Brad, maybe you could help share a little bit as to what this experience is going to be like, from a linear TV perspective, from a DVR perspective, and from a video service perspective.

So the easy way to think about it is that each person who approaches the console will have established their own profile about what they love to watch. Then you're presented with all the sources, whether it's that show playing on television—live linear television—or that show's available from one of the video service providers you subscribe to on the console, or maybe you've recorded that show and it's sitting on your local DVR. So I would select the show, it would be presented then with the sources for where I can watch that show. If it's on linear television, simply tap the GamePad. The infrared that's built into the GamePad will actually fire off and change the channel for you and immediately you would see the show on television.

So that's an example right there where, because of the functionality built right into the GamePad, it allows this to happen, versus what other entities in the space are trying to do that don't necessarily have that built-in technology.

That's right. The infrared is a bridge builder across all of your entertainment solutions because they all use infrared. If we waited until it was a world when we were all digitally integrated, we'd wait a long time. That will come one day, but for now, the GamePad provides that great uniformity to control all my services.

The second thing is if I went to a television show that I wanted to watch and it wasn't available in linear television, but it was available through one of the video services on the console, then I would simply select that show from the brand that I choose to subscribe to or I want to purchase from, and we would then launch that video experience from the console itself. So you'd physically leave Nintendo TVii while we then launch that service and we'd take you directly to that program, so that you don't have to browse through the application to find it. You're simply taken directly to it and then you initiate the video playback from there.

Of course, if you've recorded that show already—maybe it was last night's episode—it's going to be on your DVR. And so selecting it from the GamePad at that point means that we'll actually digitally communicate with the TiVo unit that you own and we'll start the playback immediately from there. In the future, of course, we hope to add support for other DVRs, but in early 2013, you'll see the integration with TiVo.

That's great. One of the things that Brad touched on is the personalization piece and, Zach, maybe you could talk a little bit about that. You know, how is the personalization feature so different, so distinctive, and as a parent, why should I feel good about this new service?

Since Nintendo experiences are often used by the entire family, each Mii can create and manage their own profile. When you first enter Nintendo TVii, you set up your profile: the ways that you watch, content that you love, your social integration, and other settings as well.

Your profile is full of personalization. Favorite TV shows, movies, sports teams, social networks, favorite TV channels, and much more.

And then Nintendo TVii takes all your interests and makes finding and watching programs simple. First, Nintendo TVii tells you what, among your favorites, is on right now, is on in the near future, and what you've watched.

We've also added the ability for parents to implement parent controls. They can select maximum TV show and movie ratings that will appear in the program guide, as well as limit social interaction. So when the child is viewing the personalized program guide, Nintendo TVii displays content that is appropriate to the content ratings.

Yeah, this is great, because one of the things that we learned with our relationship with Netflix, for example, is Netflix for Kids was such a huge driver for us on the Wii platform, that by having this mechanism that now my kids, in a very controlled way, can find the content they love and be able to engage with. That really is a powerful idea.

Zach, one of the things that we talked about early on in terms of driving of vision for the product and the service was this idea of making every TV a smart TV and creating, effectively, a super remote. Touch on that a little bit in terms of why that's a powerful idea and why that was guiding us as we created Nintendo TVii.

Nintendo TVii's remote functionality delivers simplicity by offering control that spans the areas that Brad mentioned earlier: controlling linear TV, controlling your DVR, and being able to launch a video application and arrive at your desired program. So it's this super remote control that spans your cable or satellite box, your DVR, and Wii U applications.

Great. Masaki, as someone who worked on the technical aspects, anything else to add?

He pretty much covered it very well. This is about providing a one-stop shop for everyone watching TV. It's super easy and fun.