Nintendo Direct to explain Miiverse soon

Nintendo has promised to finally let us in on its Wii U network plans in an upcoming Nintendo Direct presentation.

Speaking to investors in a Q&A following its recent financial release, Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata said it would take "a long time to elaborate on Miiverse", which is expected to be the Nintendo Network's core answer to Xbox Live and the PlayStation Networks offering.

Although he offered a brief run down of the service's aims, Iwata said it will be explained in full in a Nintendo Direct presentation which is even now being prepared, and that it will go live at the Wii U's launch.

"After booting up Wii U, the screen we introduced as Mii Wara Wara will be automatically displayed with comments from other consumers enjoying Wii U. Also, without any specific development work, all Wii U games are supposed to be able to invoke Miiverse without being shut down and utilize basic functions of Miiverse," he said.

Iwata said making friends is "the important mission" of Miiverse and will replace the cumbersome Friend Code system.

"Here’s an example. Who has more opportunities to go drinking, a person with three drinking pals or one with 20? The same can be said for golf pals or traveling pals. Anyway, as you have more friends to enjoy something together with, you have more topics and experiences related to it and as a result, you will have more opportunities to invite them or be invited to enjoy it," he said.

"As Miiverse is not confined to dedicated gaming platforms and will be available on smart devices in the near future, we hope that, even on a train where many people are using smart devices, you will know how your gaming friends are enjoying their games."

The executive said thsis will help news about games extend beyond the core, hooked-in audience to more casual gamers.

"If you have more friends to play games with, you will inevitably have more chances to encounter new games. What is more, this will be caused not by publishers’ advertisements, but visualization of the feelings of those you have empathized with," he said.

"As there are many excellent but buried games in the world, and you must be impressed by some of them, the important mission of Miiverse is to create opportunities to let you know about such games without spending our finite advertising budget on it."

Finally, Miiverse grants Nintendo the chance to enable people to connect.

"Various people pointed out that playing Wii games alone was not as fun as playing them in a group. For Wii U, even when you are not with your family or friends, you can play games connected to various people around the world through Miiverse. We are aiming to have consumers enjoy Wii U with people even when they are physically alone," he said.

Iwata also said that Miiverse on smartphones and tablets is Nintendo's answer to the growing ubiquity of smart devices, rather than peddling old games on new devices.

Thanks, Joystiq.