Despite the extensive knowledge of third parties, the fact remains that the Wii U is completely new hardware that requires a learning period no matter who you are. Iwata explained that the final version of Wii U dev kits weren't available until the later half of 2012, after which all developers working on the hardware had to undergo a trail-and-error phase. Nintendo was no exception, hence the lack of "hardware-pushing" first-party software out the gate.

"I think that this [trial-and-error stage] is true for third-party software developers as well as Nintendo's," Iwata noted. "The home consoles of other companies are six or seven years old and software developers have sufficiently studied them and know how to take full advantage of them well. As Wii U is new to them, some developers have already acquired the knack and made good use of its features and others have not. You might see this gap among the games that are currently available." Hence relative jankiness of several pieces of launch software, regardless of how well the games run on the 360 or PS3.

Iwata isn't too worried because all developers need is time to get a feel for the hardware. "Actually, we believe that our in-house development teams have almost reached the next stage," Iwata boomed with confidence. "It is not true that we are deadlocked with a lot of trouble in our development. Otherwise, we could not aim for 100 billion yen or more in operating profit for the next fiscal year."

Sounds like Iwata and Miyamoto believe the Wii U is going to be alright in the coming year, thanks to a deeper understanding of this new level of technology. Will it pay off? Tune in next week! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

Third Quarter Financial Results Briefing for the 73rd Fiscal Term [Nintendo via VideoGamer]