Nintendo wouldn’t release a system without buttons, according to company president Satoru Iwata. Despite the ever-growing popularity of touch devices, Iwata has said that buttons are “advantageous” for “highly reactive games.”
“I think [the tablet] is an interesting device if it creates an experience that is in line with the trend created by Nintendo DS,” he said during an investor conference in Japan last week. “On the other hand, we have never abandoned the + Control Pad and buttons for our game systems because we think these functions are advantageous when creating highly reactive games.
“In this meaning, I do not think Nintendo hardware will take on any of the current tablet forms as they are without buttons, to make our game devices,” Iwata added. “However, this is only when we consider tablets as game devices and, for other purposes, I think tablets are very interesting, and they are a form of hardware that will continue to grow.”
Nintendo is set to unveil a new console, supposedly codenamed Project Cafe, at E3 this June. Read more about that here.
Thanks, IGN.