In the 80's, the era of big hair and leg warmers, a certain company was #1 in the marketplace. Then, by the 1990's, a bigger company with bigger budgets came along to replace them at the top of the marketplace. When the first company went back and retooled their current products and found new, innovative products to create, they quickly regained the market share and grew to greater heights then ever possible. As Mr. Iwata pointed out, the first company was obviously Pepsi and the second company was Coca Cola.

The comparison was not lost on the crowd. The parallels purposely being drawn between Nintendo and the other contenders in the market, Sony and Microsoft, were obvious. Nintendo has never been shy to innovate. They brought out the first widely successful handheld system back with the GameBoy. They attempted to bring 3D and virtual reality to the consumer market with the Virtual Boy, a product which failed spectacularly, but it showed that Nintendo has never been one to shy from taking risks. With the incredibly successful launch of the NintendoDS handheld in 2004, Nintendo has once again shown their ability to create a unique, innovative product and disrupt standard thinking on what makes a game system.

When NintenDogs released last year, it too created a stir-a barking frenzy, if you will excuse the pun. However, its style of gameplay was so unique that it caused many to question if it is even technically still a game. However, with over 6 million units sold worldwide since its launch, you can't argue that it wasn't a hit.

Mr. Iwata then proceeded to go into detail on the hugely successful "Brain Training" series. Nintendo wanted to create a game for the increasingly aging population. Once again, by creating a game that disrupts the traditional boundaries of what a game is, they've introduced a new segment of gamers to the market.

To help demonstrate just how "Brain Training" works, several members of the audience were asked up on stage including Sim City creator Wil Wright and director of the GDC, Jamil Molelina. As they demonstrated, it's a simple concept but difficult to master-especially when you have 2,000 eyes watching you determine your "Brain Age".

By far the most exciting news of Mr. Iwata's keynote presentation was the announcement and first ever trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the NintendoDS. Using the same visual style as in their GameCube title "Wind Waker", Zelda looks to break new ground on the DS system. Making extensive use of the touch pad to control paths for weapons, plotting courses for ships and, the feature most exciting to me as someone who gets lost often, the ability to make notes on maps. Phantom Hourglass is set for release later this year.

Finally, Mr. Iwata proceeded to talk about the Revolution, Nintendo's next-generation console platform. As many of you may already know, the Revolution has a controller that closely resembles a standard remote control for your TV. The question often asked, is "why?" Why disrupt this trend in standard two handed controllers, with analog sticks and the like. Well, Nintendo saw this "standard" controller as intimidating to many non-gamers. The remote control is a common tool in most households and is immediately familiar to most people. They wanted to created an input device that was wireless, non-threatening, versatile and powerful enough to handle even the most complex games and, most importantly, revolutionary. After spending nearly a year in research and design, Nintendo eventually fell back on their original concept of the remote control. As Mr. Iwata put it, ideas are like a good wine; they only need time. Other companies may be spending millions of dollars on what's on the screen, but Nintendo are investing their money in the gameplay experience.

Another highly anticipated feature of the Revolution is the "Virtual Console". This will allow downloadable games from Nintendo's classic library of games spanning over 20 years from the original NES through to the Nintendo64 and GameCube. However, in addition to these Nintendo console games being made available, it was announced that titles from both the Sega Genesis and the TurboGrax would be available as well.

In closing, Mr. Iwata challenged developers to create bold new games. Bring disruption to the marketplace and change the space. Bigger does not always equate to better, whether it's budgets, development teams or marketing. There is more then one business model to make not only successful games, but more importantly, games that are fun. In the end, that's what is most important.