International Release Confirmed - Interview with Dr. Wai Yen
In an interview with Dr. Wai Yen of Nintendo/iQue some very interesting details have been revealed. Dr. Wai Yen, former vice president of Silicon Graphics and ArtX and primary responsible for the development of the graphics chip for the Nintendo 64, confirmed that there are plans to release the iQue Player outside of China still this year. However, he did not reveal any further details, nor did he mention any specific countries.
Another interesting detail revealed in the interview published by iQue.com is the fact that the iQue Depot "distribution system" has primarily been chosen not to make the device secure, but to save on distribution cost and make the system affordable for Joe Sixpack in China.
Dr. Wai Yen also mentioned that his real intentions with releasing the iQue Player in China are not business at the first place, but he rather wants to introduce the idea of "videogames" and a clean videogames industry to the Chinese public. Lik Sang's comment: thanks for the exemplary intentions Dr. Wai ;-)
One of the main reasons to choose Nintendo 64 as the platform is the great catalogue of software available, and the fact that N64 titles are all "healthy" and suitable for Chinese kids, said Dr. Wai. Furthermore he added, that even if the distribution system would get out of control (we believe he is referring to the fact that the system could be cracked) the titles then available wouldn't hurt a lot. That's a very interesting comment for all those people who dream about running the N64 version of Golden Eye on the unit, one of the best titles of it's kind ever.
The company iQue Ltd, or in China also Shinyu Technology Ltd, is located in the Suzhou's Industrial Park near Shanghai. The company is Nintendo's software manufacturing arm in China and is capitalized at $30 million, with half coming from Nintendo and half from Wai Yen (15 million is a lot of money to make a few Chinese people happy, Dr. Yen).
) roms and run them on this baby? =)
