The Financial Times has published an interesting interview with Yoichi Wada, the chief executive of Square Enix.

To sum up, he says:

• The demographics of gamers have changed completely over the last few years.
• Dragon Quest IX, the latest part of the insanely popular series, will only appear for the Nintendo DS.
• Nintendo was succesful in broadening the market for games.

  "We chose the Nintendo DS because the widest array of people use it, including people who previously did not play games before," said Mr Wada.

• The world is not yet ready for next-gen consoles.

  "There are too many specs — and you also need a high-definition TV, a broadband connection and a deep knowledge of gaming — these consoles are mismatched to today's environment. In a year or two years they will fare better," Mr Wada said.

This from the CEO of a public company, one of the largest game development companies in Japan, with a long and fruitful relationship with Sony.

There may be more going on here than meets the eye, I don't have a lot of background information on this. But even on the surface this has to be a feather in Nintendo's cap. and an affirmation of their strategy. Too bad it's such a closed platform.