Miyamoto says Nintendo didn't focus on online because it "would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features"

Nintendo's golden goose Shigeru Miyamoto said that the console manufacturer didn't focus on online play until recently because it "would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features."

This outlandish statement came out of a Q&A Miyamoto recently did with the New York Times. When asked about what he found most exciting about games right now, Miyamoto replied, "For a long time at Nintendo we didn't focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features. But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the Internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities."

Yes, you heard that right. Finally, in 2013, enough people have the internet.

Regarding the Wii U's disappointing sales, Miyamoto isn't sweating yet. "I think that the Wii U still has a long future," he said. "We really view it as being the ideal device that families are going to want to have connected to that screen in the living room that everyone is going to gather around and watch. Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum. I think in the long term I'm not at a point where I'm concerned yet."

While the Wii U has failed to ignite the market, this isn't the first time a Nintendo product has sold poorly at launch only to pick up momentum later. Both the DS and its true successor, the 3DS, sold poorly on arrival before selling like gangbusters as the years went on. But the console market is more competitive and expensive and it's hard to say if the Wii U will be able to keep up.

Ultimately, Miyamoto admitted that, "entertainment is an unpredictable industry" and "Nintendo's stance, over all, is that we don't know where entertainment will take us next."