Miyamoto: winning online "not our goal"

Nintendo is not looking to provide a better online experience than Microsoft or Sony does, says the company's top designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto helped demo Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console at E3 earlier this month, although questions about the console's online capacities remained unanswered.

"We're not going to sit here and say that our goal is to become the number one online gaming company, because that's not our goal," Miyamoto told MTV.

That said, the Wii U will still include a beefier array of online functions than the Wii's current and comparatively meagre offerings.

"But, understanding that the types of experiences our consumers like to play do often contain elements to them that can be improved or may even require an online connection and also knowing that the system is going to have a browser I think suggests that obviously internet and internet connectivity is going to be very important for the system," Miyamoto said.

How will online expand the Wii U experience? Miyamoto imagined a "local, same-room multiplayer" experience expanded via connection to the internet - allowing split-screen play to include online, too.

Miyamoto also suggested familiar Xbox Live functionality of being able to see what games friends are playing, as well as "what TV they're watching", will feature.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata previously pledged to make the Wii U's online "more flexible" than the Wii's.

Exact details of how the system's friend codes will work have yet to be revealed, although Nintendo told Eurogamer it was similar to how players "pair up with friends on PSN or Xbox Live".