Miyamoto hints at player caricature feature in Wii

Shigeru Miyamoto's hinted that the custom Wii Tennis characters we all had a good laugh about at E3 were more than just a conference showpiece.

Toward the end of Nintendo's pre-E3 conference, Miyamoto, Reggie Fils-Aime, Satoru Iwata and a competition winner took part in a doubles game on-stage - with the three Nintendo execs represented by tennis-playing caricatures on-screen.

Speaking to CNN/Money recently, Miyamoto said that might end up being a feature - and not just in Wii Sports, of which the tennis game is a part.

"We have some different ideas about how to take advantage of that functionality," he said, "and we will be sharing that type of functionality with third parties."

Facial mapping's been done before of course, but the quirky nature of the characters would be a lot more consistent across Nintendo's titles - you hardly need us to spell out the possibilities.

Miyamoto also shared some of his thoughts on the console's controversial name, announced a fortnight prior to E3.

"When we first thought about it, myself and others felt that the name Revolution was very appropriate to what we were doing," he told CNN/Money.

"But [Revolution] is a name that was almost threatening to non-gamers. It wasn't acceptable. So we thought [Wii] was more friendly and inviting."

The name was finally decided more than six months before its unveiling, according to the report.

Wii is due out later this year.