Heh. I thought Iwata's comment was taken a bit out of context, especially since there ARE a lot of gamers that don't want to play stuff online. Outside of MMOs (strangely) I'm one of them, and the demographic that the Wii expanded into is probably similar. So I went looking.
Alas.
Quote:
But while Iwata's disdain for online play was clear, he would not abandon the concept altogether. "Online technology has its own interesting features, so I don’t rule out the possibility of making use of it for games," he said. Iwata also said that the industry would soon come around to his point of view. "Game companies now find it difficult to make online game businesses successful, and their enthusiasm for them is cooling," he predicted.
Does indeed go a bit beyond something like acknowledging that offline games always will have a place. :p