Wii developers talk shop

A recent sit-down with a group of Nintendo programmers uncovers the secret world of the Wii Shop channel's creation. Their goal was to create a product-centric experience that didn't present shoppers with too much information. Along the way, the team had to deal with economic issues, delays with server uploads, cross-cultural linguistics, and much more.

If the Wii Shop interface feels a little different than the rest of the Wii menus, that's because a team coordinator was nominated to do the design. With Nintendo's devs teams working on other projects, Wii Shop lead Haruhana-san asked Shigeru Miyamoto if he could borrow someone from another group to help with the design. The answer, of course, was no, and Miyamoto asked Haruhana to do it instead.