What new characters await us?

General manager at Nintendo EAD Shigeru Miyamoto spoke to French newspaper Libération after the events of E3 and gave a little insight into the development of the Wii U and how there's a new generation of designers emerging.

When Libération asked Miyamoto if he was the brains behind the Wii U's hardware design, he responded with:

For the GameCube and Wii I was really deeply involved from the start and the design of the structure and development processes... for the Wii [U], I would say it represents the beginning of a transition with younger generations of Nintendo engineers who have been more involved in the development of the project. I am still very present and engaged myself, but less directly. It's like I stepped aside: I followed step by step work and gave them advice.

So the Wii U sounds like it's the result of a new generation of thinking coming into play, but Miyamoto seems happy to continue doing something that was done back in the days of the GameCube (and further, of course): inventing new characters. Pikmin for the GameCube was Miyamoto's effort in crafting a new brand of protagonists and as well as working on Pikmin 3 for the Wii U, he inevitably sees the console as an ideal place for new creations to flourish:

[Creating new characters and heroes] was my goal with the Pikmin... the [Wii U] looks good: it is the ideal system to accommodate new types of games and new characters.

[source ecrans.fr]