Nintendo has broken the dreadful silence on the ultimate question of whether there’s life beyond the Wii by announcing that the company is currently working on it. Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata told investors that Nintendo is currently “studying and developing the next console to Wii,” but that’s pretty much all the info he had to offer.

Iwata underlined that there’s a huge difference between developing a product and announcing what it is and/or when it will be released, so you probably shouldn’t expect news anytime soon. He added that the secretive approach should be viewed as the means to protect the company from pirated ideas and how “the history of entertainment is also the history of imitation. A great idea will promptly be copied unless protected through patents.”

Furthermore, Nintendo wants to keep a lid on things until everything is ready to surprise people, and Iwata argues that people simply will not be surprised by a complete product if you announce just how surprising it is three years in advance. Fair point, we must admit.

This disclose-any-info-as-late-as-possible routine seems to be the company’s favorite way of doing things, and no wonder since it’s obviously doing pretty well. With this in mind, Iwata doesn’t plan on changing things and while the total amount of company’s grey matter is actively working on solutions for immediate future and beyond, they’re not quite prepared to divulge any info on it.

More here.