Mr. Iwata comment on the idea of going multi-platform.

[NightDragon83]

milkyjoe said:

NightDragon83 said:

That's because Nintendo was in a pickle back then, just as they were at the end of the GC's life, and just how (incredibly) they find themselves now after riding the huge wave of success that was the Wii only to crash headfirst onto the beach with the botched Wii U launch.

Back in 2000 the only thing keeping Nintendo afloat was Pokemon, as was the DS back in 2006.  So everytime Nintendo has had trouble on the home console side of things, people understandably want to know what they're going to do about it.

http://www.dorkly.com/article/51483/if-todays-internet-commenters-were-around-for-super-mario-bros-2

SMB2 wouldv'e bombed CONFIRMED!!!

Of course, if the internet was around back then, I can't even fathom how insane the arguments during the SNES-Genesis days would've been.