More from Nintendo’s resident genius – this time Shigeru Miyamoto is making positive noises about HD gaming.

“As long as my way of making games are concerned, all I am concerned about technologies is, we probably cannot swim against the tide,” he tells investors in a recent Q&A session, continuing, “The customers' tastes will become more and more refined. Even today, many customers who have seen HD once say they cannot go back to SD.”

That said, Miyamoto still has a couple of reservations – increased development costs for one, and the fact that most consumers aren’t able to distinguish true HD (or 5.1 channel sound) from that which only appears to be so. Nintendo’s R&D Manager (and Shigsy’s long-term sidekick), Genyo Takeda, echoes this, and adds a possible solution:

“We are not too much concerned about if the technology itself is the state-of-the-art or rather old-fashioned. If we can find out the most appropriate medium, between SD and HD, and flexibly move around them depending on the game's contents, it will be good, I think,” he says.

If that sounds like some kind of fudge it’s worth remembering that most next-gen titles do not run in full 1080p high definition, many opting for the halfway-house of 720p resolution (or less) instead. Did that ruin your enjoyment of Uncharted 2, Tekken 6 or Halo 3? Thought not.

Either way, Miyamoto and Takeda’s comments are the strongest indication yet of the way the wind is blowing at the Big N. Current industry mutterings suggest that Nintendo’s first foray into the high (or, at least, higher) definition arena may be arriving sooner rather than later too. Let’s keep ‘em crossed and see what develops in 2010.