Many fans and non-fans have expressed that due to the lackluster sales performance of the Wii U Nintendo’s role in the gaming industry should change drastically. Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata has no such plans for the company, and despite the often referenced Quality of Life programme being something were sure the Japanese giant is taking very seriously, it seems that the focus on games isn’t going to shift any time soon.
Iwata also displayed enormous faith in the current generation consoles Nintendo produces, saying that their products have defied traditional sales expectations, particularly noting the success of the Game Boy late in its life thanks to the Pokémon games:
“Following the generally accepted theory on platform lifecycles, it is natural for you to presume that the sales of Nintendo 3DS will drop X percent each year or we cannot expect a huge increase in Wii U sales. On another front, we have witnessed one single software title completely change the entire picture of our business many times. I believe one of the most impressive stories was the time when people thought the Game Boy platform was virtually over. However, a software title called “Pokémon” turned things around for the platform and ended up creating the biggest annual sales for Game Boy in the latter half of the platform’s eventual lifecycle. Therefore, we do not believe that the situation so far means that there will not be a bright future. However, we should learn from our experiences of not being able to perfectly respond to certain social changes such as changes in the way consumers collect and receive information.”
Acknowledging that some decisions were not perhaps as well received as others, Iwata-san was quick to reassure the public that despite troubling times Nintendo will not jump onto the smart device bandwagon for the sake of a quick profit:
“We recognize that we need to make changes in various areas, and consider how we can take advantage of smart devices and more actively use our character IP. Please do not take it the wrong way. It does not mean that we are going to proactively utilize smart devices and character IP because we are not making enough profits from our dedicated video game platforms. We are willing to do so for that will create a synergy effect to expand our dedicated video game platform business.”
