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Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata answered a lot of questions concerning the state of the company and the state of gaming. Mr. Iwata participated in an interview which was later translated into English and posted to the Investor Relations section on the Nintendo homepage. Topics discussed included whether Nintendo would make a price cut, the state of WiiWare, how Nintendo would solve the constraint of flash memory space on Wii, keeping DS fresh, and staving off Microsoft and Apple. I’ve gone ahead and done the reading for you and have neatly summarized the key points from the interview, but follow the cut at the bottom of the article if you wish to read the entire interview.
Possible Wii Price Cut: Unequivocally no! There will be no Wii price cut. Demand is too strong and the price is already more then competitive relative to competition. The State of WiiWare: Developers are already making their second game for the service as they have already seen strong sales in the Japanese market alone. WiiWare will become more and more viable and further strengthen third party developer relationships. No inventory issues spells big profits for a lot of folks. Constraint of Flash Memory Space: This issue is best summed up by Mr. Iwata himself, “Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory. However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience.” Keeping DS Fresh: There has been a lot of discussion with other companies in order to establish relationships with Nintendo to use the DS as infrastructure for interesting experiences. According to Iwata, these relationships haven’t been fully fleshed out yet, but it is in fact true that DS owners can expect a flood of new capabilities that should spur on the sale of another 28 million units of DS over the next year. Staving off Microsoft and Apple: Mr. Iwata is not concerned about the entrance of Microsoft into the motion control market. What Nintendo is concerned about is creating fresh and enjoyable experiences for their customers so that they don’t lose interest in the control scheme. Second, Mr. Iwata sees entering into the competitive games market as a very risky proposition for any company including Apple! Until Apple and others can actually demonstrate what they’ll bring to the market he simply can’t speak their potential impact. Click HERE for the entire interview. |
