Games Thirst – Amazing Life
The Wii U hasn’t been the smashing success Nintendo’d hoped for, but instead of putting the blame on lack of third-party support or an alien casting a Wii U-hating spell on the human race, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has said that the company is to blame for the console’s lackluster performance since its release last Christmas.
Iwata came clean in an interview with CNBC, adding that they were complacent in their marketing of the system, and haven’t produced software that stands out from the norm, software that manages to put the Wii U’s unique offerings on display.
“We are to blame. We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what’s so good and unique about the Wii U. Because we’re always trying to be unique, it takes some energies on our side to [make] people understand the real attractions about whatever we are doing,” Iwata said.
Adding: “We have been unsuccessful in coming up with one single software with which people can understand, ‘OK, this is really different.”
Iwata noted that as soon as people get their hands on Wii U, they appreciate the console’s unique capabilities immediately, however the problem is to get them to buy the system. That communication hasn’t been executed properly by Nintendo.
“But because there’s not software that’s simple and obvious for people as ‘Wii Sports’ for the Wii, potential consumers do not feel like trying the Wii U,” said Iwata.
“Our challenge today is with the software lineup we are introducing now, we have to encourage [people] to experience the Wii U in the first place.”
Overly pessimistic? Not Iwata. He sees the console as still being able to find great success if Nintendo can unleash great games on a regular basis, an advent that would see developers returning in droves, he said. But cutting the price of the system isn’t an option at this point, “Because from the very beginning we came up with a very aggressive price point. We do not think [a price cut] is a very easy option to take,” Iwata said.
The Wii U sold 425,000 units during its first week of launch, 50,000 consoles short of the original Wii’s first-week sales of 475,000 units in 2006. Nintendo went on to sell over 40 million Wii units in the U.S.
