In an interview with MCV, Satoru Iwata talks about how Wii 2 will be announced as late as possible to its launch due to competitors stealing their ideas. It’s nothing new!
“I am afraid to say that the history of entertainment is also the history of imitation. A great idea will promptly be copied unless protected through patents. At the same time, it is really important for our business to positively surprise people. Will you be surprised by our completed product if we told you how it is surprising three years in advance? Therefore, we basically disclose information on our products as late as possible. We believe this is the best approach for the entertainment products we are developing. Again, we are planning the next products for Nintendo’s continuous growth, but we cannot tell you what, when and how we will release it here. Thank you for your understanding.”
Here are some of the main points taken from the financial briefing of Nintendo chief, Satoru Iwata from a few days ago. The executive discusses basically everything so grab a drink and have a read!
- We believe that Nintendo’s sound business development in the mid-and-long term will basically benefit all of the stakeholders. In other words, we need to regularly release products that can offer positive surprise to our customers and to try to make efforts to spread that meaningful surprise in order to maximize the number of our consumers who are willing to purchase our products. We should be responsible for solid results in every fiscal year in order to not have people worry about our future by saying that Nintendo’s rapid growth through Nintendo DS and Wii was just very lucky and nothing but temporary. If we can have our shareholders acknowledge in mid to long run that pure luck alone could not have yielded the actual sales results of Nintendo DS and Wii and that Nintendo is the corporate organization which has the ability to sustain such performances, it will dispel the concerns about our future business and, as a result, lead to a high valuation by investors in the long run, I believe. For the time being, we are concentrating on our new hardware, Nintendo 3DS, because it is very important to make Nintendo 3DS as popular as, or to make it more popular than, Nintendo DS which has been appreciated by so many people around the world. Of course, we are not focusing on just the new product that we have announced. For Nintendo DS and Wii which already have well-established installed bases, we are aware of the significance of developing quality software to continue to enhance their popularity.
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It’s good to hear Nintendo talking about improving their online functionality with 3DS and even though we don’t know much about what exactly the company are implementing I think we can assume the 3DS will take their digital facilities to the next level from the DS and Wii.
“We are thinking the release of new hardware should be good timing for a dramatic improvement of this situation. In addition to the function of ‘3D graphics without 3D glasses,’ Nintendo 3DS will have enhanced wireless communication function. Nintendo 3DS will receive various pieces of information automatically if there is a chance of communication while a user carries it even when he or she does not try to start communication proactively by unfolding Nintendo 3DS. By combining Nintendo 3DS with such function, we are now planning to expand our digital-distribution type of business.” - Satoru Iwata
Thanks Siliconera
Many people, myself included, believe that Nintendo’s weak spot over recent years has been their online functionalities for Wii and DS. Though it is great to have the Virtual Console and some online games like Mario Kart, Nintendo’s online efforts are definitely a step back compared to the Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata and NOA chief exec Reggie Fils-Aime seem to agree to, here’s what they have to say on the matter.
“We look at what we do well. We look at what we don’t do so well. The things we don’t do so well we commit ourselves to fixing and making improvements. I would put our digital business in that second category. We are looking hard at our digital business and saying, ‘You know what? We can do better.’ And we will do better. It will not look like what our competitors are doing. But we will have more content, have it be more easily discoverable. We will make it engaging and a much bigger piece of our overall business.” -Reggie Fils-Aime
Head inside for Iwata’s comments.
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Let’s hope that 3DS doesn’t cost too much more than the DS to make as Nintendo are still not keen on selling hardware at a loss like Sony and Microsoft have in the past.
VB: Are you concerned about how much this will cost? There are so many new things in it, I wonder if you will price it above the normal range where you price your handhelds? Your prices are usually below Sony’s.
SI: I have to refrain from talking specifically about the price point. What I can confirm is that, in terms of the production costs, it will cost more than the costs for the Nintendo DS today. Having said that, we believe we will produce enough value worthy of the production cost. We do not think we have to sell the products below cost.
Thanks VB
From the Nintendo boss himself:
“As you carry it with you while out and about, it will seek out and automatically connect with wireless LAN spots, and download information. We’re thinking about functionality where it will automatically acquire newspaper and magazine articles.” – Satoru Iwata
Thanks adriasang
Satoru Iwata has said that there are more games yet to be announced that are for release this fiscal year which is hardly surprising considering that we don’t know of any Nintendo 3DS games yet. No doubt E3 will be the venue for many of these currently unannounced games to be revealed.
“We have not announced all the software that are going to be launched within this fiscal year, and will make further relevant announcements in the future, so it is not true that we are limiting the software developments for Wii now.”
Although Europe did not have it’s own subsidiary back in the NES days, the console and games were still sold in the region and I am sure there are many people who would disagree with Iwata’s comments below about European’s feel less nostalgic about the early Mario games. After all the European total is not far behind Japan’s according to the chart.
“In Japan and in the United States, video games established its position as a part of pop culture when the original Super Mario Bros. launched back in the days when we were selling Famicom in Japan and Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short in the U.S. Back then, a lot of people must have enjoyed playing Super Mario Bros. and the fond memories must have remained in their hearts.
On the contrary, in Europe, Nintendo did not have its own subsidiary to market its products, and NES did not spread as widely as in Japan or in the U.S. Because of this background, Europeans may feel less nostalgia for Super Mario than the Japanese or the Americans, which may have caused the comparatively weaker sales of this software so far in Europe.” Satoru Iwata
Thanks Siliconera
Personally, I think Nintendo’s line-up has not just been weak in the first half of 2010 but during the whole of 2009 as well. Obviously the second half of this year will be different with the likes of Metroid, Mario and possibly Zelda on the horizon.
“Also similar to the US, 2010 has not seen a strong software lineup thus far for the Wii platform, while big titles were launched for other companies’ platforms one after another. In the US, Xbox 360 has been keeping the lead over PS3 this year. In Europe, on the other hand, while Xbox 360 was showing the decline, PS3 has shown increase since the fall of 2009. It appears that the benefit of third party publishers’ big multiplatform titles has been mainly contributing to PS3. On the other hand, the sales of Nintendo DS hardware in Europe are showing a year-on-year decrease, unlike the United States market. While Wii has been embracing big hit titles since the latter half of 2009, not many strong titles to significantly drive hardware sales have been launched for Nintendo DS for a while. So, we recognise that we are coming to the stage where we need to offer a hit title that can gain social phenomena and catch our customers’ attentions.” – Satoru Iwata
Thanks Edge
Some new information has arisen about the latest installment in the Zelda franchise. Firstly, series producer Eiji Aonuma has said that Wii MotionPlus is incorporated and is adding great realism to the controls, not only that it will be compulsory to use the add-on to play the game:
“After actually making it compatible, it just feels so natural. Link’s sword and the controller that you’re holding become one.”
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There’s some useful tidbits of information that have surfaced from Nintendo’s financial results briefing this week:
- Golden Sun DS will be released this year;
- Iwata described The Last Story and Xenoblade as “full-scaled RPGs”;
- Nintendo will show software for the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3;
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released this year;
- Zelda Wii will be at E3;
Nothing really new or unexpected there. However, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata did seem a little unimpressed with Apple’s iPad (me too!), hit the link…
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Last year we heard via FT.com that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata turned down Xbox 360 Natal-like technology for the Wii which featured a camera to detect motion and speech recognition. Now C&VG have been told that in 2007 “Israel firm 3DV Systems showed an early demo of the technology to Iwata and other Nintendo bigwigs at the end of 2007″ and though Iwata was impressed with the tech itself, he was concerned about the price and had concerns over latency.
“Iwata-san only ever invests in something he can guarantee will work for a Nintendo audience. 3DV showed off a camera that detected motion in 3D, and had voice recognition – but Iwata-San was unconvinced he could sell it at a Nintendo price point. He also had some worries around latency during gameplay.”
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