Nintendo’s global president Satoru Iwata has once again admitted that the company’s wish to deliver “valuable titles” has meant that they made the decision to delay key Wii U releases.
“We originally planned to release a few first-party titles for Wii U during the first half of this year, but no big titles are scheduled for release before Pikmin 3 in July because we decided to take time to add the final touches to ensure that consumers fully feel that they are valuable titles,” Iwata explained to investors.
“The brand of a franchise would be completely degraded without customer satisfaction. This is why we delayed the release schedule of such games.”
He reiterated Nintendo’s desire to take the time necessary to create “delicately crafted” games, as these will find most appeal with consumers.
“We have recently reaffirmed the fact that a delicately crafted game will never fail to appeal to consumers,” he continued. “A good example is Animal Crossing: New Leaf we released at the end of last year.
“Tomodachi Collection has also made a good start in its first week, probably because many people have felt that it contains new types of fun and excitement even if the basic structure of the game is similar to its prequel for Nintendo DS.
“In this way, what is happening cannot be accounted for by the idea that casual users playing games with smartphones will not buy games targeted at them for dedicated gaming systems.”
Whilst many believe the game sales within western markets to be diminishing, Iwata believes that Nintendo have the ability to “buck the trend” by providing quality software.
He stated, “The reason why Fire Emblem Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon have been well received by consumers in the U.S. and European markets is that they still respect the value of games that have been carefully developed to take advantage of dedicated gaming machines.
“It is true that the overseas video game market has been in a downturn for the last two years, but we believe that there is a way to buck the trend.”
Iwata: Nintendo keen to deliver “delicately crafted” games
