Nintendo’s financial briefing – 10 in-house 3DS games this year, no Wii U price cut, NFC, more
Satoru Iwata is currently hosting an investors briefing for Nintendo’s latest financial results. As usual, analyst David Gibson has been live-tweeting from the event.
Read on below for a summary of items discussed during the meeting:
– Iwata says he feels great responsibility for not achieving forecast target
– 3DS is, in Japan, on good track with 3/5 top games from Nintendo
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf has exceeded plans
– US market has been worse with only 2 out of the top 20 titles from 3DS and no console in the territory
– US sales down 27%, compared to Japan while previously 2.5x
– “also blaming competitors were aggressively bundling titles in usa and eu”
– Germany and France 3DS sales up year-over-year
– These are the best markets for Europe
– In the US, Nintendo had 5 titles in the top 20
– France: 11/20; Germany: 10/20; Spain: 11/20
– UK was lower
– “still saying 3ds volumes accum exceeding ds ramp”
– Overseas 3DS software is not there yet to drive hardware sales, but has become leading platform in Japan
– Wii U value proposition not delivered enough to consumers
– Nintendo is selling below cost and not planning to discount further
– “set minimum 100bn op for next fy,committment from mgmt, want to eliminate loss per unit aggressively”
– To achieve this target in Japan, 3DS will gain Monster Hunter 4, Dragon Quest VII, Pokemon X/Y, and has Animal Crossing
– Overseas, Nintendo will release Fire Emblem, Brain Age, LEGO City, Animal Crossing by mid-year
– 10 more titles coming from Nintendo
– All of these games will be available digitally on 3DS
– More Japanese 3DS games for third-parties will be released overseas like Professor Layton
– Digital space has proven important for sales
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf sales account for 1/4 of sales
– Nintendo wants to do more third-party collaborations
– Not just licencing; Nintendo wants to collaborate with developers
– Wii U connectivity rate is 74%
– Nintendo wants to enhance pad usage
– Google Street View delayed to mid-February for Japan
– Iwata says it’s an example of what they want to do with the GamePad in living room
– Called “WiiStreetU”
– Can tour places from living room
– Adjusts to orientation of GamePad as you pan around
– Handheld and console R&D is now together
– Plan is that software can work across each other with potential for mid-long term
– Wii U will have more software to come out from mid-year onwards in particular
– Miyamoto: changing my gaming style with Wii U
– Miyamoto – saying developers have not put much uniqueness in games as yet
– Iwata: Wii U is part of my life
– Iwata says not every single game can become cloud offered and believes hardware won’t become obsolete
– Need to think of something new and unexpected in games
– Miyamoto: smartphone games are now so functional, users become satisfied
– Nintendo’s mission is to offer more and hence users buy their systems
– Miyamoto: for consoles, he thinks the TV can be more useful in people’s lives; this is Wii U’s mission
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf has been more successful with more women/girls compared to the DS game; 2/3 women buyers
– 3DS female mix was 25% in week 1, but that hit 50% when Animal Crossing launched and continues at high levels since the game released
– Iwata: need to think of better way to communicate asymetrical gameplay
– Miyamoto: don’t think all games should incorporate asymetrical gameplay
– Miyamoto: Miyamoto thinks besides HD there is no better way to play with 2 screens
– Iwata: said up until middle of last year was difficult to develop for Wii U for Nintendo and 3rd party, improve over time, we have overcome it
– “processor is memory optimised,cpu/gpu becoming less important, competitors doing the same”
– Iwata: digital sales key for growth, but won’t replace packaged releases
– Achieved 11bn sales in 9 months
– Wii U NFC “can be used for games with figures/cards working with game, making preparations in that direction ,say by end of yr”
– ” nfc is similar to felica in jp so studying to use nfc for e-money, no change to dividend policy or return to shareholders”
– Iwata: it is my mission to improve and make our platforms solid and hence achieve 100bn op, wiiu after summer will have more games to drive
