Iwata accpets blame for Wii U struggles, price drop not in sight
Posted on June 19, 2013 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U
The Wii U isn’t doing so well right now in a number of respects. It’s not selling like Nintendo hoped it would. Numerous third-party publishers aren’t supporting the system. Consumers still haven’t caught on with messaging.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is, however, taking full responsibility for the Wii U’s struggles. Speaking with CNN, Iwata said: “We are to blame”.
“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.
“We have been unsuccessful in coming up with one single software with which people can understand, ‘OK, this is really different.’ As long as people have hands-on [experience], they can appreciate the value of the Wii U, 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. 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.”
“I do not think we should become too pessimistic about the current situation with the Wii U. I think we should pour that time and energy into our [development] efforts, so eventually we can encourage third-party [publishers] to want to support Nintendo.”
Some analysts (and even consumers) have been hoping Nintendo will announce a price drop for the Wii U. Doing so is not “a very easy option to take”.
“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.”
