Iwata and Reggie on skepticism, boosting sales with many games, Wii U killer app
IGN’s new interview with Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime boils down to a few topics: constant skepticism surrounding the company, boosting hardware sales with the right (and various) games, and the Wii U’sl lack of a killer app.
You can find all of Iwata and Reggie’s thoughts below.
Iwata on how Nintendo is constantly doubted and how the company can do anything if they start thinking they can…
“The fact of the matter is that we’ve been here constantly. We’ve been betraying people’s expectations, in a good way, for a long time.”
“Have you heard of the theory or the story of the four-minute mile? For a very long time in the past, it was believed to be impossible that a human could run a mile in four minutes. However, once one person broke the record, 23 more people broke the record themselves in the following year. Many things we can’t do are simply because we think we can’t do them. To put it another way, if we start thinking we can do something, we can do it.”
Reggie on Nintendo skepticism…
“I saw a video clip from 1990 or 1991. It was a clip off of Good Morning America. It was just before the transition here in the Americas from NES to SNES. The broad themes were, ‘Is Nintendo dead? Can they make the transition to the next system with other devices getting stronger?’ They were talking about PCs. “Is the dedicated gaming system dead?”
“Fundamentally, this is the entertainment business. If we entertain people, if we put smiles on their faces, they’re going to buy our products – hardware and software. They’re going to support our brands. We will continue to be a very effective and a very, dare I say, successful company. It’s about the content.”
Reggie on how the barrage of 3DS software helped turn around the platform…
“Fire Emblem by itself did not change the momentum of 3DS. Fire Emblem, plus Luigi’s Mansion, plus Lego City Undercover, plus Donkey Kong Country, and now Animal Crossing. All of a sudden I’m looking at my 3DS hardware business and it’s cranking.”
Reggie on how the Wii surged thanks to software, which is now what Nintendo wants to do with Wii U…
“The inflection point of our Wii business actually changed when we had that sequence of Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and Wii Fit. That’s why we’re so focused on making sure we have this sequencing of games to drive Wii U, essentially beginning now.”
Iwata on the lack of Wii U’s equivalent of Wii Sports…
“When people saw how other people were playing Wii Sports, they could immediately understand how different the system was.”
Iwata on whether he believes his teams have the Wii U’s killer app like Wii Sports…
“This is something really interesting about this industry. I should say that it’s also something really scary about doing business here. The existence of one software can change the entire picture. Of course, it depends on circumstances. Here’s a hypothesis I seriously believe. If there hadn’t been a Pokemon game, maybe the market for handheld game devices would have gone extinct. If there hadn’t been Wii Sports, maybe the situation surrounding Wii could have been completely different. Remember that before the launch of the Wii, many people in the industry used to say that the Wii could be Nintendo’s last console. So those are two examples of my hypothesis, that one software title can change the entire picture. The console that people were saying would be our last ended up with the most sales in the marketplace.”
Reggie on the need to surround a killer app with much, much more…
“One game can sell the system. Having said that, I’m not sure that today, in today’s environment, if one game can sell the system. Why do I say that? Again, if you roll the clock back to 2005, the gaming industry, in terms of who was playing games, was much more narrowly defined. If you look at the ESA data that was put out during that time, what it would suggest is that less than 40 percent of households played video games. Where do we sit today? That same data suggests that more than 65 percent of households play games. It’s much more diverse. I would argue that, given the increased diversity, unless the game has that same type of breadth, I think it’s a little bit more challenging for one game to truly change the momentum.”
