Iwata and Reggie talk all about third-party Wii U support
In an interview with IGN, Nintendo CEO president Satoru Iwata reiterated Nintendo’s need to re-energize the Wii U in order to gain third-party support. Iwata expressed that he’s “very willing to change the current situation.”
“What we need to do is regain the momentum of the Wii U in the marketplace and establish successful examples of third-party Wii U software. Our focus is, first of all, to regain the momentum of the Wii U towards the end of this year, and then we’ll try to establish successful third-party Wii U software titles. I believe in the importance of third-party support for Nintendo platforms. I’m very willing to change the current situation.”
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime also has a few words of his own when it comes to third-parties:
“I’ve had conversations with a number of the publishers. As they see what we’re doing and the commitment we have with Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda… As we have behind-the-scenes conversations about what’s further in development and what’s coming down, the decisions around the next lineup of development and where they’re going to put their development dollars are starting to shift.”
“Looking at this through the prism of a business decision, if I’m a third-party publisher, what I want is that I want a large, diverse installed base to invest in my development and be able to monetize against that large installed base. That’s why, from a Nintendo first-party perspective, we have to drive the installed base. We need a diverse group of consumers. Not just core, not just casual, but a broad, diverse group of consumers within that installed base, so that whether you’re Ubi with Assassin’s Creed or with Just Dance, you’re feeling confident that your game is going to find a home. You’ll be able to monetize your development.”
Regarding EA, Reggie said that “they do have projects in development… just nothing coming out this fall.”
Iwata understands the importance of third-parties. At the end of the day, Nintendo’s resources are limited. It can only make so many games and satisfy only so many people’s interests.Third-party titles are needed to give gamers the kinds of titles that Nintendo can’t.
“If we had an infinite amount of resources, development resources, we might be able to satisfy any and all needs of game players and non-game players all over the world. But our resources are always limited. The fact of the matter is that there are some areas of game creation that Nintendo is very good at, but there are other things that Nintendo is not very good at. There are huge numbers of fans of Nintendo software, but at the same time, those types of players still sometimes want to play something else on our platform. Because of that, we always need third parties to support us, in order to make our platform complete.”
Iwata’s comments continued with a note that third-party games can back Nintendo up when their own projects need time for extra development.
And according to Reggie, Nintendo is actively talking with third-parties, despite third-parties leaving the platform or delaying their content (see: Rayman Legends).
“We have ongoing conversations with publishers about how to support them, how to support their development, how as best as we can to assure that their games are going to do well on our platform. In the end, independent publishers need to decide what’s going to be best for their companies. (third parties supporting Wii and DS did) exceptionally well financially.”
