Iwata says “Wii U isn’t in good shape”, more price cuts unlikely, will talk about smart devices at investor conference, more
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata commented on a few topics ahead of the company’s investor briefing set to take place later today.
Of Nintendo’s buyback initiative, Iwata said that Hiroshi Yamauchi’s heirs will have to pay inheritance taxes and may need to sell shares. He also remarked:
“That won’t merit shareholders, that’s why we decided on the buyback. But that’s not all the reason. We’ve been rewarding our shareholders mainly through high dividends, but we cannot generate as much profit as we used to make.”
Iwata and other top Nintendo executives – including Shigeru Miyamoto – will be taking pay cuts starting next month. But rather than focusing on how he would “take responsibility when things don’t work out in the future,” Iwata is instead concentrating “on how to rebuild Nintendo”.
“I’m concentrating my mind on how to rebuild Nintendo rather than how I would take responsibility when things don’t work out in the future.”
Iwata later discussed Wii U, which “isn’t in good shape.”
“The Wii U isn’t in good shape. That’s the presumption we have as we consider reform.”
More price cuts for Wii U are unlikely, as Iwata believes doing so would not spark fresh demand.
Last but not least, Iwata confirmed Nintendo’s plans to discuss its strategy for “using smart devices” to jumpstart a turnaround during its investor briefing set to take place in several hours. We’ll be covering it live at 8 PM ET.
