Scott Moffitt says Wii U is at a “tipping point”, not removing GamePad from Wii U, more

Nintendo of America executive VP of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt recently spoke with GamesIndustry about several topics. Moffitt mentioned that the Wii U is at a “tipping point” and could improve with high-profile releases, stated that there are no plans to keep the GamePad separate from the Wii U hardware bundle, and more.

Head past the break for Moffitt’s responses. You can find GamesIndustry’s full article here.

On how Wii U’s struggles are similar to 3DS and that the system is in a position to turn things around…

“We had the price cut in August [2011], and then we had Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, which really drove sales that first holiday, and on 3DS we haven’t looked back. So we’ve had momentum ever since that first holiday and we’ve got now 260 some games in the library and some of the best, most highest rated, most highest quality content we’ve ever had on that platform. Everything we launched seems to do above forecast and surprises us on the positive side.”

“As I look at what we have coming this holiday, now with Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros, plus the innovation of Amiibo, I think we are right at that tipping point where we have a lot of great content that is about to be released for that platform that’s going to tempt gamers into buying the system. From the comments I’m reading online, and following gamers’ comments, I think there are a lot of people that are going to have a hard time resisting buying a Wii U once Smash Bros comes out. I think that’s going to be a major hardware driver for us. So that’s the narrative we hope that plays out and that I think we are starting to see play out.”

On how removing the GamePad from the Wii U hardware bundle is not in consideration…

“We think GamePad is the only innovation that’s come in this new generation of consoles. So we have the only real point of difference. Certainly graphics are faster, graphics are better. This is not a real innovation for gamers. We are fully committed to leveraging the GamePad, to keeping it bundled with the system.”

On how Nintendo needs to increase the Wii U’s install base for third-parties…

“It’s all about driving the install base and so that’s our work to do, right? We need to get to a critical mass where it makes financial sense for them.”

On Nintendo’s efforts in lowering the barriers to entry for indie devs…

“We talked to a lot of them before launching the Wii U and we addressed some of the issues that really were holding some of them back from developing realistic content on our platform. At least for the indie community, we’ve become a lot easier to do business with and we’re seeing a steady flow of content now.”

On how Nintendo didn’t have devoted sections for indie games at its e3 booth like Microsoft and Sony…

“With any show, you have choices to make. Every time I go down to our booth floor and see how many people are waiting to play Super Smash Bros, when I look outside at the Best Buys… Last night we had four hours of game play on Super Smash Bros. and we had 1,000 people in line. We had to turn people away. So it’s a tough choice for us as a platform holder. We don’t have enough game stations down there on Smash Bros. We try to feature as much content as we can in the limited space that we have. Right now we just have a lot of demand for Super Smash Bros. We could have used 10 more game stations on that game alone. Choices have to be made.”

On VR…

“What I’d say is it’s appealing technology. It’s interesting. We’re going to follow it closely to see where it goes. It’s got a lot of advantages. It’s got one disadvantage relative to what we know is often very fun for gamers, which is playing games socially in a living room. This is a very single player solitary gaming experience. Not all of our games are fun to play with multiple people in a living room in front of a game console but it doesn’t lend itself to that kind of an experience as well as what Wii U does now. That would be a disadvantage of going in that direction. Could it be a nice addition to our hardware platform? Sure.”