Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida says Wii U messaging was a bit confusing but has since improved, wants Nintendo to be successful
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida had a few words to share about the Wii U and Nintendo and general while speaking with IGN during a recent interview.
Regarding Wii U, Yoshida admitted that he has two consoles and actively plays the system with his daughters. He also said Nintendo’s messaging was initially “a bit confusing”, though they now seem to be heading back on track.
Yoshida later went on to discuss the importance of Nintendo doing well in the industry. He believes the Big N and Sony fall under the same group, and with tablet/mobile games on the rise, Yoshida wants “Nintendo to be very successful to help induct as many consumers who like to play games with controllers”.
You can find Yoshida’s full comments below (or in the video above at the 15-minute mark).
Well I have two Wii Us. I play Wii U games with my daughters… because they make pretty fun family friendly games.
I think success or making mistakes depends on how you set your goal. I don’t know what was Nintendo’s goal when they launched Wii U. To me, it was a bit confusing because what they do really well was create some very safe environment for anyone, especially children to enjoy games like induct those people who have never played games ever to become gamers. And they always do very well.
To me, what they have made with Wii U was continuing what they were doing well. But the messaging when they were saying ‘we are for core gamers’ was a bit confusing. But this year I think they slightly changed their messaging, and it seems to me like they are coming back to where they are focused.
When you look at the situation around Nintendo that way, do you characterize Nintendo as our competition? I think in the bigger scale of things happening in the industry or tech or people’s lives, how they play games on what device, and how they start to learn to play games, I think Nintendo and us are pretty much in the same group, and we need Nintendo to be very successful to help induct as many consumers who like to play games with controllers, right? …Sticks and buttons… because we believe they are great things.
