Nintendo isn’t naive to its fiscal troubles. The company’s financial report, which released early yesterday morning, told the tale of a studio failing to deliver in both the home and handheld console markets. Projections are not being hit, and now, Nintendo has announced that it won’t be holding a major E3 press conference this year. Instead, there will be a heavy emphasis on software, which Nintendo feels it hasn’t yet delivered on with its unique device.
In a handful of prepared comments released today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata discussed both what his company has failed to achieved up to this point and how he plans to change things moving forward. When outlining problems with the Wii U, one of the first things Iwata mentioned are the mixed messages the Wii U has given off.
“Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectable to Wii,” Iwata said. “We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product.”
Not only is there an issue with the hardware, but there also hasn’t been a game that’s gotten audiences excited to experience a Wii U. Some of the biggest first-party games in Nintendo’s arsenal have either been delayed or simply not discussed, and that’s also something that Iwata regrets.
“Wii U might still have no such captivating game title as "Wii Sports" for Wii, with which people immediately comprehended its product value, but it surely has a lot of factors appreciated by users,” he said. “We would like to take time to work thoroughly for its penetration, by making various efforts to have many people understand its product value as well as enriching the software lineup.
“As a decisive factor in buying a console is that you cannot play a much-anticipated title without the hardware, we will do our best to have you feel from this summer to the end of this year that there are plenty of great games for Wii U.”
E3 is when the software floodgates are expected to open. All of Nintendo’s heavy-hitters, from The Legend of Zelda to Super Smash Bros., should be making an appearance. The Mario maker will be going up against the buzz of next-generation hardware, but at this point, you can never count Nintendo out.
