Nintendo have admited that selling videogames for $50 or $60 is "challenging" in the current market GameSpot reports.
"These days it is becoming increasingly challenging to determine the minmum development resources required for customer satisfaction," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors following the release of the company's finances for the the last fiscal year. "The point I am trying to get across is that currently it is more challenging to sell packaged software for around $50-$60."
As a means of getting around this difficulty Iwata pointed to digital games in "other formats." However, Iwata admitted that given the number of units sold needed in order to recoup investment in a game's development and marketing it is becomming harder to sell top level games.
"It is true that it is becoming increasingly challenging to meet the expectations of customers who are willing to pay $50-$60 for a game, and it is difficult to break even unless a huge number of units is sold all over the world, so it cannot be denied that software development is becoming more challenging," he added.
Iwata claims that the higher number of gamers out there today means that such games can however reach a larger base "Among such packaged software, however, the sales of popular games are much larger than in the past. Therefore, if we create more hit games, the software development business can still be very profitable. All games break even if they sell million of copies worldwide, so we will continue to do our best to develop games which have high sales potential."
