Iwata: PS4 and Xbox One Launches Are ‘Good for Nintendo’

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors during the company's second quarter financial briefing that the launch of the PS4 and the Xbox One later this month will be "good for Nintendo" as new console releases "energise the videogame industry as a whole". 

During the briefing Iwata commented: 

"Other companies will launch new consoles (in the overseas markets at the end of this year), but I think they focus on targeting highly skilled users. Therefore, in that sense, though the competition will heat up because new game consoles will come out and there will be a 'war of the game consoles' played out in media articles, we wonder if the target user will actually be the same.

"The games available at the end of this calendar year, 'Super Mario 3D World,' 'Wii Party U,' 'Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games,' 'Wii Sports Club' and 'Wii Fit U,' all lean more toward family use, and we are targeting those who bought Wii and would be interested in the Wii U offerings. That is slightly different than what other companies are aiming for.

"Thus, in the sense that we attract consumers interested in this category of video games, I think the launch of other video game systems is also good for us because they energize the video game industry as a whole."

He added that despite the absence of key titles this year Nintendo has "a number of Wii U games for next year that greatly appeal to highly skilled users".

The first party games confirmed for a 2014 release include Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros., Bayonetta 2 and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

As of the period ending September 30th Nintendo has sold just 3.91 million Wii U's worldwide since release in November 2012. EA however predicts that sales of the PS4 and Xbox One will hit 10 million by March 31st, 2014 and Sony expects to have five million PS4s sold by that date.