Iwata Takes Blame For Meagre Wii U Sales

Nintendo, Wii U,

wii_u_console_and_controllerNintendo’s President Satoru Iwata has taken it upon himself to say “we are to blame” for the disappointing Wii U sales since the home console’s debut last year. Nintendo’s CEO has never been one to shirk responsibility when it comes to poor sales, as in 2011 he announced he would take a 50 per cent pay cut due to lacklustre 3DS sales, and this time he’s saying their marketing efforts were not up to scratch.

We’ve seen how sales have boosted with the Nintendo 3DS over the coming years, and with titles such as Super Smash Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD due to arrive on the home console very soon, as well as a current fiscal year forecast of 9m sales, there’s most certainly a silver lining. So, in an interview with CNBC and as reported by GameSpot, Iwata has explained exactly why the Wii U has seen such a dip in sales:

“We are to blame. We relaxed our [marketing] efforts, so the consumers today still cannot understand what’s so good and unique about the Wii U. We have been unsuccessful in coming up with one single software with which people can understand, ‘OK, this is really different.’ As long as people have hands-on [experience], they can appreciate the value of the Wii U, but because there’s not software that’s simple and obvious for people as ‘Wii Sports’ for the Wii, potential consumers do not feel like trying the Wii U.”


Miyamoto Says PlayStation 4 & Xbox One “Easily $100 More If They Came With GamePad”

Nintendo, Wii U,

wii_u_gamepad_white

Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto says that Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One would easily cost $100 more if they came with a Wii U GamePad style tablet controller. Miyamoto was questioned whether the system would receive a well-needed price cut, to which he responded that when you purchase a Wii U, you get a Wii U GamePad, which bumps up the price. He said that if competitors included them, then their consoles would also be more pricey.

“Unfortunately, I’m not the one who determined the price, so I can’t provide a specific answer on the price of the system. But the one thing that I think everyone needs to understand is that when you’re buying a Wii U, you’re buying a hardware system that comes with a tablet-like device and so if any of the other hardware systems were to try and include a tablet or device similar to the Wii U GamePad, those hardware systems would go up in price by easily a hundred dollars or more.”

“From my perspective, with regard to the more powerful hardware systems, to me what still remains incredibly important is the developers maintaining a focus on creating unique games because if all that everyone does is uses the enhanced power to create more and more games that look and feel the same, then all that it becomes is a competition about the power of the hardware rather than the uniqueness of the experience. That, to me, is where developers should be devoting their effort.”

Nintendo’s Free-To-Play Game Is Steel Diver

Nintendo,

steel_diver

Shigeru Miyamoto has told IGN that Nintendo’s free-to-play title will be the Nintendo 3DS launch game, Steel Diver. Miyamoto told the publication that the free-to-play model would ultimately change the game’s design. He stated that they are looking at a number of ways they can take the game from a multiplayer perspective. Miyamoto concluded by saying that the free-to-play Steel Diver is something that they are hoping to show off relatively soon.

“There is something we’re doing with the Steel Diver idea that I think is going to open things up with that game… It’s going to be very fun. We’re exploring from a perspective of where we can take that from a multiplayer standpoint – it’s going to have this four-player battle mode that I think is going to be very interesting.”

Thanks to everyone that sent this in.

Square Enix Reveals Why Kingdom Hearts 3 And Final Fantasy XV Won’t Be Coming To Wii U

Wii U,

kingdom_hearts_3

Square Enix has revealed exactly why the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV won’t be coming to the platform. The development studio says that both games won’t be coming to Wii U as they use DirectX 11 which isn’t compatible with the console. The team said that Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 is being developed using DirectX 11, so porting between Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One would be easy .

Thanks, Valesca and ikeezzo

Miyamoto Reveals His Bad Game

Nintendo,

zelda_2_the_adventures_of_link

Miyamoto has finally revealed to Kotaku which of the many games he has created he considers his least favourite. That game is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Miyamoto says it’s not necessarily a bad game, but he feels he could have done a lot more with the title. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was originally released on the NES in 1988 in North America and Europe. The game was a radical departure for the series as it changed between a vast overworld viewed from above to towns and dungeons presented from a side-scrolling view.

“I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever made a bad game, per se, but a game I think we could have done more with was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.”

“When we’re designing games, we have our plan for what we’re going to design but in our process it evolves and grows from there,” Miyamoto said. “In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, unfortunately all we ended up creating was what we had originally planned on paper.”

“So that’s a rule of thumb,” I asked, “that if you find yourself at that point, you know the idea wasn’t successful? Or is that you didn’t give yourself enough time?”

“I think specifically in the case of Zelda II we had a challenge just in terms of what the hardware was capable of doing,” he said.

“I’m just curious,” I pressed, “what would you have liked that game to have been like?”

“So one thing, of course, is, from a hardware perspective, if we had been able to have the switch between the scenes speed up, if that had been faster, we could have done more with how we used the sidescrolling vs. the overhead [view] and kind of the interchange between the two. But, because of the limitations on how quickly those scenes changed, we weren’t able to.”

“The other thing,” he said, “is it would have been nice to have had bigger enemies in the game, but the Famicom/NES hardware wasn’t capable of doing that. Certainly, with hardware nowadays you can do that and we have done that, but of course nowadays creating bigger enemies takes a lot of effort.”

Thanks, Nightmare

Ubisoft Admits Rayman Legends Went Multiplatform As They Didn’t Think It Would Sell On Wii U

Wii U,

rayman_legends

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has admitted that the reason why former Wii U exclusive Rayman Legends went multiplatform is because the company didn’t think it would sell enough units on the Wii U alone. Guillemot says that the team didn’t want to create a fantastic title only to see disappointing sales, so they brought it to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Guillemot stands by the decision and says it was the right move for gamers and the team.

“What happened was that we saw the Wii U was not going to sell enough of those games. The game is going to be fantastic, and we didn’t want those creators to wind up in a position where even after making a fantastic game, they didn’t sell well enough. We decided that we had to come out on enough machines that players can try it out on any one that they have, and give more time to both improve the game on the Wii U and create versions for the other consoles.”

“I think it was the right decision for gamers and for the team. My role is to make sure that the team is happy with the quality of the work they do and the reach they can have. The quality is there now, because they had more time. They’ve expanded the possibilities of the game. It’s much bigger content-wise. We have new bosses in key levels and so on. The experience is much more complete. I think it will be one of the best games we’ve ever done.”

“Sometimes we have to go against the urge to get to market too fast. We have to make sure we give enough time and resources to our creators to they can reach the potential in their games. This time, they were very close to excellence, but not quite there.”

Thanks, SortableShelf19

Iwata Admits Nintendo Land Has Not Fulfilled The Same Role As Wii Sports

Nintendo, Wii U,

nintendo_land_logo

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed during the E3 analyst briefing that the company acknowledges that Nintendo Land has failed to attract consumers to Wii U. Iwata said that Nintendo Land hasn’t fulfilled the same role as Wii Sports – which consumers flocked to play and subsequently purchased a Wii back in 2006. Iwata did say that Nintendo is going to release a variety of Wii U software which shows off how convenient and delightful it is to have the Wii U GamePad controller, and how it changes the gaming experience.

“Asymmetric gameplay” is one of the important elements which differentiate Wii U from other products. Thus, we have released “Nintendo Land” as the software to make consumers understand the value of asymmetric gameplay. In the United States, we bundled it with the Wii U “Deluxe Set” which is a higher-end model equipped with 32GB of memory. We have received a lot of comments from consumers that the gameplay in “Nintendo Land” is interesting. However, we presume that they have not yet come up with the best words to easily explain how interesting it is to other people.”

“I would say that “Nintendo Land” has not fulfilled the same role as “Wii Sports” did when we bundled it with Wii.”

“Of course, we won’t remain silent and do nothing. We are going to release a variety of Wii U software, and with each title, we would like to show how convenient and delightful it is to have the Wii U GamePad controller, and how it changes the gaming experience.”

“In addition, we have also learned that the name “asymmetric gameplay” does not fully explain the GamePad’s value to consumers. As for the software going to be released from now on, we would like to describe the experience that the GamePad provides with a different expression in order to adequately convey its necessity to consumers and increase the number of consumers that think, “Indeed it is good to have a GamePad.” In this sense, starting with “Pikmin 3,” we aim to include functions that make good use of the GamePad that consumers can appreciate”