Posted in: Games, Movies, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, film, games, nintendo, Satoru Iwata, video games, wii u

Nintendo Boss Thinks Wii U Is Just One Game Away From Being Successful

Published Wed, 25 Feb 2015 13:45:38 -0600

The Wii U had a great year last year with Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 and Super Smash Brothers generating a huge amount of goodwill around the console. Sadly, that hasn't quite translated in to huge sales.

During a Third Quarter Results Briefing, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata said he believes that can all change with one title though. In the call, he said:

Following the generally accepted theory on platform lifecycles, it is natural for you to presume that the sales of Nintendo 3DS will drop X per cent each year or we cannot expect a huge increase in Wii U sales," he told investors in a now translated Q&A. "On another front, we have witnessed one single software title completely change the entire picture of our business many times.

Iwata is completely right. The fortunes of a console can turn on its heel with one huge title. He singled out Pokemon as the defining example of this.

On the other hand, I recognize that sitting around waiting for a Hail Mary touchdown is also not good business sense. Hoping to catch lightening in a bottle twice is, by it's very nature, is tough.

I love the Wii U, and I think it occupies a really valuable space in the console market, but at this point, I can't see it ever being a 'huge success'. Besides the new Zelda, Nintendo haven't announced anything on the horizon that seems like it will shift consoles on its own, let alone sparking a phenomenon like Pokemon. I remain a little skeptical here.