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Nintendo is having a rather good time since the release of Mario Kart 8. They “won” E3 by many media accounts, and they are really looking forward to seeing what the June sales figures will be for the Wii U. However, having some positive momentum doesn’t inherently mean Nintendo’s current home console can become a success. Nintendo feels they are right on the cusp of getting there, saying that it will be very hard to keep resisting a Wii U purchase heading into 2015. Scott Moffitt, from Nintendo of America’s marketing team, had the following to say:
“As I look at what we have coming this holiday, now with Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., plus the innovation of Amiibo, I think we are right at that tipping point where we have a lot of great content that is about to be released for that platform that’s going to tempt gamers into buying the system,” Moffitt said. “From the comments I’m reading online, and following gamers’ comments, I think there are a lot of people that are going to have a hard time resisting buying a Wii U once Smash Bros comes out. I think that’s going to be a major hardware driver for us. So that’s the narrative we hope that plays out and that I think we are starting to see play out.” — Scott Moffitt
Those are some very strong words. They also believe heavily in the Wii U GamePad:
“We think GamePad is the only innovation that’s come in this new generation of consoles. So we have the only real point of difference. Certainly graphics are faster, graphics are better. This is not a real innovation for gamers. We are fully committed to leveraging the GamePad, to keeping it bundled with the system.” — Scott Moffitt
A huge part of turning everything around would involve third party support. Nintendo realizes this, but they put it on themselves to entice third parties to come back:
“It’s all about driving the install base and so that’s our work to do, right? We need to get to a critical mass where it makes financial sense for them.” — Scott Moffitt
Of course, many feel that a price cut would help increase the install base, but as Reggie Fils-Aime has put it, that simply isn’t something Nintendo needs to do:
“We don’t see a need to cut price. Our value equation is quite strong for the Wii U. I say that because we just launched the “Mario Kart 8” Wii U bundle, premium price, $329. The product is selling with no issues. The biggest challenge is retailers getting it out on shelf. The challenges we’ve had with Wii U aren’t value based; the challenges are having the range of software that motivates the consumer to jump into the platform.” — Reggie Fils-Aime
It should be noted the Wii U recently became profitable from a hardware perspective, meaning they now make money on each unit sold.
Source: GameSpot, The Seattle Times
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