Following a couple of tough weeks for the Big N, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata with investors had the company’s 3rd Quarter Financial Meeting. The meeting details the company’s goals for Wii U, 3DS, and more. As with any normal business meeting, it wasn’t exactly short. So for the most part, I condensed a lot of announcements that the meeting has to ones that are important for people to really know.
Nintendo’s future platforms will connect to accounts (NNID) then devices
Through Nintendo’s current position on account systems from past to current platforms like DS to 3DS and Wii to Wii U, Iwata announce that future Nintendo platforms will use Nintendo Network IDs for a more digital approach towards customers. This in a nutshell, is Nintendo giving a proper account system.
“The environment in which our users can download paid software is one example of where we should aim to make more off-device improvements than on-device ones”
This plan will change Nintendo’s approach to selling games online and be more flexible in terms of how they price their games – especially for consumers that buy a lot of software.
“Based on our account system, if we can offer flexible price points to consumers who meet certain conditions, we can create a situation where these consumers can enjoy our software at cheaper price points when they purchase more. Here, we do not need to limit the condition to the number of software titles they purchase. Inviting friends to start playing a particular software title is also an example of a possible condition.”
This future plan is having it’s baby steps on Wii U in order to test out the approach.
“If we can achieve such a sales mechanism, we can expect to increase the number of players per title, and the players will play our games with more friends,” he reasoned. This can help maintain the high usage ratio of a platform. When one platform maintains a high active use ratio, the software titles which run on it have a higher potential to be noticed by many, which leads to more people playing with more titles.”
Emphasizing the Wii U GamePad’s value
Instead of cutting the Wii U’s price as a way to decrease the console’s difficult position in its second year, Nintendo will instead emphasis the Wii U GamePad to increase it’s value to Wii U owners and non Wii U owners.
“Unfortunately, as the current situation of Wii U shows, we have not been able to fully communicate the value of the GamePad. We also realize that we have not been successful in answering consumers’ questions such as, “What is the difference between Wii U and the previous platform, Wii, and what is the benefit of upgrading it?” By looking at the current sales situation, I am aware that this is due to our lack of effort. What’s even worse is that there even appear to be not a small number of consumers who think the GamePad is one of the accessories for the previous platform, Wii. It is more challenging to convey the appeal of the GamePad to consumers who do not engage with video games that often since they do not actively gather information about video games. Therefore, we intend to take on this challenge, and I would like to have this solved before the year-end sales season.”
The efforts to increase it’s value is offering software titles that will take full advantage of the GamePad and it’s NFC technology that Pokemon Rumble U has used.
Through the praise of the GamePad’s Off-TV Play feature, The 20 second wait to start the system to then boot up a game is something that is quite annoying. The solution to this problem is an upcoming early Summer update to have a quick start menu illustrated in the picture below. This quick start menu will allow Wii U owners to play selected games once you turn on the console in order to use it without waiting 20 seconds.
DS Virtual Console games coming to Wii U
At some point in the Wii U’s lifespan, you will be able to play DS games through the Virtual Console service.
“We are now sure that we can solve the technical problem of displaying Virtual Console software from Nintendo DS on the GamePad.
The dual-screen Nintendo DS, one of which is a touch screen, has a very strong software lineup, and so we plan to add the Virtual Console titles from Nintendo DS software to the future Virtual Console lineup for Wii U.”
Mario Kart 8’s release date
Nintendo announce Mario Kart 8’s global release in May for the Nintendo Wii U.
Nintendo on Mobile
For those who wonder or pursuits the big N if they are going on the mobile market, Iwata stressed that it’s not the case expect for plans to make Nintendo Network ID to be a ”platform” across devices, including mobile.
“Many people say that releasing Nintendo’s software assets for smart devices would expand our business. However, we believe that we cannot show our strength as an integrated hardware-software business in this field, and therefore it would difficult to continue the same scale of business in the medium- to long term.”
To create a new “Blue Ocean” Health market
Iwata announced that the company will have a third platform that complements the Wii U and 3DS that involves people’s life and will try to improve it.
“What Nintendo will try to achieve in the next 10 years is a platform business that improves people’s quality of life in enjoyable ways, What I see as our first step into a new business area in our endeavor to improve QOL is the theme of ‘health.’ Of course, defining a new entertainment business that seeks to improve QOL creates various possibilities for the future such as ‘learning’ and ‘lifestyle,’ but it is our intention to take ‘health’ as our first step.”
Iwata believes that Nintendo must venture “into a new blue ocean” in order to sustained the company’s continue success.
“Instead of providing mobile or wearable features, [this integrated hardware-software platform] will be characterized by a new area of what we like to call ‘non-wearable’ technology, When we use ‘health’ as a keyword, some may inevitably think about ‘Wii Fit.’ However, we are considering themes that we have not incorporated to games for our existing platforms. Including the hardware that will enable such an idea, we will aim to establish a blue ocean.”
Other announcements
Through these important announcements I condensed in order to give you the basis of the meeting, there were still a lot from it! So here’s a link to the remaining announcements in the meeting.
What’s your thoughts on these important announcements? Leave your comments below! 🙂
