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The Wii U has faced strong criticism since its showing at E3 last month, but Nintendo is keen to point out that the firm has been in a similar position before but came good in the end.
This negative view of the Wii U is partly down to new things being difficult for people to understand, according to Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.
“For the Wii, before its launch and right after its announcement, the feedback was similar to that of the Wii U,” he told shareholders. “In other words, when something unique comes up, it’s difficult for people to understand it at the beginning. A lot of misunderstandings and pessimistic observations, like, ‘Will a product like this really spread in the market?’ prevail and then after some time, after being able to experience it, the atmosphere changes.”
Iwata went on to discuss how, just like now, the Wii wasn’t given much of a chance against rival machines from Sony and Microsoft – but pointed to how things turned out in the end.
“Almost every one of the reporters asked, ‘How in the world are you going to compete with Sony or Microsoft with a product like this?’ Everyone has forgotten what the real situation was.”
Nintendo isn’t simply blowing hot air, with Iwata looking back on the success of the DS and the Wii as examples of Nintendo delivering on its promises.
“I would like you to look back on what we have done so far. We said, ‘We are going to sell the Nintendo DS in this way and expand the gaming population.’ We did as we said we would. Did the share price rise at the time of our making this statement? No, it did not. It only rose once the Nintendo DS started to sell well.
“We also said, ‘With the Wii, we are going to get people who have never played games to play games.’ We achieved what we said we would. But the share price did not rise (at the time of announcing this vision) but it only did so after (the Wii started to sell well). In the end, it’s all about results. Therefore, we believe what we need to do now is show results.”
The Wii U is currently without a release date or price, but is expected to arrive this year. The 3DS XL, a larger screen version of the 3DS, is set for a July 28 launch in the UK.
