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Nintendo has once again pinned the blame on Wii U’s current failure on a lack of regularly released high quality software, but promises to fix this beginning with Pikmin 3.
“Regarding Wii U, the release intervals of first-party key titles have been so much longer than we expected at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in January that we have not successfully maintained the momentum of the platform,” said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a financial briefing. “In addition, we have not been able to solidly communicate the product value of Wii U to our consumers yet, which has been a grand challenge for us.
“Some have the misunderstanding that Wii U is just Wii with a pad for games, and others even consider Wii U GamePad as a peripheral device connectible to Wii. We feel deeply responsible for not having tried hard enough to have consumers understand the product.”
Iwata continued, pointing to a lack of system selling software which was instrumental in the Wii’s success.
“Wii U might still have no such captivating game title as Wii Sports for Wii, with which people immediately comprehended its product value, but it surely has a lot of factors appreciated by users. We would like to take time to work thoroughly for its penetration, by making various efforts to have many people understand its product value as well as enriching the software line-up.
“Wii U has lost momentum due to the release pace of first-party titles which has not lived up to consumers’ expectations. Starting with Pikmin 3 scheduled for release in the upcoming July, however, we will intensively launch our key titles to give sales momentum to the platform.
“As a decisive factor in buying a console is that you cannot play a much-anticipated title without the hardware, we will do our best to have you feel from this summer to the end of this year that there are plenty of great games for Wii U.”
Many of these games will be showcased at E3 in June, but in a few small scale events rather than the typical large-scale presentation. Expect to see more on Pikmin 3, Wii U Fit, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, plus new Mario and Mario Kart games.
Is the lack of appealing games the reason you haven’t picked up a Wii U, or is the impending launch of powerful next generation machines also a factor?
Source: Nintendo
