Iwata says Nintendo wants to make a new console for specifically previously untapped markets.
President and CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, revealed that the company plans on making new console aimed at emerging markets.
“We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have, The product and price balance must be made from scratch,” Iwata said on the matter. Nintendo is currently looking into plans for Chinese console releases by studying their regulations, as they recently ended a 13-year ban on video game consoles.
While the innovation is brewing, one thing is for certain: Nintendo (or at least Iwata) is not turning to the smartphone market. "We have had a console business for 30 years, and I don’t think we can just transfer that over onto a smartphone model," Iwata stated. "Our games such as Mario and Zelda are designed for our game machines so if we transfer them into smartphones as they are, customers won’t be satisfied."
"Our games such as Mario and Zelda are designed for our game machines so if we transfer them into smartphones as they are, customers won’t be satisfied."
Previously, we distributed products to new markets after they had sold well in Japan, the U.S., Europe and Australia and a steady production scheme had been established. In other words, we have sold the same products in the new markets, at the same price range: 150-300 dollars for hardware and 30-60 dollars for software. Of course, a number of users are willing to pay these prices, including passionate Nintendo fans, and we are very grateful for this. However, in making sure that our products have a large mass-market presence in these new markets, since hardware production costs have become increasingly high compared to the selling price, and in terms of software, having users pay 30-60 dollars is more difficult in the new markets than in developed ones, we cannot simply localize the same product for distribution in the new markets as they would otherwise never become true mass-market products.
