Post by: Kairon on April 29, 2008, 03:35:00 AM
http://nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15872
Instead of simply sticking to the numbers on revenues and profits, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata used an end-of-fiscal-year briefing to address a variety of issues. He touched on increased Wii supply, third party game sales, industry beliefs he felt were obsolete, and Nintendo's new goals going forward.
Early in the briefing, Iwata announced that in order to meet projected shipments for the next fiscal year Nintendo would increase production to 2.4 million units of hardware a month, starting in July. This would amount to a 600,000 unit increase over their current 1.8 million unit capacity, a sizable amount for a company that's renowned for playing things safe.
Iwata also tackled a question that was on everybody's mind: Do third party games sell on Nintendo systems? Iwata explained that third party games made up a significant portion of Wii and DS sales in America and Europe. In Japan though, third parties sales have taken much longer to catch on. To illustrate this, Iwata presented the following slides:
Iwata also numbered how many of the million sellers on the Wii and DS were first versus how many were third party. He claimed that 29 of the 57 million sellers on the DS were first party, making it a roughly even split with 28 third party games selling over a million units. And of the Wii's 26 million sellers, twelve games, almost half, were from third parties.
However, Iwata still believed that there was room for improvement. He admitted that "[it was] inevitable for our third party developers to need some time before they can realize that DS and Wii can become the hardware platforms that they are willing to spend their important resources on." Iwata also pointed out that the Wii was earlier in its life cycle than the DS, and that as a result "it might be inevitable that first party titles continue to show significance presence there."
Iwata also mentioned that 56% of the companies, outside of Japan, working on WiiWare titles were made up of less than 20 employees. 75% of WiiWare non-Japanese developers were made up of less than 50 employees. Iwata took this as a sign that these companies felt that WiiWare was a "worthwhile business for them to aggressively pursue." He even showed a video of the upcoming WiiWare title World of Goo, from three-man game company 2DBoy. He spoke about the impact that World of Goo had made, saying, "internally at Nintendo, a lot of positive talks can be heard about this today."
Iwata explained that he felt that a paradigm shift had occurred: "what used to be regarded as common sense in one industry no longer works."
He explained that whereas the GBA had tended to decline in sales over its lifespan, the DS had actually increased and was only recently hitting its peak. Connecting this trend to the Wii, Iwata stated that "For Wii too, I believe in the great potential that we can create a brand new trend that cannot be applied to any past platform cycles."
Two more slides listed a series of "beliefs" that Iwata felt have been made obsolete in the changing gaming market:
- Video games are entertainment mainly played by children and young male adults, and would be challenging for females and senior citizens to enjoy
- Nintendo is for kids
- The great majority of software has a short life-span, and longevity in software is difficult to achieve
- Marketers must maximize a game's awareness at launch
- After the initial launch, the only way to sell software is at a discount
- Software for portable machines sell less than software for consoles
- Major revenue for software business is the home console platform
Iwata had one final thing to point out before the briefing ended. Nintendo had set a long-term goal of shipping over 300 million copies of software for the Wii and DS in a single fiscal year. Iwata admitted that he had believed it would be several years before they reached this goal. Instead, Nintendo had achieved this mark in just one year.
So Iwata went on to describe what he believed should be Nintendo's next goal. Nintendo had been periodically tracking the number of people who used their systems, and found that the Wii and DS had exceptionally high numbers of people in the same household who played the systems. However, the number of users per household in the U.S. trailed Japan's.
Instead of simply aiming to sell more units or make more money, Iwata declared his intention to see more families come together over Nintendo systems. "When these US numbers get much closer to the Japanese ones, videogames will become something really relevant to all family members," he said, believing that this would further expand the gaming population and consequently expand software sales.
Be sure to follow the source link at the top of the page to view more slides and Iwata's full presentation.
Post by: blackfootsteps on April 29, 2008, 03:07:32 AM
Post by: Kairon on April 29, 2008, 03:16:44 AM
Post by: RABicle on April 29, 2008, 06:27:48 AM
Post by: KDR_11k on April 29, 2008, 07:43:07 AM
Post by: Shift Key on April 29, 2008, 08:45:02 AM
Post by: Arbok on April 29, 2008, 09:53:22 AM
The Xbox has a unique market position in Japan where it is exclusively owned by virgins playing Dead or Alive.
Ah ha... quote worthy if there ever was one...
He reads that as "hey, third parties can sell games!", I read it as "hey, Nintendo still has the majority of the market". After all third parties are a crapton of different companies while Nintendo is a single one.
I don't know... the DS stuff is pretty hopeful for third parties... the Wii charts... not so much.
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on April 29, 2008, 11:18:13 AM
Their ballgame will be over soon.
Japan's gamers grew up on Nintendo and graduated to PlayStation.
The PlayStation gamers grew up and graduated to non-gamers, or lapsed gamers, or regular members of society who realize it's foolish to spend money on multi-disc RPGs.
Post by: Kairon on April 29, 2008, 11:26:25 AM
He reads that as "hey, third parties can sell games!", I read it as "hey, Nintendo still has the majority of the market". After all third parties are a crapton of different companies while Nintendo is a single one.
That's definitely a different way to cast light on the data.But given that the Wii install base is just 2 million away from globally passing the COMBINED install base of the XBox 360 and PS3, 60% is hardly anything to sneeze at.
The PlayStation gamers grew up and graduated to non-gamers, or lapsed gamers, or regular members of society who realize it's foolish to spend money on multi-disc RPGs.
You're on a roll lately Pro!
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on April 29, 2008, 11:55:56 AM
Post by: Kairon on April 29, 2008, 12:02:37 PM
On the flipside, there haven't been many big cinematic console JRPGs available this generation. What happened.
Japan died.
Post by: that Baby guy on April 29, 2008, 01:18:51 PM
At least, that's what I read from it.
What I want to know about is VC numbers.
Post by: Kairon on April 29, 2008, 01:23:54 PM
What I want to know about is VC numbers.
I'd love to know that too, but the last time Nintendo released VC sales numbers was... what? September 2007? VC sales are probably numbers that Nintendo will keep close to their chests and share only with other publishers, is my guess.
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on April 29, 2008, 01:34:30 PM
Post by: Nick DiMola on April 29, 2008, 01:51:03 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
I think that largely depends on pricing. Also how often WiiWare games see release. VC games are new every week, so it really depends.
Post by: DAaaMan64 on April 29, 2008, 01:52:46 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
I agree with exception of the big games. And it may be only temporary because of lack of wii ware support later. Also I do think it helps bring people to the Wii Shop Channel so in the long run VC might do better.
Post by: Ian Sane on April 29, 2008, 02:35:51 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
Why? The VC provides a different service. I would assume those that want to buy retro games will continue to do so regardless of Wii Ware. Now crap like Urban Champion is likely going to lose the curiousity buy but major classics will probably still sell. It's like 100% profit anyway. The VC is limited only by the amount of decent games available. Obviously there will be some point where virtually nothing worth a damn hasn't already been released on it.
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on April 29, 2008, 03:50:22 PM
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on April 29, 2008, 04:34:25 PM
Post by: Adrock on April 29, 2008, 08:52:01 PM
He reads that as "hey, third parties can sell games!", I read it as "hey, Nintendo still has the majority of the market". After all third parties are a crapton of different companies while Nintendo is a single one.That's the impression I got. Funny how misleading charts and percentages can be.
thatguy brings up in interesting point though I don't know if we can expect support to start "booming." That's being a little too optomistic.
Post by: Vance on April 30, 2008, 01:59:54 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
Personally, I don't care about WiiWare. With some rare exceptions (like the RE remake for GameCube and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for Xbox Live Arcade), I don't care about re-makes of games that I loved. What I want are the games that I loved, in as close to their original state as possible. To that end, the Virtual Console has delivered big time.
Post by: Kairon on April 30, 2008, 02:41:40 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
Personally, I don't care about WiiWare. With some rare exceptions (like the RE remake for GameCube and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for Xbox Live Arcade), I don't care about re-makes of games that I loved. What I want are the games that I loved, in as close to their original state as possible. To that end, the Virtual Console has delivered big time.
I'm with you. I don't like that the games get retouched when they go to XBLA most of the time. Give me the originals, don't worry about the extra frills, just give me as many originals as you can.
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 30, 2008, 03:07:15 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
Personally, I don't care about WiiWare. With some rare exceptions (like the RE remake for GameCube and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for Xbox Live Arcade), I don't care about re-makes of games that I loved. What I want are the games that I loved, in as close to their original state as possible. To that end, the Virtual Console has delivered big time.
I think you're confused about what Wii Ware is. Out of the many Wii Ware games announced so far there is only one that could be considered a remake of an older game, Alien Crush. Everything else is something new.
Post by: Nick DiMola on April 30, 2008, 03:16:47 PM
Perhaps I am going to be wrong, but I would think that after Wii Ware is released that VC numbers will start to plummet.
Personally, I don't care about WiiWare. With some rare exceptions (like the RE remake for GameCube and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for Xbox Live Arcade), I don't care about re-makes of games that I loved. What I want are the games that I loved, in as close to their original state as possible. To that end, the Virtual Console has delivered big time.
I think you're confused about what Wii Ware is. Out of the many Wii Ware games announced so far there is only one that could be considered a remake of an older game, Alien Crush. Everything else is something new.
And Toki Tori ... But yes, this is true. WiiWare is all new stuff unlike XBLA which has alot of remakes.
Post by: DAaaMan64 on April 30, 2008, 03:32:09 PM
NEEDS MOAR PIE CHARTS
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/210/443279456_f149183a1b_o.png)
Post by: mantidor on April 30, 2008, 05:38:41 PM
Oh thats right third parties, THATS THE GODDAMN PROBLEM!
Post by: Ian Sane on April 30, 2008, 06:25:35 PM
what was the last BIG third party game released on a Nintendo platform? and I mean released properly, not half-assed ports, spinoffs or sabotaged exclusivities. Big, nice, AAA titles from million selling franchises.
Oh thats right third parties, THATS THE GODDAMN PROBLEM!
I agree. Third parties seem to have a sense of entitlement. Like just because they release games on a Nintendo console they deserve big sales. None of them ever question if they actually deserve those sales. Now sometimes great games that are marketted well don't sell. That's worth complaining about. But it's not our duty to buy anyone's product. We as consumers have the right to expectations that must be met. Sometimes you can fluke out or con people or use MS style monopoly tactics but generally any company selling a product has to earn their business. So if a third party wants to sell Wii games they better put some effort in it. You only get what you give.
But instead it's like if a half-assed effort doesn't work they pull support and give up. What the hell business logic is that? I don't think "we're always right, it's the customer that must be wrong" is a strategy that has a lot of longterm potential.
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on April 30, 2008, 07:12:08 PM
Post by: Plugabugz on April 30, 2008, 09:28:46 PM
