Iwata on the changing landscape of gaming, struggle to create new software, social networks and more
The following comes from Satoru Iwata...
When we talk about “charging for items” and “add-on content,” the structure will be the same. More specifically, with the update of the Nintendo eShop scheduled for the end of November, a mechanism, with which the users can separately purchase inexpensive add-on items and content for a game they have purchased, will be incorporated. Maybe I needed to explain in more detail at the end of July this year, but what will be done by the end of this year is not only the publishers’ ability to provide consumers with add-on content but they will also be able to charge for such items.
I have already shared with you Nintendo’s position on this kind of activity. (During the Q&A session of the last Financial Briefing, I said, for one thing, that add-on stages and content, for which the developers have poured a significant amount of their creative resources into, should be offered for the consumers to purchase separately.) Nintendo will also offer something like this for the titles Nintendo publishes next year, in a way that should be appreciated by our consumers. I also hear that some of the software publishers are intending to launch titles that incorporate this new structure of the Nintendo eShop from early next year. I would like to wait for each publisher to make their relevant announcements as to such details as what each of their software titles will do specifically, but I just wanted you to be aware of the general schedule.
(Some have reported that Nintendo is intending to launch software for which the company will charge consumers for “add-on items” in exactly the same way as other social game providers, but it is not true.)
About our intention to make use of smartphones and social networking services, we have, for example, already notified the public of Nintendo Direct by using SNS. More specifically, we made an announcement through Twitter two days before the broadcast of Nintendo Direct on the Internet and, as a result, hundreds of thousands of people watched it. So, we have already started using SNS. When it comes to experiencing Nintendo software, we want people to do so only on our platforms. On the other hand, I explained about our plan to make Nintendo eShop available on the Internet too. When it comes to the ways people can access our software information, it used to be that we were solely dependent upon TV ads and print ads. Now that social media plays a new role in spreading information, it would be a shame if we could not make use of them. Smartphones are quickly spreading as a means used mainly by the younger generations. In Japan, we may feel that this is the year that smartphones are starting to expand significantly, but in the United States, that trend was already seen before this year. Making use of them is one example of how we would like to take advantage of SNS. For the launch of the Wii U, we will be able to do even more. Today, so many companies are trying to attract the public to a broad variety of different products. We are all fighting to grab people’s attention. So, our idea is that, in such a circumstance, the company should try to use SNS vigorously so that it can help to remind people about our products, or we should offer people a situation where they can more easily find out about our products that suit their lifestyle, tastes and values.
As for your second question, just as you pointed out, offering software one after another is a never-ending challenge we have to try to overcome. We failed to offer strong software titles without long intervals in the first half of this year, but it was not because we did not place importance on offering them one after another. Even when we understand the significance of this, we are sometimes unable to do so. We should have prepared a more thorough backup plan. We were planning to launch software in the first half of this year without too many intervals. However, we ended up delaying the launches of multiple software titles, and we could not make up for it. Around the same time, the third-party titles did not become huge hits, either.
For us to provide software titles one after another, one idea is, “Isn’t it possible for Nintendo to stock some of its software titles instead of launching them as soon as the development is completed?” Video games need to stay fresh, so it is not practical for us to put them on hold for too long, but we think that some of them may be held for a certain amount of time so that there will be a short interval between when they are completed and when they are launched. We are taking on this sort of challenge for the Nintendo 3DS. For example, when we look at the software lineup for the year-end sales season, it is so dense that, if we added any more software, the total sales would not increase. Accordingly, we have intentionally delayed the launch of some software titles to early next year.
Another idea is for us to further intensify our collaborations with the software developers and the third-party publishers. When we launched the Nintendo DS and the Wii, Nintendo made some very unique proposals which were not in alliance with the mainstream concepts held in the video game industry at that time. As a result, there was no choice but for us to invigorate these platforms through Nintendo’s own efforts so that they could be up and running. And, the initial purchasers of the products were mainly Nintendo fans. Particularly in Japan, for the Wii, we struggled to create the circumstance early on where third-party Wii titles sold in huge volumes. Because we could not show a good sales record for third-party Wii titles, third-party developers did not sustain their passion to create software for the Wii. In the overseas markets, there have been a number of third-party hit titles on the Wii. However, there was also a challenge that the Wii was not fully capable of catering to the needs of, for example, first person shooter games, the users of which prefer platforms compatible with HD TVs. For these challenges, we will be able to improve the situation with the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. In fact, a number of software publishers and developers have recognized this fact and have started working on their software in a variety of ways. Overall, I think that we will be able to establish an environment where we will not repeat the same mistake that strong titles were not released until about six months after the launch of the hardware.
Link
When we talk about “charging for items” and “add-on content,” the structure will be the same. More specifically, with the update of the Nintendo eShop scheduled for the end of November, a mechanism, with which the users can separately purchase inexpensive add-on items and content for a game they have purchased, will be incorporated. Maybe I needed to explain in more detail at the end of July this year, but what will be done by the end of this year is not only the publishers’ ability to provide consumers with add-on content but they will also be able to charge for such items.
I have already shared with you Nintendo’s position on this kind of activity. (During the Q&A session of the last Financial Briefing, I said, for one thing, that add-on stages and content, for which the developers have poured a significant amount of their creative resources into, should be offered for the consumers to purchase separately.) Nintendo will also offer something like this for the titles Nintendo publishes next year, in a way that should be appreciated by our consumers. I also hear that some of the software publishers are intending to launch titles that incorporate this new structure of the Nintendo eShop from early next year. I would like to wait for each publisher to make their relevant announcements as to such details as what each of their software titles will do specifically, but I just wanted you to be aware of the general schedule.
(Some have reported that Nintendo is intending to launch software for which the company will charge consumers for “add-on items” in exactly the same way as other social game providers, but it is not true.)
About our intention to make use of smartphones and social networking services, we have, for example, already notified the public of Nintendo Direct by using SNS. More specifically, we made an announcement through Twitter two days before the broadcast of Nintendo Direct on the Internet and, as a result, hundreds of thousands of people watched it. So, we have already started using SNS. When it comes to experiencing Nintendo software, we want people to do so only on our platforms. On the other hand, I explained about our plan to make Nintendo eShop available on the Internet too. When it comes to the ways people can access our software information, it used to be that we were solely dependent upon TV ads and print ads. Now that social media plays a new role in spreading information, it would be a shame if we could not make use of them. Smartphones are quickly spreading as a means used mainly by the younger generations. In Japan, we may feel that this is the year that smartphones are starting to expand significantly, but in the United States, that trend was already seen before this year. Making use of them is one example of how we would like to take advantage of SNS. For the launch of the Wii U, we will be able to do even more. Today, so many companies are trying to attract the public to a broad variety of different products. We are all fighting to grab people’s attention. So, our idea is that, in such a circumstance, the company should try to use SNS vigorously so that it can help to remind people about our products, or we should offer people a situation where they can more easily find out about our products that suit their lifestyle, tastes and values.
As for your second question, just as you pointed out, offering software one after another is a never-ending challenge we have to try to overcome. We failed to offer strong software titles without long intervals in the first half of this year, but it was not because we did not place importance on offering them one after another. Even when we understand the significance of this, we are sometimes unable to do so. We should have prepared a more thorough backup plan. We were planning to launch software in the first half of this year without too many intervals. However, we ended up delaying the launches of multiple software titles, and we could not make up for it. Around the same time, the third-party titles did not become huge hits, either.
For us to provide software titles one after another, one idea is, “Isn’t it possible for Nintendo to stock some of its software titles instead of launching them as soon as the development is completed?” Video games need to stay fresh, so it is not practical for us to put them on hold for too long, but we think that some of them may be held for a certain amount of time so that there will be a short interval between when they are completed and when they are launched. We are taking on this sort of challenge for the Nintendo 3DS. For example, when we look at the software lineup for the year-end sales season, it is so dense that, if we added any more software, the total sales would not increase. Accordingly, we have intentionally delayed the launch of some software titles to early next year.
Another idea is for us to further intensify our collaborations with the software developers and the third-party publishers. When we launched the Nintendo DS and the Wii, Nintendo made some very unique proposals which were not in alliance with the mainstream concepts held in the video game industry at that time. As a result, there was no choice but for us to invigorate these platforms through Nintendo’s own efforts so that they could be up and running. And, the initial purchasers of the products were mainly Nintendo fans. Particularly in Japan, for the Wii, we struggled to create the circumstance early on where third-party Wii titles sold in huge volumes. Because we could not show a good sales record for third-party Wii titles, third-party developers did not sustain their passion to create software for the Wii. In the overseas markets, there have been a number of third-party hit titles on the Wii. However, there was also a challenge that the Wii was not fully capable of catering to the needs of, for example, first person shooter games, the users of which prefer platforms compatible with HD TVs. For these challenges, we will be able to improve the situation with the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. In fact, a number of software publishers and developers have recognized this fact and have started working on their software in a variety of ways. Overall, I think that we will be able to establish an environment where we will not repeat the same mistake that strong titles were not released until about six months after the launch of the hardware.
Link
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