Above: A poster displays a picture of Malstrom with advice for game companies. Two ladies are shown to remind everyone that true customer satisfaction can happen.
Iwata held a meeting with shareholders. Unknown to all, Malstrom was there to report what was said.
We will release a succession of Nintendo titles from the latter half of this year to enable the Wii U platform to regain sales momentum.
Unless Nintendo is referring to games that were not shown at E3, this is not going to pan out. Who is going to buy Pikmin 3 when Pikmin 1 and 2 only delivered Gamecube sales? Who is going to buy Wind Waker HD when the original Wind Waker delivered Gamecube sales? Who is going to buy 3d World Mario when 3d Land Mario resulted in financially poor 3DS sales? The same could be said of Mario Kart 8 after Mario Kart 7 failed to impress.
We are going to release a variety of Wii U software, and with each title, we would like to show how convenient and delightful it is to have the Wii U GamePad controller, and how it changes the gaming experience.
What software is this!? Again, did Nintendo show off any software at E3 that I didn’t know about? There is nothing shown in these games that is going to convince people that the Gamepad is awesome.
In this sense, starting with “Pikmin 3,” we aim to include functions that make good use of the GamePad that consumers can appreciate.
So Nintendo is going to show off good use of a GamePad with a game no one will buy?
On the other hand, free-to-play games, if unbalanced, could result in some consumers paying extremely large amounts of money, and we can certainly not expect to build a good relationship with our consumers in this fashion. In order to have a favorable long-term relationship, we would like to offer free-to-play games that are balanced and reasonable.
In other words, Nintendo wants to milk its ‘faithful fans’ out of as much money as possible so they keep coming back.
Long term relationship? What the heck? I just want a video game, not a ‘relationship’ with a game company.
If Nintendo wants more money, maybe it should try making games that sell instead of making games that have proven to not sell (Wind Waker or more Pikmin).
It is up to consumers to ultimately make judgments about our entertainment business.
BS! Everytime we try this, Miyamoto or Aonuma appear to tell us that consumers are wrong or ‘don’t know what they want’.
When Nintendo developed a dual-screen handheld game device and made an entirely different controller for the Wii console, did you not question why we would do such a thing? These endeavors went against the grain at that time and majority of people in the industry believed that Nintendo would not succeed.
Not me. I knew they would succeed. And I also knew they would fail with the Wii U.
The reason why is not because I am smart, it is because I don’t have a ‘creativity horse’ I’m betting on like Nintendo developers do. They are so emotionally invested in 3d output or ‘connectivity’ that their hopes distort their view of reality. “Now is the time for 3d!” Nintendo chanted when the 3DS launched.
First, I think it is becoming increasingly more difficult to have consumers understand and appreciate the value that a particular game offers than ever before.
Excuse me, reader. I must excuse myself while I step outside.
*Malstrom walks outside and bursts out laughing.*
OK, I’m back now. Iwata is blaming the consumers here. It’s the consumers’ fault! They don’t understand or appreciate the value of our Gamecube HD games! How dare they!
With countless games offered for free, consumers are far more careful than ever to decide whether it is worthwhile to spend dozens of dollars to buy one game.
This is such a lame excuse. Free games were highly prevalent a generation ago. Remember flash gaming on the Internet? While smartphones weren’t as popular as they are today, it doesn’t explain the abysmal home console sales. Most televisions don’t have apps… yet.
Moreover, it is not an easy task to regain the trust of the fans of a franchise once you lose it.
And Nintendo has lost the trust of fans in the franchises of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid thanks to factory-made NSMB or 3d Land/World lameness, Aonuma eccentricities defining Zelda, and Metroid: Other M.
And that’s it. It was a very short Nintendo Shareholder Meeting which means Iwata wanted to get out of there quickly.
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