Despite the Wii U struggling in terms of sales, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has stated that there is no price cut on the horizon.
In a statement to shareholders, Iwata stated:
“Obviously, under the current situation where the company has to report an operating loss, simply executing a price reduction as a way to defuse the situation is not an option. In the short-term, Nintendo will focus on thoroughly enriching the value of the most significant feature of Wii U, the Wii U GamePad.”
It’s a somewhat defiant message from Iwata, who clearly still believes in the Wii U and its ability to offer unique gameplay experiences via the GamePad. To be fair to the Nintendo president, he makes a very valid point as Nintendo’s marketing around the Wii U has been extremely poor. They’ve failed to highlight the GamePad and what it can do, resulting in the more casual gamer being left confused.
In any case, Iwata also added:
“Unfortunately, as the current situation of Wii U shows, we have not been able to fully communicate the value of the GamePad. We also realize that we have not been successful in answering consumers’ questions such as, “What is the difference between Wii U and the previous platform, Wii, and what is the benefit of upgrading it?” By looking at the current sales situation, I am aware that this is due to our lack of effort. What’s even worse is that there even appear to be not a small number of consumers who think the GamePad is one of the accessories for the previous platform, Wii.
It is more challenging to convey the appeal of the GamePad to consumers who do not engage with video games that often since they do not actively gather information about video games. Therefore, we intend to take on this challenge, and I would like to have this solved before the year-end sales season.
In order to do this, it is obvious that our top priority task this year is to offer software titles that are made possible because of the GamePad.”
So no price cut and a focus on the GamePad, what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.
