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Iwata talks price cuts, new games, online

Says pricing must be decided on a global level and that new titles "can drive" Wii sales later this year
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently used the company's annual financial results briefing to discuss the platform holder's strategy going forward.

In an investor Q&A; session he covered a wide range of topics, including hardware price cuts, upcoming first party Wii titles and the company's online strategy.

"Of course, I have never said that cutting the suggested retail price is not in the cards," he said when questioned about the performance of the DS in the domestic market. "However, price cuts in one country can certainly affect other countries. For example, when you say that we should cut the price in Japan due to the current domestic market situation, once the suggested retail price is cut in Japan, people outside Japan will anticipate the same around the world."

Iwata said that in the past each country "could decide its own price policy in the videogame market," but that "price policy has become a global subject in the recent years. So, any price policy must be considered with the aim to maximise our global business.

"Also, while the price cut is said to surely increase demand, it must be clear from a variety of analysis so far that the effect cannot last very long. Accordingly, if we really do enact a price cut, it must be exactly when it can maximise the business. At least for now, I have no specific ideas about the price cut at all."

Addressing flagging Wii sales in Japan, Iwata said that new Nintendo titles set for release later in the year had the potential to boost hardware sales.

"The reason why I said today that April, May and June sales of Wii will not reach last year's results but that the situation will change from summer this year was because the company has been preparing for several titles to be launched toward the end of this year that can drive the market."

Iwata wouldn't elaborate on the nature of the titles, but he was surely referring to the "key" Nintendo properties the company has told retailers such as GameStop to "reserve [shelf] space" for later in the year.

Speaking about Nintendo's online strategy, Iwata said that he believes it will be a few years yet before the demise of traditional packaged software, although he acknowledged the growing popularity of online shopping.

"Already today, a number of people are aware of and appreciate the convenience of online shopping. Accordingly, Nintendo must be making efforts to provide them with the new mode of shopping. Simultaneously, however, I do not believe the competitive edge that packaged software has today will easily be taken up anytime soon."

Article supplied by Edge-Online

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Posted by purple101
everyone, and i mean everyone, is talking about ps3,
and everyone is saying wii is soo 2008, and were almost half way hrough 2009. so....support

nintendo have had their time, it was last year, and they made a complete hash of it,
didnt keep up the flow of quality, infact taking a trip to my local games store or hmv almost made me puke.

disgusting rip off games dsigned to squeese a buck from mums with prams,....real games obv wouldnt buy any of this rubish.

i have a wii, and i have around 8 good games.
and no sight of any good ones comming


ps3 i 5 games, (brought it a month ago)and a fat list of ten or tweny...to buy...over the next year

starting with fuel/infamous in 8 days, of which ive pre-ordered both.
Posted by Osiris25
Yawn more boring Wii bashing is about to commence I see. I wouldn't bleet on about PS3 as its always lacking anything to play. I've had mine a while and only have 7 games so far where as I 've 20+ For Wii and 360. The thing about the Wii is whether or not your willing to try some of the different types of game it has or you just don't want to change from the norm. I tried a couple of its different games and was pleasantly surprised. I think there lots to come yet and I'm looking forwards to see what these key titles will be.
Posted by WHERESMYMONKEY
Are you completely retarded mate. 2009 is Nintendos year. Although sony do seem to have finally gotten thier act together. So far theres been quality core games coming out left right and centre for the machine and it doesn't look like its going to stop. Stuff real gamers enjoy. you know people that understand that there are more genres of games than racers and shooters.

Punch out, murumasa, The conduit, Anno, HOTD Overkill, Madworld, The reduxs of pikmin and jungle beat, boom blox 2, little kings story, resi evil the darkside chronicles, kalona and dead space extraction.

And don't forget motionplus is out in less than a month. Then theres red stell 2, wii sports resort, grand slam tennis and tiger woods to look forward too. not forgetting the PAl realease of tales of symphonia 2 (finally)

Look at that a big list of core games all being released in 2009 for the wii that cover a wide variety of genres.

This year my wii has gone back to taking over my living room something it didn't do last year.
Posted by SpoonyRedMage
No games for the Wii this year? Hello, HOTD: Overkill, Little King's Story, Punch Out, Madworld, The Conduit, Crystal Bearers(hopefully) and others say hello!

I think they should still consider a price cut but as of last week(or possibly the week before) the Wii is back on top.

EDIT: I got beaten to it by WHERESMYMONKEY.
Posted by Sirini
Wasn't there actually a price rise on the Wii recently?
Posted by WHERESMYMONKEY
Nintendo were considering raising the cost price for retailers but not the actual RRP. Not that you'd know it. Been offers on them in both morrisons and asda recently for Ł165
Posted by WiiFuelee
Yeah they are all still talking about what an overpriced disapointment the PS3 continues to be. At least PS3 has about a half dozen good games now compared to just the 1 or 2 it had before.
Posted by ParmaViolet
Who is 'everyone' exactly?

:roll:
Posted by genfactor
@purple 101: everyone has an opinion, and here's mine. I only have 4 good games for my PS3 becasuse cross platform games seem to be better on 360. On the other hand I have more than 50 games for my wii60 with many more that I want but don't have the money to buy and even more comming out this year. What's the PS3 got comming besides uncharted 2 and the better version of FF13?
Posted by JuiKuen
Yeah, everyone's talking about it being a ten year machine (everyone = at Sony).

Digusting "rip off" games? What or who are they ripping off? Those you mention. Well, they seem to be having fun with it so I doubt they feel ripped off..

If anything, PS3 'tards like yourself are the ones getting ripped off cos you pay the same money for inferior (to 360) games.

Your 'good' games may start in eight days but Wii owners can start today with Punch Out!!

And I think you mean you 'bought' it a month ago. Even your spelling and grammar are as stupid as your post..
Posted by almanac2015
So we have an on rails shooter, a couple of remakes, a multiplatform Tiger Woods, Red Sttel 2 (the sequel to an average game), a bunch of mini games with the Wii Sports sequel and that is Nintendo's year?
It's easy to make a list of games that haven't proven themselves.



Killzone started how many months ago?

Before we can call this year the year of the PS3 or Wii, how about we actually wait for the year to be out. then we can look back and actually look back on some facts, not a couple of previews that have hyped the game.
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