President of Nintendo of America emphasises software as main driver for motivating continued Wii sales success.
Asked in an interview with US business news TV channel CNBC whether he saw further price cuts in Wii's future, he said, "Absolutely not. What we have is great software."
Citing New Super Mario Bros. Wii as evidence of a strong lineup of games for Christmas, he continued, "As long as well have this great drumbeat of new software, we'll be able to motivate the consumer."
He went on to deny that the Wii's recent price cut in US and Japan, to US$199.99 and 20,000 yen respectively, was a response to competitors - rather, it was to support Wii Fit Plus to give Wii sales 'momentum' into Christmas. It's a line that backs up statements recently made by Nintedo VP of corporate affairs Denise Kaigler.
Wii has not had the official price drop in Europe, but is currently being offered in the UK for £179.99 (US$286) bundled with Wii Sports Resort. "Europe is a very interesting market," Fils-Aime explained. "A lot of different retailers, a lot of different regions, a lot of different taxes and things of that nature, so it's a market by market solution."
Challenged by the interviewer that Nintendo hadn't maintained the same level of innovation that it had set on launching Wii and that Sony and Microsoft were nipping at its heels in quality and innovation Fils-Aime replied, "We have to keep innovating". He referred to DSi's two cameras and downloadable games - features that have long been offered on mobile platforms while downloadable content is now a focus for PSP - as evidence that Nintendo was doing just that.
He assured, too, that Nintendo is prepared for high Christmas sales this year. "We do not expect to have shortages on our products. If we do experience them, I'd love to have that problem, but we're not seeing that this year."
I have to agree with NOMAD. I wonder why I keep the wii. The reason it’s still so successful in my books is that the software is cheap and appeals to the the mainstream of people that have it. A parent who plays the wii generally will not be into heavy games like MGS and resi 5 etc. they want a 5 minute bash and see £19.00 or £25.00 price tag as ok for this rather than a £39.95 price tag for something that looks far too complicated. My wii sits on the shelf and if you have read my posts before I have 50 odd games on the HDD (homebrew channel) and I don’t play them, the kids don’t play them and my wife doesn’t play them. But I don’t sell it just in case a new Mario Galaxy, Zelda or Metroid comes along. There are just no AAA titles on the horizon that there were when the wii kicked off.
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