Nintendo Unconcerned About Competing with PS4, Xbox One for Holidays

[roseofbattle]

Nintendo Unconcerned About Competing with PS4, Xbox One for Holidays

Nintendo will focus on the family market for this holiday season and change focus to advanced players next year.

In a follow-up results meeting to Nintendo's financial results [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129160-Nintendo-Financials-Wii-U-Still-A-Drag-On-The-Bottom-Line], the company spoke about the future, what it plans to do concerning the competition from Sony and Microsoft, and its hardware. Nintendo acknowledges it will have tougher competition with Sony and Microsoft with the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One this holiday season, but for now the company will focus on marketing its hardware and games to families, a market Sony and Microsoft are not addressing.

A part of Nintendo's family audience marketing will be focused on continuing to market the 2DS to families with young children. The awareness level of the 2DS is still low, senior research analyst Gibson reports, but surveys indicate buyers were new users. The lower priced handheld has made it more viable for families to choose the 2DS as an entry-level game system. At the same time, the 3DS is selling better than it did last year, and Nintendo expects a strong holiday season.

Meanwhile, the Wii U has not sold well, but Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said he is not pessimistic. The company remains committed to creating long-term value for the company, stating once again it will not cut people from staff to cut its costs. Gibson reports Iwata restated former president Hiroshi Yamauchi's advice: "Don't copy other entertainment companies."

Nintendo will not venture into smartphones, the company reiterated. It will use smartphones for promotional purposes, but has no plans to release games on the devices. Nintendo recognizes it has not fully utilized the Virtual Console library.

The company rightfully has a lot on its mind with competition from Sony and Microsoft, but refusing to release games on smartphones could hurt Nintendo. The same family audience also plays games on smartphones.

Source: Polygon [https://twitter.com/gibbogame]

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[Aiddon_v1legacy]

seriously, why does Nintendo have to reiterate the smart phone thing time and time again? Are people really just that stupid? Nintendo isn't interested in smart phone games. If they're going to make game of a similar budget they might as well put in on the eShop. It amazes me that people are this thick.

Anyway, people will probably say otherwise, but Iwata is completely right in his stance. There's no reason to panic, never has been. Nintendo has always been a long-term stability entity, not a quick cash grab one. As such they're a lot healthier as a business than their competitors are.

 

[medv4380]

but refusing to release games on smartphones could hurt Nintendo. The same family audience also plays games on smartphones.

Releasing games on smartphones would kill Nintendo. Only poor analysts who don't know how to read sales reports think that releasing on smartphones will help Nintendo. 3DS is selling at nearly the same level as the DS at the same time period. The DS is only a little ahead due to having one extra Christmas.

 

[Covarr]

I would love to see Nintendo use smartphones for supplementary materials. They've got an official Pokédex app for iOS, which is a good start, but doing more of that kind of stuff, and making it also available on Android would be a treat, and wouldn't go against the spirit of not actually releasing mobile games.

P.S. Thanks

 

[IndomitableSam]

Nintendo recognizes it has not fully utilized the Virtual Console library.

I keep telling you Nintendo, if you release the DS and 3DS games on the WiiU as a Virtual Console type thing... I will go out and buy a WiiU today. And probably a dozen games. You will easily get a thousand bucks off me if I could play 3DS games on my tv. This is why I buy a Pokemon game, then play it on an emulator. I play games together with my partner, even single player games. And I don't like sitting cramped up beside them to play games on a handheld.

 

[Elamdri]

Am I weird for liking the 2DS over the 3DS?

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

but refusing to release games on smartphones could hurt Nintendo. The same family audience also plays games on smartphones.

Releasing games on smartphones would kill Nintendo. Only poor analysts who don't know how to read sales reports think that releasing on smartphones will help Nintendo. 3DS is selling at nearly the same level as the DS at the same time period. The DS is only a little ahead due to having one extra Christmas.

Agreed. The best plan for Nintendo is to let the WiiU keel over and focus all their attention on Handhelds, which is a market that they've dominated for pretty much ever. Both Wii/U have suffered from some negative stigma, so it'd be in their best interests to recoup the WiiU losses and then slink back to their console lair, brood for a few years studying PC hardware/software trends, and then show up with some tech that avoids the latter's baggage.

 

[BrotherRool]

" change focus to advanced players next year."

Yeah that's not going to happen. If they had a chance it was half a year ago, but in a years time when PS4/Xbox games are being released that aren't backwards compatible with the PS3/360, do you really think the Wii U has any chance of taking off with that demographic?

They'll be fine making money out of die-hard Nintendo fans and family audiences again but they aren't going to do anything relevant to me. Apart from the handheld, and their legacy, Nintendo are barely a company worth talking about in certain circles anymore

 

[Covarr]

They'll be fine making money out of die-hard Nintendo fans and family audiences again

Family audiences think the Wii U is an overpriced Wii peripheral. Even the ones who understand it don't see the point, since the Wii already has Wii Sports and Wii Fit.

It was foolish to try to capture an audience that doesn't need the latest and greatest two generations in a row. All the things that worked well once are working against them when they're trying to do it a second time. Meanwhile, their most anticipated stuff, Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Super Smash Bros.), is all geared toward more "advanced" players than they've been targeting, and it's likely to be far more successful than the Wii U's earlier stuff.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Xman490]

Am I weird for liking the 2DS over the 3DS?

Perhaps not with majority opinion, but I agree with you. The 2DS is cheaper and less awkward to hold than the other DS products.

Now that Sonic: Lost World is out of must-have territory in my opinion, it is going to take a Nintendo Direct by early December with a big announcement for a fun game that has something that has never been done before to get me to buy a Wii U over PS4. Basically, it would take something as special as Super Mario 3D World, whose offline/family multiplayer sounds really interesting.

 

[Jumwa]

Releasing games on smartphones would kill Nintendo. Only poor analysts who don't know how to read sales reports think that releasing on smartphones will help Nintendo. 3DS is selling at nearly the same level as the DS at the same time period. The DS is only a little ahead due to having one extra Christmas.

You mean sabotaging their own system by putting games on phones where consumers expect prices to be a tenth as much won't make them big bucks? Madness!

You're exactly right. Telling Nintendo to put their games on smartphones is the kind of foolish arm-chair CEO advice that would be the ruination of the company.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, it's going to be an interesting holiday "battle" of sorts, but I highly doubt Nintendo's portables would suffer in the slightest, they're more complementary than not and they're pretty cheap too (also Pokémon), also the Vita still needs to iron out a few things to directly compete with the 3/2DS, ie: release more games (or Monster Hunter).

Am I weird for liking the 2DS over the 3DS?

Nope, I also like the 2DS and I'm certainly looking forward to get one pretty soon.

 

[Censorme]

Telling Nintendo what to do is overdone.

But they think Sony and Microsoft aren't marketing to families?! FFS the Kinect still lives because of the mindless parent consumers!

Dare I suggest that the reasoning behind everything wrong with the consoles was because Sony-MS were trying to attract that oh-so-sweet "family market".

I thought people would move onto P.C gaming because of the spec difference, but now it might just be "because your mom is on the Xbox hogging the Netflix".

 

[littlewisp]

Telling Nintendo what to do is overdone.

But they think Sony and Microsoft aren't marketing to families?! FFS the Kinect still lives because of the mindless parent consumers!

Truuuue story. Both my sister and I are adults out on our own, and last Christmas my parents bought a kinect to try to lure us home more often. My mom was so excited about it and I just remember feeling awful because I knew it was not going to be used willingly. I still kinda feel bad.


On topic, I feel like Nintendo doesn't know who Nintendo is anymore. Whatevs, I've been thinking of getting a WiiU this season, but then again I reeeeally want a new drawing tablet. They're both about the same price, I can only afford one or the other. Decisions...