Nintendo CEO Says He Should Have Marketed the Wii Differently

[Greg Tito]

Nintendo CEO Says He Should Have Marketed the Wii Differently

Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata told investors that he may have relied on internal marketing too much for the Wii.

I don't think anyone would say that the Nintendo Wii's launch in 2006 was a failure. The diminutive console sold way more units than anyone expected given its beefier competition in the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Pundits scratched their heads at the name - I still think calling it by its codename the Revolution would have been a better choice - but one could argue that the Wii's strangeness is what connected the console to a new casual audience. Despite the great sales that Nintendo enjoyed, sales are waning now and Nintendo isn't sure why. Satoru Iwata admits that his company's reliance on internal marketing teams might be the problem. Iwata is considering hiring more outside help when it launches the "Project Cafe," the rumored Wii successor.

"I now regret that we didn't tie up with someone outside the company to market the Wii. If we had done that, the fate of the Wii might have been different," Iwata said at a closed meeting for investors and analysts.

"Now I am aware that we should not rely too much on ourselves. You will see what I mean by this when we market the 3DS and the Wii in the future," he continued.

Iwata may be admitting that the image for the Wii as a "casual" console might have hurt its reputation amongst core gamers and developers. Hiring an outside marketing firm for the different world markets will allow the company to shed that image for the next console and perhaps speak more to the Western twentysomethings that buy the majority of videogames abroad.

Does this mean we'll see more funny or ironic ads from Nintendo in the same vein as the Kevin Butler PS3 spots? What would that even be like?

Get ready to meet Nintendo's new pitchman - Mr. Funtime Jones!

His catchphrase? "Get ready to play with yourself!"

Yeah, maybe they need to work on that ...

Source: Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/26/us-nintendo-idUSTRE73O0RY20110426]

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[tehweave]

It's amazing how a company can go from a system that nearly kills them (Gamecube) to a system that beats out the other three in terms of sales (Wii) and still say they didn't do something right.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

I dunno. I kind of liked the whole "Wii Would Like To Play" thing.

 

[FolkLikePanda]

It had some great games at the start then it just went shittier there after.

 

[dragongit]

The Wii wasn't printing money fast enough for Nintendo's taste.

 

[DoctorPhil]

It's amazing how a company can go from a system that nearly kills them (Gamecube) to a system that beats out the other three in terms of sales (Wii) and still say they didn't do something right.

Why did the Gamecube do so bad anyway? I loved it, it had so many excellent games.

 

[Irridium]

Maybe sales are waning because anyone who'd want to buy one has.

Just a thought.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

There was nothing wrong with the marketing for the Wii. It needed no marketing because the pack in Wii Sports immediately made everyone who tried it say "I gotta get me some of that!"

A good product sells itself as opposed to something that only sells through fraud or advertising, but I repeat myself.

There were a couple of reasons why Gamecube didn't do well but the main one was Sony's excellent timing with PS2. The ps1 was the clear winner of the last gen and so people had huge game libraries. Backwards compatibility sealed the deal and when it was first launched it was a reasonably priced DVD player. However technology wise Gamecube was the best of the last gen.

And Nintendo learned their lesson. Technology doesn't trump price, utility, or accessibility.

I hope they don't go after the brown shooter crowd with the next console, that isn't their thing and doesn't need to be.

Nintendo INVENTED hardcore and to anyone who says the didn't go ahead and beat original Mario Bros, or Zelda 2nd quest or Cthulu help you Kid Icarus.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Maybe sales are waning because anyone who'd want to buy one has.

Just a thought.

And you can probably assume the inverse as well: all those who haven't bought one yet probably aren't ever going to.

 

[GiantRaven]

Despite the great sales that Nintendo enjoyed, sales are waning now and Nintendo isn't sure why.

Because everybody who is going to buy a Wii probably already owns one? It's pretty obvious really...

 

[walsfeo]

The problem is people only want to play Wii for a little while. It's rare the console ever comes out at our house anymore - it's been in a box for 3 months.

More engaged game developers with a better understanding of their hardware, a stronger online marketplace, more comprehensive community building tools, and the ability to take games with them on the go or play on the Wii, would all help their continued sales.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

There are but a few titles that I enjoyed for the wii, but I guess people just like gimmicks, look at the iPhone and stuff,

 

[mjc0961]

Despite the great sales that Nintendo enjoyed, sales are waning now and Nintendo isn't sure why.

You've sold over 80 million. Everyone who wants one pretty much has one by now. Take this as a victory and move on to the next platform now. Well, give us Skyward Sword first. And don't do that Twilight Princess shit again where you delay it and delay it so it can come out on your new hardware as a launch port while making those of us who have the current console it was originally coming out on wait.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

the reason the Wii's sales aren't higher is because it has such market dominance that everyone who wants one has one. It's just reaching its apex is all

 

[OldNewNewOld]

They should hire Valve to make their advertising.
If they make it even half as good as the advertising of Portal 2..... It would be EPIC.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

In hindsight putting that baby chick in the microwave wasn't a very good idea.