Iwata admits Nintendo is to blame for poor Wii U Sales

Iwata speaks candidly about Nintendo's failure to meet its initial Wii U sales target.

[overlordror]

Finally Nintendo admits they didn't do any marketing at all.

[Prime_28]

I agree the marketing for Wii U was terrible. Hopefully it will pick up this holiday season.

[3-4-5]

At least they own up to their mistakes instead of arrogantly acting like they aren't there.......looking at you microsoft.

[Xof]

Or develop big games for launch.
Or encourage third party development.
Or implement unified account system.
Or expand first-party offerings on eShop and Virtual Console.
Or encourage third-parties to offer games digitally through eShop or Virtual Console.
Or encourage independent development and publishing through eShop.

Hell, with the Wii Nintendo actively DISCOURAGED third parties from releasing digital content by refusing to share any profits until a certain sale threshold was reached. Are they still doing that with the WiiU? Because that was crazy stupid.

[Psn800]

I went out bought my Wii u on the day it was launched but we need them big games now .

[Mounce]

I'd say to Iwata: "You don't Say?"

Whos' fault would it be to begin with, the consumers for not liking their bullshit? lol

[dedicatedtogamers]

Stop apologizing and start making games.

Or step down from your position and let someone new try. The problem is that Iwata is far too soft on the developers. He lets them make whatever they want and take as long as they want.

[LOL_WUT]

Apologizing isn't going to get him anywhere and like Mr_Nuts said the only one to blame is himself.

He either needs to step down or hire more devs to try to get these games in gamers hands as soon as possible. They also need to fix the problems that are surrounding the company 3rd party comes to mind. ;)

[Prime_28]

Yes the man behind the success of the Wii, DS and now 3DS should step down but Sony's CEO shouldn't step down for losing over $5 billion from PS3 sales. Right.

[Prime_28]

Quite the opposite actually.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Sony's CEO did step down, over a year ago..

[TongkatAli]

Howard Stringer left. Also I don't think Iwata should step down.

[Donnieboi]

Maybe Iwata should start looking for a suitable replacement for his presidential spot. I think he should retire. He blames "Nintendo", but that's just a name. He needs to blame himself.

Bring back the Nintendo of old. The original champion of HARDCORE gamer's. Not the stuff Iwata's been doing with the Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U. Before Iwata came along, Nintendo was king. Now the only one's who still think that are delusional.

I want the NES, SNES, and N64 type of era to return.

[ChickeyCantor]

In business sense you don't say "I". He represent Nintendo and therefore says Nintendo.

"Before Iwata came along, Nintendo was king. Now the only one's who still think that are delusional. "

Eh, Times were different and their ideas applied far better back in those days. They brought a 2D mario and a new DKC but you don't seem to praise them for it even though that was the "hardcore" stuff from the 90's

[Picnic]

Actually, the Gamecube was a curiously double minded console for the time in that some games , like Luigi's Mansion, were relatively easy and some games were very hard with less middle ground than other consoles have. So it was kind of a hardcore console although I wouldn't claim that it was as EPIC a console as the N64 for Rare's games.

F Zero GX- tough game.
Metroid Prime - tough in some boss battles.
Super Monkey Ball- very tough.
Viewtful Joe- incredibly tough later on.

It's like the Wii said - people still like us for our cute games but they don't like us when that's a disguise for FULL hardcore.

[Divine]

the wii u is current gen

[LiberatedAnimal]

If by the Nintendo system that coincides with PS4 and XBox 1 then yes, you are correct. ;)

[jcnba28]

PS4 is current gen.

[3-4-5]

You'd rather him be arrogant / ignorant and act like there are no problems ?

What is with you people ?

[PrimeGrime]

No we would rather him have a plan or solution to these problems instead of just saying "Sorry" over and over again.

[MegaLagann]

Sorry dude but you can only say "we're sorry" some many times and still produce nothing until people just stop caring.

[greenlantern2814]

no we would rather nintendo realize that having mario and zelda alone is no reason to buy their systems. nintendo use to have a good relationship with 3rd party devs, they use to bring a wide verity of gaming options to the gamers. but now nintendo is like you are going to get the system because you love mario and zelda and that is enough even when it is not. clearly since the wii did so well (but was a crappy system) then nintendo was like we can release the wiiu knowing it is only a little better if at all better than 360 and ps3.

[Mr_Nuts]

I wouldn't class everyone at Nintendo as a whole Iwata...it's YOUR fault, your in bloody charge. People just follow what you say.

Typical boss of a massive company when it's done something wrong....blame the entire company instead of the person running it, themselfs.

[Captain Qwark 9]

Actually its more ridiculous to blame one guy when there are hundreds of people employed at Nintendo. I'm sure they have a marketing department that does all sorts of research and they could have just as easily said they weren't doing enough. The devs could always work faster or ask to hire more employees if they are understaffed. Even with all that he has to balance production cost of anything and make sure everything is still going to profit or at least balance out. Their r&d and programming depts could have done a better with the hardware, UI, etc to make it more comparable to current systems.

my point, its a team full of hundreds of people, to blame one man for it all is ludicrous. People can speak up on the team and the only way it becomes solely his fault is if they all did and he shot them all down which is unlikely

[Rearden]

Iwata took some responsibility -- last year he cut his own pay substantially.

[greenlantern2814]

ceos of companies get paid through profit, this is true of any company. so when you loss profit the ceo losses money. that fact that he said he cut his pay is stupid, since any ceo of any company would loss money if the company lost money.

[Cyb3r]

I hope they start making games look less cartoony and more like the E3 2011 Zelda tech demo. The Wii U has a lot more power than the Wii had so how about making some games that show us what the hardware is capable of

[kreate]

My thoughts same.
I wanted the Wii-u for the free online play but I saw the pbs style cartoony pictures of animal crossing leaf village or whatever its called and I just got really disturbed.

Although not all games are like that obviously but it just sucks.

[MasterCornholio]

Ah so it is their fault. This is contrary to the belief of many fans of Nintendo.

Now since they admitted that they are the culprits of Wii Us poor performance in the market now they can start to turn it around by bringing must have games to the system and more 3rd party support would be great as well.

:)

[kirbyu]

Nintendo can't choose if there's 3rd party support.

[Yodagamer]

They can't choose, but they can sure help third parties get interested with Nintendo getting some first party titles sales will help. That's when we will see some third party get interested again.

[MasterCornholio]

Nintendo cant choose 3rd party support but they can offer incentives for development on the platform. An example of this is how Sony and Nintendo allow Indies to self publish on their console which will increase Indie support while Microsoft rejection of self publishing decreasing said support.

[ReLLiK]

First step to recovery is admitting. However, I already sold my Wii u and don't man on buying another. Maybe next time, Iwata.

[Chapter11]

The problem is lack of 3rd party support, and down right refusal to attempt to make any of their own new IP's. Just Mario over and over again

[iliimaster]

to this day i dont recall seeing ONE commercial of the wii u i remember the wii commercials but it is weird to not see any at all

[MisfitsInc]

thanks for the honesty Nintendo, now fix the damn problem.

[CaulkSlap]

Well it's too late to fix the dreadful hardware specs. Doomed themselves to complete lack of 3rd party support. All they can do now is a price cut and keep working on the games. It won't be a bad console but probably a distant 3rd.

[GenericNameHere]

Just make the Nintendo consoles a fitness and party games console again. They haven't dominated since the SNES.

[Grimhammer00]

Very distant 3rd.

[jakmckratos]

SO how about making Star Fox, a 3D Kirby or a fantastic Metroid FPS? You know instead of relying on the overused Mario games and various other 2-D side scrollers that people won't purchase a console just to play

[asiatico]

Its all about the games. Even though I don't believe the WiiU is a great console I believe Nintendo can get it together and put together a great and unique library of games. Not getting this system unless the game lineup is as stellar as I believe they can make it

[mydyingparadiselost]

I appreciate any company that's willing to admit its mistakes instead of saying something along the lines of ' we were right it's just no one understands' Thanks for keeping it real and taking responsibility like a big boy N, just get the games coming and you'll get my money.

[danny818]

Lmao! Its like the 5th time this joke apologizes. Fire Iwata!!!!!

[Kevlar009]

The Wii advertising was outstanding, the whole "Wii would like to play" hit you with a constant barrage of family's having fun, doing things no other console could, something everyone could understand from a single glance.

Then with the WiiU they just threw it out there and said "Go on, sell yourself". Also i don't feel like Nintendo is releasing games that show off the unique apects of the WiiU, most are just games with a map or off-screen uses

[e-p-ayeaH]

Wii U is targeted for gamers ,casuals just want new and fun experiences with motion gaming.

[gamer42]

Get 2 guys from the wii commercials to say "Would U like to play?" and have them playing some wii u games with a Chuck Norris. Is that to much to ask for?

[e-p-ayeaH]

Nintendo needs to re-check their ideals with the fans.

[Ninte]

I just recently bought a Wii U so i hope i don't regret my purchase and i would like to see a lot of games soon.

[khowat]

They should stop apologizing and stat doing something

Many non-nintendo fans are the first to jumop on the fact that nintendo does very little else than Mario and Zelda, but the do do a lot more than that, it's just that the other games get shrouded underneath all the Mario and Zelda, and this is not just the fact that mario and zelda are popular but also nintendo's fault, they don't have enough faith in their new ips and instead they just get shoved around

example A-The wonderful 101 is launching sept.15th in NA and GTA V is launching sept.17th in NA

Also advertising for anything other than Mario or Zelda or some shovelware crap is abysmal, you'll find way more WW HD and Mario Kart 8 than a commercial for X, or Bayonetta 2

But we see that when Nintendo gives something a chance, we see how well it can do. Luigi's mansion 2 had an awesome commercial and some great push behind it and it sold fairly well and AC New Leaf too

is it because the 3ds was already doing well...

The wii u is at a disadvantage, it's going up against Sony which already has a metric crapton of consumer goodwill behind it and games that are grittier and more graphically intense are taking over the fantasy and whimsy of long ago

But that doesn't mean that whimsy is dead, or that fantasy is dead

nothing is ever dead

But nintendo needs to evolve and begin to show the consumer what they can do, and F-zero or Metroid would be insanely good right now, and brand new star fox would be cool too

And finally there is NO REASON why a company with so much cash should be struggling to push out a few games,

they need more studios.

And they have the capital to do it

third-party, shmird-party, Nintendo should get themselves in order because God know no major third party will give a crap about them until the systems start selling

also, be more open to indies, and way more open, there is some interesting stuff out there and don't let Sony steal all the creativity in the industry

Miyamoto won't last forever...

the great wall of text im sorry

[JohnS1313]

Nintendo is to blame for sure. They released a weak next gen console. It only looks powerful next to the PS3 and 360. They released it two years too late.

[sfadul]

Plataformers, Party games and fitness all over again!

Nintendo needs to change, from the NES to the Wii I bought every Nintendo console on launch day, afer what they did with the Wii and seeing they were taking exactly the same route with the Wii U, I just had to let Nintendo go, Im not sure I'll buy a Wii U at all.

[GABRIEL1030]

Is too late for WiiU, the machine has an expensive, big, useless controller and for this reason Nintendo can't make a price cut. Also they dont have the enought time to develop new games and now the platform has lost the support of big companies like EA and Ubisoft.

Maybe for Wii U is the end and for Nintendo....in another time it will be. :(

[PrimeGrime]

For those who never saw Wii U commercials it must cost a lot of money to air them in others states or something. Here where I live there were two Wii U commercials that played constantly. All over Hulu and TV.

One was for a dance game, the other for Lego City Undercover, it showed the Wii U being used in both instances. They played those commercials so much here I actually got sick of them with all their children, parents, grandpas and grandmas (no offense).. Seriously though that is about all the people they had in these commercials.

I really don't get why they target children and old people so much either. Not saying they can't have their cake and eat it to but for a commercial it seems like that will turn off a large group of people from wanting a system. Seeing nothing but very young children playing it as well as very old people.

I mean they should be targeting all these stupid tweens obsessed with ipads and iphones. Yea it is somewhat degrading to have to appeal to such a stupid demographic but hey you are running a business. You can't be picky..

[MegaLagann]

I got to say, I REALLY getting tired of Iwata apologizing and asking people to please understand. It's humbling yes, but after a while it becomes to much. If you know you screwed up the launch of the Wii U, if you know third party support can be better and if you know the commercials didn't work then DO SOMETHING! Until you actually try and fix these problems all this apologizing is just hot air. I am die hard Nintendo fan but that doesn't mean I can't call them out on s*it like this. So please Nintendo go out, make ads, convince third parties, drop the price, do whatever. But until then, every time you say s*it like this people aren't going to believe you and it pains me to say but they have good reason. Prove me wrong, please. I like being wrong about stuff like this...

[SAYGUH]

MegaLagann, it's always refreshing to read your opinions. Im in the same boat as yourself, they need to fire Iwata & bring back the red hot fiery Nintendo. It's his fault the entire organization changed into a joke.

[MegaLagann]

Don't get me wrong, i'm not calling for the head of Iwata...yet. He was in charge of Nintendo during their most successful period so he obviously can do wonders, but lately...not so much. Basically, if by time Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros come out and the Wii U is still in this dire situation, then it's time for Iwata to go. Until then i'll pray to Beelzebub that all this apologizing is more than just PR.

[SAYGUH]

Whoa Im late, i understand your statement but ya gotta look at it like this.. During the Wii/DS success, it was before the tablet/smartphone exsplosion. Also it was kinda owed to the "casual" consumer for the most part. The Gamecube sold 20ish mill, those are the core gamers. Iwata changed everything, the logo, their image, etc. If someone brings up Ninty on an interview or a typical gaming discussion, chances are it's about Playstation or Xbox

[tkato]

The problem is it's not next gen, it's too little, too late.

[FinalomegaS]

might need a business man there instead of a game developer.

down grade Iwata-san to global VP, think we should keep him to promote the gaming side, and have someone else deal with all the business sense side that can move the company frwd.