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Five Key Takeaways From Satoru Iwata's Q&A With Investors

Nintendo's president discusses all sorts of topics regarding Nintendo's future.

Satoru Iwata regularly speaks with investors, and we get a glimpse into the man's overall vision.
Satoru Iwata regularly speaks with investors, and we get a glimpse into the man's overall vision.

There are few executives in business, video game or otherwise, as frank and honest as Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.

Who else would write such a seemingly heartfelt letter to customers feeling burned by an unexpected price cut?

After announcing the impending 3DS price cut, sluggish sales of the hardware and a loss for the quarter, Iwata spoke with investors about the company's recent moves, thoughts on the future of the business and Nintendo's role in it and what lessons could be learned as Nintendo turns towards Wii U, set for a release in 2012.

I've picked out five key responses from Iwata, but I'd really recommend recommend reading the entire exchange at Nintendo's website.

On the Influence of Smartphones, Rise of Social Networks and Embracing Digital Distribution

Iwata isn't buying into the notion smartphones are outright killing Nintendo's market.
Iwata isn't buying into the notion smartphones are outright killing Nintendo's market.

"It has been said very often that Nintendo’s business is not as good as people had expected due to the influence of smartphones. We have repeatedly investigated whether social games, as well as smartphones, are actually affecting our business. We got the same results in our latest research that there are no causal correlations. Therefore, we will not touch on the details today as we have explained them several times before."

"On the other hand, it is the fact that a great variety of games are available at very low prices for smartphones. Naturally, consumers will choose more affordable ones if the video games we provide do not have much more value than those available for smartphones. However, no causal correlations have been confirmed because we think there are consumers who acknowledge that the value of what we offer does not equal to that of those available for smartphones and that what we offer holds unique value."

"Another trend which has captured people’s great interest today is the power of social networking, or its power to connect different people. The keyword 'social' has rapidly become very popular in these last two years and some say that Nintendo may be behind the social age. They might mean that Nintendo, uninterested in so-called social games from a business standpoint, fails to ride on the boom of social games. However, I have a totally opposite view - Nintendo has been a company attaching a high value to human relationships for a long time. We have our roots in the playthings connecting people as the company’s original business was playing cards. Therefore, we have always been aware of the human connections created by each of our products. It is true that on social networking services through the Internet you can make a relationship with those to which you could not connect with before. On the other hand, I think that there has been no best answer yet to the relationship between a real network and a virtual network. What we would like to realize is neither what the current social networking services provide nor what you can enjoy only with those in front of you, which Nintendo has provided before. The big theme for us is to provide new and fascinating human relationships composed of various networks, a real network with those close to you, a virtual network with those distant from you, and networks beyond description created by your experiences of sharing the same place with someone or of visiting certain places and specifically provided by SpotPass and StreetPass."

"Talking about whether there are other measures we can take other than the ones we are doing now to improve profitability, it is of course the same thing for the Wii U as for the Nintendo 3DS, but we think there are great new possibilities with what we can do in the digital business or, in other words, the digital distribution business. I am not going to go into detail about the business model today, but we have a strong determination to enlarge our digital business. This area is an area in which we have not been able to implement a good mechanism yet, or in which we have not been able to run our business well. We have made several attempts since we first made Wii Shop Channel for the Wii, but because we could not overcome some preconditions, the business hasn't grown to a satisfactory size yet. However, for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, we are strongly focusing on development of such functions, so I believe we will be able to make new proposals such as 'The ratio of packaged titles and digital titles will be like this in the future' or 'The business for packaged titles and the business for the digital titles can be combined in this way.' I think I will be able to tell more specific stories in the near future, so taking these facts into regard, we would like to make efforts to improve our profitability even more."

How Recent Actions Could Influence Nintendo's Decisions for Wii U

Nintendo's moves into digitally distributed games has seen mixed success on DS and Wii.
Nintendo's moves into digitally distributed games has seen mixed success on DS and Wii.

"With regard to the influence on the Wii U, what we have to take most seriously is that the price markdown could damage the trust of the consumers who bought the Nintendo 3DS just after the launch. I feel greatly accountable for it. Our decision of the price markdown this time has a side effect that, at the launch of the Wii U, people may feel that the price might drop in the near future if they wait. Nevertheless, we have decided to cut down the price of the Nintendo 3DS as we consider it as a necessary decision now. What we will be able to do to recover the consumers' trust before the launch of the Wii U is very important to us. Since the Wii U we showed you at the E3 show in June was still in the development phase without very specific proposals on the software titles, we are going to announce the release date and the price next year when we are able to explain the specific proposals. Anyway, the biggest influence is on our consumers' trust, I think."

The Challenge of Reproducing Surprise Hits Like Brain Age

Brain Age was an unexpected success, helping to usher in the dominance of the platform.
Brain Age was an unexpected success, helping to usher in the dominance of the platform.

"Software such as Brain Age and Wii Fit have become such great hits that people often ask questions about the next unexpected big hits like Brain Age or Wii Fit. But even if I said something like, 'We have prepared the next revolutionary stuff like this,' it is usually a type of software that people think, 'How in the world would this sell?' However, the software which compels you to hold such a doubt, when it can become an explosive hit, can become a really great product. Therefore, there is no reality even if we say, 'We are developing something like this and it will sell just as Brain Age did.' It is not a game which looks like Brain Age, but we will be proposing something that consumers did not categorize as a video game in the past. It may be a Nintendo 3DS function, a new packaged software, software sold at the Nintendo eShop, software once sold at the Nintendo eShop then sold as a packaged game (like Art Academy for Nintendo DS) or something else, and out of those proposals we cannot tell exactly which one or ones of them will become big hits, so we are considering multiple proposals. Some of them will come out during this fiscal year and some are planned for next fiscal year. We hope, in the end, you will look back and say, 'that particular software further accelerated the penetration of the Nintendo 3DS.'"

Why Nintendo Could React So Quickly With a 3DS Price Cut

"Maybe the reason we were able to make the markdown decision is our lesson from Nintendo GameCube. Therefore, in that sense, it was slightly a personal decision, meaning that the current executives, who are the ones who make the decisions, all experienced, 'there was a chance for the Nintendo GameCube but we were not able to capitalize on it,' and I think that was a large factor, that the executive all shared this sense, not just myself. One other factor is our financial characteristics. I have repeatedly said, 'Please allow us to hold high liquidity of assets since this business has very high risks. We can have more options if we have high liquidity.' During those days, when the Wii and the Nintendo DS were in a continuous good cycle, we had cases where people asked us, 'Well, won't you be all right even without holding so much cash?' But it must be a factor to our ability to make decisions like these under situation like this, and along with this, proceed with the development of the Wii U and take on its business risks. We will put our best efforts to make this decision a good one."

Nintendo's Resistance to Microtransactions and Downloadable Content

"To the question, 'What will Nintendo do in the future regarding micro-transactions?' or 'How will Nintendo prepare micro-transactions for its platforms?' we are preparing a system for micro-transactions and so-called add-on content for both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U, and for the Nintendo 3DS we are targeting to release something this calendar year. This means that we will be able to give flexible options to software developers on our platform, but 'what to do with Nintendo's policy as a software developer' is a separate issue.

Nintendo has not shown must interest in DLC, but that may be changing with future games.
Nintendo has not shown must interest in DLC, but that may be changing with future games.

This is a good opportunity, so I would like to talk about what Nintendo is thinking as a software developer. Generally, it may be thought that Nintendo is reluctant toward micro-transactions, meaning that Nintendo is not interested in gaining profit through add-on content or micro-transactions. I have been discussing this topic with Mr. Miyamoto for a fairly long time. For example, let's say there is an occasion where a user says, 'I'm done playing this game but I would play it more if there were additional stages,' and we were able to focus the right amount of energy to develop additional stages and that way, by distributing the additional stages, we were able to extend the life-span of the game or stimulate social topics, or increase sales. Then, we would discuss whether we could sell the add-on content at a price where both Nintendo and consumers would be satisfied.

For example, in the future, I think it will be all right to have a situation where we prepare an additional stage and say to consumers, 'Can you pay some more to play this?' On the other hand, and I'd like to emphasize that this is only me talking from Nintendo's point of view of what we want Nintendo to do, and we do not intend to comment on whether another company is right or wrong, and I would like to avoid any misunderstandings on this point, but, I would also like to mention that, under Nintendo's set of values "charging money just for changing the parameters to unlock something or to allow some large advantage," is a totally different earnings structure that is not compensation for creative work and, while pursuing this may create short-term profits, Mr. Miyamoto and I discussed that we should not use this type of billing system since we think that we will not be able to make long-term relationships with our consumers."

Again, for more insightful comments, read the five-page question-and-answer on Nintendo's website.

Patrick Klepek on Google+

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mariokart64fan

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Edited By mariokart64fan

NINTENDO is smart , people like to judge by the cover and that is a big mistake , good example the wii u we know nothing much about it and people are still flaring , saying itll fail bla bla bla and i hate apple , go play your angry birds cause thats all thatll make you- angry at the world ,

telling nintendo to get with the picture why dont you tell that to apple who constantly is rushing out 800 dollar ipads /ipods every 6 months

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xpgamer7

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Edited By xpgamer7

Nintendo may be half backwards in it's plan, but it's always been trying.

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Ragdrazi

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Edited By Ragdrazi
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TheDudeOfGaming

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Edited By TheDudeOfGaming
@Sinful said:
@patrickklepek: you know I'm doing this becuz I care for your well being and your hair.
And here i was, thinking you were doing it because you're a stalker. Stalker, get out of here!
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Cusseta

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Edited By Cusseta

Nintendo only needs two things:
1) New frickin' IPs
2) A half-assed network service (since it's obvious they'll never have a good one, I'll just settle for half-assed)
 
And for those who say "Nintendo already has a half-assed network service": It's more like a quarter-assed service at this point (maybe even an eigth : / )

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Qodot

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Edited By Qodot

@SatoruIwata
 said: 

Talking about whether there are other measures we can take other than the ones we are doing now to improve profitability, it is of course the same thing for the Wii U as for the Nintendo 3DS, but we think there are great new possibilities with what we can do in the digital business or, in other words, the digital distribution business.

 CHOO CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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coreymw

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Edited By coreymw

I think I love this man and his honesty. It's a shame more people in the same position at other companies aren't as open and apologetic as he is.

"Hey, I/we fucked up. My/our bad." More of this and less "The market just wasn't responding the way we wanted." of this from developers and publishers.

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Mumrik

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Edited By Mumrik
@chrismafuchris said:
" Who else would write such a seemingly heartfelt letter to customers feeling burned by an unexpected prie cut?"
Oh, I thought I was the only one to thinks that Klepek's stuff has an unexpected amount of errors.
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tricky69

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Edited By tricky69

The fact that the 3DS still uses a stylus just goes to show how much the 3DS really is just a DS with a 3D feature.

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RainyFridays

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Edited By RainyFridays

I really hope Nintendo gets into this DLC thing. It would just increase business like what BO has been doing, which most consumers will probably spend 120 dollars for the full experience.  
 
The problem with Nintendo is that they never have a strong foundation for a new system and they're way too much into remakes. I'm not saying it's completely bad, it's just that people get tired of playing the same game over and over again, such as TLoZ OoT, and Nintendogs just gets overly repetitive, whats the point if you have one constantly gnawing on your controllers? I got tired after my 6th time and I haven't completed the one on the 3DS yet. The thing is that Nintendo has to introduce something new right when the system is released, not a remake, it's a great marketing hook that they have even done before. Instead we get crappy third party games, with a few exclusions. Another thing is that it needs to have Online, most gamers, hardcore or casual, are always online on say Call of Duty. If Nintendo could possibly twist Mario Kart 3DS to a beautiful 3D online racing game on your handheld then hell they have a better start then Nintendogs + Cats and Street Fighter 46 or whatever. I'm not saying the Online thing is completely mandatory, but it'll surely keep their fans hooked until a new game comes out. 

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Jensonb

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Edited By Jensonb

I couldn't help but read this in Mr Iwata's voice. The man talks a lot of sense and he's a true gent. A class act.

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Edited By Raven10
@NeoAthanasius: I honestly don't care enough about Street Fighter to need the full experience. The iPhone version let me play the game for a couple days, which is honestly all I wanted to do. I wouldn't pay $40 for the game, and I would never pay $60 for it. For $5 plus the ability to help people in need, I was willing to try it. I tried it, thought it was pretty cool, and moved on. What Nintendo doesn't see is that I would much rather play a slightly inferior version of a game for $5 than the superior version for $40. Unless the game is 8x better, which I honestly doubt, it isn't worth spending 8x the money on.
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02sfraser

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Edited By 02sfraser

I bought into 3DS when Zelda came out and I love it as a console but I'm still waiting for games that make me want to play. Finished Zelda and now just waiting for more. I think coming up to the holiday season I will be spending a lot of time with it.

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Dylabaloo

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Edited By Dylabaloo

@Raven10 said:

@DFSVegas: I own Street Fighter 4 on my iPod. I paid like $5 for it and it all went to charity to help people in the Japan earthquake. Why would a pay an additional $40 for the exact same game just with 3D? The problem is that there are a lot of iOS games that are just as meaty as any handheld game, but they cost a fraction of the price.

Now this is the opinion Nintendo is just completely over-looking, whether this guy is right or wrong a lot of consumers think exactly like this.

Nintendo need to accept that smartphones are a huge threat to their handheld market.

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Ragdrazi

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Edited By Ragdrazi
@swfcfan said:

"We think there are consumers who acknowledge that the value of what we offer does not equal to that of those available for smartphones and that what we offer holds unique value"

How many though? A lot of people seem happy with playing cheap simple games on the go.

Didn't you read? There is no causation. Nintendo has top men looking into it right now!
 
Top men.
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Ragdrazi

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Edited By Ragdrazi
@patrickklepek said:

@Sinful said:

"Who else would write such a seemingly heartfelt letter to customers feeling burned by an unexpected prie cut?" Not going to tell you this again Pat, but PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD and PROOFREAD! and don't even bother giving one of your excuses in your bag. "Ohh up late last night playing "X "."

There's never an excuse. Typos have always been the thing that trips me up the most.

You and me both, son.
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Gerhabio

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Edited By Gerhabio

he sounds so nice, old school

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TheHBK

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Edited By TheHBK

1) 3DS cost too much.  Kinda fixed.  Though I would really only want to pay 130, what I payed for my DS Lite 
2)  Games on that shit cost too much.  40 bucks for a rehash or half a game like Mercenaries?  Angry Birds is better on the iPhone than anything that is not a remake on the 3DS 
3)  Put out the games we want at launch.  Or Mario.  It is a big mistake to launch without a great Nintendo title.  And what happened to pack ins?

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Apollo87

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Edited By Apollo87

Well they don't really seem to get it, sure the games on a dedicated handheld will be better than those in a phone, but a phone is something people are already carrying and investing money in, a handheld is still seen as something extra, and if you already have a smartphone and you see a game that's $1 and have heard good things of such you're pretty likely to purchase it because let's face it, it's just a dollar, those kinds of impulse sales that can be achieved with a price point set so low add up to make quite a big difference. 
 
And while a handheld game will offer more developed experience the market of people that are willing to spend $300 on getting that experience are not many, and then again, how much did it cost to develop something like Angry Birds compared to the cost of the port of  Ocarina of Time, and then which do you think was more profitable.  It's a shame to see this pan out this way but the cost that involves purchasing a portable system (along with the hassle of carrying one more thing) is something that less people are compelled to make. every day.
 
Personally I'd love it if I had a way to playing those handheld games on a TV, my lifestyle can't justify the cost of purchasing a portable system and games for the little amount of time I've got to play them, for example, if I were to play TLOZ:OoT 3D only on my commutes and time away from home it would take me months to finish I wouldn't get a lot of play time, if I'd like to play more it would be at home where there already is a big TV and speakers so why would I play that.  

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Edited By NeoAthanasius

@Raven10: I have Street Fighter on iphone and also have played it on 3DS. The difference is HUGE. The iphone game is only a shell of the experience that you receive on the 3DS and consoles. It is still fun for short bursts and is certainly worth the $5, however it is hardly the same game.

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Edited By ptys

Their next move has to be a sexier hardware design, especially when they are up against all these regularly refined smartphones.

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Edited By Raven10
@DFSVegas: I own Street Fighter 4 on my iPod. I paid like $5 for it and it all went to charity to help people in the Japan earthquake. Why would a pay an additional $40 for the exact same game just with 3D? The problem is that there are a lot of iOS games that are just as meaty as any handheld game, but they cost a fraction of the price.
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Thoseposers

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Edited By Thoseposers

i think there's a good group of people out there that will never see iPhone games really matching what Nintendo produces, myself included. Nintendo always has had a good grip on the casual market and really that's all i imagine them losing out to phones in the end and besides, phones are just the new thing eventually the casual market will move onto something else surely.

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Gonmog

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Edited By Gonmog

Does anyone here really use there phone for gaming playing? ...what if you need to make a phone call? Even the best phones out there will die in under 3 hours playing a realish game....

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GozerTC

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Edited By GozerTC
@tourgen said:
Smart phone games allow better interconnection between online players with a better online experience than Nintendo's dedicated consoles and portables.  They need to address that.  There are also enough games that are Good Enough for < $5 to be a real drag on Nintendo's prices.  It is having a real effect.  They say they found no direct cause but I don't believe them.  They will have to produce their results and full data.  Brushing off the effect of smart phone gaming in front of your investors is not healthy.  These people are smart enough to see through that.
This right here is what I want to see as well.  I'd love to see their data that shows "no causal connection."  I once owned a DS and a PSP but I'll not buy this generation after buying an iPhone.  The iPhone does all the PSP was supposed to with video, music, and games, while not doing the games as well.  Then again the games I WANT to play would work just fine on the iPhone (Disgea, Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars and the like) .   Now I'm an old guy (Over 30) so maybe I'm not the market they care about and see no "causal connection" about leaving.  Again I'd like to see the data but I'm a bit of a stat nerd. :)  
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Edited By Tesla

What hurts Nintendo the most is how much they charge for games like OoT 3D that are three generations old. With cheap mobile games on smart phones and old school games available for 15 dollars or less on PSN and XBLA, they need to wise up and stop charging 40 bucks for their portable software.

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RobertOrri

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Edited By RobertOrri

Sounds like Iwata is specifically talking about Electronic Arts' method of selling downloadable in-game money and unlockable cars/guns/etc. in the last paragraph. Heh.

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stokes

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Edited By stokes

The final picture's caption has a typo in it.  Must should be much.  Just FYI.

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Edited By NeoAthanasius

My nephews (both 10 years old) received ipod touches for Christmas and have not touched their DSi's for about six months. Instead choosing to play crappy free games and 99 cent junk from the app store. The sad thing about this is that they own over 20 games for the DS so losing customers like this is harmful to Nintendo. They enjoyed messing with my 3DS but seem to have no interest in getting one. As a Nintendo fan I think this is a serious issue. Most of their friends have iPod touches as well. I think Nintendo is losing a large portion of that age group to Apple. Maybe once the newness wears off they will return to their DS but I'm not hopeful. Kids are not the best judge of quality sometimes!

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AuthenticM

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Edited By AuthenticM

@Marokai said:

I'm still not buying into the notion that the iPhone is a Nintendo-killer.

Me too. People who buy games on their iPhones are not the same customers who buy real portable gaming systems. They are the people who bought a Wii because it looked cool, played it for a month, and shelved it away. Nintendo should simply concentrate on the core gamers and they'll do fine.

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barinelg

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Edited By barinelg

I actually really like Mr. Iwata's comments on the DLC aspect of today's gaming. A lot of companies seem to have unlocks for content we technically already have. Others cost $15 for a few maps or some minor extra content that may not have taken too terribly long to make (though can be creative). I hope they are able to find a good, solid middle ground that third-parties, as well as Nintendo, can get behind.

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xbob42

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Edited By xbob42

The best part about typos are watching people with such depressingly pathetic lives get angry about them.

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huser

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Edited By huser
@SpaceBoat: I'd love that, though an ARG version of Pikmin on 3DS might make me totally geek out.
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Edited By dfsvegas

@stalefishies said:

@DFSVegas said:

There is more value in a Nintendo made handheld game, the question is if enough people are interested in investing that much money on a handheld game anymore. Would I rather play Street Fighter 4 on my 3DS over Angry Birds on my phones? Sure, but I don't want to pay an extra $250 + $40, and carry around an extra (and relatively large) peice of equiptment.

Now, am I saying anything new? No, and that's the crazy thing. Why does the entire world see this except for companies like Nintendo and Sony? How do companies like this make so much goddamn money when they constantly prove to be this short-sighted? It's almost like any success these companies have found has been by complete accident.

Get with the frickin' program Nintendo. I'm have a GED, I shouldn't understand the consumer market better than you do.

Except that the DS is still selling, so there's clearly still a market for it. Just because you don't want to carry a DS or a PSP doesn't mean others don't.

That's because it's far cheaper, and has a large, established library. A library that was built when a DS was more viable. The formula to building a library for a dedicated handheld in 2011 is hard to know, but releasing your console at $250 probably isn't it. Ignoring the e-shop is probably also not the way. If they're not short sighted, they're extremely stubborn. It wasn't hard to see that the 3DS was going to struggle at that price point.

Also, I can flip that statement on you. Just because you want to carry a DS or PSP, doesn't mean other do. Also, when we talk about success for Nintendo, that means selling 50, 60, 70, 80 million units. In this market, that just seems impossible for a device like the 3DS. Especially not at $250, and probably not even at $169. The 3DS will easily top 30 mllion units, but by the standards of Nintendo Handhelds, that is a massive failure, and at this point, it's pretty questionable as to weather they'll go very far past that mark with out some changes in ideals at that company. It could happen, but I have my doubts.

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Wraxend

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Nintendos problem in my eyes is they never inovate in IPs always relying on the same ones with Pikmin being the last popular one and that was back in 2001. I mean you complete one Mario/Zelda you've completed them all.

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bretthancock

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@DFSVegas: Because they aren't short sighted when it comes to predicting what people will spend money on, not what the vocal minority thinks. If they were that shortsighted, they wouldn't be in business still.

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Mummenschanz

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Edited By Mummenschanz
@patrickklepek: It's cool of you to admit your mistake, but let it be known that my take away from that exchange regards what an idiot that guy sounds like saying, "not going to tell you this again."
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benu302000

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Edited By benu302000

TLDR

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tourgen

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Smart phone games allow better interconnection between online players with a better online experience than Nintendo's dedicated consoles and portables.  They need to address that.  There are also enough games that are Good Enough for < $5 to be a real drag on Nintendo's prices.  It is having a real effect.  They say they found no direct cause but I don't believe them.  They will have to produce their results and full data.
 
Brushing off the effect of smart phone gaming in front of your investors is not healthy.  These people are smart enough to see through that.

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SpaceBoat

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Release Pikmin 3 with the Wii U and I will show you at least one system sold on launch day no matter the price.

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DrRandle

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I agree with the stance that Mobile Gaming is not being destroyed by the iphone and android markets. I've never been a fan of that argument. As somebody who has had a Nexus S for a while, It's not terribly often that I find a game that can hold my attention like a full-fledged product like Ocarina of Time or Strange Journey (regular DS game, but the point remains). I'm not saying there aren't good games on mobile. Fruit Ninja and Game Dev Story are amazing, but those aren't something I want to play for any sort of a stretch. I can definitely see some overlap, but I don't think that's what the 3DS's problem was. The problem was cost and software lineup. Right now it's kind of a weak lineup that, while it has games I'm interested in, doesn't have that Brain Age or Nintendogs type game that just blew everybody away. If they can get something out there soon enough, the 3DS will do just fine.

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swfcfan

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"We think there are consumers who acknowledge that the value of what we offer does not equal to that of those available for smartphones and that what we offer holds unique value"

How many though? A lot of people seem happy with playing cheap simple games on the go.

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RE_Player1

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@TadThuggish said:

iPhones aren't killing the 3DS, Nintendo is killing the 3DS with a lack of support. I'd rather shell out $40 (or $30, preferably) for a fantastic Nintendo product than give ninety-nine cents for BumbleFuck InformationStealer Social Media Ad-Supported Ninja 5000.

True.

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TadThuggish

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Edited By TadThuggish

iPhones aren't killing the 3DS, Nintendo is killing the 3DS with a lack of support. I'd rather shell out $40 (or $30, preferably) for a fantastic Nintendo product than give ninety-nine cents for BumbleFuck InformationStealer Social Media Ad-Supported Ninja 5000.

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redlitez76

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nintendo has reached a point in its companies lifespan where they have to learn to adapt or they will wind up like sega.  Sega is still a profitable company but they are only a software company. Unless nintendo follows Sony's strategy that is the only way they can survive the coming tide of the future.

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stalefishies

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@DFSVegas said:

There is more value in a Nintendo made handheld game, the question is if enough people are interested in investing that much money on a handheld game anymore. Would I rather play Street Fighter 4 on my 3DS over Angry Birds on my phones? Sure, but I don't want to pay an extra $250 + $40, and carry around an extra (and relatively large) peice of equiptment.

Now, am I saying anything new? No, and that's the crazy thing. Why does the entire world see this except for companies like Nintendo and Sony? How do companies like this make so much goddamn money when they constantly prove to be this short-sighted? It's almost like any success these companies have found has been by complete accident.

Get with the frickin' program Nintendo. I'm have a GED, I shouldn't understand the consumer market better than you do.

Except that the DS is still selling, so there's clearly still a market for it.
 
Just because you don't want to carry a DS or a PSP doesn't mean others don't.
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Foggen

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Nice to hear that they're taking a customer-friendly approach to DLC: approach it carefully, and make sure you're really adding content.

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stonepawfox

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iwata's last sentence is such a giant run-on mess, god damn

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LegalBagel

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I don't care about facebook integration, but unless Nintendo figures out that the Internet is a thing and grasps the basics of how to use it, I think they'll be in trouble.