Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata has suggested that Wii U will not be able to get by on the strength of first-party titles alone, saying that the console needs to “make several hits from the third-party software publishers within the first year from the release of the platform”.
“We think that it is important to encourage the software publishers to think ‘This is a platform on which we can perform our business’ in the very first stage of the platform,” said Iwata speaking during Nintendo’s 71st Annual General Meeting.
“We think it very important to make several hits from the third-party software publishers within the first year from the release of the platform, while offering Nintendo software seamlessly.
In order to achieve this goal, we have shared information about the new hardware with the software publishers earlier than we did previously and built a cooperative structure, and we are developing several titles in collaboration with these publishers.”
However, Iwata says that the firm cannot talk about which publishers Nintendo is working with closely, or the names of the titles due to arrive on Wii because the firm has “not announced this information yet.
“But what we are aiming for with the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U is platforms which have much more software and a wider variety of software than the former Nintendo DS or Wii,” he continued.
“Therefore, we are thinking of creating an environment where software from other companies will become hits. Please understand that Nintendo is prepared to invest in order to make this a reality.”
Iwata blames the lack of third-party support on Wii as a result of sales that “did not reach (the) expectations” of software publishers, “which made them think that they could not have high expectations for business on the Wii.”
The Wii, however, saw big first-party hits from the likes of Wii Fit and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Third-party support for Wii U has already been pledged by multiple publishers, including THQ, Sega, Codemasters, EA and Ubisoft.
EA CEO has already promised an “unprecedented partnership” with Nintendo, which may see titles like Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 land on Nintendo’s upcoming console.
Wii U launches in 2012.
Tags: Wii U
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