Iwata – Post Conference Interview

Following Nintendo‘s 3DS Conference yesterday CEO Satoru Iwata has been interviewed by Nikkei…

– 3DS to get an unending stream of major titles from November through the first half of the year
– certain the 3DS price drop will help lead to system expansion
– feels that dropping the price was the best decision and was made after consulting other management
– Nintendo wants this to be the first and last 3DS price drop
– doesn’t believe the business model used until now will suddenly go away because of mobile software
– intends to show how packaged retail can still be successful this holiday season
– with this said, Iwata isn’t 100% sure the current model will hold its current share forever
– Iwata on releasing games for smartphones: “This is absolutely not under consideration. If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It’s the duty of management to make use of those strengths. It’s probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we’d make profits. However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo’s mid and long term competitive strength.”
– Wii software lineup had holes in earlier this year due to development delays associated with preparations for launching the 3DS
– upcoming Wii lineup will be more robust than it was last year

[Source]