Satoru Iwata Refutes Claim That Nintendo Is "Suffering" Right Now

Hear, hear Mr Iwata!

They'll just have to come out with a "Revolution" that quickly grabs the pubic's attention next time. Casuals are fickle and can be won over again. I think this new machine will have to ditch the Wii branding to really tread its own path. To Casuals, the WiiU just isn't exiting the way motion controls were. Easier said than done though... what will be the new revolution?

I'm more than confident. Iwata san knows what he's talking about

Yeah I mean, Wii U it's not going to be another Wii in matter of sales, but I don't think we're talkin about a VirtualBoy disaster either. It's gonna be fine, WiiU will sale well, and we'll get great games as always.

Wii U is doomed does not equal Nintendoomed

All hail Iwata!

Shock horror! Man in charge of company says company is fine......would he say otherwise even if they were nearly bust!?!

Nintendo has a long history of making profitable consoles even when they're not selling as well as the competition. Wii U may be "doomed" at the moment but I'm sure it'll be just as profitable as other Nintendo systems in the past.

do we really need to discuss this each and every day? Nobody knows what the future holds, any prediction is mere speculation. We''ll just have to wait and see

@Mk_II well said.

i think nintendo will be fine but there is no way i can see them turning round the wii u fortunes it might be worth picking one up in a few years time when they have had time to get dozen or so great games out but i cant see the third party games situation getting any better to justify buying one now

IT HAS ONLY BEEN 7 MONTHS or so since the release of Wii U. The 3DS consistently is the highest selling system, week after week. I think that the media is sensational and has created a story out of very little. This is my opinion. Wii U is awesome and sales will pick up.

Repost, wasn't paying attention to more recent articles
I don't why people are doom-mongering about the Wii U?! Games are coming.. Wonderful 101, Pikmin, Sonic, Mario 3D World, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Smash, Bayonetta, Wind Waker, SMTxFE, X (as well as the apparent unannounced games coming out next year) including backwards compatibility with games such as Skyward Sword, the Galaxy games, Xenoblade for people who may not have played them first time around... Either the anonymity of the internet is showing, people are being outrageously short-sighted or I'm missing something big. I see no reason as to why Nintendo should give up on the Wii U.

The media has, for a long time, been trying to kick Wii U out the picture.

I have a theory, in any realm, there are only allowed two combatants. That's why we only hear about Samsung Galaxy vs. iPhone, and Democrats vs. Republicans. In both cases, other phones and other political parties came up, but as humans, we automatically filter out other challengers. Who decides what stays? ...Not sure on that yet.

But that's exactly what we're seeing here. If you noticed all during E3, all the news analysts didn't even mention WiiU/Nintendo in the same breath as Sony or Microsoft. Even as the Xbone continued to enrage the masses, it was always, "Well there's the PS4..." and there was never mention of the Wii U. Unfortunately, it seems as though Nintendo has been far removed from this conversation, and I'm not justifying that, it just seems that they've been subconsciously chosen to be the "odd man out," regardless of their actual chances for success.

As a proud Wii U owner, I wish they'd STFU about this weekly gloom mongering too.

Don't give up but rather try harder, Nintendo. I got money to throw at any game I want. I got VC on the wii, and re-releasing them on Wii U does don't excite ME in the least.

I guess you either love this machine or hate it. I don't know where I stand, I do know ive been supporting Nintendo since 1989 and will continue on,with the good and bad...

This has become a tiresome daily discussion. One that is nothing more than circular. Much like the summer of '11 with the 3DS. Is it news? Not really. Its an interview with a question/answer designed to spark debate. Guess what I'm saying is that I'm tired of constantly being told I'm playing on a failure of a machine. One that is only 9 months old and with probably a dozen retail titles I want coming out over the next year, plus the Indie and VC goodies I don't even know about yet. Been gaming for a long time, since the Atari Pong machine, and this Instant Gratification Society and reliance on ultra-powerful 3rd party devs is really turning me off to the industry.

Maybe Nintendo isn't particularly suffering in the "grand scheme of things", or something like that, but the Wii U certainly isn't doing very well at all right now and anyone with any sense can see that.

Well said, ajcismo. I totally agree.

@ajcismo

This short-sighted, short-termed culture we exist in annoys me to no end, never mind just the games industry. Look at the celebrations that occurred when they found more oil in California...

Nintendo is up and healty. They got tons of money and no dept. In fact it´s very much worth investing in them, because these are things you can barely say of many big companies around the globe. 3ds is flourishing ( I even got one my self this week and I like it, it´s a cool and crafty console with lots of innovative and great games (and PS i do like the 3d a lot)) and the Wii U will be better soon.

Like I said previously, in two years time Nintendo could release its new handheld, which could combine best of two worlds (Wii U and 3DS). Since Wii U is not the most powerful system in the world it has very little power consumption. It means they could fit U's hardware in a handheld and they could make it 100% compatible with Wii U as well as with 3DS. And just by adding simple HDMI wireless dongle, it'd make it a full blown home console too. TBH, that would explain why they've gone with tablet controller and why Wii U has this particular hardware. Maybe, Wii U is already a predecessor of something bigger and Nintendo is just testing the water. Don't know, what do think?

I'm confident, but they made many mistakes, and they really need to hurry up the launch of good title. AND also create some NEW games / franchises. I must say that i'm sometimes a bit tired by the mario sequels and co. Things will change soon, hopefully.

Here is a list of people "suffering":

(1) People reading too many stories instead of gaming, wasting their time on "console wars" and obsessing on metacritic;

(2) People listening to companies like EA that are ditching the Wii U, as if they should care, and as if they bought Nintendo consoles to play EA games in the first place.

(3) People not playing enough Wii U games because companies lack ideas to generate good innovative games or push hardware without Nintendo making the games themselves. This is the same mistake Nintendo made with the 3DS giving free time to third parties before bringing in its big guns;

(4) Investors have indeed suffered. And they are suffering because mass media is too stupid to understand the differences between facebook games, between casual games and 3DS games, between handheld gaming and mobile gaming, and console gaming. But Investors always suffer and can hope the tables will turn.

(5) Nintendo is suffering listening to silly nonconstructive criticism while still needing to develop an obscene amount of first party games in HD quickly to offset the incompetence of third parties.

I have no problems with what Iwata says externally but as long as he realises internally how bad the (Wii U) situation is then all good.

Consumers, the worst kind of people.

The WiiU had the worst main console start ever. A good, solid launch line up and then, there was nothing. But the system is far from done.
I guess we can say if its doomed or not when the big hitters have landed. Its safe to say that mid to late 2014 is a safe time to say if this system is done for or not.
And im absolutely optimistic that the WiiU will rise against all odds.

Agreed with the last two points ^^

Sure, he's not going to say that they're in trouble. But, he certainly understands more about Nintendo's situation than some random gamer guy who proclaims himself an expert commenting on a forum thread.

Nintendo's overheads are a lot cheaper than the Playstation or Xbox. If Nintendo was making a loss on a $500 console, Spending $50m producing triple A games, manning massive servers for online gaming, and still not selling, then they would be far more worried.

I think you'll be able to tell if the ship is turning or not by the release of Pikmin 3.

Almost nobody understand this, saying Nintendo is doomed means they got no resources nor ideas left to do something.

Like Nikkei is late on the thread since in Japan everybody is already saying that Pikmin 3 is another Miyamoto's KA so really shut your mouth and try some games.

The ship is already turning but, like the Wii, journalism will be ignoring some facts for at least one year.

@mrkuribo

Wii U is the only Nintendo console to be sell at a lost

people consistently forget that nintendo, for some unknown reason, hasnt bothered to release WiiU Sports just yet (and didnt even bothered to promote the console very much) i have the feeling that nintendo is actually holding the wiiu back for some strategic reason,...maybe it is waiting until all the updates and offerings such as nintendo tvii are in place or maybe nintendo just wanted to let the insane expectations people had about ps4 and xbox1 pass...i dont know, i just think that people that think nintendo doesnt know what they are doing are naive

I have no hopes that the Wii U will ever come close to the sales of the Wii. However I do still see it being a fairly good profit maker for Nintendo. Maybe not in the same way or as much as Sony and MS, but then again, since when does Nintendo march to any beat of a drum other than their own? Never.

Is Nintendo even selling the wii u at a loss any more? There was an article stating that the wii u was profitable with one game sold per console. Right now vgchartz (yes I know there data is slow) has the wii u at 3.21mil consoles sold with 7.79 games sold so that's 2.4 games per console plus that doesn't include digital sells.

@dumedum That sums it all up nicely.

Wii U is dead (for good). But the next Nintendo console will be good again.

@ajcismo Well put.

Nintendo have been around longer than video game journalism and relevant financial reports have been even notable. I highly doubt that Nintendo is less aware of what it is talking about than the external naysayers.

The industry is in a crazy position where there has to be insane sells just to get a reasonable profit. Nintendo is playing their cards right, at least in strictly monetary sense. Of course they are going to get hurt if the sells of Wii U don't pick up, but they have a change at making good business.

Just give the Wii U another year,and if it hasn't picked up much then we panic.
I trust Nintendo,their years of experience hopefully means they know what their doing.

@dumedum I agree!
@R-Moss A bit early to say, don't you think? With big titles just on their way, and multimillion sales already in tow, it's kinda silly to pronounce it dead.

Many people still say that Wii sucks, it was a failure and it doesn't have any games. What sillyness!

@Moshugan Don't think so.

I love Nintendo, but Wii U is an "anti-Wii". Wii U will be a failure. This is fact. I miss the Wii and won't buy Wii U. Only we, Nintendo fans, are thinking of buying it.

Hey, they were the only console manufacturer to make a profit...

@Moshugan
They say it sucks, huh?
Well, I'm gunna stand up for my Wii!

I say this - Mr. Iwata knows what he's talking about. Sure, the Wii U might not do the best this generation. But with some more software coming, and some more advertising, they'll be able to pick up. Just wait until Smash Bros. Wii U - sales are guaranteed to skyrocket. And besides, we all know that the Wii U is going to at least have second place, the way Microsoft is going.

@UnseatingKDawg
"But with some more software coming, and some more advertising, they'll be able to pick up. Just wait until Smash Bros. Wii U - sales are guaranteed to skyrocket. "

But the GameCube had all these games, plus StarFox and F-Zero, so...

yeah i do think he is being too optimistic sigh it doesnt seem like anyone at nintendo is trying to advertise anything no more .-. we havent had a nintendo direct in a while now not even about that update we had which is getting delayed =S

I am confident that Nintendo will turn things around.

Iwata is correct!!! As soon as the great games come ... Wii U's will start flying off the shelves ... Just look at the terrific Fall lineup coming to Wii U ... Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends,Wonderful 101,Sonic Lost World, Wii Party U, Batman Arkham Origins, Assassins Creed 4, COD Ghosts, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze & Super Mario 3D World ...not to mention with that momentum a strong Spring 2014 with Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 & Super Smash Bros Wii U !!!!! I'm excited about the future of Wii U and I believe many others feel the same way... Let's Go NINTENDO!!!!!!!

A $400 price point for the ps4 doesn't exactly say people are buying Porsche's right now. 3DS is very popular, but it doesn't mean we'll see the sales we saw when the economy was booming. 2013-2014 may be better timing to launch a system, since 2012-2013 was still in recovery. If political groups stop depressing the economy and printing phony money (inflation tax as I call it) we might actually see Nindi and friends soar at the end of the year.

3DS is doing great with tons of great games coming out for it. It levels out the Wii U's current short comings. I totally agree with him.

WII U IS GOING TO BE OK

Wii U will be fine everyone. lol

I think Pachter disagrees with Iwata-san

It's not an either or situation. If you're struggling or in a rough spot, you aren't necessarily failing.

I will simply continue to urge patience both with Nintendo fans and with the gaming public at large.

Societies are dumbed down by design, and this is what we get as a result:
Dogpile daily on a perceived weakness in the console business due to years and years of careful propaganda from "analysts" and game "journalists".

Nintendo has been bashed for a long time now, and they keep going.
You are clueless if you think you can determine a consoles success after 8 months.

@Krzysztof - If the 3DS XL had an HDMI port I wouldnt even bother w/ the WiiU. I have a 10' cable, I dont even need wireless.

@Dev - Exactly. Suffering is a really loaded word for the head of a company, its like asking someone w/ a cold or a headache if they are dieing. Nintendo is making a profit this year. If your company is making a profit you are not suffering. And WiiU sales will pick up, even if PS4 and X1 sales demolish it Nintendo will still be profitable.

WiiU is suffering pretty bad and I'm not a fan of their strategy with it at all. But 3DS is fine and Nintendo will be fine. In fact if Nintendo doesn't fix the weak showing of WiiU in a year or so they'll be better off letting it go and focusing on 3DS if they want to stem the suffering.

Nintendo is never going away. They've had a bad hump to get over with several home consoles, and always blasted over it. 3DS had a bad hump and now look at it. They'll do just fine once this huge wave of games hits the WiiU.

@bezerker99 Actually no. He said Nintendo themselves are fine.

The Xbox One and PS4 may be the stronger consoles in terms of hardware, but Nintendo really needs to show the strengths of the Wii U hardware in their first party titles and convince 3rd parties as well. Maybe they need to put up some money and lock down some exclusives too. There seems to be strong fanboyism between the Xbox and Playstation brand followers and the media (Sessler and Pachter) who constantly talk about the death of Nintendo and want them third party. Some even want them gone completely.

I've been playing through Eternal Darkness (for the first time) this past week and I don't mind it having older graphics. The storyline and atmosphere of the game is keeping me interested and that is the biggest point. The same happened with many AAA Wii games that I enjoyed (like Goldeneye) that were fun and didn't have the graphics of many Xbox 360 games.

"it's clear that Nintendo can weather storms which would sink other companies. It has been pointed out by several parties "

Its because Nintendo doesn't lose a ton of money per console.. Sony and Microsoft are playing with fire when they release a system for a price that is a few hundred under cost... If we really are in a huge video game contraction, their business strategy will end up hurting them more than helping. NIntendo has been around for awhile, they were around when the last video game industry contraction happened. This will be Sony and Microsofts first VG contraction, in seven years we will be able to gauge whether their strategy was a good idea or not... my guess is it will prove to cost them far more than they will make in this upcoming generation because Sony/MS absolutely have to sell gangbusters when it comes to consoles to make up the losses they will incur... With Nintendo's strategy of selling hardware at or near cost allows them to remain profitable even when they their system doesn't sell as well as they would like.

@onlyaman Next revolution will be Occulus Rift.... first console maker to bring their own version to home systems will smoke the competition.

People are just incredibly impatient now-a-days, and it's all the Sony/Microsoft fan boys talking the doom and gloom scenario all the time. Lets face it, they love their Sony and Microsoft, but they long to have Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pokemon etc. on there console to make it the perfect console for them Same goes for the ipad crowd, lots of great games, would be better with Mario and such

If you've looked at any of the sales, the Wii U actually sold just as much in it's short time out as the 360 and PS3 did, and it's already doing better than Wii in the same time period. All Nintendo console's have a cycle: 1 1/2 of slowness at first, the games come and keep coming and sales are great for 3 years, than it slows down the last lil bit, than a new console comes around I have hope the Wii U will become big later this fall/holiday season and onward.

@SmaMan
i think the same as you, they want only tow competitors.
and one way to do this is becoming the lie on news

He knows what he's doing, it's customers (and now publishers) that don't know what to do, which make them react negetively and do the blame game.

Fans should know better since this is the same situation the Nintendo 3ds (I think the original ds as well) gone through the first year and look at it now.

Patents is key, don't count your chickens before it hatch.

^ I believe you mean patience, but patents are important too.

When executives are unaware of what consumers think about their product. It would be funny if it weren't sad.

Other innovators in their sectors who became irrelevant or disappeared: Kodak, Xerox, Palm, Blackberry, AOL, Sears, Woolworths, Pan-Am, Schwinn, Atari. If you think that Nintendo is immune to market forces, or that its all a media conspiracy, then you're as blind as Nintendo executives are. It took only 2 years for Blackberry to go from the top selling phone on the market to completely irrelevant — and they practically invented the smartphone.

EDIT: PS,. and I like Nintendo and want them to win.

@R-Moss im not thinking, i buy one.

@Jaydenn lol, yep your right,
I should really double check my typing especially when I type while thinking

i hope its not the gamecube again(btw gamecube and gameboy advance sp are the best consoles should of sold more)

@theadrock13 the difference is that they're not loosing money like kodak, palm, bb, aol, sears did.

It's funny how it's only news when something is doing bad. I never see a look how great the 3DS is article on here EVERY DAY. Dat Ad revenue.

Jesus Christ! It hasn't even been a year yet and they haven't released any big first party games yet. God I really hate this give it to me right know instant generation. Nobody is patient.

It's obvious a lot of this doom and gloom is coming from MS and Sony fans that either don't like Nintendo or want Nintendo games and are too lazy to get a Nintendo system.

No. Wii U has hit the lag almost every nintendo console has. Now if this were two or even one year later and this was still a problem, THEN I'd say Ninty should be worried they need to change the game.

I think everyone puts such a high expectation on Nintendo above everyone else. You wouldn't see this criticism for Sony or Microsoft, but because it's Nintendo "Oh, they're not doing good at all! They're going to have to drop out of the market." Either way, I'm going to have fun with the GameCube 2.

It's the 3DS that keeps Ninty alive.

Once Nintendo release those AAA titles consoles will fly out the stores.

Just give them time to fix and enjoy the AA titles already released.

@RedRocBoy
yeah, great idea to release a console without a big first party title in the beginning. Why should people buy it? To play the Exclusive Waiting game? It's not much fun i can tell you.
I am really angry at me that i bought the Wii U at launch for the full price. I should have waited or even bought the PS4 for only 50€ more that will actually have games.
I have not one Nintendo game for the Wii U. That should tell you what i think from them.

@Daz-brum
Yeah. Just like the GameCube... oh wait!

Mark my words the Wii U will surprise everybody. In a positive way trust me.

If you look at the sales Per games Nintendo knows how the shift stock to earn the gp, the 20 80 rule still applies nott matter what business your in Nintendo will release Mario etc sales rocket the drop again The new Zelda is released sales rocket history repeats itself....

Well Nintendo can easily get out of this one. The first mistake Nintendo made was releasing New Super Mario Bros U as the #1 launch title with Nintendo Land this is when they shouldve made Mario Galaxy 3 , even though I dont want MG3 it wouldve been a great Launch title. If they made Mario Sunshine 2 their sales would be incredible. When Mario Sunshine was released almost nobody liked it but through the years that game showed to be unique and a great memory i cant stress how much replay value that game almost as much as paper mario n64 so if people saw this itd give nostalgia that old charm nintendo has.

@RedRocBoy
I hope so, but I don't believe this.

"Do you think Iwata is perhaps being too optimistic, though? Or are you supremely confident in his ability — and Nintendo's — to turn the Wii U around?"

Yes and no. It's a bit of an irony that the 3DS is doing well against rival portable products (smartphones, tablets, etc.). Yet, it could be argued that a culmination of those same portable products, along with the abundance of 360's and PS3's currently in many homes, are the ones hindering the sales of the Wii U. We are saturated with games and apps all around us from so many appliances that no one sees the need for another product. Besides die hard fans that will buy right away, I'm curious to see how the One and PS4 will perform in terms of sales. Honestly, I don't see any new home console that will break any records in sales. It'll be all about the games that are exclusive to each console that will determine sales. I, for one, am completely happy with my 3DS and will probably not buy a Wii U until MK8, my favorite franchise, arrives next year. If I loved Grand Turismo or Halo more, I'd get the dedicative system that game played on. If I loved all three franchises and had the means to purchase all three, I probably would. And if I were a casual gamer and had no interest in any of the franchises that Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony offered, I'd be content with my iPhone 4 and never purchase any system. This is the way I see gaming today.

@R-Moss The Gamecube was not a failure as it sold 22 million consoles (2 million less than the xbox). The Gamecube also sold 208.57 million games so it had an attach rate of around 9.5 games per system, which was only slightly behind the PS2's rate of around 10 per system. The PS2 sold as well as it did because it was the cheapest DVD player on the market when released, much like the PS3 being the cheapest Blu-Ray player upon release.

The reasons that it was disfavored for third party development had less to do about the system than it did about the media capacity. 1.4 GB vs 4.7 GB meant that once developers exceeded the 1.4 GB limit they either had to skip the GC or span multiple discs. Most chose to skip the system, and left room for Second Tier publishers to fill in the void with some great games.

We are seeing that again with the WiiU. It will not use the Blu-Ray so you are faced with 8.5 GB vs 25 GB of storage, so as the size of games increases the number of them that will likely be on all systems decreases. This time around I think you will see more Second Tier games (LEGO City Undercover) and Indie games.

Well, I hope they are able to move tons of Wii U this Christmas.

If they do end up ditching the U, I seriously hope they don't return to the silly motion controls of the original Wii. I hated the motion control!!!

Wii U isn't the problem. People are the problem....I think Nintendo is doing a great job.

Will it really matter if Nintendo only sells 50,000.000 systems as opposed to 100,000,000?

The company may not be suffering but your fans are. Telling us to "please understand" and "be patient" is not a good business strategy for support. Especially for a DOA console like Wii U.

Wii U isn't dead. Hell Pikmin is out next month and that's the main reason I bought the system, not Zelda or Smash Bros. By the end of next year this won't even be an issue. Maybe third party support but that that will be about it.

Wii U does have so much potential for success!

Nintendo just needs to get a variety of quality software out there and just milk the revenues. Don't let this great console die to lack of content!

@Darknyht

Actually that is not correct. Nintendo has a proprietary disc format created and it is 25GB for Single Density and supports double density as well so they can do 50GB as well. Also the transfer rate is pretty high as well being something like 25mbit per sec. There is really no reason WiiU can't deliver most the same games as other next gen consoles other than the fact they all went X86 like the PC and devs don't want to mess with PowerPC any more.

@hydeks "the Wii U actually sold just as much in it's short time out as the 360 and PS3 did"

Ummm...huh?! Do you mean that the Wii U has done just as much at initially after a few months?

@QuickSilver88 Nintendo should have gone back to cartridge you can get 64GB rom quite cheap now. Let OEM's put custom chips on the cartridge if they want. (Doubt the big publishers have those skills still). Loads of stuff you can do that you cannot do with a disk or hdd that you can with SSD or ROM.)

The whole reason console games were more expensive were because cartridge was expensive it is reasonable for them to go back to that.

Look, does it really matter? One thing IS for certain, Nintendo will back the Wii U with it's most prestigious franchises up until its last, dying breath, or when their 9th gen console releases. Could sell 20 million, could sell 100 million, but most likely it will be somewhere in between. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE a console, ANY console, that receives the full 1st party Nintendo lineup (ie Mario Kart, Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Kirby, etc...) will not sell. I would be surprised, no, I would be AMAZED to see a console with all of Nintendo's best on the table, fail. I think the community is seriously forgetting how much people love Nintendo games. I think because Wii U has had a rough time for 6 months now, that people are starting to think it will STAY like this for the next 6 years. Really? You REALLY THINK that the Wii U will completely and utterly fail after Nintendo puts the full monty on the menu? Please. I know some are under the illusion that the public just doesn't care about Nintendo anymore, and that because the Wii U hasn't sold well in its first year, it's a sign of the times, and that the Wii U's failure is inevitable. But I have news for these people, that is in fact an ILLUSION. Trust me on this. The public very much cares about Nintendo, and VERY MUCH loves Nintendo's games. No console with with a lineup of AAA Nintendo titles will ever fail, it just won't. The games are too good. The Wii U isn't selling because A) There isn't a smashing lineup of 1st party games out yet, and B) Nintendo has yet to flex its advertising muscle. Once the lineup starts to take form come holiday season, Nintendo will then have something worth advertising. And believe me, they will. And 1st party Nintendo games + massive advertising = serious pull with the public. Certainly enough to keep the console from failing, if nothing else.

@unrandomsam I liked the cartridges. They last longer and imho more durable. I dont scratch up any of my disks but I like knowing its tougher.

I don't think Wii u will sell much this year even with games like windwaker HD which imo is a lazy remake for a supposed 60 bucks and that 3d Mario which is basically 3d land for Wii u -_- Especially with the new consoles on the rise soon Wii u.s gonna fall hard unless they price cut there system they won't be selling anything in those times. 350 bucks for a 32gb ???? When you can put 50 bucks even 150 (for xbone people) towards better hardware and software graphics. features. games. And 500!!!! GB of memory. People aren't dumb Nintendo. Overall their gonna fail this year because they dont really have anything going for them but as for next year they do have some hope with all those great titles coming out I.e SSBU bayonetta 2 MK8 heck maybe even a metroid but you get the point. Until next year and a price cut Nintendo won't be doing so great

@Subie98 Ditto

@R-Moss: So what? My point was that the Wii U sales will increase. Doesn't mean they're going to win the console war this time. I just pointed out that the sales would increase dramatically.

I said this a couple of years ago, but I'll say it again;

According to Nintendo Gamer magazine, Nintendo has ¥812.8 billion in its pocket - enough to take a ¥20 billion loss every year until 2052. The company also owns ¥469 billion worth of "premises, equipment and investments" - which wouldn't run out until 2075. Even after all that, it would still have all of its valuable IP to sell before going out of business.

Iwata doesn't believe Nintendo is in trouble...because it is NOT IN TROUBLE.

I've been gaming all my life and have enjoyed playing all of Nintendos consoles but never really had much interest in reading about it on websites. This changed with the release of the Wii U, I started reading the articles and just can't believe how negative almost every site is about this console. Every week there is a negative article about the Wii U, it's just amazing. Don't even get me started on the comment sections of other sites, the Wii U is just used as bait for people to rerun their opinions of its impending death, week in, week out, same stories followed by the same comments. I know 100% that I'm going to enjoy playing the Wii U when I finally buy it and I also know that Nintendo will back it with games for its entire life span. I actually haven't been so excited about a Nintendo console since the SNES and I'm not going to let my happiness get squashed by the relentless 24 hour bad news cycle, Rant over for now

I think wii u desperately needs to be repackaged and relaunched this holiday season. Make premium the only model, and have nintendoland packed in as standard. Drop the price to about £200-£220 in the uk and similar in other territories, and head up an agressive ad campaign. Id also love to see a new wii u sports game, it basically sold millions of machines for wii, and look to get wii fit u asap

@JaxonH You sound angry. No one said it will fail here. I was implying that the guy I was replying claim wasn't fact. Which it's not. Nobody said anything about how the Wii U is struggling and how Nintendo will fail. I for one actually think that they will succeed. It's just a slow start. Sales will pick up.

@Rafie My apologies if I came across angry. No, it was more of a rhetorical rant, not directed at anyone in particular. As a Nintendo fan you put up with so much harassment and mockery, sometimes you just want to spell it out for the ones who are always against the Wii U's success

Well, here is another reason why Iwata should be fired.

@Rumbler

I hear you brother.....I also have Vita which has sold less than 2mil units world wide in almost 18 months from release and you never hear trash like you do about the WiiU. Also people act like this gaming drought is something new. Every new system ever released goes thru a dry spell after launch. What is funny is people complain and moan so much about lack of games on WiiU, and yes we have had a lack of what we want (Nintendo games) but the library is not that horrible. People talk about bad ports yet I am playing ME3 and it is excellent, NFSMW excellent, Batman AC best version, NBA2k13 comparable version, COD BOPS2 very good port, AC3 good port with all DLC. We also got MHU and Legos both exlclusives that are very good, and what I consider to be the best version of Injustice Gods Among us (I have played it on all 3 systems and WiiU is the best version). Oh yeah and ZombieU, SMBU, Nintendoland as other solid exclusives. So the lineup for a 9 month old console is not that bad. If you go look at IGNs confirmed game list for PS4 only two 'new' games are confirmed for launch and the rest will be ports/upgrades of games coming out for current systems, then a few other titles are listed as 'launch window' and everything else is TBA 2014. Same deal for XB One. So after all the zellots buy the ps4/xbone I think they will face the same problems as WiiU did in 2013 which is I can get all these multiplats on my ps360 why do I need to drop $500 on new hardware to play them. It won't be until next generation exclusives like destiny or killzone, titanfall or whatever hit that most people will feel compelled to upgrade. Meanwhile WiiU will be hitting its stride later this year with many good exlusives and even better stuff in the first half of 2014. Depsite what poeple say/think the window for Nintendo to turn this ship around is sitll wide open. Meanwhile I am enjoying ME3 that I got used for $22 and can't wait for AUG when I plan to get Pikman and Splinter Cell, followed by about 2 games a month and some eShop goodies between now and Xmas. So don't be brought down by the doom and gloom trolls. For some reason Nintendo sites just get more haters than any other system's sites. The hardware is actually very nice, and the interface has improved so much since the spring update and I expect more improvements with the next update. Miiverse is very cool and remember better drawing tools are coming soon which I can't wait to see what all the creative people do when they have colors and better tools. MK8 is going to introduce video clip posting. I think the system looks great on my 1080p big screen and offTV play on games like 2k13, COD, ME3 really impresses me. I am sure in 2014 we will get more VC goodness and hopefully some N64 and GC games as I just can't wait to be able to play some GC greats like ED, Starfox, Mario SS on the gamepad. Also hopefully Nintendo will introduce a unified account system and should also do more cross play/buy things like Sony does with PS3/Vita. Nintendo will not abandon WiiU before 5 years and even if it is a GC sales wise (it will do better than 20mil units) it will still get a lot of awesome games (just like cube) and be worth the purchase.

Of course Nintendo is suffering! But I can see why Iwata is denying: Saying that it's true is showing weakness! Let's just hope Nintendo gets it act together, and turns the situation somewhat around!

@Rumbler Nintendo Enthusiast. Best Nintendo site I've ever seen.

@Rumbler

Thanks

One game I really want on Wii U is a paper mario, but not like the Wii or 3ds versions, I want to see the series go back to the turn based battles of the gamecube and N64 versions.

Anyway, happy reading and gaming!

I think there's still potential for the WiiU. When the 3DS was first released, it was expensive and had a very small game library. I almost gave up on it, thinking it was a failure. Then came the slew of exceptional games that totally changed its fortune. With Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Fire Emblem boosting sales even more, after more than a year after its release. It could happen for the WiiU too.

The great games are the key and also fixing that game redownload policy. If they finally allowed download and redownload of previously purchased games TIED TO AN ACCOUNT.... that would probably even boost digital sales that they constantly strive to push right now, as well as convincing people to buy your system.