Iwata 'very willing to change' current Wii U situation, focus is momentum 'towards end of this year'
"Our focus is, first of all, to regain the momentum of the Wii U towards the end of this year, and then we'll try to establish successful third-party Wii U software titles," Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata told IGN. "I believe in the importance of third-party support for Nintendo platforms. I'm very willing to change the current situation."
Despite an exclusive agreement with Sega that locked in Sonic: Lost World on Nintendo platforms, third-party support on Wii U is practically non-existent now – a topic of conversation during our interview with Nintendo of America corporate communications head honcho, Charles Scibetta, last week at E3. That same week, EA told us the decision to forgo Wii U ports of its popular FIFA and Madden franchises this year was simply a "rational" business decision. Nintendo COO Reggie Fils-Aime told IGN that EA in fact does have Wii U projects in development, "just nothing coming out this fall" for the system.
"Looking at this through the prism of a business decision, if I'm a third-party publisher, what I want is that I want a large, diverse installed base to invest in my development and be able to monetize against that large installed base. That's why, from a Nintendo first-party perspective, we have to drive the installed base," Fils-Aime said. "We need a diverse group of consumers. Not just core, not just casual, but a broad, diverse group of consumers within that installed base, so that whether you're Ubi with Assassin's Creed or with Just Dance, you're feeling confident that your game is going to find a home. You'll be able to monetize your development."
Iwata elaborated that while Nintendo is good at some things, the company can't satisfy all on the platform. Some players want experiences that Nintendo simply can't offer – that's why third-party support is so crucial. "There are huge numbers of fans of Nintendo software, but at the same time, those types of players still sometimes want to play something else on our platform. Because of that, we always need third parties to support us, in order to make our platform complete."
