Iwata tries to explain platform droughts

[gumby_trucker]

RolStoppable said:

Yes, Iwata sure isn't talking about games that failed to break 100k units in sales, because such titles don't end a drought. Unless there are dozens of them released every month, thus raising the chances that every gamer finds at least one game to his liking.

I don't think he believes niche games have no place in the West, because that wouldn't be consistent with NoE's release schedule. If anything, the only person to believe such a thing is Reggie Fils-Aime and even then that only goes for the American market.

What a console needs to maintain momentum are regular releases of games that keep people talking about the system. The Japanese market may have become less important in relation to the size of the worldwide market, but a significant part of big video game publishers still resides there.1) Success in Japan is still important. If you don't succeed there, you will have a hard time succeeding anywhere else. 2)Currently, Japan is Nintendo's weakest region by far, because PlayStation systems get bombarded with new releases all the time.3) I can't fault Nintendo for trying harder in Japan than anywhere else, because that country is strategically of the highest importance to them. Western publishers will port everything everywhere anyway.

1) This is ofcourse not true, and you admit as much yourself in point #2). Japan is Nintendo's weakest region by far, and yet globally they are wildly successful. I would go as far as saying that success in Japan has become as insignificant today as it has ever been, and may likely continue in this direction in the near future. Meanwhile the western market is growing rapidly and on multiple fronts, many of them having no representation from Nintendo at all.

3)It seems more sensible to a layman like me to have the expanding market be the one exposed to more types of games, and more frequent releases, and having the few and far between sure sellers (like Monster Hunter and DQ) being the focus of the shrinking market. Or in other words, invest more heavily where there is more money to be gained. Besides being conservative and slow to adapt, I see no reason why Nintendo should be investing so heavily in trying to win back such a small percent of its audience, instead of learning its much bigger audience and building a successful relationship with it.

Looking at other Japanese publishers like Square-Enix and Capcom, it seems they also feel this way, with the purchase of Eidos and the (occasionally successful, occasionally not) focus on more "western-styled" games by Capcom. This is also true for every publisher to release a JRPG on the 360 this gen. Besides the ones that were money-hatted obviously, they certainly didn't make it their choice of platform because of its large install base in the homeland.
Another example is the many English blogs held by Japanese companies or their American divisions, such as Capcom, Sega, etc.

Once more regarding point #3) I find it difficult to understand why you wouldn't fault this kind of practice from Nintendo, either as a share-holder or as a consumer..