Iwata says a single title could save the Wii U

[pokoko]

Skidonti said:

pokoko said:
I tried to explain to my mom that I didn't need to work when one winning lottery ticket would set me up for life. She didn't go for it.

The most interesting thing he said, however, was, "we will need to think very carefully about the balance of revenue and expenses and try to operate by controlling overall costs." I think there are some red flags with that for the Wii U. It wouldn't surprise me if Wii U games going forward got hit with budget reductions as Nintendo shifts attention to other devices, present and future.

I don't think that first statement is not what Iwata said at all.

I could indeed see them moving resources appropriately, as it makes little sense to pour so much money into a WiiU title that it would take millions upon millions of sales to be profitable. You can't often bet on the game you make being a smash hit.

But yet smash hits do exist, there have been a number of them over the years, and they can be the tipping point for hardware. The best way to try and find that smash hit, and I think this is what Iwata is implying, is to support a system consistently, and to try and make killer apps. The tone of his answer is more "we will continue making games to the best of our ability for WiiU because one of those games could be the title that makes it take off" rather than "we're only developing one title for WiiU because one chance is all it needs, like a lottery ticket, and we bet 100% that this one title will be our savior."

Now, hopefully they realize that in order for something to come close to saving them it has to be something we haven't seen before.

The first line was mostly a joke.  I understand what he's saying; when you continue to make games, there is always the chance that one of them could be the next Pokemon.  His was a two part answer, which wasn't really addressed in the original article.  However, he did say that one game can turn around a console and that was probably on purpose.  We might scoff at the idea but it might also resonate positively with investors with less gaming knowledge.  The suggestion of another Pokemon might result in dreams of the Wii U printing Yen.  I believe his saying that was a strategic move.