I understand that, but what I'm wondering is what did he expect? As more Wiis are sold, the smaller the amount of potential sales remain. As said, sure, the software lineup sucked.

I would have to entertain the thought, as per my personal perspective, I haven't bought a game since last Christmas - mostly due to sucky economy affecting my funds. I would find it suspect to think that I stand alone in that.

That all said, it is noble for Iwata to take up the cross on the issue.

Will you read the rest of the topic

The original intent of the Wii was just that it would outsell the Gamecube. Nintendo failed to maintain the momentum from last year and will probably fail to met their previous projections.

No good games for over a year will do that. Nintendo basically shot themselves in the foot by going ultra casual and having such a thin, pathetic software lineup. Not to mention all the disappointing third party games out there.

Did Nintendo think it could keep creating Blue Oceans. You can't keep redefining the market, and remaining as hot as you had been. Not everyone is going to get into videogames. Also, we have dealt with a meltdown of the global financial markets.

Anyway I predict this I even make threads about it but comes from Iwata/Nintendo themselves seems it just shocks and depressed me. I still like the Wii and still enjoyed playing it. Seem mocking Nintendo and the Wii at this time was like having fun of someone that have a bad experience lately.


And because my prediction was true about the pricecut didnt help Ninty that much straight from the horse's mouth itself:


"With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year. "



I wont saying much or posts threads and topics about this. Its too sad to be true. I DONT WANT THE GAMING CRASH TO HAPPEN!

..What?

A big part of the problem was that the "promise" of Wii failed to materialize. If they make a new console, they are essentially making a new promise (of potential games, new control schemes etc.). Why would people buy into it though, if it didn't materialize with the Wii? Nintendo needs to fulfill the Wii's potential (the games we all have expected but didn't arrive), before seeking new potential. A console is only an enabler of games, games themselves are the important thing.

This is the same issue with Wii Speak, Wii Wheel, Balance Board, Zapper etc. Nintendo hasn't supported the hardware we bought with enough strong software.

We have multiple things in place that weren't in place during the crash of the 1980s, but we are missing arcades this time.  Anyhow, here is what we have:

1. Videogame rental market.  This is akin to movie theaters, and provides a way for people to not get burnt by bad games.

2. Videogames as a part of the culture on part with books, movies and music.  Back then, they were a fridge bubble hobby that wasn't as entrenched.  Games are now becoming made into movies also.

3. Nintendo's business model of licensing games.  Really BAD BAD BAD games don't have a chance to flood the market.  Games may be old and derivative, and boring, but they aren't broken.  I am talking worse than NES Color Dreams level here.  There is some quality control.

4. We have Gamestops and other stores like them, dedicated to videogames only.  We didn't have this in the 1980s.  You start to worry if Gamestop ends up folding up.

5. We have a cable network dedicated to videogames.

We have gone through an economic meltdown and videogames still are relevant, and selling.  They are not fads, or believed they may be fads, they way they were in the 1980s.  Contraction and retrenchment may be possible, but not a crash. 

I think the problem lies with 3rd party involvement. They pushed hard through 2008/2009 to get big 3rd party IPs on Wii, however, 3rd parties were mostly focused on the graphical limitations and perceived lack of a core audience that would buy a quality title on Wii. Thus, Wii had a low software turnout for late 2008 and 2009, the time Nintendo probably told everyone on the inside when they would deliberately not put out their own big titles for the sake of helping 3rd parties.

Now, with NSMB, Galaxy2, Metroid:M, and probably some other big title late next year like Pikmin3, Wii will do fine and steady and stay above PS360, but, it could have kept moment had 3rd parties been more willing to put exclusive big IPs on Wii, like they did with PS2 and every other market dominating hardware.

Now, its a more fluid market with the illusion that core titles from 3rd parties will only sell on PS360. So Wii is left with great niche titles, 1st party gems (as always), and the really rare quality 3rd party big IP like Monster Hunter. Where this is better for the overall consumer as they have less exclusivity, its bad on Nintendo's overall plan and Wii-only owners like myself.

Maybe with a WiiHD/2 etc, and a much smaller gap in raw power, Nintendo can create what they hoped for here.

THIS may be the only potential reason that a sequel is right around the corner, since overall sales trends and historical analysis would definitely state a Wii sequel won't happen until at least 2011 and probably 2012.

What does that have to do with my post?

@ everyone else... He never said that they actually failed with Wii, it is a mistranslation and Ninty Everything haven't update there site yet. What he actually said was...

""Wii has stalled. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool."

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/10/29/iwata_says_wii_price_drop_effective/

"I originally mistranslated Iwata's statement as "We failed with the Wii.""

Your question, "Wii failed", can be answered with a no, but it is in no way related to the article being quoted. There is a difference, and "Wii failed" comes out of nowhere, relatively speaking.

Again: They are not calling the Wii a failure.