I think Nintendo should scale back their japanese wii sales reliance and focus more on the west.. I'm not talking about making mature games but more advertisement and budgets for the western markets. I seriously believe that the home console market in Japan will decline to epic levels and relying too much on Japan will become a death trap for some companies/developers...

Exchange rates.

With the Yen doing whats its been doing, any Japanese company not focused on Japan to use as a buffer for their bottom lines faces a lot of pain when converting their overseas profits.

Yes, there are "real" Wii gamers who purchase a lot of titles (mainly 1st party ones, btw)... but it isn't enough to sustain a very healthy market for third parties...

The problem is that the Wii has been bought as a "one game only" machine by many "mass market" people: for Wii Sports, and/or Wii Fit...

When it comes to "core games", most of the potential "core" buyers will compare the Wii's line-up with the ones of PS360, and Wii will be a second (or third) option in their priority list... leaving only the people who always liked Nintendo's games: the usual "core Nintendo lovers" (aka the ex-GC owners), and some open-minded multiplatform gamers, who want to play the best Nintendo games as well as their favourite HD games...

But THAT userbase isn't large enough... it's not really Nintendo's fault, but the fact that the Wii is technically too limited to easily port any multiplatform PS360 game is (i think) the main reason... as long as the Wii will be put in a niche of its own, both technically and in the styles of games released (kids and family games, sports and physical activities, music, mini-games and puzzles), and as long as its "core" userbase won't grow really fast and significantly, the 3rd parties WILL NEVER MOVE...

It's been three years now, and we ALL have to face the truth: when Nintendo DO release many AAA games, 3rd parties do complain about the difficulty to compete with these... and when Nintendo DO NOT release many AAA games (like in the past 18 months), then there's NO ONE to take the opportunity, and we're left with nearly nothing to play except a handful of quality "niche" titles, and an handful of 1st party games... but nearly no " exclusive big budget" 3rd parties efforts...they're not comin', simple as that...

The only ones i may think about, comin' in a near future, are Red Steel 2  and Epic Mickey... TWO games, three or four years after launch? I'll say it once again: the 3rd parties WILL NEVER MOVE, they don't believe in the Wii market, as far as "core" games are concerned...

So Nintendo has two options: update their hardware as fast as possible to convince anyone in the industry to port all the best multiplatform games on their console as well... or make more AAA games by themselves... but with only 3.000 Nintendo employees actually workin' on games and games ONLY (and for BOTH DS and Wii, btw), they just can't do it, AAA games need too much time these days, even when not in HD...

The only option left: hire people and create new teams... buy some new 2nd parties... or do partnerships with some talented japanese 3rd parties, just like they do with Team Ninja (Metroid Other M), or have sometimes done with Sega (Mario & Sonic), Hudson (Mario Party) or Capcom (past handhelds Zelda)...

But as 3rd parties will never move, one thing is for sure: NINTENDO HAS TO MOVE... and they have no excuses: they have billions and billions in the bank, what are they waiting for? They need to GROW if they really want to be the gaming's market leaders... they just can't stay the "good old" Nintendo of the N64-GC days, they have to release more games, for anyone, both "casual" and "core"... if they don't do it, nobody will do it for them, as it's now quite obvious...

As a side note, Iwata also announced the new official Nintendo anthem:

Software wise and Hardware wise western sales of wii are quite ahead of japan if you factor in exchange rates the western market profit far exceeds the japanese.....Ds is totally different story that why a said home console....... I'm just talking scaling back on unneceesary spending...like making japanese only centric games i.e Rainbowman  and continue to make titles that appeal to all markets

You see, and that's where I think there's a discrepancy.  While I agree that the majority of Third Parties are avoiding the Wii or putting their 'weak' games on the platform for a quick buck, I don't think the system is devoid of good games.  Especially in the last year, we saw some great Third Party games.  But it seems that they all just went under everyones radar because 1) They weren't tied to any major company/series, 2) They had little to no marketing and 3) They didn't sell a million copies (see examples #1 and #2). 

Games like Muramasa, Little King's Story, A Boy and His Blob and more were genuinely good games and stood out from the 'weak' titles on the system, both in the last year and from that stagnant period in the first 2 years of the Wiis life when the Wii had virtually no good Third Party games.  And there's more to come.  Its just sad to say that no one is going to care to buy them because they have no marketing put behind them and anything on the Wii that isn't made by Nintendo has such a 'kiddy' image.  Even something like Muramasa sadly.

I thought Nintendo has pretty much stated that's what they are doing.  Showing how Japans market has shrunk even smaller than Europes in many ways and Americas is the biggest.  And focusing on partnering with Third Parties to make more popular Japanese series more popular internationally like Professor Layton, Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest.

The Headline for this thread should have stated that Iwata is only talking about the wii sales IN JAPAN...
These discussions always end badly....

2010 will be nintendo year.

Yes, he says that, but when you have a major American franchise like Madden pulling less than a quarter million IN America, you've got trouble everywhere.

Man, you don't have to tell me such things: I KNOW... i have "Little King's Story", and i LOVE it... and i'll buy "A Boy and his Blob" and "Muramasa" this month, on day one, as they're only released now in PAL land...

I'm just like you, and just like many here: i like great and original "niche" titles, i have such tastes, so I'M HAPPY with the Wii and its line-up...

But WE ARE EXCEPTIONS and WE ARE NOT ENOUGH... and these games, even if very creative and very original, are NOT "big budget" by any means... and WILL NOT attract any mass market, both the "casual mass market" and the "core mass market"...

Personally, i don't care for most of the following games, but as long as Wii won't play the new Grand Theft Auto, the new Assassin's Creed, the new Street Fighter, the new Resident Evil, the new Bioshock, the new Call of Duty, the new Final Fantasy, the new Batman Arkham Asylum, the new Bayonetta, etc, etc, etc, it will not be a FIRST CHOICE for the vast majority of "core" gamers... and for the vast majority of "core" third parties devs... just like PS2 was last gen, by example: for all the different types of games, niche as well as blockbusters... a very healthy market, and opportunities for everyone...

And so, Wii will stay a kind of "niche market" of its own, with a few "mass market" hits (often 1st party) makin' it a success... BUT, a too limited success... not enough to attract some "exclusive big budget" third parties efforts... and not even all the "multiplatform big budget" third parties efforts... i don't know how to explain myself better than this, sorry, english is my second language only... but i hope you get my point...  ;)