Nintendo has been one of the low performers of the year, as far as gaming consoles are concerned. The company found it seriously difficult to make any real profit off its current console in a market that’s primarily dominated by the likes of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Moreover, the lack of noted third-party developers on the console has even proved harder for the console to boast a decent sales margin.
Keeping in mind the impending losses for the console and the company, a number of fans and critics have questioned Nintendo’s business module and as to why the company just doesn’t ditch the hardware aspect of things and go purely into software – similar to Sega. It seems like now the company has finally addressed a number of those queries.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was recently interviewed by CVG, where he discussed the future prospects of both the console and the company, while also confirming that Nintendo need not go the same route as Sega.
"If I was to take responsibility for the company for just the next one or two years, and if I was not concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all, it might make sense for us to provide our important franchises for other platforms, and then we might be able to gain some short-term profit," Iwata stated.
"However, I'm really responsible for the long-term future of Nintendo as well, so I would never think about providing our precious resources for other platforms at all."
Following the launch of the Wii U, a number of executives in the industry have predicted that Nintendo could restore its fortunes and former glory by developing software for other platforms. However, Iwata is firm that such a decision would actually go on to “remove one of the company's pillar assets.”
"What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software - by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other," Iwata added.
"And those kinds of conditions have enabled us to create something that no other companies can create. Those kinds of backgrounds are there behind the fact that such a number of great Nintendo franchises exist, and those great franchises always shine for people around the world."
Wii U’s continuous underperformance globally (in retail) has seen Nintendo lose out on a lot of potential business opportunities. Back in July, the company revealed that only 160,000 units had been sold around the world in three months. The company later blamed such a poor show on the release of few key first-party titles.