GearPop Blog

Today Nintendo held a meeting for shareholders and investors to discuss how the company will address the current shortcomings of the Wii U, and what their future aims are. Below is a summary of the short-term goals that will help to overcome the current issues.

Despite current reports, Nintendo do not hold a pessimistic view of the future of dedicated video game platforms. Therefore the integration of hardware and software will remain as the business model for Nintendo, and there are no plans to develop on other platforms in the future. They acknowledge however that they need to change their definition of video games to keep up with current hardware development, taking note of the increased popularity of the internet and smart devices.

With regards to the Wii U, under the current situation where the company has reported an operating loss, simply executing a price reduction is not an option. In the short term, Nintendo will focus on promoting the advantages of the Wii U GamePad, especially when there are some consumers that think that the GamePad is simply a Wii accessory. In order to achieve an increased appeal, the top priority for Nintendo is to offer software titles that are only made possible because of the GamePad. Currently there is not a decisive software title that enriches the user’s gameplay experience by using the GamePad. This is now one of the top priorities for Mr Miyamoto’s software development department this year.

Nintendo acknowledge that they are the only gaming platform with NFC built in. Pokémon Rumble U takes advantage of this feature, and they hope to demonstrate further software titles that make use of NFC during E3 this year.

Nintendo plan to release an update this summer which introduces a quick start menu for the GamePad, which allows users to load games on their GamePad much quicker. Below is a video demonstration of how this would work:

Nintendo also hopes to display Virtual Console software from the Nintendo DS on the GamePad, to further enrich the value of the GamePad to give momentum to the Wii U this year. Mario Kart 8 is due to be released globally in May. To create momentum, Nintendo would like to ensure that this release is not a one-off event.

The worldwide hardware sales of Nintendo 3DS have reached 42.74 million, and was the top-selling game devices globally in 2013. Nintendo hope to maintain this profitable momentum for the next few years.

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About the Author George Barrett

I'm currently a Computer Science student from the UK, and am interested in technology, software, gaming, technical theatre and much more! To find out more, visit my website or my social links.

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