Look at that there face. That’s the face of someone presenting a successful company, fearless in the face of the Xbox 360 console domination and iPhone 5 craze.
Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America and announcer at yesterdays New York Nintendo Direct press event, spoke to GamesIndustry.biz today. The Regginator speaks on pricing strategies, the Wii U launch window and the fierce competition from Apple.
When asked on Nintendo’s decision to price the Wii U at $299, Reggie responds:
In the end, the consumers are going to decide. So I’ll share this data with you. We’ve announced the price and we have a number of retailers taking pre-orders and the feedback that I’m getting from retailers is extremely strong in terms of pre-sales and consumer excitement at the store. In the end, I care about those people. I care about the consumer who’s putting money down on a pre-order and whether or not we’re presenting a great value to them. Based on some of the reports I’m getting, the answer is yes.
The kick-ass name-taker revealed that we can expect many announcements from third-party developers soon, giving us a better idea on specific dates for the “launch window” titles.
Well, it’s through the end of March, and from third-party perspective, you’ll hear from third-party publishers on the specific launch dates for their titles. Part of what comes into play is if they’re launching multi-platform titles, they like to launch them all on the same day, even if that’s in advance of the actual hardware launch for Wii U. Part of the reason that we’re actually able to surprise people with the launch date is we held it very close, but now that the launch date is public and now that the publishers are working through all of their final schedules, they’ll be able to better communicate exactly what’s launching.
The CEO also had much to say on Nintendo’s views on the lower software costs that Apple provide:
We believe that when it comes to hardware, we want to pack a lot into the smallest price possible, so that’s why we don’t charge for additional services like some of our competitors do. That’s why we include the capability of video chat with the GamePad’s built-in cameras, for example. From that standpoint, we want to make sure the hardware is as strong a value as possible for as long as possible.
On the software front, what I would tell you is it’s important that we offer a range of software experiences that have a range of prices. Here today, we’re showing off three different digital experiences and we haven’t announced what those price points will be, but certainly they will be less than full price games. So we have to make sure that the value equation for what you get and what you pay is as strong as possible, whether it’s a smaller piece of digital content or whether it’s when a consumer buys Wii Fit U.
I have to agree with the man there, as Nintendo hasn’t disappointed with free software bundled with their recent consoles. Playing Wii Sports for the first time stands as one of my most astounding moments in gaming, and Face Raiders and the 3D camera were enough to keep me busy for days when I got my 3DS. I have confidence that I’ll be spoiled again with content when I start playing my Wii U.
[Source: Full interview at GamesIndustry.biz]
