VIDEO GAMES BLOGS
VIDEO GAMES BLOGS

From 1Up.com:

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admits that Wii Music hasn’t met the company’s sales expectations, but is still optimistic about the game’s future. CVG reports that during a third quarter financial results briefing, he commented, “I agree that Wii Music, as of now, has not achieved its true potential. On the other hand, I feel that Wii Music is a software that elicits two extremely different reaction from consumers. There are people who highly appreciate it and those who do not appreciate it at all.”

He went on to explain that the company is still supporting the game, hoping sales increase later. “We do not think… that we should abandon sales support. If we had approached Brain Training with that mentality, the software would have not achieved its current sales situation.” Unfortunately, Wii Music’s failure to connect with audiences could be indicative of a larger uphill battle Nintendo is facing in Japan, as Iwata recognized that in its home country the console “showed a slow start, did not show sharp trajectory in sales, and ended up moving back to the sales of non-sales-season level quickly.” He pointed out that “it is impossible to hit a bulls eye every time.”

Even as the game underperformed, creator Shigeru Miyamoto defended the title and reflected on hardcore and casual gamers. But Nintendo has recently seen a hit to its stock value, and some analysts are saying that the bubble has burst. We’ll have to see if this encourages Nintendo to cater more to its core audience in the future, or if they’ll stick to their generally successful casual strategy.