Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata
Speaking to CNBC, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata confirmed that the company has scrapped hardware project ideas mid-development. The Kyoto-based company had apparently one such handheld gaming system prototype in the past three years, but instead decided to release iterations of the DS platform. Iwata declined to go into details about the abandoned hardware.
"In the history of Nintendo, there are several such examples," he says. "But when we are launching new hardware, the most important is thing is to sustain the momentum. If introducing new hardware won’t do anything to do that, well…"
While the DSi has sold exceedingly well in its first few months of existence, Wii sales have drooped a bit. Although some analysts think that the time is right for a price cut, Iwata denies such an action will happen soon. "Right now, we have no plans at all about a price cut," he says. "We are going to start launching the stronger software in the later half of the year — and we are confident [we will] regain the momentum."
"People often talk about the price cut as if it’s an almighty weapon," he continued. "The fact of the matter is that what a price cut can do is rather limited. … In the long history of video games, at the time of the price cut we see a momentary hike in sales, but usually that can not sustain its momentum and it soon comes down to below the price cut level."
Iwata showed off a video demonstrating the Wii Vitality Sensor. Using light pulses, heartbeat and stress level are monitored, with games helping users to breathe more rhythmically or collect their thoughts. While it's really hard to tell what the market would be for such an unconventional device when it launches in 2010, Iwata thinks Nintendo can make it work. "The U.S. market might be challenging," he conceded, "but everybody was skeptical of the sales potential [of Brain Age]. Even after the Japanese sale showed results, people in the U.S. were skeptical. It's just a Japan thing that can't be translated to the US market."
