IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Nintendo's New Online Approach 'Unlike Anything Competitors Have Done to Date'

Posted June 22, 2010 by James Brightman

Unlike Microsoft and Sony, which each have robust online services (Xbox Live, PlayStation Network), Nintendo's online strategy has been a bit behind. Online is still not a standard feature for Nintendo games, many gamers have complained about the clunky friend codes, and numerous players are clamoring for a more unified approach with friends lists across titles and other now standard online features. 

The good news is that Nintendo is starting to publicly recognize and address the situation. In an investors Q&A, President Satoru Iwata noted that Nintendo is "not currently satisfied" with his company's online approach. The entire games industry realizes that the digital sector is a huge growth opportunity, and Nintendo knows it has to get its act together. 

Speaking to IndustryGamers during E3, Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime elaborated on Nintendo's digital push, promising that Nintendo would innovate in online in ways we haven't seen before. "One of the things that I love about Nintendo is we constantly are reviewing our performance. I completely agree with you that the online… or let me state it more broadly, the digital area is an area where we can improve, and we’ve made a commitment to dramatically improve in that area," he asserted.

Fils-Aime continued, "Now, what that looks like I can just about guarantee is unlike anything that our competitors have done to date. The reason for that is it wouldn’t be innovative, it wouldn’t be distinctive, and therefore, it wouldn’t be Nintendo. Our approach will be to enable the consumer to discover our digital content much more easily. Our focus will be to have a range of digital content that is compelling for the consumer. Our approach will be a digital business model where every participant is financially moving in a positive direction, and our approach will be to make the consumer say 'wow' in the end. That’s what we’re trying to do."

Our full Reggie interview will be posted later today. [Update: the full interview is now available]

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.