Nintendo's newly appointed president, Satoru Iwata, has confirmed the company's commitment to focus on making better games. According to Iwata Nintendo have no plans of creating an all-round entertainment system but instead want to focus on what they know best, games.
According to Nintendo 4.5 million GameCube units have already been shipped, since the console's launch in September of 2002. Iwata's projections suggest that 50 million units will have been sold by March 2005. Considering the widespread appeal of the GameCube Nintendo plans to focus on the only thing the console actually does, play games. Most of the profits made from systems such as the GC, originate from the sale of software, it is therefore obvious why Nintendo will focus on making them more appealing.
We can't be optimistic about the game market. said Iwata No matter what great product you come up with, people get bored. I feel like a chef cooking for a king who's full. We're reaching the limits of how far we can appeal to consumers by boosting the machine's performance or providing more compelling graphics and sound. he went on For the past few years we've been looking for new ways to surprise people, new ways for them to have fun.
Since Nintendo are reaffirming their commitment to the creation of innovative games, it seems that they will have to attempt to do so by unconventional means. Considering that the GC, on paper at least, seems to be the most limited, hardware wise, of the next generation consoles, it is interesting to see how Nintendo will go about making innovative games.
One possibility is that the new presidents' comments come as a direct result of the recent hardware price war which forced Nintendo to lower the price of the GameCube from US$199 to US$149. This possibility that this trend will carry on to the software segment of the industry has rattled Nintendo.
We have a sense of crisis, that price cuts in software could destroy the game industry, said Iwata The effort to produce machines with better technology has reached its limit. If things continue, they may lead to the decline of the entire game industry."