Iwata: House Party Culture Fuels Wii Success in US
By Shawn on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 5:27 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games Industry, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Portable
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata attributes the success of the Wii in the US to a House Party Culture.
“In retrospect, the U.S. culture of the house party played a major role in spreading the value of Wii to a bigger circle faster than we ever predicted. All of my American friends keep telling me ‘Man, the Wii is the ultimate party machine!’ [Laughs] But none of that was intentional on our part. All we did was ask ourselves how to pack the most smiles and surprises into the product as we developed it. Fortunately, we hit a sweet spot. As a result, interest in the Wii has spread across the U.S. surprisingly quickly.”
Iwata goes on to talk about game development geared towards the hardcore gamer. He feels there’s room for games for all genres for the Wii.
“So I’d like to increase the overall depth. Not just in one specific genre, but all across the board. If there’s anyone out there thinking, ‘Nintendo probably wouldn’t be open to a title like this,’ I assure you, you’re mistaken. We love fun games of all kinds. [Laughs]”
Another nugget of information is that there are plans in the works to take the most popular portable game machine and make it more utilitarian. We don’t go far from the house without a couple DSs in tow. I’m not sure I can handle them being useful as well as fun.
via GameDaily
