During their 75th annual shareholder meeting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was questioned about the lack of third-party support for the company’s Wii U console. Despite a weak launch, the Nintendo 3DS has thrived thanks in part to strong support from third-parties; however, the same cannot be said of the Wii U. In light of this, Iwata was asked to comment on what measures Nintendo are taking to ensure the same does not happen with the Nintendo NX, the company’s next system.
“I will not share details on NX today but with regard to the launch of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U not necessarily having progressed well and not acquiring sufficient support from software publishers, we intend to offer NX through a Nintendo-like solution,” Iwata replied. “Thank you for understanding that we are making various considerations and preparations in order to avoid what happened with the previous generations.”
He continued: “On a different note, I believe the standard for software publishers in selecting what hardware to provide their games for is the installed base after all. The larger the installed base or the more it is believed that the installed base will largely expand, there is an aspect that more software publishers are likely to join in.”
“On the other hand, Nintendo is collaborating with various software publishers. At E3, which was held in the U.S. and is the largest trade show in the video game industry, we received many proposals for joint initiatives. In addition, Japanese software publishers have close relationships with our licensing department on a regular basis. As for collaborations with software publishers or their games, please consider that there are various ongoing projects below the surface.”
