Iwata: Past hits dont sell any more

Satoru Iwata has claimed that the best way to improve the industry’s falling sales is to abandon previous winning formulas.

Speaking to Venture Beat, the Nintendo president said that gamers aren’t engaged any more by the same titles that used to shift millions and the industry needs to adapt to this.

Something that is really fresh can make our industry grow,” he said. In the past, the formula was to make the computer graphics more gorgeous. It used to fit the taste of the majority of the gaming audience, but it doesn’t work so well in this day and age.

It’s more difficult for us to come up with something new and different. The whole industry has to recognise that. Looking at the product line-up this year, these titles might have been big hits three years ago. But now, they are not selling that much. In other words, people get tired of games more quickly than they did before.”

Iwata also claimed that the absence of exciting software is more to blame for the industry’s slowing sales than economic decline.

He said: I cannot say that the recession has no effect on the sales of video games. My belief is we should not blame the bad economy for the cause of slow sales of video games.

The slow sales must be due to the lack of great software that everyone wants to buy. We have not shown off the great attractions of whatever we are selling. This is not the problem of Nintendo alone, but the entire video game industry.”