Iwata: ‘We can expand gaming audience even further’

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has asserted that the platform holder is confident it can reach even more new, non-gaming audiences with Wii and DS.

Speaking to Japanese site Yukan Fuji (as translated by IGN), Iwata said Nintendo was going to try new things” this year in order to ensure the company’s momentum didn’t stagnate.

"Our goal is to show our ‘answer’ to how to make sure the game population that has increased through the Wii and DS doesn’t end as a short-lived boom. Even with the DS, there are still things left to do," he said.

"Things grow bad the moment they’re left in the same position. In particular, people can grow tired of entertainment such as games, so in order to make sure the consumers who took up the DS and Wii don’t lose interest, new ideas like Wii Fit will become essential from here on out. This year, we’ll try a number of things to keep the game population expansion continuing."

Iwata also spoke on the subject of Nintendo’s success – and how coverage suggesting the firm has deliberately limited production to raise interest annoys him.

"To say ‘we expected it to sell’ would be vain,” he added.

If we had known the Wii and DS would expand so dramatically in such a short time, we wouldn’t have had shortages, nor would we have had to raise our financial forecasts. [When I see those types of articles], I honestly feel sad.

"Game machine production amounts are set about half a year in advance, so they cannot be easily changed. The concept of the Wii is ‘a machine that makes people who play it smile.’ We wouldn’t use a strategy that is at odds with smiling. Getting as many people as possible to show us their smiles when playing a Nintendo game—that’s the energy source that drives us."

Thanks to GameDaily for spotting the story.