Iwata says Nintendo of America underperforming
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 2:48pm by Staff
Woe be Nintendo of America today, for Satoru Iwata is very disappointed in them. During an earnings call this week, the head of Nintendo lambasted his American brethren for the red headed stepchildren that they are.
Iwata:
When I received a report from the U.S. that they sold 1 million Pokémon Diamond & Pearl already, I asked them, “why did you sell only 10,000 Brain Age last week, when Europe sold through 30,000?” This is a typical example of how I communicate with our people in the U.S.
NOA, why can’t you be more like your brother? The video games industry takes a continual dump on Europe year-over-year, and it still outsells you?
In all fairness however, Iwata is probably just trying to set the table for a crazy DS/Wii 2007 in the U.S. Light a fire under some executives asses, you might say. I assume he smells blood in the water (or the competition hemorrhaging money), and wants to strike sooner rather than later.
Interesting note: Iwata also hints that future Wii Channels could come with a price tag attached. Horse Armor Channel, here we come!
May 3rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
“Horse Armor Channel”! ROTFL!!
I’d pay for a “MP3 Player Channel” on Wii…
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
as a member of the .00001% minority of people who don’t own a TiVo, I’d pay for a Record TV show channel.
I’d envision it’d work something like this: for a couple hundred points, I’d get a, say, South Park Channel. At any given time, I can only watch the newest episode broadcasted, (not counting reruns).
This would need some finagling with TV networks, to figure out times and such, but if it worked, I’d have something really handy for watching Colbert Report over morning coffee rather than midnight nachos.
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Soup, thats being a tad optimistic
the wii doesnt really have enough storage, unless they team up with Joost of course.. Hmm, that would make a pretty awesome channel!
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Not enough storage… Guess someone doesn’t know the wonders of streaming technologies…
May 4th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Yeah Iwata doesn’t like America. Why do you think Europe gets all the cool ltd. edition DSes and goodies? But if he thinks NOA is slacking, he should look at NOC. They are assholes. They released the GBA pokemon games with no actual way to complete them.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:13 am
i wish you would put things into context instead of just trying to be a smart-aleck
he was asked by an invester what the business model of the channels were, if it was ever gonna be a revenue source, and being the good ceo, he was trying to answer the question with optimism that investers want to hear. internet channel is already set to be pay to play at a point, and to make a comment like any paid channel would be a rip-off is shortsighted childishness.
he has to keep the option open or he would fail as a businessman. his job isnt only to satisfy us, even if i believe thats his top priority.