John Lucas' Blog

Understatement of the year was uttered by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata today at the E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles today. Backed by 4 years of market savvy proven right, Iwata talked about what he called the "evergreen" nature of titles like Nintendogs, Brain Age, Mario Kart DS and the like forever changing the way the market operates.

Wanna hear the bespectaled brainiac speak on it? Then look below... 

Referencing Nintendo's E3 conference in 2003 Iwata reflects:

"I knew almost everyone attending held a pessimistic view of Nintendo's future. That view was not enjoyable, but I knew people were just using what seems to be a common sense view of the videogame market. I must admit that even Nintendo employees could not have imagined five years later that the market could respond so quickly that we could be selling millions of... bathroom scales."

After Iwata jokes about the Wii Balance Board, he offers this nugget of wisdom:

"It has changed the seasonal nature of videogame hardware sales. Today game hardware systems are more likely purchased by people for themselves at any time of the year"

He mentions an example of over 200,000 weekly DS sales in Europe "as if every week were a holiday." Thank those perennial evergreens for bringing in mistletoe.

I'll leave you with Iwata wrapping up his rumination to give you a glimpse of his master plan for year-round Christmases: 

"Personally I believe we must find more ways for players to feel engaged. Different ways for them to be enriched even with interactions we'd not call games. And most of all, the overall experience of our product must be increased enthusiasm."

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz.

John Lucas