The Nintendo Wii U was launched back in November, but so far it has failed to attain the same momentum of the original Wii. Nintendo recently had to cut its estimated sales for both hardware and software amid slow demand, and that was enough to set off a number of analysts into "Nintendo is doomed" territory.
It's true that the Wii U has faced a dearth of quality titles since launch. Third parties haven't published interesting new content, while Nintendo itself, normally the life blood of any of its consoles, hasn't released a single new game since New Super Mario Bros. Wii U. Titles have been delayed, and the Wii U's onboard software has been plagued by sluggishness.
While Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto acknowledged that Wii U sales aren't where he wants them to be, the legendary game designer is still optimistic about the console's future.
"I think that the Wii U still has a long future. We really view it as being the ideal device that families are going to want to have connected to that screen in the living room that everyone is going to gather around and watch," Miyamoto said to the New York Times. "Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum. I think in the long term I'm not at a point where I'm concerned yet."
Miyamoto also said that, generally speaking, one cannot predict what path the entertainment industry will choose. He said that Nintendo can only try to create experiences that families will want to have in their living rooms. If Nintendo can provide great experiences, then people will buy the products.
"Entertainment is an unpredictable industry. Entertainment is this thing that moves around from place to place ... Nintendo's stance, over all, is that we don't know where entertainment will take us next," he said.
Looking forward, Miyamoto is excited to experiment with the Wii U's online capabilities. Traditionally, Nintendo has tended to stay away from online experiences, but with the Internet increasingly ubiquitous, Miyamoto said that the time has come for the company to embrace the future:
"For a long time at Nintendo we didn't focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features. But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the Internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities."
