When it comes to the Nintendo Wii U, much of the talk has centered on the fact that the system isn't performing very well at retail. Forget the fact that Pikmin 3 has been delayed and there's no Legend of Zelda game. Considering there are very few noteworthy games at all, it's not much of a surprise that all the attention is on the awful sales.
The good thing is that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata knows the reason Wii U sales are bad are because of a lack of games. The other piece of good news is that Nintendo is still bent on making games like Mario, Zelda, and Pikmin 3 as good as they can be. The bittersweet part is that they're not in any rush to get them to market.
"We were faced with the alternatives of taking time to refine our products or launching them without too many intervals," Iwata said on a call with investors, according to GamesIndustry International. "After careful consideration, we selected the first option because we believe that from a mid-and-long term perspective it is more important to improve customer satisfaction with each game."
Iwata specifically singled out Fire Emblem: Awakening and Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon as successful titles that benefitted from Nintendo's strict insistence on quality. Wii U Games like Mario, Zelda, and Pikmin 3 are all being developed with the same high standards in mind.
"I believe the future of the video game industry depends on the number of games developers release that consumers consider to be fresh and worth paying for," he said.
"We decided to take time to add the final touches to ensure that consumers fully feel that they are valuable titles. The brand of a franchise would be completely degraded without customer satisfaction. This is why we delayed the release schedule of such games [as Pikmin 3]."
As many analysts have suggested over the past month (including us) it's more important for Nintendo to ensure their franchises remain great experiences than it is for them to fret about Wii U sales. Even if the Wii U fails - and Nintendo still has time to turn things around - it'd be easier for them to rebound from a disappointing console than a poorly received Zelda game.
Still, the Wii U needs games, no question about it. Expect the company to have a bunch of new titles on display on E3, even though it won't have a press conference this year.
