Wii U vs. PS4 and Xbox One: Nintendo Not Worried About Competition
Nintendo is not worried about the launch day game lineups of the Xbox One and PS4 and feels the Wii U is a great product.
"It's all about the games. The competitive systems have announced their launch lineups. I'm allowed to say 'Meh,'" Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo President of America told IGN. "I look at our lineup of titles and I feel good about our lineup. We've got Zelda. We've got Mario. We've got Donkey Kong. In addition to great titles like Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101, I feel very good about our lineup, and I feel very good about the value proposition we're putting out there for the consumer."
Fils-Aime's main point of the conversation was to convey that Nintendo is focused on the quality of the games and creating great experiences for the user while he claims the competition is about the bells and whistles.
"We've got cloud technology that we're delivering with Wii U. Nintendo TVii is all cloud-based technology. But the difference is, we don't talk about the tech. We talk about the experience. We make sure that the consumer has fun with the game experiences that we provide, " Fils-Aime told IGN. "And so I think as you compare and contrast Nintendo with other players in the space, for us it's about games, about the fun, about the entertainment value, and not about the tech."
After weeks of denying any sort of price drop by Nintendo's top executives, it appears starting Sept. 20, $50 will be taken off the console, bringing it down to $299.99.
The console will sell in two formats, the black deluxe 32GB with game Nintendo Land, or with the brand new The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.
"Obviously we want to drive Wii U momentum," Fils-Aime explained to Kotaku. "We've been very clear that software is what drives hardware. And we feel very good about the line-up of software for Wii U. Taking the added step to improve the value just reinforces our commitment to make sure that Wii U has a strong holiday this year and is set up to be a strong platform into the future."
Well aware of the struggles of the system, they are switching focus to providing quality games for the holidays.
"All you need to do is look at the numbers," Fils-Aime said. "At this point in time the Wii install base was beginning to approach three million- this is U.S. numbers- and as we sit here today, the Wii U installed base is at about 1.5 million. So clearly the sales pace is different. But I will also tell you that the focus on making sure that this holiday-its second holiday-is really strong is actually quite consistent with the way we've always thought about our hardware launches."