On the heels of yesterday’s dire financial briefing, Nintendo has announced plans to develop all-new hardware for emerging markets.
Starting next year, the company intends to create and sustain new gaming platforms for a variety of countries worldwide. That’s according to Saturo Iwata himself who, in an interview with Bloomberg, outlined The Big N’s ambition for 2015:
“We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have. The product and price balance must be made from scratch. We have had a console business for 30 years, and I don’t think we can just transfer that over onto a smartphone model.”
Rather than solely relying on localising existing Nintendo titles such as Mario and Zelda — which would inevitably lead to an inflated retail price due to the variation in currency — the company aims to develop products that are native to that particular region. Not only that, Iwata’s announcement reinforces the company’s commitment to create innovative new platforms, as opposed to the constant cries for the Kyoto-based company to forgo hardware manufacturing altogether and instead switch to a software-only business.
Though Iwata didn’t mention specific regions at this time, the chief executive officer did allude to entering the Chinese market, following the government’s recent decision to overturn a 14-year ban on the sale and manufacturing of video game consoles from foreign countries. In fact, it’s understood that Sony and Microsoft both intend to introduce their respective platforms into China, with the latter planning to launch the Xbox One in September.
However, in terms of Nintendo and its existing platforms, it’s been confirmed that both the 3DS and the Wii U are under performing against internal targets; mind you, it’s the company’s home console and its ailing sales that are the cause for concern. Currently, the Wii U has shipped 6.1 million units worldwide, which is significantly lower than the Big N’s initial target of 9 million.
