Surprise success
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said innovation was key for the company.
“Even if it is revolutionary sooner or later, people become tired of a new form of entertainment,” he said.
Addressing the rapid turnaround in Nintendo’s fortunes over the last two years, Mr Iwata admitted that the success of the company had taken even staff at Nintendo by surprise.
Referring to the success of the Wii, and peripherals like the balance board, he said: “Everyone had a pessimistic view of Nintendo in 2003.
“Even Nintendo employees could not have imagined that five years later the market respond so quickly that we could sell millions of bathroom scales around the world.”
Mr Iwata, who was speaking to media at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, said the firm’s success had resulted in a paradigm shift in the industry, with hardware sales growing in periods outside the traditional high spots, and software titles like Brain Training and Nintendogs having two-year life spans on retail shelves.
Nintendo said recently European sales of the Wii numbered more than 200,000 each week.
But Mr Iwata did not touch upon supply issues that have continued to affect Wii sales almost two years after its launch.
Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said Nintendo were proving to be very determined and targeted in their approach.
“They are very good at designing hardware and the production line of content; they have got a knack of producing great content and if they keep doing that, they keep innovating.
