Iwata: product shortages not an intentional marketing strategy

So what does Nintendo President Satoru Iwata have in store for the future after the company’s successful venture with both its current gaming platforms (asides from ruling the world, that is)? In an interview conducted on the Japanese site Yukan Fuji, he talks about how Nintendo plans to expand the gaming population with some new strategies they plan on implementing in the near future.

For more details on this interview, check out the full article!

Despite the success of both the Nintendo Wii and DS, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says that he doesn’t want to buck to stop here in an interview conducted on the Japanese site Yukan Fuji. Bearing a positive outlook in the coming year, Iwata is looking into trying new things “to keep the game population expansion continuing”.

The sales numbers have definitely been kind to Nintendo when he mentioned that the DS has already reached the 20 million sales mark. He talks about the unexpected success of both gaming platforms in such a dramatically short time, and how it led to hardware shortages and the raising of the company’s financial forecasts.

However, when asked whether the recent product shortages was merely a strategy employed by Nintendo, Iwata showed a softer side to himself. He explained this by saying:

[When I see those types of articles], I honestly feel sad. Game machine production amounts are set about half a year in advance, so they cannot be easily changed. The concept of the Wii is ‘a machine that makes people who play it smile.’ We wouldn’t use a strategy that is at odds with smiling. Getting as many people as possible to show us their smiles when playing a Nintendo game – that’s the energy source that drives us.

Iwata was very optimistic on the future goals of the company. Despite the DS already reaching its “limit for game hardware sales”, he admitted that there are still a couple of tricks up their sleeves for the successful handheld. He mentions that one of their biggest goals right now will be to expand the gaming population to even greater heights.