Nintendo UK finance director talks about Wii, DS

Though it has the largest market for Nintendo in all of Europe, Nintendo UK is a pretty small operation. It is staffed by 20 people, while operating for a market worth over £ 100 million (US$ 195.38 million). Their finance director, Tom Pearce, was part of the original seven who started the UK headquarters, and isn’t suprised about running a small staff.

As a gamer, Pearce was quick to say he is no hardcore gamer. But he does have the fire for gaming, having loved it since he was young. Of course, he was not all that skillful, nor were the games he played as intensive as today, but he enjoyed them a lot. He sees that same feeling get revived again as the Wii and DS Lite weaves its way into gamers’ hands.

And he finds it fortunate that they do, for the competition is so intense that the he sees Nintendo hasn’t penetrated into the market as they hoped. Instead, he believes the company was just “riding the crest of waves” for the past two years, trying to get the flow right ever since the Sony Playstation knocked the crown off of the former console king a decade ago.

More on Tom Pearce, competitions, mums, dads, and the female audience behind the “Full Article” link.

Though it has the largest market for Nintendo in all of Europe, Nintendo UK is a pretty small operation. It is staffed by 20 people, while operating for a market worth over £ 100 million (US$ 195.38 million). Their finance director, Tom Pearce, was part of the original seven who started the UK headquarters, and isn’t suprised about running a small staff.

As a gamer, Pearce was quick to say he is no hardcore gamer. But he does have the fire for gaming, having loved it since he was young. Of course, he was not all that skillful, nor were the games he played as intensive as today, but he enjoyed them a lot. He sees that same feeling get revived again as the Wii and DS Lite weaves its way into gamers’ hands.

And he finds it fortunate that they do, for the competition is so intense that the he sees Nintendo hasn’t penetrated into the market as they hoped. Instead, he believes the company was just “riding the crest of waves” for the past two years, trying to get the flow right ever since the Sony Playstation knocked the crown off of the former console king a decade ago.

Despite the competitions’ focus on better visual rendering and hardware, Nintendo’s plans were on gameplay experiences. The Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii both embody that fact. Even with high demand for the Wii, Nintendo can’t meet it with enough supply. Competitors have also been busy in meeting supply and opening new markets to win the battle for your living room.

But he is confident that the real goals of developing the Wii and the DS have been achieved. They are now able to invite more people – those that weren’t interested in gaming to start with – into playing fun games in their consoles and handhelds. 

He added, “We’re moving into a much bigger proportion of the population: mums, dads and a more female audience. We’re getting them into video games because they’re easy to play, are intuitive and people can play with their friends. We’ve just got to keep that going.”

All in all, he concludes that eventually times will change and the competition will find something new to put out into the market. Nintendo will respond with it’s own product, but until then, it will stick to the gameplan. The Playstation 3 is slated to come out into the UK in March eating into the console market, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Things change daily in this business. It will only take one of the competition to do something dramatic, like bring out a new product that perhaps you didn’t expect, and your whole strategy has to change. I find that quite a buzz,” he concludes.