During a financial results briefing last week, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata answered a slew of investor questions ranging from concerns over the company's recent 3DS price cut and muddied information about its novel 3D effects to the impact of social gaming on more traditional options.
The Nintendo boss shrugged off the popular belief that companies such as Apple and Zynga are horning in on what has traditionally been Nintendo territory by ushering in flexible, social networking-focused and, perhaps most importantly, inexpensive gaming.
"It has been said very often that Nintendo's business is not as good as people had expected due to the influence of smartphones," said Iwata. "We have repeatedly investigated whether social games, as well as smartphones, are actually affecting our business. We got the same results in our latest research that there are no causal correlations."
Iwata did admit that the price of gaming apps does give them an advantage with consumers who will lean towards that software should Nintendo be unable to match the perceived value with its own offerings. He also reiterated that the 3DS' rough start can mostly be attributed to a lack of "big hit software" during its launch period and not the MSRP.
Prior to the release of the 3DS, reactions to its $249.99 launch price varied. In January, analyst Michael Pachter said Nintendo would "regret" the device's price. He was correct, but not in the way he intended. Pachter actually expected the system to completely sell out, and chastised Nintendo for "leaving money on the table" by pricing it as such. Some video game critics were hesitant to recommend the system at launch due to its price tag.
The company's trouble extends well beyond the new portable, however.
Foundering Wii console sales, lack of compelling new Wii software and the Nintendo DS reaching its twilight years has created a perfect storm of bad news, explained Iwata. "All of our platforms lost momentum and our entire business became depressed," he said, adding that Nintendo will need to adopt a new stance on how it supports existing platforms and "provide software in a seamless manner" to them.
The 3DS is only a few months old and the company's next home console system the Wii U isn't due until 2012, so it will be some time before Nintendo is in a similar position again. Shareholders and consumers alike can only hope for the best - that Iwata and co. actually learned from the past when both the Wii U and 3DS both make way for the next big thing.
Check out the full Q&A transcript here.
