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The price of the Wii U will not be cut by Nintendo in the near future.
That’s despite, by Nintendo’s own admission, the fact that Wii U has not delivered a value proposition” to consumers. But with the company still selling the machine at a loss, it has no room to manoeuvre.
That’s according to research analyst David Gibson, who was listening in on Nintendo’s Japanese-language investor call yesterday.
Boss Iwata admitted to feeling a great deal of responsibility” for the company’s failure to meet its 3DS and Wii U sales forecasts, although he was keen to stress the successes that 3DS has enjoyed in Japan, at least.
The machine has struggled in Europe, too, with year-on-year hardware sales increases in Germany and France being the notable exception.
3DS title Animal Crossing, at least, has exceeded expectations in the East.
More promises were made about third party commitment to Wii U, with Iwata saying that developers are yet to make proper use of the Wii U’s unique capabilities. He did admit, though, that Nintendo needs to do a better job of communicating these features to players and external studios.
The exec also revealed Wii Street U – a Google Maps powered service that uses the GamePad.
Iwata was less enthused about rumours of a possible lift on the Chinese ban of the sales of games consoles, however, saying that he foresaw no change to the situation at the current time.
UPDATE: As pointed out, Animal Crossing 3DS has not yet been released outside of Japan.
