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Iwata and Reggie discussing Wii U marketing plans in great detail
Iwata: That is something that Reggie and I have to discuss deeply, isn’t it? Even here at the E3 show, I would say that the way we introduced its unique game play hasn’t been absolutely perfect because although we do have people who have responded very positively to the Wii U, we also have some who are still somewhat skeptical of it. Through this E3 show, we have learned about what elements of the hardware have been easily conveyed to people and what elements have not. We will leverage what we have learned and apply it to our marketing as we move forward into the launch phase. So today I unfortunately can’t go into specific detail on precisely what we have planned, but I can say that we do intend to go to great efforts to ensure that people really understand the value proposition and the appeal of the Wii U hardware.
Reggie: It’s interesting how people look back to 2006 when we first introduced the Wii and recreate a perspective that the Wii’s success was guaranteed right after this E3 type of event back then. The point in fact is that when we first showed the Wii, we had similar reactions to what we are experiencing with the Wii U. The performance vector for the industry was based on graphics and processing power. The idea of having a motion-based remote was unique and innovative. Other video game manufacturers quickly tried to dismiss what we were doing by saying, “The same thing would be possible if you coupled our hardware with some other device.” But the point was, as we received more consumer information, and as we continued to hone our marketing, what we were able to do was create global launch strategies that led to wide acceptance by our consumers. That is exactly the situation we find ourselves in today. We are finding a very good response to key pieces of software and key parts of our messaging. We are tracking all of this information for the time when we do announce the launch details, such as the launch price and the launch date, so we will be able to apply all of that learning and hopefully recreate the same type of situation we had in the holiday of 2006 as we look forward to the future.
Link
Reggie: It’s interesting how people look back to 2006 when we first introduced the Wii and recreate a perspective that the Wii’s success was guaranteed right after this E3 type of event back then. The point in fact is that when we first showed the Wii, we had similar reactions to what we are experiencing with the Wii U. The performance vector for the industry was based on graphics and processing power. The idea of having a motion-based remote was unique and innovative. Other video game manufacturers quickly tried to dismiss what we were doing by saying, “The same thing would be possible if you coupled our hardware with some other device.” But the point was, as we received more consumer information, and as we continued to hone our marketing, what we were able to do was create global launch strategies that led to wide acceptance by our consumers. That is exactly the situation we find ourselves in today. We are finding a very good response to key pieces of software and key parts of our messaging. We are tracking all of this information for the time when we do announce the launch details, such as the launch price and the launch date, so we will be able to apply all of that learning and hopefully recreate the same type of situation we had in the holiday of 2006 as we look forward to the future.
Link