Games are top priority in Wii Launch

Nintendo knows that it was the lack of early titles from 3^rd parties that hurt the GameCube and they are making sure the same will not be true for the Wii.  Speaking at the Nintendo Co., Ltd. Corporate Management Policy Briefing Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata had this to say about game titles and the importance will play in the Wii launch later this year.

 "When we launched GameCube, the initial sales were good, and all the hardware we manufactured at that time were sold through. However, after this period, we could not provide the market with strong software titles in a timely fashion. As a result we could not leverage the initial launch time momentum, and sales of GameCube slowed down. To avoid repeating this with Wii, we have been intensifying the software development, both internally at Nintendo and at developers outside the company, in order to prepare aggressive software lineup for Wii at and after the launch.”

This might explains the day after day press releases with the comments “Company N like what they see in Wii, 4 games in development” and “Nintendo’s Wii get more support, Company M and L announce new game developments.

Continuing the software is king mantra Iwata continued, "We believe it is important to provide the market with strong software without a long interval in order to keep the launch time momentum. Accordingly, I expect the R&D costs to increase a little bit rather than decrease significantly. On the other hand, I do not expect our R&D spending to be doubled or tripled because we do not have any immediate intention to build semiconductor manufacturing plant or something like that."

So they are going to spend more money on software development, Woohoo.  Let’s see what they bring us.

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto added, "As a software maker, the primary goal is to make great hit games. If there is a possibility of yielding a great profit, we should not hesitate to invest in that title," he said.

"My own philosophy is that we should invest in people if they have the potential to make something interesting. I myself thought that I would work for Nintendo because the company could be a good patron for me to make something I would really want to make. To make hit software, we will need to spend on R&D in the future as well. Having said that, however, I am a very cost-conscious person, as you know by now. I have never spent money for non-prospective activities such as for building a movie studio. I'd like to decide the field where we can expect the efficient return for our investment so that our investors will be happy. Rest assured that I won't spend money the way you feel worried."

For the whole Q&A at teh Corporate Management Policy Brief look here .