Iwata Explains Why First-Party Wii U Titles Have Been Delayed

The Wii U has struggled to gain momentum thanks to a lack of software, especially first-party content. After the initial rush we saw at launch with games like Nintendo Land and Super Mario Bros. U, the number of interesting Nintendo games has been few and far between.

During a financial briefing, company president Satoru Iwata explained why there's been such a drought when it comes to first-party Wii U games, saying that titles for the platform have required “more development resources than expected.”

In fact, Pikmin 3's delay is mainly due to the fact that a number of people working on the game had to stop and work on other projects so that they'd be ready for the Wii U's launch. “We do not simply have one easily identifiable bottleneck in software development. These days it is becoming increasingly challenging to determine the minimum development resources required for customer satisfaction," Iwata explained.

He then went on to basically say that making games in today's day and age is growing increasingly difficult, especially when you're looking to make a profit.

The point I am trying to get across is that currently it is more challenging to sell packaged software for around $50-$60. On the other hand, we can offer digital games in other formats. It is true that it is becoming increasingly challenging to meet the expectations of consumers who are willing to pay $50-$60 for a game, and it is difficult to break even unless a huge number of units is sold all over the world, so it cannot be denied that software development is becoming more challenging.

Among such packaged software, however, the sales of popular games are much larger than in the past. Therefore, if we create more hit games, the software development business can still be very profitable. All games break even if they sell millions of copies worldwide, so we will continue to do our best to develop games which have high sales potential.

Here's to hoping the company is finally getting their act together and the second half of 2013 will be far different than the first.

[Via]