Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's Lead Designer, spoke with The New York Times about the current state of the Wii U. He is not concerned with the current sales, though he did originally expect it to have sold better. He is confident that the Wii U has a long future.
"I think that the Wii U still has a long future," said Miyamoto. "We really view it as being the ideal device that families are going to want to have connected to that screen in the living room that everyone is going to gather around and watch."
"Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum," he continued. "I think in the long term I’m not at a point where I’m concerned yet."
Miyamoto did mention that Nintendo has not focused on online play, because he feels the audience who would have enjoyed it in the past would have been small. However, that has changed and Nintendo is going to grow its online play.
"For a long time at Nintendo we didn’t focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features," he said. "But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities."
"I think that the Wii U still has a long future," said Miyamoto. "We really view it as being the ideal device that families are going to want to have connected to that screen in the living room that everyone is going to gather around and watch."
"Certainly in the short term I would want to see it performing with probably a little more momentum," he continued. "I think in the long term I’m not at a point where I’m concerned yet."
Miyamoto did mention that Nintendo has not focused on online play, because he feels the audience who would have enjoyed it in the past would have been small. However, that has changed and Nintendo is going to grow its online play.
"For a long time at Nintendo we didn’t focus as much on online play because for many years doing so would have limited the size of the audience that could enjoy those features," he said. "But certainly now we see that so many people are connected to the internet. It opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities."