Matt Martin
17:15 (BST)
15/07/2008
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Nintendo has helped industry out of seasonal sales rut - Iwata
Speaking during Nintendo's E3 conference in LA today, president Satoru Iwata has said that Nintendo has helped the games industry break out of the seasonal sales rut.
He said that DS and Wii hardware, along with "evergreen" products such as Brain Age and Nintendogs, and recently introduced peripherals like the Wii Balance Board, have lifted the reliance of selling during the Christmas period.
"I knew almost everyone attending held a pessimistic view of Nintendo's future," he said of Nintendo's E3 conference in 2003. "That view was not enjoyable, but I knew people were just using what seems to be a common sense view of the videogame market.
"I must admit that even Nintendo employees could not have imagined five years later that the market could respond so quickly that we could be selling millions of... bathroom scales," joked Iwata of the Wii Balance Board.
"It has [also] changed the seasonal nature of videogame hardware sales," said Iwata. "Today game hardware systems are more likely purchased by people for themselves at any time of the year".
More than 200,000 DS units are sold in Europe a week "as if every week were a holiday," he added.
Products such as Brain Age, Nintendogs and Mario Kart DS have been selling well for two or three years, said Iwata. "These products seem to be evergreens. This I think is a really big change."
He summed up by stating: "Personally I believe we must find more ways for players to feel engaged. Different ways for them to be enriched even with interactions we'd not call games. And most of all, the overall experience of our product must be increased enthusiasm."
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