Nintendo NX won't make the same mistakes as the Wii U, exec says

It's not surprising to hear that the Nintendo Wii U was a dud, but it is coming from Nintendo's Chief Operating Officer, Reggie Fils-Aimé.

Speaking with [a]list, a marketing website, Fils-Aimé recalled the company's learning experience from the failure of the GameCube. Forced to go back to the drawing board, Nintendo went on to create the wildly successful Wii.

"We always do our breakdown of what worked, what didn't, and certainly we've done that with Wii U, and we continue to believe that the innovation of the second screen was a worthwhile concept," said Fils-Aimé.

The Wii U came at the time when tablets were already popular, and the console's tablet controllers didn't innovate enough to be compelling for most users.

"One of the things that we have to do better when we launch the NX—we have to do a better job communicating the positioning for the product," continued Fils-Aimé. "We have to do a better job helping people to understand its uniqueness and what that means for the game playing experience."

All about the message

Communication to customers, then, is key to the success of Nintendo's upcoming console. There's still a lot we don't know about the mysterious Nintendo NX, and Nintendo is playing it very close to the heart this time.

"For us, it's all about the right communication at the right time. We believe we've got some games that are going to continue to drive our momentum this holiday, and we believe we've got a strong concept for NX that we'll unveil in the future," said Fils-Aimé.

Nintendo is currently riding high on the success of Pokémon Go, but that high is fading fast according to FiveThirtyEight, as users bore of the mobile game. The company's mobile efforts are off to a great start with Pokémon Go and Miitomo, but we'll see if it can maintain its mobile momentum.

The Nintendo NX is expected to launch March 2017, according to an earnings call, with a lineup of games including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Dragon Quest X.

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August 27, 2016 at 06:08AM
Lewis Leong