Newly appointed Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima (presumably to be followed by Super Nintendo President and President 64) stated in an interview with Japan’s Nikkei magazine that he had originally predicted the failure of the Wii U.
Tatsumi Kimishima’s appointment comes in the wake of the venerated Satoru Iwata’s passing. Prior to this, Kimishima had helmed the very successful Nintendo of America and The Pokemon Company divisions of Nintendo, and was instrumental in the landslide sales of both the Wii and Pokemon franchises in the West. Kimishima’s own prior successes led to his appointment, and he plans to apply that experience to the development of “new business” for Nintendo as a whole.
Having advised against the release of a console so overtly similar to Nintendo’s wildly successful Wii, Kimishima was proven right by lackluster sales and third-party support that continues an ignoble tradition of falling somewhere between sparse and nonexistent.
Since its 2012 launch, the Wii U has established itself as the worst home console launch in the video game juggernaut’s history. Sales of the console have only recently passed 10 million, despite the typically strong line-up of first-party titles.
Despite his analysis of the Wii U’s potential performance, or lack thereof, Mr. Kimishima has pointedly said that it is “wrong to lead a gaming company on numbers alone.” According to him, the late Satoru Iwata did not leave any instructions as to how the company was to be run.
This information has primarily been relayed and translated by Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO & Founder at Japan game industry consultancy Kantan Games, Inc. Further details about the Tatsumi Kimishima interview are highlighted on his Twitter feed.