Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told the San Jose Mercury News yesterday that there has been a tremendous shift of resources to Wii game development, both publicly — as EA and Pandemic did during the Game Developer Conference two weeks ago — and privately, sans a formal announcement.
“Every publisher has either made the decision and stated it publicly or made the decision and not stated it publicly, but the amount of resource shift [for Wii] has been tremendous,” Fils-Aime said in an interview with the Mercury. “[Publishers and developers] see a business opportunity. Coupled with the lower development costs, it really is a no-brainer.”
Fils-Aime also recognized ongoing Wii shortages in the interview. While noting potential consumer backlash if shortages continue for extended periods of time, he said the company is doing everything it can to meet demand. He also cited strong sales for Nintendo’s 6-year old Game Boy Advance portable due, ironically, to continued DS shortages.
The shift surmounts even more evidence that Nintendo’s “good enough” console technology and blue ocean strategy will, in fact, pay off. (Nintendo first embraced blue ocean or the expansion of the market to non-gamers back in 2005.) So the more third-party games that wind up on Wii, the more chances it has to disrupt the video game market.
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