Nintendo Feels Disappointment in Wii Music

Remember at E3 when Satoru Iwata unveiled Wii Music and you started thinking, “What is that?” Well Nintendo was hoping that Wii Music would elicit a little more of the “What is that, I want to go buy it,” as opposed to the, “What is that, Nintendo has bailed on the hardcore gamers!”

Mr. Iwata, disappointed with how Wii Music has been received, commented on the reactions of consumers, and how Wii Music appeals to a narrow audience (or at least more narrow than Ninty would have liked). At a Q & A held in Tokyo, Iwata said, “I feel that Wii Music is a software that elicits largely two extremely different reaction from consumers. There are people who highly appreciate it and those who do not appreciate it at all," (Kotaku). Unfortunately for Wii Music, it has been a case of the latter.

On top of this, there was also the holiday season of ’08 that Nintendo has to live down. Kotaku provides a concise summary of how Nintendo feels about a time that should be a boom-time for game sales: "What happened at the end of last year in Japan was simply that it did not go as we had planned." Japan, which is usually Nintendo’s stronghold for games such as Wii Music, has been rather slow in game sales.

All of this must be taken in stride of course. While Iwata has made clear Ninty’s disappointment with the sales of Wii Music, it is nowhere near the failing mark. It just happens to be that Nintendo has incredibly high sales expectations of its games.

How do you feel about Wii Music?