Iwata: Slowing industry sales due to boring games

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata has said that when it comes to slowing game sales, developers should be more worried about the lack of great software rather than the difficult economy.

Speaking in an interview with Venture Beat, Iwata said that developers should be focusing on providing quality, original experiences to grab consumer interest.

"I cannot say that the recession has no effect on the sales of video games. My belief is we should not blame the bad economy for the cause of slow sales of video games," he said.

"The slow sales must be due to the lack of great software that everyone wants to buy. We have not shown off the great attractions of whatever we are selling. This is not the problem of Nintendo alone, but the entire video game industry."

Iwata continued: "Something that is really fresh can make our industry grow. The important thing we have to tackle is making attractive games and marketing them well toward the end of this year. I think the whole industry should be more cautious about how we act and how the general public perceives us."

Focusing on making games look good is something that consumers used to want according to Iwata, however he says that this is not enough any more.

"In the past, the formula was to make the computer graphics more gorgeous. It used to fit the taste of the majority of the gaming audience, but it doesn’t work so well in this day and age. It’s more difficult for us to come up with something new and different and show people how different we are.

"The whole industry has to recognize that. Looking at the product line-ups this year, these titles might have been big hits three years ago. But now this year, they are not selling that much. In other words, people get tired of games more quickly than they did before."

Nintendo is certainly one of the companies trying to innovate, having announced its new 3DS at E3.