The future will be determined in the next twelve months

Apr 26, 2013 12:43 GMT  ·  By

Earlier during the week, Nintendo posted a set of disappointing financial results, linked to the poorer than expected performance of the Wii U home console, and analysts believe that the company might be able to revive the console if it makes the right moves.

Scott Steinberg, the chief executive officer of consulting firm TechSavvy Global, tells GamesIndustry.biz that, “The key to rebounding is focus, differentiation, and ability to communicate value - hopefully, Iwata will be uniquely poised and able to draw on the best of both worlds to achieve this goal.”

He believes that Satoru Iwata needs to bring the Japanese and the United States divisions of Nintendo together in order to create unified promotional strategies.

Lewis Ward, who is research manager at IDC Intelligence, says that Nintendo needs to focus more on the US market because it’s got low sales of the Wii U and big sales for Apple products, which suggests a future opportunity.

If the publisher fails to impress in the coming 12 months, both with the home console and the 3DS, it might see a diminished role for itself as the next generation of consoles continues its lifecycle.

Billy Pidgeon, an independent analyst, adds that the forecast that was presented after the financial results is very aggressive.

He says that, ”the ninth generation will be selling in more slowly across all vendors in comparison with the eighth generation as the console business has changed fundamentally.”

Nintendo wants to sell 9 million Wii U units in the coming 12 months and twice as many video games for the platform.

Some fans believe that such ambitious sales targets can only be achieved as long as the new console gets a significant price cut, presumably just before the PlayStation 4 from Sony and the Xbox 720 from Microsoft are launched.

Information will probably be offered during E3 2013, where Nintendo will not have a traditional press conference.