Nintendo: ‘We’re still expanding the market’

Fils-Aime told Venture Beat that his priority was to increase DS’s appeal in the US. He admitted that the firm’s Japan HQ had “frankly done a much better job than us” at creating demand for the console.

“We have consumer data that validates that we’ve expanded the market, that we’re getting consumers to play with our systems,” he said.

“These are people that never considered video games before. For me, when someone sees the Nintendo tag on my bag, they react with enthusiasm. I never played video games for a long time. But I love the Wii. I love Wii Fit. I love Mario Kart. I love Wii Sports. I love Guitar Hero on the Wii. To me, that’s the personal side of how we have expanded the market.”

He later added: “For us, it’s always about doing more. In the Americas, we’ve been fortunate to have very strong momentum on our Wii and our DS business.

“And yet, I can look to Japan and see they have frankly done a much better job on the DS than we have. Our internal challenge is to match the progress in Japan. I look at what we’ve done with the Wii in Canada.

“If we could do that here, it would be dramatically higher than where we are today. How do I make that happen? We’re always looking for the best in class and to apply that to our business. We are in uncharted territories overall in terms of popularity.”