Nintendo Chief: ‘We Failed’

The storied video game maker is reconsidering its focus on hardware as gaming goes mobile

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Video game maker Nintendo is doing some soul searching after cutting forecasted sales of its new Wii U gaming system by almost 70 percent, forcing the company to radically reassess its strategy in a changing gaming industry.

The company’s president, Satoru Iwata, told reporters Friday there would be a “major management shake-up” at the company but that he would not resign, Reuters reports. He also promised the company is “thinking about a new business structure.”

“Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business,” Iwata said. “It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.

“We failed to reach our target for hardware sales during the year-end, when revenues are the highest,” he said.

Nintendo’s disappointing sales have pushed it to a third consecutive annual loss, Reuters reports. The company has steadfastly declined to allow its games—many including some of the biggest brand names in gaming, like Mario—to be played on competitive game systems or on the mobile devices to which gamers are increasingly turning.

[Reuters]