Nintendo's marketing team doesn't respond well to brand-new titles, making them tough-sells

“We had similar histories with ‘Rhythm Heaven’ and ‘Girls Mode.’ While we were developing these software and before we were able to show some results in Japan, I do not like to admit this but they received relatively cool reactions. However, once we were able to show some result in Japan, they started to understand that there must be something unique about the software that will make it sell.” - Satoru Iwata

Mr. Iwata goes on to discuss how Nintendo’s marketing team is much more inclined to approve titles in established franchises, or feature well-known characters.

“When we announce that a new ‘Mario’ or ‘Pokemon’ software is developed, marketers of Nintendo products all over the world naturally look forward to the launches even when they do not know the contents of the game. On the other hand, when we make a presentation to the same people about software which has had no previous track record and no name recognition, their reactions are not positive for most cases. I am not trying to offend our people in overseas marketing companies at all, and actually, their attitude is quite natural. If one is presented with two products, and the successful sales of one of them is guaranteed, and if they have to anticipate allocating a lot of resources to sell another, it is only natural that people have higher expectations for the one guaranteed to sell.”

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