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Reggie says WiiWare storage could go higher than 32 gigabytes, drops some sales truth bombs, wants to keep selling Super Smash Bros. Brawl
A portion of a VentureBeat interview with Reggie Fils-Aime…
VB: How high can the WiiWare storage cards go?
RFA: Right now, the highest is 32 gigabytes. That’s not to say it couldn’t go higher if flash memory prices drop.
VB: Why did Mr. Iwata take that sensitive issue head on in his speech about the complaint that Nintendo dominates its own platforms with its own games?
RFA: To be candid, what Mr. Iwata wanted to do was share facts and dispel myths. Fact: Wii is the platform that hit 50 million the fastest. Fact: The DS has surpassed 100 million. Here’s a fact for you. After 52 months in the market, the installed base of the DS in the U.S. is larger than the installed base of the PlayStation 2, at the same time frame. Fact: In the U.S., third-party publishers sold more Wii games than any other home console. In fact, third-party publishers sold more DS games than on any other console. What Mr. Iwata was trying to do was to share facts to dispel what some of our competitors like to frame as an inability for others to succeed on Nintendo platforms. The fact is that is just not true.
VB: How will you keep growing?
RFA: We are in a fortunate spot given our momentum. It also means the hurdle is that much larger. This month, we need to sell more than the 2.5 million units of Super Smash Bros. that we sold last March. That’s a big hurdle. For us, that is what keeps us focused. How do we continue driving growth and bringing great new experiences to the consumer?