Nintendo what they are thinking about what

Ever-ready to provide a provocative quote, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter offered some harsh words about Nintendo's forthcoming Wii U console last week, saying during a Develop Conference presentation that the system "isn't going to work. "

"I don’t get it, " he said. "I think that essentially this is a solution in search of a problem. I mean, somebody had an idea--'let's make the controller a tablet'--and there aren't many games that are going to take advantage of that. " Pachter also claimed that Activision and publishers of other major franchises pressured Nintendo into developing the Wii U Pro Controller, a more traditional gamepad. "I think that essentially this is a solution in search of a problem. I mean, somebody had an idea--'let's make the controller a tablet'--and there aren't many games that are going to take advantage of that. ""Activision never said anything to me, " he explained, "but I know that [for] big games like Call Of Duty they said, 'No, we're not putting it on there if you don't give us a conventional controller'. So they gave in. " Pachter had little faith in the original Wii at launch in 2006, calling the system "gimmicky. " That system exploded with regards to popularity upon launch, and is currently the top-selling current-generation console. Pachter admitted this was true, but claimed that Nintendo's success will not be repeated. "[The Wii] worked, they got lucky, [but] I don't think they're getting lucky with Wii U, " he said. "I don't think they suck. I just think that they really believe that, 'If we're still novel, everything we do will work'. This isn't going to work. Hardcore gamers will buy them; hardcore Nintendo fanboys will buy it. They could put out a piece of cardboard and say that it'll play Mario and they'll buy it. "

As you can probably imagine, Nintendo feels quite differently. In an interview with Gamasutra Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said, "One of the reasons we believe this is the time for Nintendo to launch the Wii U is it's going to be important for the world. " A bold claim, indeed. Much of the conversation focused on whether being "first" with a new system was an important move, or a disadvantage for the company. To this, Iwata said plainly, "being first in the next generation race is not important at all. " He went on to address next generation console competition from Microsoft and Sony. He said Nintendo does not care about attempting to match those consoles' power, and is instead focusing on differentiating the Wii U from these still unannounced systems. "We have not changed our strategy. In other words, we just do not care what kind of 'more beef' console Microsoft and Sony might produce in 2013, " he said. "Our focus is on how we can make our new console different than [others]. " With regard to how the system will be positioned, he noted that, "The pricing of Wii U is going to be one of the most important elements when it is going to be launched, " Iwata said. "The environment is different. Wii U is going to be launching in a different environment than when the Wii was launched. Also, the involvement surrounding [mobile and social] businesses is different than several years ago. ".