Ubisoft's Guillemot Expresses Confidence In Nintendo's Hardware Strategy

Despite a mixed response to the recently unveiled Wii U and a slow start for the recently released Nintendo 3DS, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot expressed confidence in Nintendo's hardware strategy during a conference call accompanying today's earnings report. Calling the Wii U's controller "really a huge improvement over what can be done in the console business today," Guillemot said he believed the console would be successful both among casual and hardcore gamers. "We must not forget that Nintendo has been the biggest seller this generation, and has a huge number of customers that appreciate the brands that are created on the Wii and will be interested to go to the next generation," he said. Though the worldwide economic environment is not extremely strong right now, Guillemot said he was confident Nintendo would "do what’s necessary to launch [the Wii U] in a huge way." And although Nintendo 3DS sales have been much slower than expected, Guillemot said the market for the system will continue to grow as more anticipated titles are released for it. "There were not many high profile games launched with the machine, but we think there will be lots launched before the end of the year, so it will continue to grow," he said. "If you remember, the DS launch didn't go very smoothly, so we have to look at [the 3DS] in the longer term than we do now. Potentially it could become a great machine." Guillemot also dismissed concerns of slowing Wii sales, saying he expects the system will "still be really well performing this year. [Nintendo] already decreased the price, and we know Nintendo will make sure to perform this Christmas, so we expect the Wii will be strong this year, especially on casual products."