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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata held a press conference in Japan today to address poor sales of the company's products, admitting that Nintendo failed to read the market and adapt appropriately.

Alex Wawro, Contributor

January 17, 2014

1 Min Read

"We are 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. It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone."

- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, speaking about the company's plans for the future during a press conference, as reported by Bloomberg. President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata held a press conference today in Osaka, Japan to address news that Nintendo has been forced to revise its previously optimistic forecast for the fiscal year to project significant losses, rather than profits. Bloomberg reporters were in attendance and published a story suggesting that Iwata is continuing to speak openly about the need for Nintendo to embrace the booming mobile market. "We cannot continue a business without winning," said Iwata. "We must take a skeptical approach whether we can still simply make game players, offer them in the same way as in the past for 20,000 yen or 30,000 yen, and sell titles for a couple of thousand yen each." A report from The Wall Street Journal claims that Iwata admitted to "misreading the market" and failing to guide Nintendo towards change that would surprise and satisfy its customers. "The way people use their time, their lifestyles, who they are have changed," said Iwata. "If we stay in one place, we will become outdated." Sales of the Wii U, Wii and 3DS were far less than Nintendo expected, though the NPD reports more 3DS units were sold in the U.S. in December 2013 than any other console.

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