Moffitt: More Games Coming for Wii U Launch, Possible Hint At Launch Date
Posted on June 08 2012 by Elijah Holt
Scott Moffitt, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, made his E3 debut this year as the spokesperson for the 3DS. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know anything about the Wii U, though.
In a recent interview with The Seattle Times, he shared a few hints about the Wii U.
Firstly, when asked about the release price and date, he stated that pricing information would be shared closer to launch, which would be this holiday season. He then elaborated on Nintendo’s direction of the holiday season, and possibly hinted at the launch window.
He then went on to hint that we could be seeing more core games for the Wii U at launch.
Here is an excerpt of the interview:
Why is there no Wii U pricing information yet? Is it because you want another round of coverage when the price is announced, or have you not decided the price yet?
It’s not that we haven’t settled it. As is typical with past Nintendo console and hardware launches, we tend to try to announce the pricing and exact SKU information closer to launch. What we’ve said is the Wii U will be launching this holiday period and we’ll make that kind of information available as we get closer to launch.
How does Nintendo define the holiday season?
Holiday season really begins October, November, December, but of course the bulk of the sales begin Black Friday weekend, right after Thanksgiving.
You have some new games for hard-core gamers but I didn’t see “Call of Duty” or “Battlefield” for the Wii U. Can you get the core gamer if you don’t have those titles on there?
E3 for us is all about games. We’re focusing on that first pillar of the three pillars of what E3 can offer. Over 20 games were unveiled. That’s a pretty broad lineup. But I can assure you even more games will be coming during the launch period so if there’s a favorite game that gamers like, I think there’s a good chance it will be coming to the platform. …. I would expect that gamers will see an immense array of first- and third-party content at launch.
So, the Holiday season as defined by Nintendo is October through December. Could Moffitt have dropped a hint about the launch though? He mentioned Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving in America); could the Wii U be coming out a week or two before then in order to pick up that boost in sales? That would fit with rumors about the date being in mid-November.
Then, Moffitt hinted that Black Ops II, Battlefield, and other core games that were not shown for the Wii U at E3 could make their way to the system for launch. I was worried that Call of Duty and Battlefield weren’t going to make it to the console; without them, many of the core gamers probably wouldn’t have crossed over.
So, what do you think? Did Moffitt hint at the launch date? Will we be seeing Black Ops II and more core games for the Wii U? Stay tuned!
Source: The Seattle Times (via Nintendo Everything)
