Nintendo Co plans to introduce a new kind of game console and software for emerging markets as early as next year, to capitalize on higher entertainment budgets amid a growing middle class, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday.
Satoru Iwata said Nintendo would develop hardware and games oriented toward consumers with lower incomes and less gaming experience than those in developed countries.
Nintendo is searching for new business opportunities as it buckles down and seeks to stem losses on its latest home game console, the Wii U, whose flop has contrasted with blockbuster sales for rival Sony Corp's Playstation 4.
Satoru said there were no plans to launch existing hardware such as the Wii U or 3DS in emerging markets, including China.
"It would be difficult to enter those markets if we didn't create something new... For the mass market you need to provide something that most of the middle class can afford," he said in an interview following an analyst briefing on Thursday.
Iwata declined to elaborate on the design and specification of such a new device and did not specify the countries and regions where it would be sold, saying only that "emerging markets" referred to those whose gaming potential had not yet been cracked.
In China, Iwata said Nintendo would try a different tack to Microsoft Corp. The US rival in April said it would begin selling its Xbox One console through a Chinese partner from September in Shanghai's free trade zone, after the government lifted a ban on the sale of foreign consoles there.
"We think the Chinese market has a lot of potential, but I don't think the lifting of the ban has solved all of the difficulties in entering it. We need to study it more," he said, adding that Nintendo would adjust its pricing to fit consumers in emerging nations.
"For us, Microsoft's approach wouldn't work."
Iwata also said Nintendo will release high-tech figurines of some of its most popular characters in time for Christmas in 2014.
The company hopes the models, which will be able to send and receive data from games, will also stimulate software sales.
