Dette tyder også på, at rygtet om Android til Wii U ikke bliver en realitet

Spørgsmål:
You explained during your presentation today that the company is intending to apply the same price to digitally downloaded software as its physical, packaged counterpart because what the company is selling is the value of the contents, not the physical medium to which the contents are stored. In my view, however, consumers might consider the value of the digitally purchased software lower than packaged software because the digital software can run on the purchasers’ gaming systems only. With such an understanding in mind, the retailers may need to run the risk of having to sell digitally distributed titles at a discount rate in comparison with the packaged versions. Am I correct in assuming that the margins for the retailers will become lower (for the digitally distributed software) if your wholesale prices are the same (with that of the packaged software) and if the retailers apply a lower retail price (for the digitally downloaded software)?

Iwata:
First of all, regarding your remark that the digitally downloaded software has less value than the traditional and physical, packaged software, I hold doubts about whether it is exactly correct. When I think about it as one of the consumers, for example, I find the value in being able to store a number of software titles in a hardware system and being able to bring them with me wherever I go and, therefore, I may choose this option. Different people value different things. If we said, “This is the only proposal we will make so you have to take it,” it would be a problem as there would be no options for the consumers to choose from. On the contrary, what I explained today is that we are proposing the two formats of sales mechanisms from which our consumers can make their own choices. The needs of society shall be determined by the choices to be made by the consumers. We do not hold such a premise that digitally distributed software has less value. In fact, as we have discussed this with a number of software publishers around the world, we have found that their opinions are completely divided on the topic of the price points of the digital distribution of packaged software. Some publishers believe that the digital versions should be cheaper while others insist that both versions must be set at exactly the same price. So, it is not only Nintendo’s idea. Each publisher has various ideas on this point and, among them, Nintendo is now offering both versions at the same price point (the same suggested retail price).

When it comes to the concrete terms and conditions, such as the wholesale price ratio of the suggested retail price, the company has not publicly disclosed this information in the past, and I have to refrain from discussing any such information. If I may add one thing, however, I picked up an example of the POSA system during my presentation today. If the retailers can sell our software without having to shoulder the inventory risks, it is natural in fair business transactions that there will be changes in their margins, for which the inventory risks are taken into consideration.

Spørgsmål:
My question is on the win-win relationship with retailers. I think I heard you say something like that the wholesale prices of the packaged software and its digital download version would be identical and that the retailers could decide the retail prices for both versions. As there is no inventory risk in the digital distribution of software, I think the retail price of digital software could end up almost the same as the wholesale price because there is nothing other than its price that differentiates between the digital software and the packaged software. In that case, I expect retailers will not be able to earn any profits in selling the digital software. What do you think of this point?

Iwata:
It is a misunderstanding that the wholesale price of digital software will be identical to that of packaged software. As I mentioned earlier, it is a fair business transaction that, without taking any inventory risk, retailers don’t get the margin equivalent to the one they can get when they take inventory risk in selling packaged software. Therefore, the retail price of digital software isn’t necessarily converged with the wholesale price. There are several types of retailers; a retailer that offers products at comparatively high prices but provides good services and is in a convenient location, or a retailer that only focuses on offering products at lower prices than others do. I expect to see sound competition among retailers that take advantage of their strengths as they have done so far. In that sense, I don’t think our proposal on selling digital software will instantly pull a trigger that leads to cutting retailers’ profits to the limit. I also don’t think it should be this way in the future.