During his comments following the release of Nintendo’s recent financials, company President Satoru Iwatalaid outthe connectivity rates for the Wii and DS in Japan. According to Nintendo’s numbers 30 percent of Wii owners are currently connecting their Wii to the internet and only 20 percent of DS owners are doing it. The numbers spike whenever a big online game is released for either system or whenever new online functions are released, but Iwata says that the company must take more aggressive action or those numbers will drop.
“”In 20 years or so, I might say it will have probably changed,” Iwata said while discussing the possible shift to digital distribution. “But in 5 years or so, I do not totally agree. …Habits of life do not change [so] radically and quickly.”
He is, of course, right. Even I, a technologically advanced person of a young age, am having trouble letting go of physical retail. Imagine what a member of Nintendo’s new “expanded audience” feels when they’re offered a game without a box or disc.
