Iwata clarifies how NFP will differ from Skylanders and Disney Infinity

Last week Nintendo held an investor briefing in Japan, now the post-event Q&A translation has been released and like usual there’s some great insight from Satoru Iwata.

Iwata was asked a long winded question about Wii U sales and just how the NFP figurines are going to help Nintendo reach their new (lowered) sales goal for the console. Satoru Iwata responded by explaining Nintendo’s philosophy for the figures and just how they will differ from the likes of Activision’s Skylanders and the Disney Infinity range.

[quote]Activision has released video game titles from the Skylanders series over the past three years and Disney Interactive released the software title, “Disney Infinity,” last year. Both video game series are compatible with character figurines and have created an extremely large market for these products. [/quote]

Nintendo have implied that they won’t just be making games based around the figurines. Instead, they’ll be using the figurines with games “to leverage it’s character intellectual property in a new marketplace and create visibility in stores as a brand”. We’re not entirely sure how to interpret that without further announcements.

[quote]In the overseas markets especially, a huge amount of space has been allocated to those product lines at retail stores with a large market presence. Our primary focus, however, is not to develop software that is compatible with figurines. Rather, we have been developing figurines since last year because we believe there may be different approaches or ways to appeal to consumers by using them, and this could also be one way for Nintendo to utilize its character IP. [/quote]

When Iwata announced in January that Nintendo would be allowing other companies to use their character IP in other mediums he didn’t mention that Nintendo would also be doing it themselves as well. This is their own project that has been in the works for a couple of years. Never fear though Iwata does again reconfirm that video games are still  Nintendo’s core focus going forward.

The diagram above helps decipher Nintendo’s strategy, but what would you like to see with the NFP figurines? Let us know in the comments.