I think a big difference between Wii music and other nintendo titles such as Brain Training and Wii fit is that Nintendo was first and best with the latter two. Nintendo was the first to release a fitness game and a brain training game and is still the standard bearer for both genres.

Compare that to Wii music. Here you have a product that is years late to the music game party and far from the best. Guitar Hero has licensed songs, online multiplayer, and downloadable tracks. Nintendo has lame midi renditions of mostly public domain stuff and no online anything.

Maybe Nintendo should do the one thing they hate to do in this case - actually pay other people (music copyright holders) to raise the quality of their software.

I have not played the game but I find it interesting that Nintendo is pretty much alone in the software arena as a publisher who sticks with a franchise past a single disappointing release when pretty much all other 1st and 3rd party publishers abandon ship. They seem to look towards long term potential a lot more and own up to execution shortcomings rather than toss all the blame on the a crowded genre of established licenses which likely all other publishers would do.

Of course, with silos of cash filling their coffers it is easy to be able to take some lumps on a single new franchise but still kudos to them for putting additional efforts in hopes of getting the execution right and recognizing new large upside potential.

And of course, the definition of "disappointment" is quite vague in regards to the sales of Wii Music, considering it has sold at least two million copies worldwide so far, and the development cost was probably not relatively high.

In terms of entertainment value, I count Wii Music as a success _because_ its level of enjoyment is up to the individual player or group playing it. Unlike with other rhythm games, which force every player to follow a rigid rhythm and/or note scale, Wii Music performances become unique and personalized. Just look at the thousands of Wii Music videos on YouTube, each with their own styles, embellishments, and improvisations. Depending on one's creativity, one might even use it as a tool for applicatinos such as machinima, like the guy who synched up Metallica's "Master of Puppets" to his Miis. It's like Dwarf Fortress... most people don't appreciate it or the gameplay, but the people who do appreciate it build amazing fortresses that even a non-player could still appreciate for its architecture, or even unforeseen artifices such as the guy who made a calculator out of flood gates. Even DDR: the most entertaining DDR players still follow the given steps, but they use the time in between steps to add their own flourishes to their performances.

The way I see it, people who enjoy crafting games like Wii Music, LittleBigPlanet, or Dwarf Fortress are generally people who tinker with things, and the people who don't like it generally prefer to consume or interact with entertainment, rather than create. (However, I'm not saying that the groups are mutually exclusive, either.)

I agree with Ian, Nintendo does a great job at curing his franchises (although Wii Music is the first chapter). I also like the overall humble tone of Iwata's statements, whereas some others would have said things like "everyone will surely understand it in the end" "because it will surely appeal to everyone"...

I like the way Nintendo thinks of every new ip as brilliant, and if it doesn't sell, it must be the consumers fault of not understanding their genius.
Bottom line is that while Nintendo has had some brilliant ideas, Wii Music is lame. It's a joke in today's market of quality music games.

The problem may be precisely people comparing Wii Music to games like Guitar Hero, when they definitively should not, they are completely different experiences. Guitar Hero games are more about following sequences of buttons than creating music. On the other hand, no one compared Brain Training to lots of puzzle games done before, even if both are about "braining".

Nintendo’s arrogance shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially now that they are on top. They were incredibly arrogant during their reign in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s, a fact many people seem to forget. Nintendo has always taken the approach that they know better than consumers and while that strategy has often panned out for them there have been plenty of occasions where their collective arrogance backfired severely and yet they refuse to admit those mistakes.

The truth is that Nintendo has very little concern for the quality of the products being churned out on the Wii because the phenomenal success of the product supersedes the need to worry about software quality control. Their entire first party lineup for 2008 consisted of a few by-the-number sequels to long established franchises, an interactive exercise video, and a music game that would bore most children within ten minutes.

The real shock for Iwata is that consumers didn’t lap up this latest swill with the same enthusiasm that accompanied their consumption of mediocre products like WiiPlay and WiiFit.

The funny thing for me is that I don't enjoy the game for two reasons: one, the tutorial starting up the game is ridiculously slow and monotonous (and unskippable), so playing it on a new console from one that has things already unlocked is a painful experience. Secondly, as a person who has played instruments in the past, I cannot play this game with my friends, because they want to act ridiculous and make garbage come out of the screen instead of making actually pleasant sounding music.

I agree greatly with Carl Chavez, and even Iwata's statement above: this game is very hit-or-miss with people who pick it up. For the people who love it, great, I'm happy that Nintendo had the chance to give you this experience. It's a miss for me though, and I don't think there's anything that could be done to interest me with that core gameplay intact.

Music games are all about sound. That's obvious.

Notice how I didn't say "music games are about freedom" or "music games are about tinkering"?... There's a reason I didn't say those things. It's probably because music games are about sound.

Nintendo released a title that sounds mediocre--with a mediocre track list; the mediocre results aren't suprising.

Glad we cleared that up.

I feel that the whole interview (and especially the last paragraph) is not really 'arrogant' as most of you seem to think.