Echoing criticism made by vocal core gamers, Nintendo has conceded that its suite of online services for Wii and DS are lagging behind the competition. While company CEO Satoru Iwata admits that Nintendo is “not currently satisfied” with its online offerings, he reassures that efforts to bring forth improvements are underway.

At the same time, Iwata feels online comes secondary to a compelling offline experience, noting that Nintendo still places high value in delegating the bulk of resources towards its strength, which lies predominately in offline play.

“Of course, I have heard commentary that people feel that Nintendo’s online functionality is behind the others or is lacking in some ways,” stated Iwata during an in-house Q&A session at Nintendo. He added, “And I can say that we are not currently satisfied with the online efforts that we have made so far, and we are working at ways to improve those.”

Going forward, Nintendo plans to evaluate products on a case-by-case basis. Resources will be spent on the “most important element of game play,” whether offline or online. Comes across as a sound strategy to us.

Iwata Asks [Nintendo]

Follow this author on Twitter.