I like him too but I fear that I'm being blinded by that and that his presence in the company is slowly ruining it. If he understood the business so well, they wouldn't be in the situation they are right now.
If think Nintendo still needs him in the company (in the board or something, idk) but just not in his current position. Nintendo needs a better leader. Someone who can make two of the most successful video game consoles in history and not sit by that success hoping the Nintendo brand, or the Wii brand, will save its successors.
I really dont think you have enough information on whats been going on at nintendo.
Iwata, DID make two of the most successful consoles in history, in fact, he and miyamoto SAVED THEM, from being the most embarrassing failures since the virtual boy. Yamuchi wanted the ds to be no more powerful than a gba, and the wii to be a controller peripheal for the gamecube to last through an entire generation. Only Iwata and Miyamoto gegging him to please understand and puttingbtheir jobs on the line got us the marginally more powerful wii as a new console, and the n64 power level ds. It is NOT a coincidence that when yamauchi left both the 3ds and the wii u were much larger leaps in power than nintendo saw last time.
What you dont understand, is Iwata has been cleaning up a MASSIVE mess since before hes even been in charge.
Hiroshi Yamouchi nearly destroyed Nintendo, with the same batcrap crazy gamer hating iron fist he used to build it. Iwata has been cleaning up his mess since the end of gamecube.
EA has ALWAYS hated and shunned Nintendo. And Yamauchi's brutal treatment of 3rd parties is the reason why. There are still people there, investors, board members, who have a seething hatred of Nintendo because of Yamauchi's (often illegal) strong arm tactics.
Its been like this since the 80's. What was the original home of ea sports? The master system, then the genesis, then the playstation. EA are not alone in being pissed at Nintendo for horrible strong arm tactics.
We are talking about a man, who upon first being invited to take part in a partnership of the family business nintendo, fired his brother immediately, with no provacation, to ensure no power plays were made and there was no loyalty to any other Yamauchi but him. This was back in the playing cards/toys days.
Yamauchi hated video games. He hates people who play videogames, he hates people who make videogames. He openly called fans of square rpg's lonely loser nerds who live alone in their mothers basement playing video games in the dark.
The next final fantasy, after six exclusive to nintendo systems, released on playstation, a product made by sony ANOTHER COMPANY lied to, bullied, and (attempted) back stabbed by yamauchi (this is where the nintendo phillips cdi games came from).
Gunpei Yokoi, co creator of metroid, father of the gameboy, was designing a next gen system, an ambitious new experience, offering 3d visuals via a powerful new processor and brilliant 24 bit color. Yamauchi decreed that the project would cost too much, and thwt worthless crappy little gamer morons were perfectly happy playing games with no color. He ripped out the budget and demanded Gunpei to finish the project. We ended up with a sad little system that could only display red and black. Yamauchi then fired the man who created the game boy.
Nintendo was the first console maker to go online. With the famicom, nintendo came out with a modem, which allowed microtransactions, to buy downloadable episodic games, or applications like checking bank accounts.
many in the company saw great long term potential if they could foster and grow an audience for the new technology. Yamauchi HATED the idea, and decreed the short term loss was unacceptable, and that gamers do not want internet in there games. A stance he held even in the face of xbox live taking off. And even when other members finally convinced him online was a necessary function, he crippled the functionality by demanding the cheapest possible solution, and we got freind codes. As soon as Yamauchi is gone, Nintendo network goes up, and earnest attempts to patch up the broken nintendo online experience began. They are even trying to figure out how to unify accounts, WITHOUT screwing over all the online users who already have accounts tied to the old fractured system. Its a huge mess, that iwata has been left to clean up. Its not going to go away if Iwata leaves.
Almost all the things you are upset about, are leftovers from Yamauchi Nintendo that Iwata has to clean up. They arent going to go away just because Iwata leaves.
The wii u, was a brilliant idea when it was conceptualized in 2007. It was pure winning. Nintendo NAILED the future trend. Nintendo wanted to release a tablet controller... BEFORE the tablet craze! It Just moved faster than the console generation, with its new model every 6 months business model. By the time wii u came out, it was already at full swing and past them. Oops.
Iwata still has a third winner with the 3ds, and im sure he can turn the wii u around the same way. Not as big as last time, but still pleasantly successful. I dont know if anyone can fix the damage done by Yamauchi with western 3rd parties.
