18 replies to this topic

[Raiden]

While Nintendo’s president and CEO Satoru Iwata will be facing a crucial challenge later this year, he took time to speak with Diamond.jp about how he will be carrying on the will of the late former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi on how Nintendo should always be a company for entertainment, but not necessarily just for videogames.

 

“Surely, a lot of people around the world must think ‘Nintendo is a company that is just for video games,’ about us, and I believe that there are more and more of our own employees who’ve begun to think like that,” said Iwata. “Some employees that are in charge of making things, are often kept in positions where they have to think of how they can make the game in front of them more fun, so I don’t think it can be helped if others outside of our company think like that.”

 

“So, even if the fact that our focus is videogames won’t be changing, I felt the need to take this occasion to say ‘Nintendo is a company that can do whatever they want’.”

 

Iwata continued, “This subject came to light when Yamauchi passed away, but I felt ‘our surroundings are greatly changing. We need to redefine what Nintendo must do, from this point on.’ However, I felt that saying ‘Nintendo will do anything,’ was also the wrong  idea for the company.”

 

“Yamauchi was one to always say ‘Nintendo is a company for entertainment, and it shouldn’t be for anything else,’ and he didn’t necessarily think that ‘entertainment = video games’. I’ve been wondering how to express Yamauchi’s feelings, and I’ve been thinking about it non-stop, even during the New Year’s holiday break.”

 

“Lately, the words ‘QOL’ (quality of life) have come up,” says Iwata. “Entertainment is there to improve people’s quality of life. After your basic needs, there’s entertainment. However, when it comes to ‘improving people’s quality of life,’ I didn’t know the difference between us and household appliance makers.”

 

“At the start of this year, I finally figured that ‘improving people’s quality of life with fun,’ with emphasis to the ‘fun’ would be perfect for Nintendo. And that’s when I decided to use this as a focus during the financial results meeting in January and wrote the manuscript for the presentation.”

 

Read more at http://www.siliconer...CKjRHAEGJJlo.99

 

Please understand. Nintendo is not leaving gaming. This is a company been around for a 130 years or so. They have been a Card company,Taxi Company,Love Hotel Company,Toy Company and Video Game Company. They evolve and change. However Nintendo is more a VG company than anything else they ever been. And will always be that. Just expanding and that's ok.

Edited by DreamCat, 28 April 2014 - 07:29 AM.

[SPG]

They were a taxi company at one point? I didnt know that

Edited by SPG, 13 May 2014 - 02:42 PM.

[Keviin]

I kinda have faith in Iwata now. I agree with the things he said.

[Lightning_Ninja]

So they're going to re-open their love hotel business right?

[Mahmoodinho98]

Iwata wants to continue the legacy and heritage of nintendo  and i think thats great. but and a big but, nintendo needs to listen more to the consumers and what they want.

[Nollog]

Oh jesus christ, they're not going to start making horsing coffee machines with mini mario games to pour the hot water and rainbow are they?

[Nintyfan86]

Iwata wants to continue the legacy and heritage of nintendo  and i think thats great. but and a big but, nintendo needs to listen more to the consumers and what they want.

 Sometimes, a competitor presents a large amount of risk in simply providing a consumer what they want (through traditional means of customer utility-or rather, currently defined mechanisms).

 

At this point, Nintendo has to go through 2 large companies for the retail royalties from third parties and overall platform sales (which translates to software sales from first party).

 

Basic financial principles dictate that they must strive to at least make a return equal to the risk free rate+the risk premium if they were going to invest capital in a project (otherwise Nintendo would be better off investing in the stock market to make that minimal return on retained earnings).

 

In short, looking outside the box, or how Nintendo can be a part of everyone's life in addition to a PC, Playstation, Xbox, Smartphone, or tablet is a very encouraging strategy. I cannot wait to see what they come up with. 

 

To respond to you directly-Nintendo could listen to consumers, but make under the required rate of return for investors through several periods. This plan will have this possibility, but internal predictions will show one or the other being the best bet, or providing the highest probability, of having the highest return over time. 

[grahamf]

I still have no idea what they intend to do with this health aspect. Maybe make fitness gear like those watches for runners?

 

 

I'd really love it if Nintendo built a hybrid amusement park, which integrated with your Miis and the attractions are interactive and you're scored and whatnot.

[GAMER1984]

I kinda have faith in Iwata now. I agree with the things he said.

 

thats all it took huh one interview from Iwata.

[Keviin]

thats all it took huh one interview from Iwata.

 

He seems very dedicated. The Wii was a succes, he has some talent in him.

[Raiden]

He seems very dedicated. The Wii was a succes, he has some talent in him.

He has more than some. He worked at Hal for many years and made DS,Wii and 3DS major success. He made them more profitable than they have been in many years.  He still on occasion takes out his spare time to help Hal.

[Keviin]

He has more than some. He worked at Hal for many years and made DS,Wii and 3DS major success. He made them more profitable than they have been in many years.  He still on occasion takes out his spare time to help Hal.

 

Exactly. The Wii U has had a VERY rough start, but so did the 3DS, which eventually sold faster than the original DS at some point (which is I believe the most succesful handheld ever)

[Socalmuscle]

Nintendo has to radically change in order for this to work.

No one is going to buy cutest Nintendo mascot stuff that does things worse than competitors or does t look and function "cool"

They will be competing against Apple and Samsung. They can beat Samsung. But will anyone be able to look past the company that Makes Kirby and see how awesome their product is?

The answer is actually YES. But... Only if they radically re image. New faces, new marketing, new strategy, way new industrial design. Massive investment in areas like software dev teams, server farms, machine tooling equipment, etc.

It's a cutthroat world now. You've got companies like apple innovating even in areas that aren't theirs-like creating new tools to make smaller components which in turn yield thinner products, etc. then you've got companies like Samsung who steal your tech and largely get away with it. And since Nintendo is japsnese and Samsung is Korean that would get real bad real quick (.look up the history between these nations).

Nintendo is in real danger of just becoming a "me too" company if they aren't careful. And as Microsoft and Nokia are finding out, there isn't room for they strategy anymore.

But Nintendo has never been a me too company. The only problem with that is they sometimes create a worse product just to be different.

If they can really make a go, reinvent (while retaining the good stuff), and reorganize in order to produce superior products that people want and possibly need, go for it.

But it's difficult seeing the current staff as competent for such a thing.

Iwata is good. He's trying to be flexible, open, and visionary. At the sane time he lacks vision. Noes the time for him to surround himself with people that can bolster his goals.

Looking forward to see what results.

[Ghost]

Exactly. The Wii U has had a VERY rough start, but so did the 3DS, which eventually sold faster than the original DS at some point (which is I believe the most succesful handheld ever)

Yes but the 3DS quickly redeemed itself where as no one is checking for the wii u after 1 year. I will say this, if Nintendo had a bit of space to breathe they would probably sort out the problems they have.

Edited by BASEDGOD Pachter, 29 April 2014 - 02:18 PM.

[lucario23]

Nintendo has to radically change in order for this to work.

No one is going to buy cutest Nintendo mascot stuff that does things worse than competitors or does t look and function "cool"

They will be competing against Apple and Samsung. They can beat Samsung. But will anyone be able to look past the company that Makes Kirby and see how awesome their product is?

The answer is actually YES. But... Only if they radically re image. New faces, new marketing, new strategy, way new industrial design. Massive investment in areas like software dev teams, server farms, machine tooling equipment, etc.

It's a cutthroat world now. You've got companies like apple innovating even in areas that aren't theirs-like creating new tools to make smaller components which in turn yield thinner products, etc. then you've got companies like Samsung who steal your tech and largely get away with it. And since Nintendo is japsnese and Samsung is Korean that would get real bad real quick (.look up the history between these nations).

Nintendo is in real danger of just becoming a "me too" company if they aren't careful. And as Microsoft and Nokia are finding out, there isn't room for they strategy anymore.

But Nintendo has never been a me too company. The only problem with that is they sometimes create a worse product just to be different.

If they can really make a go, reinvent (while retaining the good stuff), and reorganize in order to produce superior products that people want and possibly need, go for it.

But it's difficult seeing the current staff as competent for such a thing.

Iwata is good. He's trying to be flexible, open, and visionary. At the sane time he lacks vision. Noes the time for him to surround himself with people that can bolster his goals.

Looking forward to see what results.

Huh. You know, after reading Iwata's goals and your post I realized something. Nintendo sees them in the videogame space for the long haul. Microsoft and Sony have other divisions that can swallow losses when launching new hardware. They are a much bigger company than purely videogames, and that is what has allowed them to have the cash and resources to make good, higher spec gaming machines. Microsoft and Sony are bigger companies with a diverse range of products that allow them to afford it, and Iwata wants Nintendo to be the same way, but with different products. From what I'm gathering, he wants Nintendo to be seen as THE entertainment company 10-15 years from now. There were rumors of a Nintendo theme park a while back. This QOL thing. Nintendo could be looking for other sources of income so they can throw the kind of money into gaming machines that the other two companies are. 

I'll be the first to admit this is of course slightly too optimistic, but it kind of makes sense. 

[Socalmuscle]

Maybe Nintendo will bring back the yo-yo and the pogo stick?

[GAMER1984]

Nintendo has to radically change in order for this to work.

No one is going to buy cutest Nintendo mascot stuff that does things worse than competitors or does t look and function "cool"

They will be competing against Apple and Samsung. They can beat Samsung. But will anyone be able to look past the company that Makes Kirby and see how awesome their product is?

The answer is actually YES. But... Only if they radically re image. New faces, new marketing, new strategy, way new industrial design. Massive investment in areas like software dev teams, server farms, machine tooling equipment, etc.

It's a cutthroat world now. You've got companies like apple innovating even in areas that aren't theirs-like creating new tools to make smaller components which in turn yield thinner products, etc. then you've got companies like Samsung who steal your tech and largely get away with it. And since Nintendo is japsnese and Samsung is Korean that would get real bad real quick (.look up the history between these nations).

Nintendo is in real danger of just becoming a "me too" company if they aren't careful. And as Microsoft and Nokia are finding out, there isn't room for they strategy anymore.

But Nintendo has never been a me too company. The only problem with that is they sometimes create a worse product just to be different.

If they can really make a go, reinvent (while retaining the good stuff), and reorganize in order to produce superior products that people want and possibly need, go for it.

But it's difficult seeing the current staff as competent for such a thing.

Iwata is good. He's trying to be flexible, open, and visionary. At the sane time he lacks vision. Noes the time for him to surround himself with people that can bolster his goals.

Looking forward to see what results.

 

I liken Nintendo to Blackberry (RIM) in 2008. Blackberry was the SH!T back then very few people remember. Apple introduced the iphone and blackberry laughed saying no one wants a toy they want what we have email and professional appeal. They did not keep up with the times. I actually love blackberry and currently have one (Q10) but they get ignored by app developers even though their hardware is more than capable of running these apps. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and keep up with the times if not you will get passed by only thinking inside your box and trying to do it your way. I admire Nintendo for wanting to be different but they have to find a BALANCE. They just can not afford to not implement certian things into their hardware and practices. I wish them the best but this is business it is sink or swim.... I just have no faith in this current management only time will tell but the current trends suggest things need to change.

[Socalmuscle]

Huh. You know, after reading Iwata's goals and your post I realized something. Nintendo sees them in the videogame space for the long haul. Microsoft and Sony have other divisions that can swallow losses when launching new hardware. They are a much bigger company than purely videogames, and that is what has allowed them to have the cash and resources to make good, higher spec gaming machines. Microsoft and Sony are bigger companies with a diverse range of products that allow them to afford it, and Iwata wants Nintendo to be the same way, but with different products. From what I'm gathering, he wants Nintendo to be seen as THE entertainment company 10-15 years from now. There were rumors of a Nintendo theme park a while back. This QOL thing. Nintendo could be looking for other sources of income so they can throw the kind of money into gaming machines that the other two companies are. 
I'll be the first to admit this is of course slightly too optimistic, but it kind of makes sense.

I agree. I take from what Iwata said that Nintendo has historically done best at one major staple: creating methods of fun entertainment. From trading cards to video games.

The only thing is that so many genres are mature now and the market has really shifted toward high end video games on powerful home console and pcs as well as more casual games on mobile.

As far as fitness apps, etc. I expect Nintendo to jump on this. We may actually be seeing Nintendo games and apps on iPhones and iPads, just not the stapes Mario, Zelda, etc. but Nintendo themed "fitness games."

Nintendo had the game and watch out a while back. Nowadays, smart watches are beginning to peek through and I can see them jumping on an iWatch as Nike seems to be gearing up for as well.

We are probably looking at a Nintendo that will be going in a few different directions while maintaining a stronghold on video games.

It's difficult to imagine Nintendo coming out with any kind of viable fitness/non console gaming device that can compete with what's out there unless they radically reinvent.

So I think their focus will, at least near term, be more software based.

[SailtheSeas]

Nintendo should pursue other avenues such as the QoL platform and any other platform, that I agree with, but they need to be 100% committed to their games consoles if they still want to be relevant in the home console market in particular and the hand-held market. Their half-baked efforts with the Wii U has been insulting to Wii U gamers and as much as I love Nintendo's first party games, more than any other games on any platform, I will not purchase another Nintendo system.

 

The Wii U is a great little system, it's a very underrated system, a system which like the GC will never reach its full potential and that saddens me. It's all been a bit of a disappointment so far, but May 30th is around the corner and may be just may be things will change for the better.

Edited by SailtheSeas, 01 May 2014 - 01:40 AM.