I dunno. It all depends on how they balance out this QOL stuff and their gaming division. Personally I think this is the worst possible time for them to start doing something brand new. Their primary business of the past 30+ years is bombing HARD and Iwata seems to either not care or has no clue as to fix it. Improve on what you already have and THEN start looking at other avenues.
To me this is just Iwata trying to run away from a problem that's on his shoulders and I still have serious doubts that this QOL idea is going to get them anywhere. For starters, it's hardware. Unless whatever he has in mind is truly revolutionary (I doubt it) then they're going to have a hard time selling it to the casual market. Now obviously this is some platform to push health/fitness stuff and other sorts of software/programs. If Iwata was smart he would have them simply develop the software for mobile/tablet devices which would already give them a built in audience of millions and remove a significant chunk of cost/risk from this venture.
Then, even if this does succeed and brings in some money for Nintendo, where do they go from there? Iwata obviously has no intention of saving their console business so you can bet any profits won't be reinvested in to their gaming division. Either way, I don't see QOL benefiting gamers in any way. If it bombs then it's just another wasted venture by Iwata and if it succeeds then it just gives Iwata more reason to ignore their console business.
You should go take a look at Nintendo's financial breifing they just finished last night.
Now is a great time to do this. A perfect time would have been during the wii and ds's reign, but this is better late than never. The videogame market is a highly volatile market, It is at one of its most volatile points it has ever been in. The corporate narrative thats been pushed for the past 7 years is slowly falling apart and people are slowly starting to become self aware of how bad they have been abused and used. The marketing teams are going into overdrive to try and tranqulize and reinnoculate the masses into a docile exploitable state, but its not going to happen. This coming storm is inevitable, and only magnified by every year of suppression endured.
Nintendo needs other non gaming platforms to weather times like this, as Nintendo has weathered several like this before, they ARE the OLDEST games only platform company in existance. And what they are using it for is great.
This is why it is absolutely imperitive someone like Iwata remains president of Nintendo, instead of some marketing douche. You want the man behind Earthbound, mistakes and all. Not some marketing douche who is going to make Nintendo a boatload of money by raping us with game design monetization scams of all our favourite franchises.
ANYWAYS the quality of life platform as proposed by Iwata, is a safety net for Nintendo to remain profitable, even through bad times and times where great game design is not appreciated until it is too late, and is in fact attacked by pr gamz girnoliz paid by rival companies.
The QOL platform and other pillars will enable Nintendo to have the income to properly satisfy the current user base of this generation, before introducing the next generation.
The qol platform, and other platforms of revenue will simply allow Nintendo to be fiscally secure enough to continue being Nintendo, to continue putting quality game design, above all else, instead of becoming a scam company like every other major publisher.
Some quotes from Iwata:
For Quality of Life, don’t think too narrowly of Nintendo, we can make fun, healthy services
Not pessimistic on games, but want other pillars as safety net for games business
Not hopeless or at a loss in coming up with something new, but until existing users are satisfied, we cannot release next hardware
