Nintendo “Improves People’s Quality of Life” and Will Carry On with Consoles, Says Iwata

Embattled president defends company’s strategy in statement to investors.

By Robin Wilde. Posted 03/05/2014 17:00 7 Comments     ShareThis

Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata, under pressure following disappointing sales figures, has set out his vision for Nintendo’s place in the world, with an emphasis on providing its customers with a good quality of life. In a statement issued by Iwata to shareholders, he stated that “the raison d’etre of entertainment is to put smiles on people’s faces around the world through products and services” and that Nintendo has “a platform business that improves people’s QOL [Quality of Life] in enjoyable ways.”

The statement from the President has also helped to assuage rumours that Nintendo might be abandoning its consoles in order to focus on software. “We believe that we can capitalize the most on our strengths through a hardware-software integrated platform business, and therefore this type of dedicated video game platforms will remain our core focus,” he said.

While the 3DS has seen continued strong sales, Wii U has been less successful, having only sold around six million units in its 15 months on the market. Following recent poor financial news, Nintendo executives including Iwata took large voluntary pay cuts of up to 50 percent.

Source: Nintendo

7 Responses to “Nintendo “Improves People’s Quality of Life” and Will Carry On with Consoles, Says Iwata”

  • 42 points
    Gaviin says...

    This guy needs to go.

    • 207 points
      Jon Stevens says...

      Nintendo has actually done very well under Iwata — and not all businessmen voluntarily take such drastic pay cuts!

      On a side note, I wonder what raison d’etre translates to in Japanese…

  • 0 points
    says...

    Maybe somebody in the meeting should have asked what Iwata’s plans are for going against the competition’s Quality Of Life machines.

    Oh, right. They don’t make those products. They make video games.

  • 1379 points
    xeacons says...

    Iwata’s right. Giving up consoles isn’t the answer. The 3DS is doing awesome and the Wii U is just going through another Gamecube phase. We all agreed that Nintendo needs to renovate their online services, and definitely rethink their marketing strategy. But abandoning hardware manufacturing can only lead to disaster.

  • 1291 points
    Robert Marrujo says...

    Call me gullible, but I think Nintendo has more than enough juice left to put out at least one more console. Sony was getting it’s teeth kicked in with PS3 when it first launched, turned things around, and is now doing great with PS4. Everything is cyclical to an extent, the rest is fixing errors and making improvements.

  • 0 points
    says...

    @Robert – Nintendo doesn’t need to worry about their machine’s technology being seven years old when their online infrastructure is like fourteen years old.

    Sony turned things around. But they maintained momentum through their services. People may have large and wide ignored the PS3, but the PS3 was still busy at the workbench trying to figure out what to make of the entire online world.

    By the time the PS4 hit – they had their angle. With a button you could share what you had done with an Internet service provider. One button – the Internet knows. It’s on a website. Your game can be watched by anyone with a tablet, phone, or Internet connection. Not only this, it utilized this feat on a service that already existed. A service that not only was already there – but had an audience five times as big as the one Sony brought to it. It would make sense that the cross-pollination through this thing was/is going to be huge.

    If you look at Nintendo on the other hand, they made an entire network dedicated to their games, but their games alone. The Internet as a whole really can’t interact with your Mii’s. Other Nintendo’s can – but in terms of what that Mii can do or say – it will only be felt within the Nintendo-verse.

    This closed garden no doubt offers many benefits (easy to keep an eye on all posts and play father knows best), but in terms of efficiency (something as simple as adding a friend) or sharing your content (if this is even possible), the Wii-U (and in extension, Nintendo) assumes you just aren’t interested.

    Anything Internet related that Nintendo tries to touch ultimately fails. The best way to describe it would be that there are a handful of features “modern current generation gamers” expect and like to utilize. These features are then made known to Nintendo, who then head to their work-bench, and begin working on their own version of this already existing service/technology. By the time they come around with the service, it’s usually already a generation old, and rather than being frontier, it’s what people have already come to expect.

    So, Nintendo in advertising its on-line stance, effectively praises themselves for catching up with the competition seven years go. That’s not lost on gamers. The ability to hook up and play games on-line has been standard fare since two generations ago – yet it was only last generation that Nintendo said, “Boy! You guys can now play Smash and Kart on-line!” – “Finally!” everyone replied. It was awesome. But it was late.

    What does this have to do with home consoles? Well, I think Nintendo themselves summarized it best a long while back. They said that their video games weren’t “toys” – rather, they were “electronics.” Ironically, it’s Nintendo of these days that are treating their products like toys – and not electronics. With electronics – you have to convince somebody to make the purchase. They rank your machine against the competition, and generally make an informed choice. You don’t have to worry about that with toys. A child tells the parent that they want it – and the parent’s already lost the battle.

    Maybe that’s why Nintendo’s calling them “Quality of Life” machines now. Calling it an electronic would imply it’s modern, which it isn’t, and calling it a toy would imply that it’s popular.

    Nintendo’s right. They should continue to make consoles. They just need to get the notion out of their heads that people are going to go buy one simply because it has “Nintendo” written on the side of it.

    • 1291 points
      Robert Marrujo says...

      I said Nintendo has enough juice for another console; that’s it. It’s a half-second’s worth of thought made in passing as I read the article, that’s all. I’m not seeing what about that warranted this disproportionate response.

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