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Iwata implies he may resign over poor business performance
- Thread starter Cheesemeister
- Start date
I don't want Iwata out.
but I would like Nintendo to tackle its market differently.
for the last decade they've aggressively courted the large retailers.
That's ok.
but for old time gamers like me, I would appreciate their support for more specialized outlets.
give a me rebranded WiiU with slightly "adulter" aeshtetics for example.
In Japan Nintendo released a lot of co-developped consoles. Why don't they do that on an international stage? A PanasonicXNintendo blu ray playing not-called-WiiU WiiU with a reskinnd interface is pretty much all I ask.
I understand they don't want to make the consoles'business an arms race. that's very sound. but as a consummer, I'd like them to reach to me a little better. I don't care for ads or stuff.
GAF is free and I get anything I want games-info wise.
My GAFgold account should link with the eshop.
but I would like Nintendo to tackle its market differently.
for the last decade they've aggressively courted the large retailers.
That's ok.
but for old time gamers like me, I would appreciate their support for more specialized outlets.
give a me rebranded WiiU with slightly "adulter" aeshtetics for example.
In Japan Nintendo released a lot of co-developped consoles. Why don't they do that on an international stage? A PanasonicXNintendo blu ray playing not-called-WiiU WiiU with a reskinnd interface is pretty much all I ask.
I understand they don't want to make the consoles'business an arms race. that's very sound. but as a consummer, I'd like them to reach to me a little better. I don't care for ads or stuff.
GAF is free and I get anything I want games-info wise.
My GAFgold account should link with the eshop.
I disagree, because this could lead to the "let's buy whatever shitty effort third parties release on the console" mentality that do not necessarily translates to serious support.
I'd fix that by saying that people should buy high quality third party games, but even that definitely does not guarantee anything in the medium-long term (see Resident Evil 4 on the Wii).
Generally speaking, I believe we're clearly talking about a vicious circle here: western third parties give weak or no support at all to Nintendo because they do not see it as a profitable market, people don't buy Nintendo platforms because they don't see the games they want (that are usually on MS/Sony platforms).
In an ideal situation a third party should try to exploit the Nintendo audience treating it as a "blue ocean", trying to produce your typical AAA, high budget (marketing-wise too), western-likeable game that has very high chance of pulling quite the numbers just by virtue of having no competing, similar products, at least on paper.
But than we have the horror stories of "mature" games that don't sell on Nintendo platforms and the like... so what can we realistically expect?
I think the one and only possible strategy to break this vicious circle is the one Iwata is pursuing: publishing, co-developing and/or funding exclusives. And, by the way, straight moneyhatting.
Should Nintendo succeed maybe, just maybe, third parties might start seeing a profitable audience again and give it better support.
Why do you think that? My reasoning is that the past few gens they have had shit third party support which has resulted in essentially people migrating away from there systems as a primary machine. If they have enough third party that can keep more revenue in Nintendo's hands.
Graphics Horse
Member
Yes Bloomberg needs a slap. Now I'm wondering if some of the people expecting Iwata's imminent resignation are making the same mistake?
edit: should take back what I said about Bloomberg, the article covers analysts expectations for the following year's results (70bn yen) falling short of the 100bn yen. The opening line is correct as they're currently in this fiscal year that began 23 days ago.
Fun fact:
The only Nintendo system that have a better software attach rate than Wii, is the GC.
Wii software sales were indeed good.
Are you including software that included a controller ala Wii Play?
If he had any honor in him, he would resign instead of trying to hold on to every last drop of internet glory. He's letting the company we love sink to its darkest depths. Not even during the GC era when everyone was singing doom and gloom have they had it so bad.
And as bad as it was in those days....they weren't taking heavy loses!
This is what happens when you don't release any games!
To be fair those shouldn't be discounted at all. I heard someone say this in another thread, Wii Sports is a true system seller, in every sense of the word. People were buying Wii-U's for that game exclusively,people were effectively paying $250 to play Wii Sports. Wii Play had similar mainstream appeal, another killer app in terms of sales.
That's what the Wii-U needs if Nintendo want's any chance of making this thing more successful than the GameCube.
The only thing I worry about is changing management in the first year of a new console. I remember that really fucking up GameCube when Iwata and the gang took over 7 or 8 months into GameCube's first year. He comes in 2002 and by the time 2004 came, it seemed like Nintendo gave up on Cube and was already talking Revolution.
Otherwise I agree with you.
GC was already fucked up by that point.
Wii Play had the appeal of a controller. Are people waiting on baited breath for Wii Play 2?
Wii Play Motion was released some years ago already.
People invested in the console success might be, I don't give a shit.
More revisionist history from Iwata's defenders.
The GC outsold the XBOX. It was 2nd not 3rd. The GC nose dived once Iwata took over. Look at all the moves Nintendo made early on with Capcom and Resident Evil. None of that was followed up on and the GC was allowed to just die early.
The 1st half of the GC era was stacked with games and then....dead. Much like the Wii. Just look at how the SNES and NES were treated. Iwata doesn't give a shit about the fans and will drop a console dead. Wii is another awesome example of this.
Sony are the new Nintendo. They just lack decent memorable IP but their worldview is similar to that of old Nintendo.
Iwata's Nintendo is the same as OG XBOX Microsoft.
Speaking as an ex-Nintendo fanboy, the problem is any single blemish on a multi-console 3rd party game will have the Nintendo faithful ignoring it. If the Wii U doesn't get the best version of the game, Nintendo fans simply don't buy it because it isn't "good enough."
Sony (and MS for the time being) for some reason don't seem to have this problem where their console owners will buy 3rd party games even if they're inferior to other platforms.
The other problem is Nintendo doesn't want to internally make the games that will sell to the console market which is now in the US and Europe because Japan has all but abandoned home consoles. I believe Nintendo knows what to do here, but they are not comfortable spending their resources on something which goes against their product principles. There is also demographic issue I won't get into now, but the Wii U should've continued where the Wii left off, not trying to get a customer base Nintendo doesn't really want.
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
You're generalizing quite a bit, but I'll bite. People who own multiple systems will buy a game for the system on which it works best, or on which they can play with their friends online, or on which it adds to the gamer score they are so invested in. That is all. It's never the customer's responsibility to by a product, ever, in any industry.
Interceptor
Banned
Iwata won´t resign and a lot of people will be pissed by Nintendo continuing being Nintendo.
Always funny to watch. ^^
Always funny to watch. ^^
It's funny you called me a revisionist :-D
GC was allowed to die because it wasn't selling good enough, simply as that (data on hand).
GC started at $199 in November 2001, went $149 the next May and then was cut to $99 in September 2003 after Nintendo had to stop production lines in January because it wasn't selling enough.
The exclusivity deal signed between Nintendo and Capcom was put aside by Capcom when GC couldn't hit the minumum install base requirement so they ported the games to PS2.
The idea that GC would have done better if Yamauchi was still the CEO is laughable.
As is laughable the notion that Nintendo heavily changed between Yamauchi and Iwata.
The succession between Yamauchi and Iwata was (and is) under a mandate of continuity.
That's why I'm pessimist firing Iwata would be very helpful, because the next CEO would still probably be one from Nintendo "DNA" pool.
Oh and your talk about 2nd or 3rd against Xbox as it really matter reminds me the Nintendo fans of that era (most of them delusional).
Well said.
I'm just saying in my experience (for what its worth), many Nintendo only console owners don't buy 3rd party games unless its exclusive or the best version. As someone who bailed out on Nintendo when I saw the "Revolution," I can say I'll bail from the 360 if MS doesn't meet my expectations for the Durango, gamerscore & library be damned.
How many "Nintendo Fanboys" are multiple console owners though? Back in 1997-98 and onwards, owning a PS(2)/Xbox while you also owned a N64/Gamecube was a mark of shame if you called yourself a Ninty fanboy. Look how far we've come lol.
They should aim for another "Blue Ocean" in smaller, B-Tier and indie devs as IPs with solid fanbases that have fallen by the wayside. Bayonetta is a great example, but they need to be looser with indies, it's quantity that will result in quality, plus it's the only thing (other than their ENOURMOUS backcatalog) that can puff out the Wii U library.
I still think some form of BlueStacks implementation would be awesome and make the gamepad relevant compared to say a tablet.
I agree with your argument in theory, but the Wii invalidates the argument.
Here was a console that was selling gangbusters, and Iwata still let it die a GameCube-like death.
Heck, I'd say the Wii's last years were even WORSE than the 'Cube's.
Nintendo didn't "have to" stop the production lines. Iwata chose to.
Yamauchi dropped the Cube's price to $149 in May 2002 as a last act before handing off to Iwata.
After a weak Christmas 2002, retailers started to revolt (I can still find reports of it online as early as March), but Nintendo refused to support any official promotions. At the time, I heard that "the board" (aka Yamauchi) was heavily suggesting a drop to $99, because that was nearly-profitable (the GameCube was designed to reach that point quickly), but Iwata started talking about how price drops are bad for the industry. Then Iwata came up with his counter-proposal of shutting down GameCube production. And people sucked his balls over how much money he was saving by not having to pay factory workers.
By the time Iwata was forced to cut the price to $99 (because his plan was the opposite of good for Nintendo), he was unable to take advantage of the price drop, because he couldn't get the factories back up and running in time for Christmas.
Christmas 2002 was weak, but Iwata killed all of 2003 for the GameCube. He even owned up to it/learned from it, and applied that lesson to to 3DS by knowing when to abandon his high-profit philosophy and his personal opposition to price cuts, and cut the damn price.
IIRC, the sales requirements said that the contract or contracts (there were apparently several contracts, one time-sensitive and covering the RE series, and one each for the REmake and RE Zero) would break if either the REmake and RE Zero failed to sell 1 million units worldwide. That ended up closer than Nintendo and Capcom would have liked, but both games made it.
I don't remember hearing anything about a GameCube installed-base minimum, but if there was, Iwata fumbling the ball on what should have been the GameCube's hottest year probably had something to do with it.
Nintendo refused to moneyhat the Capcom 5 with any additional exclusivity deals, not even RE4. Dead Phoenix was cancelled, and Mikami said he had hoped to have been able to put a lot more time and money into PN03. It's no wonder Capcom decided to get the hell out of their Nintendo contract ASAP.
This thread feels weird now
Exterminieren
Banned
Well, this thread's going to take an unexpected turn.
Is this really the action of a man who's prepping to be out of a job within a year?
...Unless it's an attempt to consolidate his power base, of course.
Is this really the action of a man who's prepping to be out of a job within a year?
...Unless it's an attempt to consolidate his power base, of course.
fabricated backlash
Member
Most of them from my experience.
BassForever
Member
Whatatwist.jpg
Thunder Monkey
Banned
Software wise I'd say yes. They did let it die.
The system still had a large enough backlog though to keep hardware sales much higher than GCN. Last year it sold around 10% of the Cubes total in a single year. Year before that it sold more than 20% of the Cubes total for the year.
Its last year will be meager on the sales front, but the Wii is still selling more in year seven than GCN did for a good chunk of year one.
never heard this one before
I guess it was more of "who you hung out with" thing? I know my friends would've busted my balls if I bought a PlayStation since I was pretty into Nintendo at the time.
I remember GFAQS & IGN boards Gamecube forum being full of single console owners. In hindsight, most of them probably had a PS/PS2 but lied about it lol.
When you put it like *that*, it sounds like he's just won a Diplomatic Victory in Civilization.
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
Iwatas face deserves to be on there
Captainsweatpants
Member
Well..that is that.
Iwata heard you loud and clear.. and now assumed control of NoA as well!!
Good job mate.
ColdBlooder
Banned
Funny to read this after todays Megaton!
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
Pretty sure this thread will officially die this week now
Q
qizah
Unconfirmed Member
All those that wanted Iwata out must be feeling confused as fuck right now. And probably angry.
Cheesemeister
Member
Remember, Iwata's goal is to reach 100 billion yen in operating income between 4/1/2013 and 3/31/2014, not the term that just ended. If you thought there was any implication/possibility of Iwata stepping down now, you must not have read Q7/Q8 here: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/schedule/index.html
Well, actually not so funny: the resignation implied was referred to the next FY results.
Was something related to the March 2014 financial results, so we'll see if he will resign if N will not hit the goal set for next year.
Captainsweatpants
Member
I like the fact that Iwata wont resign but somehow, it would have been cool if this guy was the new CEO.
Aonuma to the Research and Development Team: "Make me a console, that will push the Zelda graphics.". <3 lool
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
I think I like this part the best:
Nintendo back in the black this year. Admittedly by the skin of their teeth, but it's certainly not "heavy losses".