Iwata: Nintendo magic comes from integrating hardware and software

by David Hinkle on Aug 8th 2013 7:45PM

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the company's chief differentiator is its invention and introduction of hardware and software, and how having those different teams under the same umbrella.

"What I believe is that Nintendo is a very unique company, because it does its business by designing and introducing people to hardware and software – by integrating them, we can be unique. And because we have hardware and software developers in the same building, they stimulate each other," Iwata tells CVG.

This approach, Iwata says, has cemented fandom in Nintendo's lineup of franchises. And why not offer Nintendo games on competing platforms? With such a stable of system sellers at its disposal, Iwata thinks it'd be short-sighted for Nintendo to offer its games elsewhere.

If he wasn't "concerned about the long-term future of Nintendo at all," Iwata says putting Nintendo games on other systems may lead to "some short-term profit." Ultimately, it's Iwata's responsibility for the long-term that prevents him from ever "providing our precious resources for other platforms at all."

Iwata, who this year took on the role of Nintendo of America CEO in addition to his duties as company president, got his start at Nintendo as a programmer for HAL Laboratory, the outfit responsible for creating Kirby, the Mother series (Earthbound) and the Super Smash Bros. franchise. He has served as president of Nintendo since 2002.

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Iwata: Profitability possible without layoffs

by Jordan Mallory on Jul 6th 2013 3:00PM

Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata believes that his company can get back into the black without firing any of its employees, through good ol' fashioned efficiency and cost-saving measures.

"It is true that our business has its ups and downs every few years, and of course, our ideal situation is to make a profit even in the low periods, return these profits to investors and maintain a high share price," Iwata said during a recent shareholders meeting, in response to a question about "corporate restructuring" as a solution to Nintendo's problems.

"If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results," he continued, "employee morale will decrease, and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world." Iwata also noted that global exchange rates have played a major part in Nintendo's financial situation, saying that "the influence of exchange rates is the main aspect of this matter," rather than Nintendo's headcount.

"Employees make valuable contributions in their respective fields, so I believe that laying off a group of employees will not help to strengthen Nintendo's business in the long run," he said. "Our current policy is to achieve favorable results by continuously cutting unnecessary expenses and increasing business efficiency."

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NintendoFuse Podcast #89: Nintendo Direct, Wii U Update, Iwata as NOA CEO, and more!

The live recording is now over. You can listen at the link above.

There is so much happening in the world of Nintendo right now, there are big things ahead. This week on the NintendoFuse Podcast, we focus completely on all the major happenings. First, we discuss all the recent major news from the Nintendo Direct this month. Then, it’s Wii U time as we talk about the system update, Miiverse on the web, and more. And we can’t forget the surprise story about Iwata becoming NOA CEO. What’s that about? We’ll give our thoughts on the podcast, so make sure you join us THIS Tuesday at 8 pm eastern LIVE for the recording!

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And like with all live shows, YOU will be able to call in to the show LIVE and voice your thoughts! There are three ways of participating…

1) Chat in the chatroom by going to the NintendoFuse Podcast TalkShoe page during the podcast.

2) Call in with your phone by dialing (724) 444-7444 and when prompted for the Call ID, dial 59264#. You can then press 1 to join in as a guest, or you can create a free account on TalkShoe and enter your PIN number on the phone.

3) Call in with your microphone on your computer by downloading TalkShoe Live for free from here. Once installed, go to the NintendoFuse Podcast TalkShoe page and then select the option to connect through TalkShoe Live Pro.

So bookmark this post, as you don’t want to miss the show THIS Tuesday LIVE at 8 pm eastern time!

In the meantime, feel free to listen to our older episodes, including our E3 specials, interviews, and more. You can do that with the player above, from the Talkshoe page here, or on iTunes here. See you on Tuesday!

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Iwata: Merging hardware teams could result in more hardware

by JC Fletcher on Feb 5th 2013 1:00PM

Speaking to investors, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata elaborated on Nintendo's aims regarding the merger of its console and handheld development teams. Iwata takes the surprising stance that putting the two teams together in Kyoto will result in more potential platforms, not fewer.

"What we are saying is that we would like to integrate software development methods, operating systems, and built-in software and software assets for each platform so that we can use them across different machines," Iwata said. "This means that if we manage to integrate our platforms successfully, we may in fact be able to make more platforms." Iwata explained that the ability to share development resources and assets between teams will allow them to work more efficiently, and that they would be "spread too thinly" if they tried to work on more than the current console and handheld platforms.
As usual, it's impossible to guess what Nintendo is up to in specific terms. "We feel that we are nearing a saturation point in terms of simply improving performance or enhancing graphics," Iwata said. "What is far more important for the future of video games is whether we can make new propositions in other aspects and create games out of something that people never expected to see in the form of a game." The problem with things we never expect to see is that we don't know what to expect, and therefore what to tell you.

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Iwata Claus drops a holiday Nintendo Direct vid on Dec. 26

by JC Fletcher on Dec 24th 2011 1:00PM

In October, Satoru Iwata hosted a "Nintendo Direct" video, in which he introduced the pink 3DS, detailed the big firmware update, and gave release windows for some eShop releases. Iwata will host another video press conference on December 27 at noon JST, or 10PM EST on December 26, according to a new "event" set up on the publisher's Ustream site. This time, we suspect we'll learn release dates -- or windows -- for at least some of its big upcoming releases, like Luigi's Mansion 2, Mario Tennis, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, or Paper Mario.

Last time, the Japanese video was followed the next morning by a Nintendo of America version, hosted by NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime. The same will probably happen this time.

[Santa hat from Maridav / Shutterstock]

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Iwata on Online Games and Services for Nintendo’s Future

The recent investors’ briefing was also a good time to learn about Nintendo’s future plans for online games and services. Iwata stated that they are preparing a paid item transaction system for both 3DS and Wii U. They are planning on getting the 3DS version to developers by the end of the year. However, they don’t plan on using this same system with their own games. They feel that free-to-play games with paid DLC might hurt Nintendo’s reputation.

Speaking of the 3DS, the internet connection rate is far higher than that of the DS, and Iwata stated Nintendo plans to build on its online eShop connection over the next three years, hoping to bring in even more people. Iwata has a large desire to create a future where players will pay for digital content just like normal with no reservations. This is a major point for Nintendo over the next three years.

Finally, Iwata states they plan on increasing their digital content, creating another “pillar.” They have no plans to cancel retail content. They just know that digital download are increasingly important in today’s gaming marketplace.

[Investors' Briefing]

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Iwata: 'Nintendo is not interested' in free-to-play

by JC Fletcher on Jun 15th 2011 4:15PM

Nintendo has never shown interest in free-to-play games in the past, likely due to their requirement of support from sophisticated online infrastructure. And ... that is unlikely to change. Speaking to AllThingsD, Satoru Iwata said flatly that "Nintendo is not interested" in freemium games, alluding to the same discussion of maintaining the "value" of games that he mentioned at GDC.

"I'm not interested in offering software for free of charge," he said. "That's because I myself am one of the game developers, who in the future wants to make efforts so the value of the software will be appreciated by the consumers." Although freemium games can make money through ads and microtransactions, Iwata expressed concerns about "[destroying] the value of game software."

So, uh, don't expect that Wii U version of Ghost Recon Online to be free-to-play, even though the PC version is.

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Iwata: Nintendo to plan first-party game launches around third-party publishers

by Ben Gilbert on May 2nd 2011 1:00PM

Nintendo clearly understands the importance of the international economy's fragile supply and demand formula, as evidenced in statements made during a recent investor call. Italian plumbers and pocket monsters are, in the case of Nintendo games, highly sought after properties that are somewhat constrained in supply. The result of this, of course, is high demand for Nintendo's games -- such high demand, in most cases, that third-party game sales on Nintendo's consoles are outstripped by first-party.

Nintendo, however, hopes to appear mindful of stepping on toes. When asked about potential release dates for 3DS versions of Super Mario and Mario Kart, Nintendo head Satoru Iwata noted, "We want the other companies to be successful." He continued, "In order to accomplish this goal, we would like to decide on the dates after we know the release plans of other companies' games so that we are able to consider how we can maximize the sales of our titles without affecting the sales of other companies in the short term."

It's also possible that Iwata is just blowing smoke to avoid answering specific questions about release dates for major franchises, though our mothers always told us not to expect the worst in people.

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[Project Cafe] Iwata: Wii 2 not pursuing tablet controls, will feature buttons

[Project Cafe] Iwata: Wii 2 not pursuing tablet controls, will feature buttons

This may seem like a strange thing to report, but the rumour mill was running hot for a long while surrounding Nintendo's 'Project Cafe'.

The rumours seemed to point towards a HD touch screen that would be featured in the control's interface, and thus some people were becoming concerned that Nintendo might pursue a more tablet-like interface. Satoru Iwata reassures us that this will not be the case, stating Nintendo aren't ready to do with away with traditional buttons just yet.

These details surfaced at the recent Investor's Meeting Q & A, Iwata had the following to say on the subject:

"Whenever we make a new game console, we've done it without throwing away buttons and the directional pad," said Iwata, "The reason for that it's better to have them, because buttons and directional pads benefit gameplay response."

Basically, Nintendo doesn't sound interested in ditching buttons or implementing modern tablets into gaming controllers. The clarification is always appreciated.

Is everyone else thankful?

Written by: Kyran Morrison

(This post was last modified: 05-02-2011 08:47 AM by LemonManX.)

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Iwata: Zelda Skyward Sword expected to launch after Ocarina of Time 3D

by Ben Gilbert on Jan 31st 2011 11:30AM

It seems that the hero of Hyrule will remain bound to Nintendo's forthcoming 3D handheld in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time before turning his sword skyward at some point after, the company's third quarter financial report indicates. "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been in the process of being remade for Nintendo 3DS, and this Nintendo 3DS version is expected to hit the market earlier [than Skyward Sword]," Nintendo head Satoru Iwata states in the piece.

Though Skyward Sword apparently won't launch until sometime after OoT (which is expected sometime after June's E3, outside of Nintendo's "launch window"), the report also reveals that Miyamoto's team is currently "entering into the final completion stage" of the Wii title. That being the case, we'll expect a much more impressive demonstration of the game at Nintendo's E3 presser later this year.

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Nintendo's Iwata keynoting GDC 2011

by Richard Mitchell on Jan 11th 2011 10:30AMInquisitive Nintendo president Satoru Iwata will be keynoting the Game Developers Conference this year. The keynote is entitled "Video Games Turn 25: A Historical Perspective and Vision for the Future," and celebrates the 25th GDC, which takes place this March. Gamasutra notes that Iwata will speak "not only about how video gaming has evolved, but also his views on where we go from here."
Of course, the stage also offers an opportunity to talk about new Nintendo products. Given the timing, we'd say it's the perfect place to showcase Nintendo's most anticipated product, the Vitality Sensor.
... But seriously, he's going to talk about the 3DS.
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