Nintendo President: More Women Use Our Platforms

[kitsuta]

Nintendo President: More Women Use Our Platforms

Nintendo's userbase is equally shared by both sexes, claims Iwata.

Addressing shareholders in a recent meeting, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata boasted that Nintendo platforms have "almost the same" number of female and male users. Iwata further claimed that this was "extremely rare" in the gaming industry, comparing the numbers to other companies' platforms, which he said had as much as a 75% to 25% disparity.

He attributed the more even numbers on Nintendo's side to its newest consoles, saying that "the number of female users increased tremendously while the Nintendo DS and the Wii were expanding the gaming populations." He did not specify whether these new female gamers are still active and purchasing new titles, or stopped gaming when the consoles' explosive popularity died down.

Finally, Iwata emphasized that women have equal opportunity working for Nintendo, with many "actively working as administrators and managers." He further acknowledged that without women taking an active role in "all aspects in [Nintendo's] business," including upper management, it will be impossible to create games that appeal to women. His final word on the original question, which was about the lack of women in the company's current board, was that there is "nothing hindering female employee's efforts."

Source: Nintendo [http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/120628qa/index.html]

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[TIMESWORDSMAN]

Well yeah, most galls prefer Kirby to The Master Chief or Nathan Drake. This is true.

As much as the genders of gamers has equalized in the last decade and a half, it's still male dominant, and it makes sense that the Wii, which markets to everyone, has more female customers.

I don't know about the actual numbers, but I think Iwata's not far off.

 

[FantomOmega]

It would help if Nintendo just shut their mouths since they're giving gamers reason to make even more fun of them!

How many announcements have Nintendo made in the last TEN days alone that brought nothing but confusion and heavy sarcasm from the gaming community? Even the competitors aren't making as much fuss as them!

"More Women Use Our Platforms" well tanks for letting me know that! what other thought provoking revelations will you proclaim next? That I breath AIR or that the Earth is ROUND?

Where do want me to deliver this Mr Iwata, trough your car windshield or your FACE?

 

[Mr. Omega]

raging snip

Calm down, man. Death threats over a simple claim makes you look completely irrational. Deep breaths.

OT: Well good for you Iwata. It's not like the competition is really trying to appeal to anyone at all besides the typical "gamer" demographic. Even if it is true, it isn't that much of an accomplishment.

 

[felbot]

i swear theyre going to advertise this one day, "come play with our console, the women will love you for it".

 

[kitsuta]

It would help if Nintendo just shut their mouths since they're giving gamers reason to make even more fun of them!

How many announcements have Nintendo made in the last TEN days alone that brought nothing but confusion and heavy sarcasm from the gaming community? The even competitors aren't making as much fuss as them!

"More Women Use Our Platforms" well tanks for letting me know that! what other thought provoking revelations will you proclaim next? That I breath AIR or that the Earth is round?

Where do want me to deliver this Mr Iwata, trough your car windshield or your FACE?

To be fair, Iwata made the statements during a shareholder Q&A meeting while answering a question about gender issues - he didn't exactly hold a press conference to announce the findings. I do believe this is the first time Nintendo's claimed an evenly-split male/female userbase, so that's mainly why I wrote it up. Even if everyone suspected it already, Nintendo doesn't often go around confirming this sort of thing.

 

[FantomOmega]

raging snip

Calm down, man. Death threats over a simple claim makes you look completely irrational. Deep breaths.

OT: Well good for you Iwata. It's not like the competition is really trying to appeal to anyone at all besides the typical "gamer" demographic. Even if it is true, it isn't that much of an accomplishment.

Calling It a "death threat" sounds like an exaggeration (this is the Net remember? everything is exaggerated!) since you took the time to reply to the LAST line I've have written but nothing else. My apologies for making myself appear like some giant green rage monster >_>

Ahem, seriously

Perhaps I should just say that Nintendo just keep stating the very things people (gamer or otherwise) have known for years so I would like to know the reason for these sudden self reassurances with the crowd, like their reminding us that they still exist, not a bad thing I might add but why did he say this? Isn't there anything more Important to elaborate on than a target audience that he are no longer solely focusing on with the Wii U?

As you said it's not something for Iwata to brag about so why DID he?

 

[FantomOmega]

It would help if Nintendo just shut their mouths since they're giving gamers reason to make even more fun of them!

How many announcements have Nintendo made in the last TEN days alone that brought nothing but confusion and heavy sarcasm from the gaming community? The even competitors aren't making as much fuss as them!

"More Women Use Our Platforms" well tanks for letting me know that! what other thought provoking revelations will you proclaim next? That I breath AIR or that the Earth is round?

Where do want me to deliver this Mr Iwata, trough your car windshield or your FACE?

To be fair, Iwata made the statements during a shareholder Q&A meeting while answering a question about gender issues - he didn't exactly hold a press conference to announce the findings. I do believe this is the first time Nintendo's claimed an evenly-split male/female userbase, so that's mainly why I wrote it up. Even if everyone suspected it already, Nintendo doesn't often go around confirming this sort of thing.

Ah, that bring things into perspective!

So would that mean continued support for this "female" demographic? Its not like most Mario/Nintendo games were specially made for a particular gender... Shouldn't he be making assurances on how he will get the core gamers attention since whoever is still buying games for the wii up till this point will most likely move to the Wii U

 

[Something Amyss]

Unfortunately Mr. Iwata, being more appealing to women doesn't automatically make them good.

Not only that, but it doesn't hurt tha they've been trying to deliver a more non-gaming gaming experience for years. While it's nice that more women use your platforms, let us not mistake that for anything in any way meaningful.

And let's not forget it was mostly a dodge as for why there aren't more female members on the board. It was all part of a "we don't actively stop them from progressing, which is the same as equality!" smokescreen.

"But girls use our systems!" isn't an answer to that.

 

[kitsuta]

To be fair, Iwata made the statements during a shareholder Q&A meeting while answering a question about gender issues - he didn't exactly hold a press conference to announce the findings. I do believe this is the first time Nintendo's claimed an evenly-split male/female userbase, so that's mainly why I wrote it up. Even if everyone suspected it already, Nintendo doesn't often go around confirming this sort of thing.

Ah, that bring things into perspective!

So would that mean continued support for this "female" demographic? Its not like most Mario/Nintendo games were specially made for a particular gender... Shouldn't he be making assurances on how he will get the core gamers attention since whoever is still buying games for the wii up till this point will most likely move to the Wii U

In this case, Iwata's audience are shareholders - not core gamers. Expanding Nintendo's market to include both sexes equally is a much better way to make money than focusing on a smaller core fanbase, even if they're more loyal.

Speaking purely as a gamer and a fan of many of Nintendo's games, I think their main tactic for attracting female gamers is just not excluding them. Nintendo's family-friendly mantra means no excessive violence, no pointless T&A, and a ban on family-unfriendly behavior in online games (like, say, the kind of anti-female BS that happens on Xbox Live). A very wide audience, which happens to include a lot of women, respond positively to the kind of colorful, unassuming games Nintendo makes. I think Iwata is aiming to sell these people the Wii U, even if they may not be currently using their Wii consoles.

 

[FantomOmega]

To be fair, Iwata made the statements during a shareholder Q&A meeting while answering a question about gender issues - he didn't exactly hold a press conference to announce the findings. I do believe this is the first time Nintendo's claimed an evenly-split male/female userbase, so that's mainly why I wrote it up. Even if everyone suspected it already, Nintendo doesn't often go around confirming this sort of thing.

Ah, that bring things into perspective!

So would that mean continued support for this "female" demographic? Its not like most Mario/Nintendo games were specially made for a particular gender... Shouldn't he be making assurances on how he will get the core gamers attention since whoever is still buying games for the wii up till this point will most likely move to the Wii U

In this case, Iwata's audience are shareholders - not core gamers. Expanding Nintendo's market to include both sexes equally is a much better way to make money than focusing on a smaller core fanbase, even if they're more loyal.

Speaking purely as a gamer and a fan of many of Nintendo's games, I think their main tactic for attracting female gamers is just not excluding them. Nintendo's family-friendly mantra means no excessive violence, no pointless T&A, and a ban on family-unfriendly behavior in online games (like, say, the kind of anti-female BS that happens on Xbox Live). A very wide audience, which happens to include a lot of women, respond positively to the kind of colorful, unassuming games Nintendo makes. I think Iwata is aiming to sell these people the Wii U, even if they may not be currently using their Wii consoles.

So if for instance the competitive foul mouthed (not all of them are bear with me here) so-called "hardcore" crowd moved over to the wii U, how will they keep them separate online? I usually encounter gamers online that I have only met in a single match send me some offensive messages and since the Mii-verse is highly social and will no longer use friend codes I wouldn't be surprised if the casual neighbors feel threatened because the "hardcore" Adams family just moved in next door

so there's a 30 minute delay which is only for posted messages you can leave and not direct communication for moderation purposes, that's good but will core gamers "want" to abide to such a restriction after the slightly more freedom they had on the PSN or XBOX Live?

Through direct communication is where the WORST things happen so what then? block them? The damage is already done by then, games about killing and extreme violence WILL make there way to the new system along with the gamers who find that acceptable so how will Nintendo still keep that pristine image?

If I had a dollar for each time I see a female avatar get hit on and harassed in the PlayStation Home...

 

[Kahunaburger]

Huh, so you mean focusing on good gameplay instead of trying to appeal to 14-year-olds with grimdarkedgygrimdark attracts a more diverse user-base? I'm shocked.

 

[Johnson McGee]

This probably has as much to do with game selection as the Wii not being a package deal with hordes of misogynistic mouth-breathers.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Yeah I don't know why this matters, even to shareholders. I mean, sorry but that statistic may be completely due to Wii Fit alone. Not trying to be sexist, but how many core gamers, female or male, thought that they wanted their video game console to emulate going to the gym?

This seems to be Nintendo pulling out any reason to make themselves look more relevant to the market before the Wii-U comes out. Problem is it supposedly is to be released this year and we know next to nothing about this console at all.

 

[weirdee]

hopefully this means the people who wrote for other m get what's coming to them

 

[xaszatm]

...okay, this has been bugging me for the past couple of months but...what's with all the Nintendo hate lately? Ever since the Wii U has been announced, there has been a resurgence of people who want Nintendo to fail...because its Nintendo? What gives?

OT: Well, that was nice to know. Granted, making games for all audiences means all audiences so I can see the statistics as it is. Still, this should be a good thing in the long run, right?

 

[Nexxis]

OT: Well, that was nice to know. Granted, making games for all audiences means all audiences so I can see the statistics as it is. Still, this should be a good thing in the long run, right?

I'm hoping it is. Trying to appeal to a lot of people across the board is what I believe allowed Nintendo to survive for so long. So far, Nintendo systems are the only systems I've seen so far that can attract a non-gamer crowd as well as those that enjoy the types of games that they put out. Heck, the Wii is the only console that my grandmother wanted to purchase for herself for party based games to play with the family and more fitness based games for herself. The gym at my previous job purchased a Wii to use its more exercise oriented games. Also, I think games like Brain Age can attract an older audience as well. Also, I think the light hearted nature of Nintendo's stuff might appeal more to a female audience, especially after hearing the horror stories from places like XBox Live.

 

[Quaidis]

Good on ya, Nintendo! Keep those games diverse and fun. *Claps*

 

[xyrafhoan]

Nintendo games have always felt very gender-neutral since the violence is low, the characters are all generally inoffensive, and the difficulty is accessible to the young, the new gamers, and offers some high-end challenges for the more experienced. Pokemon in particular features both cool and cute creatures, which contributes to continuous popularity with the elementary school kids of both genders. Nintendo isn't singling out women as an intentional target for their games, but they're showing that their games' appeal is more or less equal for everyone. I don't think that's a bad goal to work towards, either. The video game market would be incredibly bland if everyone focused making games for only a single demographic.