Updated:Nintendo Considering Smartphone Games, Restructuring

[VG_Addict]

This article says that Iwata is considering a new business model:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/445870/nintendo-thinking-about-a-new-business-structure/

That's one good thing about Iwata. He acknowledges that Nintendo has made mistakes, such as when he admitted that they underestimated HD development.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

While Japan doesn't outright fire people, they have many methods of making sure the employee in question takes the hint that they aren't wanted here anymore.

I'm not sure how they do it with CEO's, but with general employees, the make it extremely hard to work at their job. That along with the increasing workload of menial to stupid tasks like cleaning up, stacking papers, so on and so forth. By then they will get the hint and "quit" on their own terms.

With CEO's it's not like that, not in the least. The Board is his advisory committee and shareholders have no power. No one can actually do anything to make Iwata leave, and even "pressuring" him is not going to happen. This call to fire Iwata is pointless. It's akin to people smashing their head against a brick wall hoping to tear it down, only to have caused permanent brain damage. It's stupid. There is no need to worry about Iwata's job and even if he DID resign, he'd be the one to pick his successor. Nintendo will not do the same stupid shit their peers do

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

The staff may or may not need to change, but their thinking sure does. People still don't know what the Wii U is. Kids today aren't interested in it. They got a 3DS or a tablet or an older system with a big library. Those who do have a passing interest still don't see enough games to warrant purchasing it compared to a tablet, PC, Steam machine, PS4, Xbone, or even an older system. It has more games now than a few months ago. But, they if they are working on big things, they need to break their tradition of secrecy and let some details of what they are working on out. This system has a peripheral that the others do not, a cheap, large touchscreen/gamepad hybrid controller. Get some third party support back by funding more games like what their doing with Bayonetta 2. Get other publishers to see that controller could change the way their games could be played. Start some ambitious in-house games that blow away AAA titles on the other systems. A slighter less powerful graphics chip should not limit you on style. This new generation is even as much of a leap as the last one was despite it taking longer to come out. Nintendo still has their big ol' piggy bank loaded with cash. If they don't want to see it drained out slowly by a console that collects dust on shelves, they need to take out some serious cash and invest it towards building up the Wii U. Try at least a couple of these things, Nintendo.

-snip-

While Japan doesn't outright fire people, they have many methods of making sure the employee in question takes the hint that they aren't wanted here anymore.

I'm not sure how they do it with CEO's, but with general employees, the make it extremely hard to work at their job. That along with the increasing workload of menial to stupid tasks like cleaning up, stacking papers, so on and so forth. By then they will get the hint and "quit" on their own terms.

Like Gunpei Yokoi, they got him to resign despite his insistence that the virtual boy was not ready to market. Despite making them Game and Watch, Metroid, the fucking GAME BOY (their own personal money mints), and mentoring their other prized designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, they made him leave after laying the foundation of the modern Nintendo that Miyamoto would lay bricks on. If they can do that, they can put pressure on whoever needs a fire lit under them to get the Wii U rolling.

 

[Hero of Lime]

BLEEEH. Crud. Time to make some tough investing choices I suppose.

For those who are curious, the drop has continued today with it sitting at 14.8 USD, when it sat at 18.95 USD just 7 days ago, for a drop of 17.59%.

Nooooo! I have such a huge investment in the company, a whopping 5 shares! I got them more as a novelty and because I can say I own a bit of Nintendo. Though I do feel bad for the real investors.

OT: Iwata is definitely not the problem, as others are saying here, an aggressive ad campaign was needed over a year ago. Sure they put out some more in the last holiday season, but Nintendo needed to have the media blitz reminiscent of the Wii. The games have actually come and more are on the way, Nintendo just needs to shake up their marketing strategy.

 

[EvilRoy]

BLEEEH. Crud. Time to make some tough investing choices I suppose.

For those who are curious, the drop has continued today with it sitting at 14.8 USD, when it sat at 18.95 USD just 7 days ago, for a drop of 17.59%.

Nooooo! I have such a huge investment in the company, a whopping 5 shares! I got them more as a novelty and because I can say I own a bit of Nintendo. Though I do feel bad for the real investors.

OT: Iwata is definitely not the problem, as others are saying here, an aggressive ad campaign was needed over a year ago. Sure they put out some more in the last holiday season, but Nintendo needed to have the media blitz reminiscent of the Wii. The games have actually come and more are on the way, Nintendo just needs to shake up their marketing strategy.

Well, I don't exactly have a controlling interest myself, but with more than a few shares its hard not to kick myself for not cashing out when they hit a two year high.

 

[Hero of Lime]

BLEEEH. Crud. Time to make some tough investing choices I suppose.

For those who are curious, the drop has continued today with it sitting at 14.8 USD, when it sat at 18.95 USD just 7 days ago, for a drop of 17.59%.

Nooooo! I have such a huge investment in the company, a whopping 5 shares! I got them more as a novelty and because I can say I own a bit of Nintendo. Though I do feel bad for the real investors.

OT: Iwata is definitely not the problem, as others are saying here, an aggressive ad campaign was needed over a year ago. Sure they put out some more in the last holiday season, but Nintendo needed to have the media blitz reminiscent of the Wii. The games have actually come and more are on the way, Nintendo just needs to shake up their marketing strategy.

Well, I don't exactly have a controlling interest myself, but with more than a few shares its hard not to kick myself for not cashing out when they hit a two year high.

Oh yeah, even with just five shares, back when it was at the highest during the best days of the Wii, it was probably worth a pretty penny. If I ever get into serious investing, I may put more in. Especially right before a new Pokemon game releases.

 

[Robert Marrs]

They need to get it together. At this point if I was a shareholder I would be after blood but even as a consumer its really disappointing to see what nintendo is doing to itself. I would love to have a reason to buy a Wii U but I'm not going to buy one just to give nintendo a leg up. Hell even my 3dsxl is being considered for a trade in. They are not putting out enough games and they are not getting the third party support they need. I hope they work it out but until then its not my problem. I'm going to play video games regardless of whether or not nintendo wants to sell them to me.

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well I can't say it surprises me. A lot of people predicted a Nintendo crash, and here we are. It doesn't surprise me that interest in the whole motion gimmick wasn't enough to sustain a second generation of the same thing.

I'll also say that while I like some of their stuff, I don't have the investment in the usual stable of Nintendo IPs that a lot of other people do, and truthfully it doesn't surprise me that this core audience is slowly fading with time as well, and/or aren't excited to leap at new hardware upgrades.

The thing is that the Wii systems have very few games that really excite me and saying "wow, I've got to play that" and a few like "Fatal Frame Zero" never make it to the US. Just to get some of the more successful RPG franchises into the US basically involved a massive campaign and forcing Nintendo and the publishers to localize them, kicking and screaming all the way. Needless to say the energy to keep doing that with decent games doesn't hold up.

See with the 3DS there is a decent stable of games I actually like and want to play, with a pretty robust release schedule. With the PS4 there might be crap for games out there, but I know from experience they are coming and trust that compared to Nintendo where a comparative drought is the norm, and it seems like all the games I'd want to play aren't available in the US, and by the time they make it here I've become invested in other things.

Truthfully, I think a management shake up is just what Nintendo needs. That, or someone in charge should seriously considering selling Nintendo before the brand is totally worthless, perhaps to either Sony or Microsoft.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Like Gunpei Yokoi, they got him to resign despite his insistence that the virtual boy was not ready to market. Despite making them Game and Watch, Metroid, the fucking GAME BOY (their own personal money mints), and mentoring their other prized designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, they made him leave after laying the foundation of the modern Nintendo that Miyamoto would lay bricks on. If they can do that, they can put pressure on whoever needs a fire lit under them to get the Wii U rolling.

Again, nope, Yokoi was in a far different position. Yokoi was never in THAT high a position of power even if he did design the Game Boy. It's a completely different situation from Iwata, especially, like I noted earlier, it's impossible for him to get fired or even be pressured to resign from anyone. The means to get rid of Iwata LIE WITH IWATA ALONE. Those are the facts

 

[Baresark]

I think that Nintendo should take the time and money to found a series of properties that are meant to be multiplatform. They can keep their Mario's and their Zelda's for their hardware, but their greatest strength has always been in the software they develop. Make properties with the intent of selling them cross platform. New IP's with some new ideas. You don't need to reinvent the wheel on this, simply make good games like always, and sell them on every platform, even the Wii U and 3DS. And let everyone know, if you want Zelda and Mario, you have to buy a Nintendo system. But you can increase income with quality software sold on many platforms.

 

[Irridium]

Re-release the original Red/Blue/Yellow on iOS, make millions.

Or re-release on the eShop.

Or both. Make all the millions.

 

[medv4380]

Like Gunpei Yokoi, they got him to resign despite his insistence that the virtual boy was not ready to market. Despite making them Game and Watch, Metroid, the fucking GAME BOY (their own personal money mints), and mentoring their other prized designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, they made him leave after laying the foundation of the modern Nintendo that Miyamoto would lay bricks on. If they can do that, they can put pressure on whoever needs a fire lit under them to get the Wii U rolling.

Again, nope, Yokoi was in a far different position. Yokoi was never in THAT high a position of power even if he did design the Game Boy. It's a completely different situation from Iwata, especially, like I noted earlier, it's impossible for him to get fired or even be pressured to resign from anyone. The means to get rid of Iwata LIE WITH IWATA ALONE. Those are the facts

For the most part you're right. They've mistaken the ominous "they" that forces people to quit in Japan for some ominous entity that works accost all of Japan. The people who force employees out are the upper level executives that Iwata is at the top of the chain on.

However, that doesn't mean that he can't be forced out, or removed. It would, however, require the Yamauchi family to force him out with a vote. No combination of outside stock holder votes can counter the head family's control. That being said Iwata is still liked by the family, and unless one of them wants to position of CEO I don't see them changing him. The only reason he's CEO is that none of them wanted the job, and viewed him as the only viable alternative to a family member.

 

[Roxas1359]

Re-release the original Red/Blue/Yellow on iOS, make millions.

Or re-release on the eShop.

Or both. Make all the millions.

Sad part is the 3DS is more than capable of running GBA games, but they've still not released them to everyone. I mean hell, I get a lot of people pissed off when they see that I have Metroid Fusion, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and The Legend of Zelda The Minish Cap on my 3DS. Why haven't they released Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green on the eShop.

 

[VG_Addict]

Does this mean Nintendo is going third party?

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

"Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.

With all due respect to him, I think he's wrong. I agree that it isn't 'real innovation,' but NES and SNES titles are so basic (I mean come on, the controllers had like 4 buttons total) that it would be simple enough to squeeze the backlog out real fast. That could be a LARGE revenue stream that they currently lack, giving their budgets actual room to fix the problem long term.

Nintendo is a long term thinking company, but without a short term goal to get them to the long term they'll just sit there floundering for another year or two.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Like Gunpei Yokoi, they got him to resign despite his insistence that the virtual boy was not ready to market. Despite making them Game and Watch, Metroid, the fucking GAME BOY (their own personal money mints), and mentoring their other prized designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, they made him leave after laying the foundation of the modern Nintendo that Miyamoto would lay bricks on. If they can do that, they can put pressure on whoever needs a fire lit under them to get the Wii U rolling.

Again, nope, Yokoi was in a far different position. Yokoi was never in THAT high a position of power even if he did design the Game Boy. It's a completely different situation from Iwata, especially, like I noted earlier, it's impossible for him to get fired or even be pressured to resign from anyone. The means to get rid of Iwata LIE WITH IWATA ALONE. Those are the facts

I meant Yokio was a regular employee they forced to resign because of one flawed product despite his numerous contributions to the companies welfare over the decades he served them. Shigeru Miyamoto also doesn't have much power in the corporate structure of the company. Some other people out there besides Iwata must be in charge Nintendo's advertising, R and D, etc. departments. They, too, need to step up their game. But tell me, hypothetically, if they can't get rid of Iwata(which I don't think he is the problem)how do they get him to do what needs to be done to get the company in the black again? I know US Corporations don't usually fire their top execs, because some greedy genius set the precedent that all executive contracts include a multi-million dollar severance pay, even he was the worst CEO, CFO, CTO, etc. in the company's history and admitted to several serious cases of sexual harassment. They'd rather ride him out if he's not the sole problem with the direction the company is going. Does Iwata own a control a large share of stock? Or are Japanese corporations so traditional the leader is seen as doing no wrong unless they admit to it? He did take a pay cut for the 3DS low sales early in it's life, and was noble compared to a US CEO saying "I tried my hardest. I'm getting my bonus and laying off 5,000 workers to cover the quarterly losses."

 

[fix-the-spade]

Oh for God's sake, somebody go to Japan and slap the entire Nintendo board until the agree to put the Gameboy back catalogue on iOS and Android, then make sure you're getting five percent for a job well done.

 

[xaszatm]

Oh for God's sake, somebody go to Japan and slap the entire Nintendo board until the agree to put the Gameboy back catalogue on iOS and Android, then make sure you're getting five percent for a job well done.

And then run in horror as the board strings you up for making them lose so much money, right? Realize that the market for smartphones games and the market for handheld games are different and thing will make much more sense to you. Not enough people buy games on their iPhones. It's mostly either free-to-play or at most $.99. There would be little to no profit from this, even if we focus only on original Gameboy games. If Nintendo does something with smartphones, it will be to complement the Wii U or the 3DS.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

However, that doesn't mean that he can't be forced out, or removed. It would, however, require the Yamauchi family to force him out with a vote. No combination of outside stock holder votes can counter the head family's control. That being said Iwata is still liked by the family, and unless one of them wants to position of CEO I don't see them changing him. The only reason he's CEO is that none of them wanted the job, and viewed him as the only viable alternative to a family member.

Bzzzt, wrong again. Shareholder activism is a Western thing; in Japan it's not all that common. Even then the chances of Iwata going anywhere are slim at best.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Oh for God's sake, somebody go to Japan and slap the entire Nintendo board until the agree to put the Gameboy back catalogue on iOS and Android, then make sure you're getting five percent for a job well done.

Yeah, make them put it on iOS, not the 3DS. That way, The 3DS Will sell amazing- oh wait...

The Problem with this idea is that Nintendo makes more money on Console Sales then Software sales. Now, your probably going to say "Well, they aren't making a lot of money on the WiiU or 3DS", and while that's true, software sales make up less then 50% of their whole sales.

Plus, knowing Nintendo, they'll make a Re-release for $29.99-59.99. Do you know anyone with an iPhone that will buy an app for 29$? Or 59$? Even if it is Pokemon? Pokemon is certainly not a 99 cent game, if your going to suggest that, and Nintendo is certainly not a "Pay 2 Play" Company by any stretch of the imagination (They certainly won't force people to buy the rights to evolve Charmander into Charmeleon).

OT: I feel very sad for Nintendo Right now. I had no idea that the WiiU was hurting Nintendo this much. As much as I like the WiiU, I have to admit that it is hurting Nintendo.