RIP Nintendo President Satoru Iwata

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Source.

 

This is a real drag. Iwata was a really big part of Nintendo's identity in the last few generations, and his Iwata Asks column was a tremendous benefit to people hoping to understand how the Japanese game industry works.

[Big Fresh]

Wow. R.I.P. to the guy, however, he has been running Nintendo to the ground for the past few years. So much so that about a year ago journalists were openly asking why he has a job still. So big changes are in store for Nintendo (which will probably end up being good). But like Vince McMahon, he certainly revolutionized the industry a long time ago, so respect for that.

[Vincey Greene]

I totally hope when I die, the very same day someone is falsely accusing me of running a company into the ground on the internet. Wow.

RIP Iwata-san.

[Andrew POE!]

More than likely, nothing much will change at Nintendo as a result of Iwata's passing. Whatever plans they have for "Nintendo NX" will likely stay in place. After that, it's up in the air.

 

EDIT: Honestly Iwata wasn't that bad and he was at the early days of NES and despite the recent years, that's pretty great.

[Big Fresh]

I totally hope when I die, the very same day someone is falsely accusing me of running a company into the ground on the internet. Wow.

RIP Iwata-san.

I'll be sure to.

[SirSmUgly]

Too young, man, too young. Sad news.

[Ryan]

I wonder if that means that Takeda guy or Shiggy are next in-line for such a job or they have some corporate structure in place to replace him. Tragic and way too young don't begin to describe it. RIP

[Zheroen]

Wow. R.I.P. to the guy, however, he has been running Nintendo to the ground for the past few years. So much so that about a year ago journalists were openly asking why he has a job still. So big changes are in store for Nintendo (which will probably end up being good). But like Vince McMahon, he certainly revolutionized the industry a long time ago, so respect for that.

 

So glad that we still have you around to keep the things that matter in perspective.

[Big Fresh]

It is absolutely tragic, but it also isn't a huge surprise. His health issues have been well documented and the fact that he skipped E3 for the first time ever was not a good sign.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

ANYWAYS.

 

Here's some goofy shit to remember him fondly with

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63mG4k-VIyY

 

 

 

 

What a wonderful goober

[J.T.]

RIP Iwata-san.

[JLSigman]

I was not a Nintendo person (never had any of the consoles), but I cannot deny his affect on the gaming industry. Condolances to his family and friends.

 

Is bile-duct growth a way to say mouth cancer?

[Ryan]

Your bile-ducts are part of your digestive system.

[Big Fresh]

Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda (whom I know nothing about) are jointly running the company, temporarily. And Miyamoto is rumored to be the front runner to get the job permanently. Personally, I'd rather see someone from completely outside Nintendo come in to course-correct. Plus, I think all Nintendo fans would rather see Miyamoto's time be spent making more games than running the company as a whole.

[MarcosLoura]

Sad.

 

RIP Iwata-san.

[Big Fresh]

Polygon has posted a timeline of Iwata's career:

www.polygon.com/features/2015/7/13/8940557/satoru-iwata-accomplishments-timeline-biography-life

[J.T.]

Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda (whom I know nothing about) are jointly running the company, temporarily. And Miyamoto is rumored to be the front runner to get the job permanently. Personally, I'd rather see someone from completely outside Nintendo come in to course-correct. Plus, I think all Nintendo fans would rather see Miyamoto's time be spent making more games than running the company as a whole.

 

Miyamoto is a great game designer but IMO part of Nntendo's problem is that game designers trying to be executives are making crappy calls. 

 

God love him, but Iwata-san was far too kind of a person to get his house in order with tough love.  The next head of Nintendo is going to have to reel in the troops and make business decisions while the creators get back to creating.

[Vincey Greene]

It's funny. What Nintendo needs to do for business is make a huge deal with Sony and become more or less a second party dev for them on consoles. Which will never ever ever happen.

Microsoft seems like a great idea but I think it would torpedo them in Japan.

[Big Fresh]

The Japanese market is moving more and more away from consoles and dedicated gaming handhelds all the time anyway, so I'm not sure they should worry too much about it. Even the PS4 isn't killing it over there like it is here. I guess they could potentially hurt sales of their upcoming mobile games, but I really doubt it.

EDIT: Why not both as a 3rd Party Developer?

[Brian Fowler]

PS4 might not be dominating in Japan, but the XBone is dying there. Microsoft isn't even going to the big Tokyo video game show this year.

The X-Box has never been huge there, but this generation it's barely present. The Japan head of Microsoft resigned over it as well.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

o/` guess who regrets starting this topic o/`

[SirSmUgly]

Nintendo's diversifying their company. They get that they're dominating one rapidly shrinking market (dedicated handhelds) and are basically marginalized in the other (home consoles). Amiibo is a good foray into the toy/figurine/collectible market, and Iwata set up the DeNa deal for mobile and had some quality of life products baking in the figurative oven as well. 

 

I think we're going to see Nintendo's strategy be this: 

 

• Continue to dominate the dedicated handheld market. With no upcoming competition, they can focus on improving profit margins so that even if the numbers dip to, say, 25-30M buyers per handheld generation, they'll make a tidy profit.

 

• Look to keep home console manufacturing costs low, more Wii than WiiU, and try to find a new "blue ocean" using their withered tech strategy. They know that hitting on a Wii happens once every very few generations, but they can keep trying with each home console gen, and if they can lower manufacturing costs for their consoles appropriately, at the very least they can make a tidy profit on 10-15M sales WW while trying to find a new way to use older tech that will grab the imaginations of the masses like the Wii did.

 

• Expand toy/collectible market. I think they'll do this in part by tying Amiibo to the next console in a more thorough way now that they're not just introducing it midway through a console cycle. We'll probably get a Skylanders/Infinity-type game for Amiibo at launch (they really should have saved the "Nintendoland" name for that). 

 

• Work on QoL products and see if they can open up that market. 

 

• Try a mobile strategy that is more sustainable. Current mobile strategy is F2P with a structure that encourages a small amount of people to spend lots of money while most just play for free. Iwata said that he wanted the Nintendo mobile strategy to be the opposite; get many people to pay a very little. If Nintendo can pull this off, they have a huge new avenue to profit from. I don't know, though, because mobile gamers are conditioned to getting free shit. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo approaches this.

 

• Partner up to do some cool shit. I envision a partnership with Disney or Universal to have a Nintendo-based theme park section in a theme park run by one of those companies. Maybe test the waters for a Nintendo-run theme park of their own. 

[Ryan]

To be more specific for Jen:

Bile, required for the digestion of food, is secreted by the liver into passages that carry bile toward the hepatic duct, which joins with the cystic duct (carrying bile to and from the gallbladder) to form the common bile duct, which opens into the intestine.

Or as generic puroresu deaths would call it, stomach cancer, even though it's not.

 

And can we please leave any bashing of Iwata out of this thread? Speculation is fine, but leave the man's life be.

[Big Fresh]

PS4 might not be dominating in Japan, but the XBone is dying there. Microsoft isn't even going to the big Tokyo video game show this year.

The X-Box has never been huge there, but this generation it's barely present. The Japan head of Microsoft resigned over it as well.

Yeah, I know, the X-Box brand has never been a success in Japan. Not the original, the 360, or the One. But so what? You think if they put Mario games out on X-Box One here in America, the Japanese consumers would hold a grudge over it and not buy their mobile games there?

[Big Fresh]

To be more specific for Jen:

Bile, required for the digestion of food, is secreted by the liver into passages that carry bile toward the hepatic duct, which joins with the cystic duct (carrying bile to and from the gallbladder) to form the common bile duct, which opens into the intestine.

Or as generic puroresu deaths would call it, stomach cancer, even though it's not.

And can we please leave any bashing of Iwata out of this thread? Speculation is fine, but leave the man's life be.

No one is "bashing Iwata". But this is huge news and it's ok to talk about how this is going to effect Nintendo going forward and we'd all like them to not repeat mistakes of the past. You can acknowledge a man's mistakes (which Iwata made plenty of) without taking away your admiration or respect for the man. The good far outweighs the bad with Iwata, and not one person in here has said otherwise.