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Satoru Iwata became president of Nintendo last week when Hiroshi
Yamauchi resigned from the position after fifty-two years with the
firm. Iwata served as Director and General Manager of the Corporate
Planning Division of Nintendo for two years. Prior to joining
Nintendo, Iwata was President of Hal Laboratory, where he
coordinated software development and production of several Nintendo
games.
Iwata and Yamauchi recently discussed Nintendo's long-term vision at an analysts meeting in Tokyo. While Sony and Microsoft
attempt to broaden the game industry's direction into new areas, Nintendo's
strategy remains in the creation of innovative games to attract
customers. "For the past few years we've been looking for new
ways to surprise people, new ways for them to have fun."
Development of games, Yamauchi explained, is becoming more and more
time consuming and capital intensive. Nintendo is trying to decrease
development time without sacrificing quality.
The most profound detail to come from the meeting may have been
Nintendo's forecast that GameCube's installed base would near 50
million by March, 2005. Nintendo said it intends to manufacture 12
million GameCubes in this fiscal year. The firm anticipates a
considerable number of PlayStation 2 owners buying GameCube as a
second console.
Iwata also discussed the ever-improving technology of game consoles,
perhaps hinting at an expanding industry lifecycle. "We're
reaching the limits of how far we can appeal to consumers by
boosting the machines' performance or providing more compelling
graphics and sound... If things continue, they may lead to the
decline of the entire game industry."
Iwata went on to touch upon many of the subjects discussed at
Nintendo's E3 Expo Conference .
He reiterated Nintendo's focus on connectivity, cooperation,
innovation, and a continued apprehension towards pursuing online
games.
Nintendo's profits for the last
fiscal year were $850 million, up 10% from 2000. Hardware price
worries have depressed Nintendo's stock recently but the company's
real long-term "sense of crisis" is in a hypothetical
software price war. Iwata commented on Nintendo's immense cash
holdings of $7.25 billion explaining, "This is a high-risk
business. There may come a time when we would have to make intensive
investments."
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June
6, 2002 |
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Jim - News
Contributor, GameCubicle |
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