Iwata gazes into the face of madness

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Nintendo shareholder hates games, says stupid things -Destructoid

A Nintendo shareholder recently declared videogames a waste of time and reprimanded president Satoru Iwata for not giving Wii Fit to Tohoku earthquake victims.



"I’m concerned about the falling stock price. I own stock, but I don’t own a single Nintendo product," said the shareholder. "I believe games are a waste of time. By the way, the reason I own Nintendo stock is because the name is nice, it’s in Kyoto and it was listed in the year of my birth."


Iwata responded politely: "There are people in this world who don’t feel that games are a waste of time, so Nintendo continues to exist. We’d like to eliminate the thinking that playing games by yourself is negative, or when there’s a crime you immediately tie it into games. We’d like to raise the social importance of games. We’re working to expand the gaming population, yourself included."


The shareholder then retorted with the greatest non sequitur I've read today: "During the Tohoku earthquake disaster, I believe people in the evacuation centers were lacking in exercise. Why didn’t you bring Wii Fit to them? Why didn’t you show off to the media that you’re doing more for the victims?"


Absolutely fantastic.

What I like about this is that Iwata had a calm, eloquent reply that speaks from his heart as a game designer first and the CEO second.

The shareholder, on the other hand, seems like a person that needs a lot of money taken off of his hands because when you live in a state of arbitrary logic like he does as an investor, you don't deserve your money. Really, who buys stock on a company because they like the name, its where they live and it was founded the same year you were born.

I don't think he was around when Nintendo was a card company over a hundred years ago, but I digress.

I will say, however, I do wish Reggie Fils-Aimie would step down as NOA president. There are three great games made in part by Nintendo that he seems to have no interest in publishing, to which I'm referring:

The Last Story
Xenoblade
Pandora's Tower

I don't care how niche they are. Either license them out to Atlus and Xseed or publish them yourself. Hell, give it to Atlus USA, I'm sure they'd love to humiliate another platform-holder this generation.

Seriously, what is it with NOA and SCEA - what is up their asses. Why do they go so far to presume what I want? Nintendo should promote someone from Retro Studios to president - at least those guys know what gamers want. That and it would be consistent with Iwata, who came form game design and Miyamoto, who's really just an artist at heart.

Reggie is a suit through and through, as I heard someone else say today, if he can't sell it to talk show hosts, he just assumes we don't want it.

Anyway, I think I'll be joining Operation Rainfall in a relentless snail mail assault on Reggie's inbox.

Granted, NOA didn't say "never" to any of those games, just "no plans at this time" to publish them.

Still, what the hell else do they have for Wii besides Zelda: Skyward Sword. I get its a transition period and they're essentially juggling four platforms right now, but even so. If they're not going to publish, what's the harm in letting Atlus USA or someone else take a crack at it?

OK, that turned into a rant, but whatever. In summary:

- Iwata is awesome.
- Shareholders are crazy
- Reggie is a dick.

[Malacite]

Re: Iwata gazes into the face of madness

Agreed on all 3 of those points. What a tool.

Only thing missing from this story is Shigeru.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Iwata gazes into the face of madness

I think a "god dammit Japan" is in order.

[Etra]

Re: Iwata gazes into the face of madness

I think a "god dammit Japan" is in order.

Why only Japan? Doesn't the CEO of Activision have the same (general) opinion of video games?

[Malacite]

Re: Iwata gazes into the face of madness

Bobby Kotick, and he's on his own level.

I'll never understand how Blizzard felt the need to let Activision acquire them out of fears of financial security... WoW wasn't nearly as big then as it is now, but they still had a damn solid base back then.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Iwata gazes into the face of madness

Why only Japan? Doesn't the CEO of Activision have the same (general) opinion of video games?

It was more in reference to the investor.