Slashdot Mirror
Hiroshi Yamauchi On Nintendo's Future
Thanks to 1UP for its article covering a new interview with former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, as he discusses the recently announced DS portable and the state of Nintendo as a whole. In particular, the article notes: "The DS represents a critical moment for Nintendo's success over the next two years, Yamauchi said -- 'if it succeeds, we rise to the heavens, if it fails, we sink into hell.' His hope, and Nintendo's mission, is to spread new gameplay through this device and re-energize the games market in both Japan and the rest of the world." Apparently, it was the 76-year-old Yamauchi "...who first proposed the concept of games employing a dual-screen device about 18 months ago", and elsewhere, Game Science has coverage of largely enthusiastic comments from Japanese developers on the DS, ranging from the positive ("It's exciting hardware for both makers and users) to the guarded ("A machine with two screens is going to be quite a high hurdle for developers to get over.")
Online console gaming represents a very small fraction of the market. Nintendo isn't missing out, they're waiting to see if it takes off, and to see which billing method works best.
You mean Gunpei Yokoi, who not only pioneered the Gameboy and the Virtuay Boy, but created such series as Metroid and Kid Icarus. He died in a car accident after having to quit Nintendo in shame over the Virtual Boy debacle.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
A couple of people have said that Yamauchi and/or Nintendo's desicions boggle the mind - the fact is they should (and perhaps shouldn't; the man's had a history of being crazy like a fox - anyone remember him talking smack about the Sony president?). Yamauchi isn't known as Mother Brain for nothing - he is a bizarre combination of loud mouth crank and brilliant businessman. He took a hanafuda company into the player in the a high tech industry.
Though he's (thankfully) retired, I'm sure he's pulling strings behind the scens
A GREAT look into Yamauchi and Nintendo's corporate culture is David Scheff's Game Over, which has a lot of in-depth history on Nintendo as a company.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
The DS is in it's own class.
The GBA's successor (With at least a 320x240 screen) is going to compete the with PSP, not the DS.