Hiroshi Yamauchi On Nintendo's Future

Posted by simoniker on Friday February 13, 2004 @05:29PM from the get-off-my-lawn dept.

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.")

1 of 65 comments (clear)

Heh, Good ol' Yamauchi by Locky · 2004-02-13 18:21 · Score: 1, Troll

This guy's brilliance is only surpassed by his arrogance.

One of his better quotes in the mid 90s was something along the lines of

'I could shut this industry down by next week'

Having said that, it was under his direction that led to the massive success of both the NES and the SNES. He became arrogant and somewhat senile during his later days at Nintendo.