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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.")
Does it have two sets of controls or not?
If it does, it has the smack-your-head obvious advantage of being a portable multiplayer device; with only one unit and one game, you can play with your friends.
If not....well, I'm sure that people will come up with ways to use multi-screen in a single-player fashion.
As a longtime N fan, I have to say, this guy's an idiot. I haven't read the article yet, I'm just saying. This is the man who dismissed internet gaming as a fad, and who is possibly a significant part of the reason that GameCube lags so much in that respect. He also, supposedly, doesn't like kids. Luckily the people around him were always up to their eyeballs in genius. I'm glad he's gone.
- The first time I saw it, I thought "?", then when reading the specs, that turned into "!"
I predict the DS will be the next Virtual Boy.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
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.
No shit. I wonder if he has a picture of the guy who headed the Virtual Boy's development sitting on his desk to remind him every day.
-my other sig is your mom
I am sorry but this guy would not be working in any other company in the world. 76 year old, how can you trust grandpa to make decisions about the future of a video game company. No wonder Nintendo is in the deep hole for years.
Just wait for Sony's PSP. Nintendo's handheld division will be up against some real competition.
I've been a Nintendo supporter for a long time(not quite fanboy status yet) and some of the things they do and say just boggles my mind. They fail to realize that people actually do like to play games online. They also fail to realize that people are going to buy the latest and greatest system, so the Big N can't just close their eyes to the fact that better and better hardware will sell.
I don't buy that at all (though I tend not to believe Yamauchi). I saw an insightful post on slashdot a while back which suggested that this was designed to cut into PSP market share only. That, and it's not designed to replace the GBA, and it won't because it's more expensive and has a smaller library. Nintendo can still do fine off the GBA/GC whether or not the DS takes off.
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)
I think this sumarizes both sides of the argument fairly well. It doesn't look to be a profitable market area; not yet at least. Nintendo's gotten more out of the Link Cable via Pokemon.
Let me get this straight:
(1) There are very few game ideas that work well with two screens.
(2) It will be difficult to program the hardware (symetric multiprocessor systems are inherently difficult to work with because of the syncronisation issues). Developers coming from the GameBoy will have a bewildering learning curve.
(3) The Sony PSP is launching in the same timeframe, with one fast processor (instead of two slow ones) and one larger screen (instead of two small ones).
(4) Cost. The Gameboy Advance SP is one of the best buys in videogaming history. It's an excellent machine: brilliant screen, great controls, fantastic design... and killer price (under $100) which made it affordable by almost anyone. With the twin hardware I can't see the DS being under $200.. and it will probably be priced up at $300 or so to match the price point of the PSP. But at $300 it's outside the price range of their target market (kids).
Translation: Dead. On. Arrival.
I think the Nintendo DS will make the N-Gage look like the 2nd coming of Christ.
Playstation was cool, it was mature, it was the toy that the young kids wanted because the older kids were interested in it. That's what helped the Playstation 1 to win, that's what will help the PSP to win. Nobody wants games about plumbers who have turtle problems anymore. The Mario franchise (and also most Nintendo games) is the equivalent of a 90 year movie star who just can't understand why the kids of today hate him because he made some great talkies back in the 1930s. Nintendo: Retire your game franchises already, treat your 3rd party developers as nicely as Sony does - and come up with some new game ideas.
The DS is in it's own class.
The GBA's successor (With at least a 320x240 screen) is going to compete the with PSP, not the DS.
first post!!! you lame assholes... I can post first because my XBox is a american product and my pride in my great country and my great XBox accelerate everything...
If only they would make games for that bitch... IAve played Metroid Prime and it ruled... I hope M$ will buy those japanese bastards and port Metroid to my great american console system!!!
God thanks the XBox is build in China. I don't wanna have fellow cowboys assembling my precious XBox.
Join the fun!!!
I'm quite intrigued about the possibilities for the DS. I can quite see that a couple of killer apps will come out on it, and if so I will definitely buy one.
I can see a game like Splinter Cell, where you could put a camera in a hallway and watch it on one screen, whilst performing a task on the other screen.
Or threaded roleplay games, where two sides of the story are playing out, one on each screen. You alternately play a part in each story, and watch the repurcussions of your actions on the other thread of the story.
As usual, Nintendo are actually trying to do something interesting rather just produce the 'best' console.
hah...
Nintendo Dianetics-Scientology?
I'd just like to say that I'm massively excited about the DS, and completely support Nintendo trying to actually revolutionise gaming.
Pessimistic overreaction.
How could there be such a moronic response to such a great post? Ever hear of something called "Game n' Watch"? Look it up.
Now, a detachable-screened, two-player-in-one-unit system that could also serve as a dual-screened one-player system would be revolutionary. Great idea, grandparent poster. Two screens is not. Fuck you, parent poster.
Actually, he said that Nintendo would be crushed if the DS failed, not that Nintendo would fall to hell. (The heaven part is correct, though, so it sounds much better in English to use a heaven/hell comparison, which is why that's how the quote is given in some translations).
I highly doubt that Nintendo is banking all of it's billions of dollars on the DS. What I'm pretty sure Yamauchi meant when he said that was that if the DS is a success, Nintendo will have finally openned up a new realm for gaming, a new dimension to be exploited for years to come. If it fails, Nintendo will be heartbroken, because it will show that innovation no longer sells: that franchise sequels with technological pizazz are the meat of the gaming industry, that all gamers will ever want are the same old, same old. If the DS fails, then innovation fails. The industry is already practically at a technological peak. If the DS can't shake things up, then the industry will become stale, flooded with Final Fantasy XXXXXs and Madden 2080s that will be the only games that sell.
I believe in Yamauchi, I believe in Nintendo. And by god, if the DS fails, then I, like Yamauchi, like Miyamoto, like Nintendo, will be heartbroken. The industry needs to be taken in a new direction: the DS needs to shake it up.