Nintendo's President Hopes To Avoid 'Return to Arrogance'

Today Newsweek's N'Gai Croal has up an interview originally held back at E3, speaking with current President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata. The piece is an interesting look inside one of the top minds at a company that has experienced unprecedented success in the last year. In the interview, Iwata states that one of his most important tasks right now is to avoid allowing the company to appear arrogant. Just because people now assume Nintendo will succeed, he needs to make sure that's not the company's view as well. "This time, we were very lucky and very fortunate that people were accepting and positive about the introduction of the Wii Balance Board and the Wii Zapper. Now, what we have to do, what's very important for us is to make sure that when those products are actually launched, we not only meet their expectations, but we surpass them so there's that gap--we thought it was going to be this, when actually it's here. We need to create that buzz. We need to create that word of mouth and that's our challenge."

Comments

Memo to all third-party developers:

[meringuoid]

Don't worry guys. Even though we're back on top, we're not going to try to make you all our bitches like in the old days. You can feel safe developing for Wii and have nothing to fear from us.

Signed, Grand High Ultimate Iwata-sama-daioh.

Seriously, though, it's good news. If you remember what the old Nintendo were like, you'd see Sony and Microsoft's evil pale in comparison. They've had plenty of time to repent in the meantime, of course.

Re:Memo to all third-party developers:

[niola]

Exactly! All you have to say is 10NES to know how hardcore Nintendo was at controlling things

Re:Memo to all third-party developers:

[Incoherent07]

That crap has far more production value than the crap Nintendo was trying to avoid.

Re:Memo to all third-party developers:

[Opportunist]

Hoo, boy, you haven't been playing in the 80s if you consider the junk made by EA true crap. EA games may keep you interested for 2 weeks or so, but that's at least 2 weeks of entertainment you get for your 60 bucks.

In the 80s, there were games that didn't provide 2 hours of entertainment for that money.

Re:Memo to all third-party developers:

[steveo777]

Riiight.. I don't see how people could hold the 10NES against Nintendo. They used it (albeit mainly) to keep crapware off their systems. Yeah, they also wanted to capitalize as much as possible, but if they hadn't, do you really think Nintendo would have had the same success? There's a good chance there would have been a lot of junk that gave Nintendo a bad name and ran it into the ground.

Most the 3rd parties still made gobs of money and are still existing in one form or another. Nintendo went on to create more great systems and games (yes, even the N64... Virtual Boy? not so much).

Re:Memo to all third-party developers:

[gameboyhippo]

Yeah, if only Christian games were half as good as contemporary Christian music (P.O.D, Lifehouse, etc...)

Re:Memo to all third-party developers:

[drcagn]

Anyone who lived through the NES era will know that this is not true. The NES is second only to the PSONE in terms of the "If you build it, they will come" mentality. Suffice it to say it was all about making money. Wikipedia has a some good details you might be interested in reading. The "Nintendo Seal of Quality" didn't mean much about how good a game was (in terms of "fun"). All it meant was that Nintendo was paid their license fee.

Anyone who lived through the Atari era will know that every game on NES was gold compared to the amount of steaming shit that was put out for the 2600. Comparatively, the NES had great quality control.

Still not listening...

[Hamster Lover]

As successful as the Wii has been, Nintendo still hasn't listened in regards to the on-line experience, which to say is nothing less than pathetic. The fact that Nintendo is steadfastly committed to the ridiculous and unwieldy "friend code" system for multiplayer games while the 360 and PS3 maintain a more workable and sensible system is probably the best example. That and the fact that just about a year after launch there are no compelling on-line games tell me that Nintendo isn't taking the Internet seriously.

"Mii Parade" and weather updates aren't going to cut it as an on-line experience these days.

Re:Still not listening... or to who?

[WillAffleckUW]

Not listening to you, maybe.

They're listening to me just fine: If I want online play, I'll play WoW. I have zero interest in online from my console, and I want them to spend that money instead on things I do want.

Hmmm. I also play WoW online, but I think they are listening to me about how to do online.

I like the idea of having to know someone's friend code to be able to talk with them online, and to visit their Animal Crossing II for the Wii village or their My Sims for the Wii village.

One thing I really hate are spammers and shock-jocks and curse monkeys online. If it means that I only play with friends - or at least go to a test area and make sure they are ok before I exchange friend codes with them - I am all for that.

Re:Still not listening... or to who?

[rjung2k]

+1 to WillAffeckUW -- unlike the grandparent post, some of us are parents who are glad that Nintendo is making it harder for my family to get harangued by foul-mouthed 10-year-olds who think drawing penises is the height of comedy. Entering a friend code once is a minor inconvenience in comparison to dealing with the endless supply of twits who show up on XBox Live.