Over a year since Satoru Iwata took the reins at Nintendo from the lovable, if controversial, Hiroshi Yamauchi, the old man of gaming credited with inventing Nintendo as it stands today, is on the loose, talking of the Famicom’s 20th birthday and all gaming matters.
Speaking with the Nihon Keizai Shimbum, this may be his last interview for some time.
Speaking of the Famicom, or NES to me and you, and its looming double-decade anniversary, Yamauchi said, “Fortunately, many people have the chance to enjoy it. It became impossible to procure a fixed number of parts to continue manufacturing the console, so production will stop this year. Our intention however is to keep the Famicom alive. There were clearly masterpieces of software available for it, and we're examining how we can keep those titles alive with today's technology.”
His thoughts on Sony’s PSP handheld are characteristically frank. Yamauchi makes perhaps the best single-paragraph comment on the machine we’ve seen to date. “Sony's PSP isn't expected to hit the market until late 2004, and there's still many unknown details about it. There have been analysts who think Nintendo has a monopoly over the handheld market and Sony may be able to break it - I don't think they understand the game business. New product competition in this industry is important. Although Nintendo's core business is software, having another hardware developer will allow us to judge the superiority or inferiority of our machine. But software for both machines will be much different, and it would be a mistake to consider them in direct competition.”
Then, on the eternal question about the differences in taste between Japanese and western gamers, Yamauchi said, “There have always been differences between players in Asia and those in North America and Europe, and I think those differences are becoming more clear. Sales of GameCube software fell short in North America and Europe last year, and I believe that's due to the popularity of violent games on other consoles. The culture of Japan is much different and less accepting of such titles. Our target market is the entire world, so it's very difficult to develop software that appeals to everyone - and that's the lifeline of our business. That's why it's hard to achieve success in America and Europe for Japanese developers, even the most talented ones.”
As ever, it’s great to hear from the Nintendo stalwart. We’ll keep you updated on how he fares and anything he says as time marches forward.
Speaking with the Nihon Keizai Shimbum, this may be his last interview for some time.
Speaking of the Famicom, or NES to me and you, and its looming double-decade anniversary, Yamauchi said, “Fortunately, many people have the chance to enjoy it. It became impossible to procure a fixed number of parts to continue manufacturing the console, so production will stop this year. Our intention however is to keep the Famicom alive. There were clearly masterpieces of software available for it, and we're examining how we can keep those titles alive with today's technology.”
His thoughts on Sony’s PSP handheld are characteristically frank. Yamauchi makes perhaps the best single-paragraph comment on the machine we’ve seen to date. “Sony's PSP isn't expected to hit the market until late 2004, and there's still many unknown details about it. There have been analysts who think Nintendo has a monopoly over the handheld market and Sony may be able to break it - I don't think they understand the game business. New product competition in this industry is important. Although Nintendo's core business is software, having another hardware developer will allow us to judge the superiority or inferiority of our machine. But software for both machines will be much different, and it would be a mistake to consider them in direct competition.”
Then, on the eternal question about the differences in taste between Japanese and western gamers, Yamauchi said, “There have always been differences between players in Asia and those in North America and Europe, and I think those differences are becoming more clear. Sales of GameCube software fell short in North America and Europe last year, and I believe that's due to the popularity of violent games on other consoles. The culture of Japan is much different and less accepting of such titles. Our target market is the entire world, so it's very difficult to develop software that appeals to everyone - and that's the lifeline of our business. That's why it's hard to achieve success in America and Europe for Japanese developers, even the most talented ones.”
As ever, it’s great to hear from the Nintendo stalwart. We’ll keep you updated on how he fares and anything he says as time marches forward.
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