Former chairman Yamauchi sticks oar in over Nintendo future
Outspoken as ever, Yamauchi makes headlines
Following a tempestuous week for Nintendo, culminating in a fierce PR fire fight, former company chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi made some incredibly frank comments in an interview with Japanese daily the Nikkei Keizai Shimbun.
"We plan to show the successor to the GC at next year's E3, even though typical gamers aren't demanding high specs," he said, underlining the GameCube successor's unveiling plans for the LA show. "The people who call it the "next generation" are people who don't know games," he somewhat mystically continued, perhaps hinting that the GameCube has much more to give in the coming years.
However, the best quote from the interview has to be about the recently announced Nintendo Dual Screen, or NDS as it has been cannily dubbed. "The next two years will decide Nintendo's fate," stated Yamauchi, echoing the openly expressed thoughts of analysts the world over. Dramatically, he continued, "If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven. But if it fails, we will sink into hell."
More frank stuff as ever from Yamauchi. In another joint interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in the same publication, Yamauchi spoke in more detail on the tasks faced by the company in the medium term. "The GameCube price reduction was unavoidable due to the competition. The videogame business has matured in recent years and gone in a completely different direction that I envisioned. The Nintendo DS was something I thought up a year and a half ago, and management is focused on bringing it to the market. If it's successful, I think it will reactivate the Japanese market and that's Nintendo's mission. At E3 Expo next year the company will introduce its next-generation console. So the company is entering a critical phase in its history in the next two years."
"We plan to show the successor to the GC at next year's E3, even though typical gamers aren't demanding high specs," he said, underlining the GameCube successor's unveiling plans for the LA show. "The people who call it the "next generation" are people who don't know games," he somewhat mystically continued, perhaps hinting that the GameCube has much more to give in the coming years.
However, the best quote from the interview has to be about the recently announced Nintendo Dual Screen, or NDS as it has been cannily dubbed. "The next two years will decide Nintendo's fate," stated Yamauchi, echoing the openly expressed thoughts of analysts the world over. Dramatically, he continued, "If the DS succeeds, we will rise to heaven. But if it fails, we will sink into hell."
More frank stuff as ever from Yamauchi. In another joint interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in the same publication, Yamauchi spoke in more detail on the tasks faced by the company in the medium term. "The GameCube price reduction was unavoidable due to the competition. The videogame business has matured in recent years and gone in a completely different direction that I envisioned. The Nintendo DS was something I thought up a year and a half ago, and management is focused on bringing it to the market. If it's successful, I think it will reactivate the Japanese market and that's Nintendo's mission. At E3 Expo next year the company will introduce its next-generation console. So the company is entering a critical phase in its history in the next two years."
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