Exclusive Details: Iwata Steps Into Developer Breach as Miyamoto Focus Drive Continues
Confirming reports from this year, Iwata fills gap.
Satoru Iwata
You may remember that we brought you exclusive news from Nintendo Japan earlier this year that spoke of Miyamoto’s development responsibilities being dramatically slashed in order to remain focused on certain core projects.
This has now been confirmed, with the shock news that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has taken charge of all developer relationships moving forward.
At this year's E3, Iwata told our source that he was “...aware that things needed to be improved...” and that “...Nintendo has so much more to offer to developers right now than in recent times. It is of great importance that this message is passed across properly, so I have taken personal responsibility for managing and building developers that work with us on all platforms.”
This news came from one of Iwata’s few E3 interviews with Western media on the second day of the Los Angeles conference and builds on the news coming directly from global head of PR, Yasuhiro Minagawa. He revealed to us earlier this year that Miyamoto’s role would be dramatically slashed as key product deadlines came into view.
Whether Iwata’s focus will be on expanding developer support across the industry, or managing and maintaining current relationships, remains to be seen. Iwata is the one with the power to adjust Nintendo’s third-party loyalty structure, believed by almost every analyst to be the final hurdle in Nintendo’s decade-long battle to rebuild relationships akin to those enjoyed when the SNES was in its heyday.
Stay tuned for more updates as they break.
This has now been confirmed, with the shock news that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has taken charge of all developer relationships moving forward.
At this year's E3, Iwata told our source that he was “...aware that things needed to be improved...” and that “...Nintendo has so much more to offer to developers right now than in recent times. It is of great importance that this message is passed across properly, so I have taken personal responsibility for managing and building developers that work with us on all platforms.”
This news came from one of Iwata’s few E3 interviews with Western media on the second day of the Los Angeles conference and builds on the news coming directly from global head of PR, Yasuhiro Minagawa. He revealed to us earlier this year that Miyamoto’s role would be dramatically slashed as key product deadlines came into view.
Whether Iwata’s focus will be on expanding developer support across the industry, or managing and maintaining current relationships, remains to be seen. Iwata is the one with the power to adjust Nintendo’s third-party loyalty structure, believed by almost every analyst to be the final hurdle in Nintendo’s decade-long battle to rebuild relationships akin to those enjoyed when the SNES was in its heyday.
Stay tuned for more updates as they break.
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Comments
animegt 18 May 2004 22:25
1/2
Nintendo will eventually get that third party support it lacks at the moment, but im sure that nintendo's next gen console will be at least twice as thrilling as the DS was to a whole bunch of developers when it was shown to them for the first time.
Joji 20 May 2004 12:19
2/2
Change is needed at NHQ, so this is good news. There's a few old foggies in there somewhere who still need to go. Iwata seems to have his head screwed on, lets hope he delivers.