Should Iwata Resign?

Discuss.

Is he to be blamed for the current lacking home console performance?

Is he right to say no changes are needed at Nintendo?

Are there other models that might suit Nintendo's policies/or new strategies you feel Nintendo should embark on for further success and opportunities?

No.

Look at what happened with Square Enix when they got rid of their CEO and replaced him. The CEO, in an effort to please investors, went straight to mobile.

Situations such as this would occur if Iwata leaves.

Yes, the Wii U is a mess and the 3DS had a rocky start, but Iwata can sort it out.

I just feel that we shouldn't try to get rid of the one CEO left who actually truly cares about the games and consumers. This is a man who saw that they could microtransact Animal Crossing and make a fair bit of money, but chose not to. This is a man who mandates that any DLC done by his developers is conceived of and developed after launch.

He may not be "with the times", but the current times suck for games and how publishers treat the consumer.

He has admitted there are issuesand has been planning things to fix it. 2013 featured the biggest expansion of Nintendo ever. They funnelled 23 billion yen further into R&D and marketing, as well as a new building and hiring a load of staff. They're also going to reveal a whole new strategy very soon. Give him a chance to fix the mess. He has earned it.

Discuss.

 

Is he to be blamed for the current lacking home console performance?

 

Is he right to say no changes are needed at Nintendo?

 

Are there other models that might suit Nintendo's policies/or new strategies you feel Nintendo should embark on for further success and opportunities?

He is to blame, that much is certain. I mean he's in charge, right?

When did he say no changes are needed? He's openly admitted that Nintendo can't continue the way they have been operating and something needs to change.

As for the main question I would have to say no, he shouldn't resign. The guy deserves a chance to turn things around and it's not going to happen over night either.

Changes need to be made but getting rid of Iwata is not one of them.

It's too early to call the wii u a complete failure , it needs another year and I think 2014 can be a big success . It also needs a proper e3 live show and lots of surprises, needs Iwata to make some bold statements and also give Reggie much more power as I bet he knows how the company could improve for the watern market but he is a puppet at the end of the day .

The lack of steady titles throughout 2013 was a huge blow, I think that (along with the obvious lack of advertising) was the main reason the Wii U failed.

Look at LEGO City, that managed to sell an impressive 240k because it was released in March, Wii U owners were still clearly very interested in the system and wanted more games, but as time went by people stopped caring and sales dipped and it basically faded into obscurity. (sorry for the and and and, I'm tired :P)

How can he let that happen? He should have made sure that things such as the Scribblenauts delay and Rayman multiplat situation didn't happen, even if he had to throw money around.

Saying that, he shouldn't retire. He was the head of the company for the Wii and DS days, some of the most successful Nintendo systems (and systems in general) in history. I think people forget that.

EDIT: I also think not being at E3 was a LOT more damaging than people think. Really sent out the wrong message IMO and led to a lack of hype for the reveal of Mario Kart/Smash. Imagine the audience reaction to the Mega Man reveal, instead it was just a very formal Iwata in a suit.

I don't think he needs to resign, I just think Nintendo need a bit of an internal shake-up, and to hire a more varied managers - having a few new young "western" managers could do them a load of good.

He doesn't need to resign, but he is fully responsible for the WiiU not selling as well as it should. The issue lies with the ideas that are in place. Games for the WiiU and 3DS which are months old still being charged at full price (aka £34.99, £49.99) this far down the line. I mean with Microsoft and Sony titles, the games are reduced after a month or two in price.

Maybe changing the prices on games would be beneficial as well, and maybe reducing the cost of WiiU games to £40 each would help a bit.

EDIT: I also think not being at E3 was a LOT more damaging than people think. Really sent out the wrong message IMO and led to a lack of hype for the reveal of Mario Kart/Smash. Imagine the audience reaction to the Mega Man reveal, instead it was just a very formal Iwata in a suit.

That still hurts to this day. That reveal would have been AMAZING with a live crowd. I mean, just look at this.

I was essentially like number 8, but without the swearing.

Wasn't there a huge backlash after Nintendo's E3 presentation? Personally I was really happy with it but there was so much whinging and moaning about Mario and Donkey Kong that a live presentation may have made things even worse.

No.

 

Look at what happened with Square Enix when they got rid of their CEO and replaced him. The CEO, in an effort to please investors, went straight to mobile.

 

Situations such as this would occur if Iwata leaves.

 

Yes, the Wii U is a mess and the 3DS had a rocky start, but Iwata can sort it out.

 

I just feel that we shouldn't try to get rid of the one CEO left who actually truly cares about the games and consumers. This is a man who saw that they could microtransact Animal Crossing and make a fair bit of money, but chose not to. This is a man who mandates that any DLC done by his developers is conceived of and developed after launch.

 

He may not be "with the times", but the current times suck for games and how publishers treat the consumer.

 

He has admitted there are issuesand has been planning things to fix it. 2013 featured the biggest expansion of Nintendo ever. They funnelled 23 billion yen further into R&D and marketing, as well as a new building and hiring a load of staff. They're also going to reveal a whole new strategy very soon. Give him a chance to fix the mess. He has earned it.

Want to share that crystal ball you have.

So because it happened at SE that means the same thing will happen @ Nintendo? You don’t this for sure at all. The idea that Iwata should stay as anyone else will automatically be worse is a flawed argument as we just don’t know this.

As for the argument that he truly cares about games and consumers anymore than someone else I’ll ask you this. Does region locking hardware benefit consumers? Was the 3DS launch price beneficial to consumers? Does consumers having to repurchase downloaded software they have already paid for benefit consumers?

How about the unnecessary hike in prices for 3DS games compares to DS games?

Iwata is no different from any other CEO where his primary concern and goal is to make the company money. While the way he goes about that task may differ from someone else that is his role.

Your claim the current times suck for games and how publishers treat consumers is purely subjective.

It's too early to call the wii u a complete failure , it needs another year and I think 2014 can be a big success . It also needs a proper e3 live show and lots of surprises, needs Iwata to make some bold statements and also give Reggie much more power as I bet he knows how the company could improve for the western market but he is a puppet at the end of the day.

It is a total failure. The numbers do not lie and for it to be a big success is similar to asking the Dreamcast to do a complete 180 in 2000/2001. It just wasn’t possible and the Wii U is the same position.

I think he should resign. The company would have made a loss 3 years in a row, the Wii U is nothing short of a commercial disaster, he botched the 3DS launch and managed to do the same thing again with the Wii U. He ignores the core gamer and is more interested in gimmicks than producing hardware which people actually want.

His done nothing to improve Nintendo’s relationships with third parties and continues to treat them with little importance when in reality they are vital for your hardware to sell.

Under Iwata Nintendo made tons of money from the DS & Wii. Unfortuantly they never used that money to launch themselves back into the mindstate of gamers. No foresight and purchase studios? No foresight into the difficulties HD development could bring and the time and resources it will need?

Want to share that crystal ball you have.

 

So because it happened at SE that means the same thing will happen @ Nintendo? You don’t this for sure at all. The idea that Iwata should stay as anyone else will automatically be worse is a flawed argument as we just don’t know this.

 

As for the argument that he truly cares about games and consumers anymore than someone else I’ll ask you this. Does region locking hardware benefit consumers? Was the 3DS launch price beneficial to consumers? Does consumers having to repurchase downloaded software they have already paid for benefit consumers?

 

How about the unnecessary hike in prices for 3DS games compares to DS games?

 

Iwata is no different from any other CEO where his primary concern and goal is to make the company money. While the way he goes about that task may differ from someone else that is his role.

 

Your claim the current times suck for games and how publishers treat consumers is purely subjective.

Well, it is conjecture yes. However, it's logical conjecture. Struggling company. Investors wanting a particular thing. New CEO comes in. Of course it will happen.

Region locking doesn't benefit or hinder consumers. The people it affects are a vocal minority. Should Nintendo remove it? Absolutely. Does it hinder sales? No. The 3DS launch price was a mis-step, yes, but it wasn't them trying to be asses. It was them trying to, funnily enough, turn a profit with their hardware.

Also, the "price hike" was not "un-necessary". Unwise? Perhaps. Un-necessary? No. It's just like all generational price hikes. Look at Xbox One and PS4 RRPs, higher than PS3/360 ones. Why? INCREASED BUDGETS. For them to make the same amount of money they would have, they need to increase the price to further account for that increase. Just because we don't like it does not mean it's un-necessary.

Yes, Iwata's job and aim is to make the company money, but what I'm saying is that he doesn't do it by means of screwing the consumer.

Having seen the quotes(which I presume to be accurate) of his repeated promises of each generation saying about keeping momentum and avoiding droubts, actually referencing the previous systems failures then failing with the next; I think something definitely has to change. Is that the position of CEO? Not neccessarily. There's not telling what a new CEO might do, and if they might make things worse, and I'm not fully educated or aware of who would be the ideal candidates for taking his place. If he was to be replaced, who's likely in line to do so?

Well, it is conjecture yes. However, it's logical conjecture. Struggling company. Investors wanting a particular thing. New CEO comes in. Of course it will happen.

 

Region locking doesn't benefit or hinder consumers. The people it affects are a vocal minority. Should Nintendo remove it? Absolutely. Does it hinder sales? No. The 3DS launch price was a mis-step, yes, but it wasn't them trying to be asses. It was them trying to, funnily enough, turn a profit with their hardware.

 

Also, the "price hike" was not "un-necessary". Unwise? Perhaps. Un-necessary? No. It's just like all generational price hikes. Look at Xbox One and PS4 RRPs, higher than PS3/360 ones. Why? INCREASED BUDGETS. For them to make the same amount of money they would have, they need to increase the price to further account for that increase. Just because we don't like it does not mean it's un-necessary.

 

Yes, Iwata's job and aim is to make the company money, but what I'm saying is that he doesn't do it by means of screwing the consumer.

Region locking is BS and there no excused for it. Its absurd that they still havent patched the 3DS to take it away. It is screwing over the consumers who want to import software.

The 3DS launch price was way more than tying to turn a profit. From what I remember when a site did a teardown they came a figure of $101 to manufacture. The 3DS launched at $250. Now if Nintendo could of sold it at that price then good luck to them, I am not criticising Iwata for that as like I said his job is to make the company money and to try and paint him as someone who puts the consumer first when making these decisions is kinda false.

Consumers keep saying they want a standard account system like you see elsewhere and Nintendo give us a shared wallet.

Handheld software pricing is not the same. I get budgets may of increased but the software prices cant keep getting higher unless you believe come the next handheld it would be fine to sell handheld games for £35- £40. Good luck with that as people wont buy handheld software for at those prices just like the current 3DS pricing model for games isnt working.

Look at Xbox One and PS4 RRPs, higher than PS3/360 ones. Why? INCREASED BUDGETS.

I'd say that the main reason is inflation. If you take the PS3/360 game RRP (from launch when the 360 launched) and add inflation it comes to an RRP of £63.23.

I'd say that the main reason is inflation. If you take the PS3/360 game RRP (from launch when the 360 launched) and add inflation it comes to an RRP of £63.23.

Well yeah, that too. That didn't cross my mind.

Region locking is BS and there no excused for it. Its absurd that they still havent patched the 3DS to take it away. It is screwing over the consumers who want to import software.

 

The 3DS launch price was way more than tying to turn a profit. From what I remember when a site did a teardown they came a figure of $101 to manufacture. The 3DS launched at $250. Now if Nintendo could of sold it at that price then good luck to them, I am not criticising Iwata for that as like I said his job is to make the company money and to try and paint him as someone who puts the consumer first when making these decisions is kinda false.

 

Consumers keep saying they want a standard account system like you see elsewhere and Nintendo give us a shared wallet.

 

Handheld software pricing is not the same. I get budgets may of increased but the software prices cant keep getting higher unless you believe come the next handheld it would be fine to sell handheld games for £35- £40. Good luck with that as people wont buy handheld software for at those prices just like the current 3DS pricing model for games isnt working.

After the 3DS's price cut, it was being sold at a considerable loss. Its price cut took it to $170. This damaged their financials. The innards being $101 was likely wrong, but that's not the issue. A console's costs are far more than just the sum of their parts.

Also, yes, I agree that handheld pricing is not the same, but that's the logic that occurred. Higher budgets + inflation as @Cube mentioned = higher cost of product. We may not like it, but that's how it is.

I've said it before that I like Iwata and I don't want to see him forced out or resign. It's not Japanese business practice to do this anyway. He's had as much success as failure. No, he's had a lot more success in monetary terms but in public perception well Gamecube wasn't great, 3DS made a lot of mistakes and continued that and actually did things worse with Wii U. He deserves more time to sort out the Wii U, don't think it'll happen. God himself couldn't fix it and putting someone else in there wouldn't be fair on them and won't change it, it would probably add more fuel to the fire. It's a catch 22 situation with Wii U. All possible solutions are bad.

As much as Iwata and his direction for the company is to blame, i think him leaving is not going to help the situation.

He's an ardent supporter of console/handheld gaming and has resisted switching to mobile, which is needed really. That said he's resisted too much and they need to adopt some mobile presence to allow an inroads to new consumers and existing/former consumers who are moving away, its a revenue stream thats not to be ignored. Certainly don't go all mobile, its a race to the bottom and evenutally the market will stagnate and crash leaving only a few developers, who'll produce games for more moeny and essentially i see the mobile market moving towards the 90's/early 200's console market make up of developers....only they won't produce the same quality they'll just monopolise the market prices and people will pay it

There have been too many missteps and poor decisions, binning off Sony and burnign those bridges, not offering dvd, avoiding online they are all decisions that despite them weathering have come back to haunt them, as each time their market has ebbed away. With the WiiU they allowed their own humbris to make them think they could dictate to the market that a minor upgrade on the current gen and a new way to play was all that was required, they ignored the trends of their competitors....which leads to the next point;

Thinking they were competing on their own, and not rivals of Sony and Ms, whether hardware wise they thought they were or not, their consumers were the same consumers as Sony and MS'. During previous eras those consumers got something from Nintendo the others failed to offer, however over time Nintendo have been complacent, and their competitors have caught up and changing consumer tastes has seen that "advantage" erode away...its now at a point where they can't even hope to be consumers 2nd console

Whether they like it or not they need to compete, they need to offer a closer level of parity in their hardware....they should stop redesigning the wheel each generation....

The WiiU could have been more powerful and used the WiiMote and Nunchuck (or a nintendo wireless version) as its primary controller...second screen gaming could have been offered, but using the 3DS as its source, or with a separate uneeded accessory.

This does come to teh point of the the main aim of the WiiU and its use of the 2nd screen, but even Nintendo have failed to utilise it, more often than not its a mirror of the main screen, a map, or optionally used for offscreen play. The main source of the wiiu's second screen uses is the main menu and miiverse, these could have been enhanced system apps to encourage buying the optional controller.

Iwata as CEO is responsible for all the mistakes AND successes, they had a misstep with the 3DS but the turn around was imense, so we can't forget the positives.

as for failures, as CEO he will have been the driving force, alternatively he could have been weak willed and listend to other, eitherway he should have th strength to change, to take advice and judge what is truely best for the company, he should be given the chance to set about these changes.

If he leaves it should be when he's repaired the damage, not (as the current trend in society is) leaving in shame and leaving another to clean up after them and more often than not fail and resign themselves.

@Serebii, we've been through this before...Replacing Iwata will NOT mean that the new CEO will take them down the mobile route and it is certainly NOT 'logical' to assume that. I even spelt out the role of a CEO for you in the other thread, stop repeating yourself.

Nintendo's new strategy is in the works and will be agreed/tinkered with on the 30th...this is culmination of months (and maybe even years) or work and research. If Iwata was fired, the new CEO would be responsible for following through on the strategy.

Whilst I'm not a huge Iwata fan, I don't think it's the right time for him to go, especially with the new strategy close to completion. It would make more sense to wait a few years and to see where Nintendo are then.

He's lost touch in a much less spectacular way than Ken Kutaragi. He should step down (or be retired like crazy Ken ...Seriously, no GPU? You crazy, Ken....you crazy).

Someone posted quote after quote from him following the launch of something like that past 4/5 consoles, it was about how Nintendo had learned a lesson about having a software drought after launch. Alway's 'next time it will be better', and again and again it was the same story. He clearly is not the person Nintendo needs.

On a business side, Nintendo have been the least innovative out of the big three, too; XBL is a gold mine; Playstation Plus is arguably the PS4 killer app; Playstation Now with streaming games is another relatively new business model; The failed(?) Playstation Mobile and Playstation Minis too; Steam (and features such as Greenlight) is another great example of innovative business ideas. I can't think of anything Nintendo have done and this is a problem that comes down from on high. Iwata must go.

I must say that Iwata has led Nintendo from disaster to disaster since he took over.

Selling Rare off was the biggest mistake in the history of Nintendo. They took a second party developer that was as productive as Nintendo themselves (compare the pure quantity of Rare vs first party Nintendo software for the N64 as an example. Then realise that Rare usually were on-par with Nintendo when it comes to quantity) and then gave them away to Microsoft. Thus Nintendo has consistently been experiencing a lack of mature titles, not to mention that Rare used to be complete masters of squeezing incredible graphics out of ageing Nintendo hardware, dare I say it more so than Nintendo themselves. As productive as those guys used to be, they could've solved Nintendos software droughts on their own.

Overall, Hiroshi Yamauchi and Howard Lincoln built solid relationships with western developers, such as Rare, Retro and others. Reggie should have continued where Lincoln left off and avoided his predecessors misstakes (look at the Rockstar situation). Instead Iwata and Reggie turned Nintendo into the North Korea of gaming.

How they pissed off their still large fanbase by releasing shovelware (every piece of software with 'wii' in the title, just look at how many of those there were) instead of delivering the Nintendo Experience. Oh, and to make matters worse, we must never forget:

"I'm not a gamer"

Iwata being a moron when it comes to which projects to greenlight has just made the perceived drought even worse than it is. The few first party games available and announced have generally focused on casuals or been to similar to each other (do we really need three minigame compilations and three 2D platformers announced within the first 6 months of the sonsoles release when the console's lacking in so many other genres?).

People will see I've posted in her and expect me to say off with his head! BUT I'm not going to, there is this quote that surfaced at their recent press conference:

"We are thinking about a new business structure,” he said. “Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

Ok so let him come up with this new business structure present it to the company's shareholders/investors and then if they are not happy with it being the way forward that's the time to start accessing his position. I know some of would argue it is as simple as putting a version of Mario game on smartphones to lure people into Nintendo platforms but that's besides the point.

My real issue with sacking him/him resigns is if they are going to appoint from within I don't see the point. If Iwata can't get the team innovating correctly then whose to say anyone else internally would. Granted this does happen with companies but I feel like Nintendo employees are perhaps so entrenched in their philosophies that it might be struggle. So unless there is an outside hire they have head hunted and are ready to appoint what do they stand to benefit from him leaving? The only other issue for me would be is a year long enough to turn this around? If they lose a crap ton of money again next year surely he has to go no matter what growth or move into new markets they make?

@Serebii, we've been through this before...Replacing Iwata will NOT mean that the new CEO will take them down the mobile route and it is certainly NOT 'logical' to assume that. I even spelt out the role of a CEO for you in the other thread, stop repeating yourself.

 

Nintendo's new strategy is in the works and will be agreed/tinkered with on the 30th...this is culmination of months (and maybe even years) or work and research. If Iwata was fired, the new CEO would be responsible for following through on the strategy.

 

Whilst I'm not a huge Iwata fan, I don't think it's the right time for him to go, especially with the new strategy close to completion. It would make more sense to wait a few years and to see where Nintendo are then.

Because, as @flameboy said, if they replace him with someone from within, then nothing will change, so they would likely go with someone else to stir the pot and make things actually go well. It's not as simple as a CEO not being able to do things without board approval. Things aren't as cut & dry as that. Hell, again, look at Square Enix for evidence of this.

The new CEO could easily scrap Iwata's strategy and go with his own.

How many mistakes is Iwata allowed to make?

Eventually there gets to the point where you realise this guy just doesnt get it.

Because, as @flameboy said, if they replace him with someone from within, then nothing will change, so they would likely go with someone else to stir the pot and make things actually go well. It's not as simple as a CEO not being able to do things without board approval. Things aren't as cut & dry as that. Hell, again, look at Square Enix for evidence of this.

 

The new CEO could easily scrap Iwata's strategy and go with his own.

Only if the entire board agreed, or else he'd be out the door pretty much straight away. You bring up Square Enix but remember they were putting together a new strategy together at the time anyway (most strategies are updated every 3-4 years). Also, it is NOT Iwata's strategies, it is the entire organisations, and it is made up equally by those on the board. Iwata only has 1/20th of the strategy contribution for all we know (assuming there are 20 people on the board).

You're the one saying things are 'cut and dry', I'm saying it's not like that at all. I have no idea why you keep going on about this..I'm talking from experience here. If you're going to keep posting nonsense then just don't bother replying because this whole 'I know everything' charade is getting unnecessary.

Moving on.

The problem with their board structure isn't so much Iwata but the lack of Giobalrepresentation. I mean, why the fuck isn't Reggie on there? They talk about how much of an issue it is to have a console plugged into the main TV and how the Wii U solves that problem, but in America the average household has over 3 televisions, and the majority of gamers are young adults so having a quiet console so 'mum wouldn't mind it' makes no sense. I understand that they are a japanese company, but it's like they are oblivious to the state of their company.

Well, it is conjecture yes. However, it's logical conjecture. Struggling company. Investors wanting a particular thing. New CEO comes in. Of course it will happen.

 

Region locking doesn't benefit or hinder consumers. The people it affects are a vocal minority. Should Nintendo remove it? Absolutely. Does it hinder sales? No. The 3DS launch price was a mis-step, yes, but it wasn't them trying to be asses. It was them trying to, funnily enough, turn a profit with their hardware.

 

Also, the "price hike" was not "un-necessary". Unwise? Perhaps. Un-necessary? No. It's just like all generational price hikes. Look at Xbox One and PS4 RRPs, higher than PS3/360 ones. Why? INCREASED BUDGETS. For them to make the same amount of money they would have, they need to increase the price to further account for that increase. Just because we don't like it does not mean it's un-necessary.

 

Yes, Iwata's job and aim is to make the company money, but what I'm saying is that he doesn't do it by means of screwing the consumer.

That's where they went wrong. If you have confidence in your hardware, you know it will be widely adopted and sell software. For that reason they should do as others have been doing and sell at a small loss, knowing that you'll grab customers, generate profit through software and services, and generate profit as it becomes cheaper to produce.

Also while next gen titles may have high launch RRPs but as has been shown with PS3/360, many games reduce in price a great deal after some months. Nintendo's often kinda stick.