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Report claims Nintendo management scheming to get rid of Iwata

Plinko said:
In any corporation with negative numbers like this, it wouldn't be surprising at all to see people wanting to move on.
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Last FY:

*Promised shareholders an operating profit of 100 billion yen, instead posted 46.4 billion yen operating loss.

*Missed revenue forecast by 38% (920b yen forecast vs 571b yen actual revenue)

*Missed 3DS forecast by 33% (18m foretaste vs 12m actual sales)

*Missed Wii U forecast by 70% (9m forecast vs 2.72m actual sales)

And going by Q1 results it seems like they are going to miss this FY forecast big time too.
 
The successor to Hiroshi Yamauchi, who was handpicked by Yamauchi himself, and has worked with Nintendo since the early 90s and worked as Nintendo´s CEO since 2001 or 2002 and has expressed countless times how important employee morale / job security is

...is now considered an intruder who they have to get rid of in favour of some Pokemon guy who happens to be Yamauchi´s biological son ?

I don´t buy it, it reads like some anti-Iwata fanfiction.
 
JoeM86 said:
It'll stop people buying Nintendo's hardware. People won't bother if they can buy Mario or Zelda on their phones.

Also, someone break out that infographic showing how bad mobile platforms actually are for making money, unless you're in the 1%
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The people buying Mario and Zelda on a mobile touch screen device were never going to buy the hardware to begin with. Nintendo potentially stands to make money from porting Mario and Zelda to said devices.
 
Shikamaru Ninja said:
There is no way that management wants to get rid of Iwata. Investors yes, but no way would the executive directors be calling for his head. They are all FRIENDS.

Maybe the auditors.. or something. But they don't have adequate power.
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That would seem rather strange, especially considering they elected Naoki Mizutani, former auditor, to outside director at the 74th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Of course each auditor is a separate individual, but I assume there ought to be some kind of general consensus among them, especially between the full-time auditors Minoru Ueda and Ken Toyoda. I would expect the board to not want any turmoil inducing person as director.

I find this article cruddy, sensationalism even.
 
As much as I could not care for mobile games N intebdo could make a short term killing on mobile. I say short term because long term I think it would dilutes their brands a lot, and cause issues with the value of their console releases. Like why is this $10 and that $60? Something that has plagued some Ubisoft and SEGA brands.

Could be a great platform to revitalize some brands though like Wario Ware, Brain Age, and Picross.
 
fahr said:
If Iwata gets fired and mario starts showing up on smartphones, then it's the beginning of the end for nintendo.
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That would be the opposite of the end for them, sicne they would make a lot of money, assuming they keep the same quality. IMO, Reggie needs to be in charge out of everyone I've read up on, but that will never happen I dont think(Seems Pachter agrees with me about this one too).
 
Shikamaru Ninja said:
There is no way that management wants to get rid of Iwata. Investors yes, but no way would the executive directors be calling for his head. They are all FRIENDS.

Maybe the auditors.. or something. But they don't have adequate power.
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This.
The blog/source saying that reads a bit like investor fanfiction...
 
Mobile is nasty. If Nintendo has to go the way of Capcom, Square Enix, and the like to survive I can wring my last few years of joy out of them and switch to ignoring them just like the others.
 
Fox318 said:
If Iwata worked for an American company there would have been people calling for his head in 2010.
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If Iwata was in an American game company, he would have had his studio shut down and been made redundant years ago. He never would have progressed from programmer to any other role unlike his development from a lowly programmer at HAL onwards in Nintendo, and a corporate suit would be CEO.
 
hwy_61 said:
The people buying Mario and Zelda on a mobile touch screen device were never going to buy the hardware to begin with. Nintendo potentially stands to make money from porting Mario and Zelda to said devices.
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No. It would damage the company drastically in the longrun.

It may be able to make short term profits (I italicised it because the smartphone gaming industry is NOT a good place to make money. Even Apple is moaning that people aren't spending money on games ther), but it would damage everything irreparably
 
hwy_61 said:
Those FF ports are aiight.
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Oh yeaaaa

ibicim2Nf44Fw7.PNG
 
Sendou said:
Reads like some corporate exec fan fiction to be honest but who knows what's up with Nintendo?
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Lol, I was thinking exactly the same. Who knew such a thing would exist?

Needs a part where Howard Lincoln's evil son works for Sony but then 'turns good' after killing Reggie.

Seriously, as awesome as Yamauchi was, there's nobody like him about to step back into his shoes. Iwata is the best fit for Nintendo as a company as it exists today, and if they didn't have faith in him, he would have gone long ago.
 
Nintendo putting games on smartphones while they have their own platforms would be just as weird as Nintendo releasing a Pokémon game on PS2 when the Gamecube was lagging behind in sales. Doesn't really make sense. It's still a rival platform even if no one really takes it serious as a 'true gaming' platform.
 
I remember a chart detailing how most of Nintendo's current management has been brought in by Iwata, and is comprised by his allies. Nintendo sure works in mysterious ways.

Anyway, is Yamauchi's son still the biggest shareholder?
 
I dont believe this is coming from management, but could be scuttlebutt created by displeased investors with the aims of shaking/stirring things up.

I was expecting this sort of thing to start straining at the seams last year, but I guess Iwata's excuses still had weight somehow back then. Now on the back of Mario Kart not saving the day all by itself, reality has set in and what appears to be a modicum of panic.
 
JoeM86 said:
No. It would damage the company drastically in the longrun.

It may be able to make short term profits (I italicised it because the smartphone gaming industry is NOT a good place to make money. Even Apple is moaning that people aren't spending money on games ther), but it would damage everything irreparably
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Then maybe don't release ports. Maybe make a new IP designed from the ground up for mobile. I'm certain Nintendo has the talent to do such a thing.
 
Yep, this sounds like fanboy wishful thinking to me. Probably from the same guy
that wanted to charge people extra to make Mario jump higher.
 
Sickboy007 said:
I remember a chart detailing how most of Nintendo's current management has been brought in by Iwata, and is comprised by his allies. Nintendo sure works in mysterious ways.

Anyway, is Yamauchi's son still the biggest shareholder?
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No, State Street Bank and Trust Company is the biggest shareholder with 9.48% of the shares.
 
richisawesome said:
The graphics are ruined though. They've fucked up the original spritework and replaced it with godawful art. They have absolutely visually wrecked each one.

That's not alright in any way whatsoever.
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Cool man, I appreciate your opinion. I disagree. I think they're OK.
 
Mr. Iwata holds four concurrent roles:

1) Chairman of the Board of Directors

2) Member of the Board of Directors

3) CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd.

4) CEO of Nintendo of America


It is possible for the Board of Directors to remove Mr. Iwata from the CEO position.

When Mr. Yamauchi decided to resign it was at a Board of Directors meeting where, under Mr. Yamauchi's request, the Board decided to dissolve his CEO position.

In another, non-Japanese example, Steve Ballmer was fired by the Board of Directors who forced him out...despite Mr. Ballmer getting the majority of votes from shareholders year after year.

The question here is how many Board members are loyal to Iwata and how many are "scheming," if any.
 
So kind of like Apple getting rid of Jobs at his time. Who knows if this could be for the better or the worse. Iwata has been a great president. But still, he has said some things before like online isnt important and makes it feel like he just doesnt care and how the console works, that it feels outdated for me. They need to step up.
 
The very way Nintendo runs hasn't changed in forever and a half. They do what they think makes them the most money. Sometimes it works, more often than not it doesn't. Most of their games are designed on a purely conceptual basis. In an era of artistic budgets alone skyrocketing to an insane degree. This can really hurt.

I don't think it's implicitly Iwata that's causing the damage. They have their second mega competition. One that frankly has all but taken the bulk of gamings target audience. Nintendo's first real competition in gaming was Sony, and they adeptly siphoned off a chunk of Nintendo's initial gaming audience, and created a lot more. In turn Nintendo created the Wii that siphoned off a few, but more likely just opened gaming up to even more people.

This time around though within the span of a few years another competitor came in and siphoned them away almost entirely. This in part would be because of the almost complete dropping of Wii by Nintendo themselves leaving a fairly hungry market with nothing to play. So they found their wares in a more convenient system. One they'll always have close by anyway.

This confluence of events almost seem like a "Well no shit that was possible." in hindsight.

I don't think anything could have been done to really stop this from happening. And it's probably why Nintendo released WiiU like it is. A controller that puts off the masses, and console hardware that puts off the dedicated. It honestly should have been at least a half step console. Something that had modestly more powerful hardware with an updated Wiimote. That would have been the smarter method. Something you know the masses accept (Wiimote) with enough of a hardware performance advantage to entice the enthusiast gamer looking for a little more hardware power.

But that still wouldn't have stopped the core of their Wii/DS business from fluttering away.

These problems seem like they were obvious in hindsight. Nintendo helped validate the very control archetypes being used by their now biggest competitor. Motion and touch controls. But at the time did anyone think it would be such an absolute victory? So quickly? Nintendo looks like they are going to lose nearly 90 million players from their home console line, and nearly 100 million players from their handheld market.

Should one person really take the blame for that? For a sea change movement? I've never thought so. It's what they do next that should decide.
 
Didn't Iwata basically replace the entire management to people who were firmly on his side during his tenure as CEO? There was a post on GAF about that I think

Also Nintendo moving to phones would be a fucking travesty.
 
Fart Stink said:
It's about time.
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For what? For a new person to step up and cater to the whims of the shareholders?

As much as people hate Iwata's decision making at times, I don't think they are thinking through on the possible consequences of something like this happening.
 
EVOL 100% said:
Didn't Iwata basically replace the entire management to people who were firmly on his side during his tenure as CEO? There was a post on GAF about that I think

Also Nintendo moving to phones would be a fucking travesty.
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Nintendo pretty much gutted the Board of Directors for the past few years "so the Board could have younger members," but I'm more than a little suspicious that this was done partly so Iwata could consolidate his power.
 
Sendou said:
Well that's quite the story that's for sure.

"Hiroshi Yamauchi, the previous president of Nintendo, passed away last fall. Apparently, no one remains who can defy Iwata."

"There are also rumors of management scheming to get rid of the president."

"Another point worth mentioning: supposedly, managers who oppose Iwata would want Yamauchi’s first son to become Nintendo’s president"

Reads like some corporate exec fan fiction to be honest but who knows what's up with Nintendo?
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Hiroshi will take down the Usurper! He will sit on the Iron Throne!
Too much ASoIaF/GoT.
 
Aquamarine said:
Nintendo pretty much gutted the Board of Directors a few years ago "so the Board could have younger members," but I'm more than a little suspicious that this was done partly so Iwata could consolidate his power.
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Pretty much. Which makes this rumor read like bad fan fiction
 
I hope Nintendo stuff never appears on other hardware. I like the hardware innovation in line with massive software projects. I would much rather the diversity of experiences with a hell of a lot more exclusive games.

Why would they oust Iwata now? There have been a distinct change in attitude this year concerning Nintendo, why now?
 
richisawesome said:
If Iwata was in an American game company, he would have had his studio shut down and been made redundant years ago. He never would have progressed from programmer to any other role unlike his development from a lowly programmer at HAL onwards in Nintendo, and a corporate suit would be CEO.
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Wat? And if Trip Hawkins didnt grow up in the US we would never have had madden, I'm not sure I get the point to this? His only point was US companies are not as patient, although honestly I dont know of any company who is as patient as Nintendo.
 
outunderthestars said:
not sure why you are comparing a console to handhelds, but ok.

1 billion smartphones, and 200 million tablets were sold in the last year alone. It is profoundly stupid to ignore that market.
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Then tell Microsoft and Sony to start releasing Halo and Uncharted games on mobile, rather than just pushing an anti-Nintendo view. It goes both ways.

Besides, I'm sure he was comparing it in terms of validity and quality as a gaming device.
 
unbias said:
Wat? And if Trip Hawkins didnt grow up in the US we would never have had madden, I'm not sure I get the point to this? His only point was US companies are not as patient, although honestly I dont know of any company who is as patient as Nintendo.
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I'm not entirely serious there
 
I hope not.

Iwata have some old school principles that totally are my shtick.

I fear a new CEO could only make Nintendo go from bad to worst.
 
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