Jubenhimer
Member
When Satoru Iwata took over Nintendo Co. Ltd. In 2002, the company adopted the "Blue Ocean" strategy. A business tactic where, instead of competing in a heavily competetive, heavily hostile market (red ocean), you can instead, set sail, and cater to a new market, one where you can be the forerunner in it (blue ocean). In Nintendo's case, rather than taking on Sony and Microsoft directly for the graphics focused, core gaming market, they instead deviated from that and decided to cater to an underserved audience of casual and non-gamers.
This led Nintendo massive success in the Wii and DS era, and to this day, remains one of their most prolific periods yet. However, would this have still happened if the late Hiroshi Yamauchi was still calling the shots? Though Yamauchi stepped down in 2002, he actually still stayed with Nintendo as chairman until 2006, when he left the company completely. With his reclusive, anti-public facing attitude and Yakuza style leadership, it's easy to forget that Yamauchi was actually a lot like Iwata in several ways. He believed that art doesn't come from the technology you use, but rather how you use it. He heavily favored visionaries and artists like Gunpei Yokoi and Miyamoto, over pure engineers, even allowing them to help lead and develop Nintendo's hardware, a practice the company still continues to this day. He was the one who pitched the DS' dual screen concept, and he even went as far as to say consumers don't want flashy graphics and epic stories, and that Sony and Microsoft's approaches are wrong.
He was brash, arrogant, and shrewd, but love him or hate him, he got shit done, and single handedly made Nintendo the prolific gaming icon it was in the first place. But in a way, Yamauchi saw that Nintendo could no longer compete with companies they cannot relate to (Sony and Microsoft) with the downfall of the GameCube. Their strict, and at times draconic control of publishers (IE, charging higher royalties for "the privilege of working with Nintendo" at the start of the GameCube), had become completely outdated by this point, which is probably why Yamauchi chose Iwata to succeed him, Yamauchi knew he would better understand developers than himself.
This is why, had he still been CEO of Nintendo durring the development of the Wii and DS, I personally think not much would've changed in terms of design and goals. What would've been different though, would be stricter licensing policies on publishers. Considering the Wii and DS were plagued with shovelware, Yamauchi probably would've made it a point to wade out most the crap, and instead focus on quality software, rather than the open door policies of Iwata (which has it's benefits as well, but also helped degrade the Wii's reputation later on). This still would've pissed off third parties, and I'd imagine the Wii still not getting all the major AAA multi-platform titles. But Yamauchi could've perhaps maybe neutered some aspects of his draconic control as a compromise.
I'm just spitballing here. Anything was possible. But I can't I imagine Wii/DS era Nintendo being any different had Yamauchi still been president.
This led Nintendo massive success in the Wii and DS era, and to this day, remains one of their most prolific periods yet. However, would this have still happened if the late Hiroshi Yamauchi was still calling the shots? Though Yamauchi stepped down in 2002, he actually still stayed with Nintendo as chairman until 2006, when he left the company completely. With his reclusive, anti-public facing attitude and Yakuza style leadership, it's easy to forget that Yamauchi was actually a lot like Iwata in several ways. He believed that art doesn't come from the technology you use, but rather how you use it. He heavily favored visionaries and artists like Gunpei Yokoi and Miyamoto, over pure engineers, even allowing them to help lead and develop Nintendo's hardware, a practice the company still continues to this day. He was the one who pitched the DS' dual screen concept, and he even went as far as to say consumers don't want flashy graphics and epic stories, and that Sony and Microsoft's approaches are wrong.
He was brash, arrogant, and shrewd, but love him or hate him, he got shit done, and single handedly made Nintendo the prolific gaming icon it was in the first place. But in a way, Yamauchi saw that Nintendo could no longer compete with companies they cannot relate to (Sony and Microsoft) with the downfall of the GameCube. Their strict, and at times draconic control of publishers (IE, charging higher royalties for "the privilege of working with Nintendo" at the start of the GameCube), had become completely outdated by this point, which is probably why Yamauchi chose Iwata to succeed him, Yamauchi knew he would better understand developers than himself.
This is why, had he still been CEO of Nintendo durring the development of the Wii and DS, I personally think not much would've changed in terms of design and goals. What would've been different though, would be stricter licensing policies on publishers. Considering the Wii and DS were plagued with shovelware, Yamauchi probably would've made it a point to wade out most the crap, and instead focus on quality software, rather than the open door policies of Iwata (which has it's benefits as well, but also helped degrade the Wii's reputation later on). This still would've pissed off third parties, and I'd imagine the Wii still not getting all the major AAA multi-platform titles. But Yamauchi could've perhaps maybe neutered some aspects of his draconic control as a compromise.
I'm just spitballing here. Anything was possible. But I can't I imagine Wii/DS era Nintendo being any different had Yamauchi still been president.