https://www.dualshockers.com/nintendo-lost-to-playstation-quote-from-late-hiroshi-yamauchi/
"... late Hiroshi Yamauchi, who passed away in 2013, had something to say about PlayStation’s Japanese gamers back in the day.
...flicking through old copies of the Gamers’ Republic magazine, Nintendo Life stumbled across a quote from the president of Nintendo. The snippet itself is talking about he planned to resign from his post in 2001 after being president of Nintendo since 1949. In the snippet, it details how he made headlines at the time for claiming that the N64 was less successful in its homeland than the PS1 because Japanese gamers “[like] to be alone in their rooms and play depressing games.”
It seems as if he much preferred the joyful, vibrant worlds that Nintendo created and wasn’t particularly pleased with how games were becoming more serious.
Hiroshi Yamauchi was known for his short temper and blunt comments about rival companies and their fanbase, you can learn more about him and these comments through this video from Larry Bundy Jr. The article itself also states that he would often pit internal teams against one another to promote competition"
