In June 2005, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down as chairman of Nintendo's board of directors. The move was an end of an era, since he had been at the top of the Mario Factory's corporate hierarchy since he took over as president of the then-playing-card company in 1949. He approved the creation of the original Famicom, better known as the NES, helping usher in the console era.

Since his retirement, Yamauchi has spent his time funding the construction of a poetry museum. The past two years have also seen the game industry statesman become one of Japan's wealthiest people. According to the latest issue of Forbes Asia, Yamauchi, 79, has holdings worth around 580 billion yen, or $4.8 billion.

Yamauchi is now the third-richest man in Japan, behind Softbank Corp. founder Masayoshi Son (worth $5.45 billion) and Tokyo real estate magnate Akira Mori (worth $5.5 billion). The near-octogenarian rose 11 places in the rankings thanks to Nintendo's stock near-tripling in value over the past year on the success of the Wii and DS.

Please note, this is the guy that told Microsoft to Suck on his tiny little yellow balls!!!! He looks so nice though??lol

That interview was a complete hoax. Wouldn't be surprised to hear this guy say it for real though. =P

Very interesting. Note how he isn't all that far from the number one guy. The richest man in Japan has 8/7 the amount of money he does.

The interview was real, he said it when MS tried to buy nintendo

But Wikipedia says it('s not true), so it must be (not) true!

Ok, now i am confused, thanks for the wikipedia, but It never happened??
Does that mean MS never had the meeting to purchase nintendo???
I found another non wikipedia saying they had the meeting, if he didnt say the tiny balls, I thought the meeting at least took place, I read the wikipedia and it is vague with links.
I beliebve you just wondering if you could shed more light on the subject.I thoughth/was told that that meeting fueled nintendo to release the wii etc?

The interview was part of an elaborate fan made hoax at the time if I'm not mistaken. It eventually became a "meme" on image boards everywhere.

It was also this man's stepping down that was the final part of the movement within Nintendo that allowed for them to reconsolidate their gameplan and push the DS, DS Lite and the Wii.

Thanks for the input, i thought it wa real for the olongest time, i even made a post a month or 2 back and noone corrected it then, seems there are a lot of us thinking it is real.

http://www.nahc4.com/imageboards/gif/src/118141430084.gif

here it is.

Nintendo would not have come back as strong without Yamauchi stepping down. It was one of the best decisions he made in years. It allowed the company to slowly patch up relations with third parties and allowed Iwata to forge ahead with his 'Blue Ocean' strategy.

Yeah, as if him becomming worth 3billion isnt enough profit. You want him to retire, for someone to get in there to make even more money. Holy crap. That guy is worth 1/10th that of bill gates, and gates... well I dont think I need to say that I'm 100% positive that every person on this forum as contributed at least 1$ to good ol' bill.