Iwata: “Nintendo is not good at competing,” so must offer something different

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has given a speech regarding his views on the company’s standing and future as it continues to make Wii U a success. He has stressed that simply copying the competition is not Nintendo’s style, and that he isn’t afraid of failure.

Iwata gave his talk at the B Dash Camp startup conference in Osaka, and The Bridge has translated it.

“When we talk about Nintendo we cannot ignore (former president) Hiroshi Yamauchi who just recently passed away. He always said that if you have failure, you don’t need to be too concerned. You always have good things and bad, and this reflects the history of Nintendo. If you do the same thing as others, it will wear you out. Nintendo is not good at competing so we always have to challenge [the status quo] by making something new, rather than competing in an existing market.”

On the risk of bringing Japanese IP and ideas to the western market, Iwata reflected on initial fears that he Pokemon brand would fail in the US. “Will America accept cute monsters?” he asked, “No, they said. Some people even recommended to make Pikachu more muscular. If we followed their advice Pokemon would never have been the success that it was. Brain Training software (Brain Age) became a hit in Japan, and I proposed that we sell it globally. And even as I said that as the president, no one listened.”

In August, Iwata reiterated that the Wii U can still be accepted by the public, as long as Nintendo does a better job of making the public understand and accept the benefits of the system.

He later claimed that the notion of putting Nintendo games on rival platforms would only be a short term fix, and that keeping the games on Nintendo hardware was important for the company's long-term success.

 

Sources:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/433242/i-dont-fear-failure-says-iwata/

http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/10/iwata-nintendo-is-not-good-at-competing-so-must-offer-something-different-than-the-status-quo/