firebush03 said:
Why draw your conclusion from a single accomplishment? My argument is that Iwata didn’t manage the software pipeline all too well, and his handling of generational transitions was not good. He failed to keep Nintendo relevant during transition years, which is what led to Nintendo hitting such low lows during the Wii U. Wii was his only shining achievement, and even that is something I’d more attribute to Yamauchi who had set Iwata up with a plan going in: To decision to abandon power and enforce the Blue Ocean vision of Yokoi. With all that’s gone on with the economy, it’s quite incredible that Nintendo has remainednas strong as it has— Furukawa has gone the trouble waters with flying colors in that regard. Under Iwata, we saw two poor console transitions that led Nintendo into dark times. And had Iwata been around for Switch, I question whether the system would’ve been as successful as it was. Launch year would have likely been more of the same from what we saw from the unimpressive (from the perspective of software) Wii/Wii U/3DS debut years— Wii was 100% carried by its innovative “fad” factor, a factor which didn’t translate into software successful for any non-Wii series titles (e.g. Star Fox and Metroid sold no better on Wii than they did on the much smaller install base GCN). Iwata oversaw the software pipeline during the time when gamers felt abandoned by Nintendo. Iwata inherited a successful DS, wasn’t around to manage the entirety of the Switch debut, and fumbled the heavenly highs hit during the Wii/DS generation so terribly that we got Wii U and a 3DS was a massive price cut needing to save it. Iwata fumbled left and right, Furukawa has handled everything perfect. |
The argument isn't that Iwata had no failures, the argument is that Furukawa has no accomplishments and had not to face any serious challenges. You cite economic problems as challenges, but Nintendo faces them currently just with the brand power and current momentum alone. This isn't very stable long term. Let's see how Switch 2 fares after the price hike. Also the economic pressures apply to the competition too.
Iwata had failures, sure, but multiple accomplishments, with Wii, DS, Switch and a lot of innovative software. The idea of Miis and Tomodachi Life was signed off by Iwata. Furakawa cannot be credited with the success of the Switch, as the launch window was already planned when he took over. Realistically you have to calculate a few years before any decisions a new leadership makes are even visible to us. At that point Switch was already a runaway success.
Furukawa had not overseen anything new so far. We see as new IPs Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (a concept that Astro's Playroom did better), DragxDrive (clearly a failure) and Pokopia (designed in 3rd-party partnership, but to be fair so is Hyrule Warriors in Iwata's time). In hardware we have the idea of mouse control (which I don't see catching on, at most they are optional in games like Metroid). Nothing really new.
Iwata had to face the challenge of the failing WiiU. His answer were new IPs, which were very successful (like Splatoon). WiiU games generally did very well once transitioning to Switch. Which shows how much Iwata did right.
While I like that Nintendo is now revisiting old IPs (like Rhythm Heaven, Famicom Detective Club, Wii Sports, Starfox, Donkey Kong), I feel the lack of anything really new. That may turn out to become a problem in the long run.
