No, we don't. Get away from here, now!! *Smacks with Whip*

Just because you're a PS3/PSP/Vita owner doesn't mean you can't appreciate Nintendo or Microsoft, or have anything insightful, constructive or reasonable to say about them. It also doesn't mean that you're a blind fanboy, or that you hate the competition... -_-

Something a lot of people need to learn on these forums.

I'm not holding my breath. It's the internet. *shrug*

Also, I found a link to an article with the actual implications: http://www.cubed3.com/news/18025/1/100-billion-yen-or-satoru-iwata-resigns.html

That's exactly what i'm talking about. In Iwata, and game-industry folks from Iwata's generation, you have a rare breed. These are folks like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, who not only have a head for doing the technical stuff required of their business, but remember a time when their business wasn't a business, a humbler time when making computers with your buddies in your garage or making computer games meant that you were a loser.

Now, the computer business is a little different because people are always going to need computers (and they're more tool-like anyway), but people don't need video games, especially full-sized video games like your Grand Theft Autos or Super Marios, or yes, even Pokemon or Call of Duty. The industry can't afford to assume that the market just exists and that they'll buy whatever they sell, and folks like Iwata get that.

On the flip-side, Iwata and his ilk were still developers in their beginning, so they understand the business of making games from the creators' perspective. They know what developers want to do, and what they need to succeed. And from coming from a time where you *had* to make games people really wanted to buy or go find a job in some other industry, they also understand that it's the developers job to make games for the mass market.

People in the game industry don't incorporate both of these qualities anymore, or at least they are very rare. When the video game industry (made by people like Iwata or, say, Trip Hawkins) became a "legitimate" business, it attracted the Money-Men, shortsighted corporate raiders all too common in business; they're the bean-counters, the sequel-makers, those who might be wizard-like in their ability to keep a balance sheet clean in the short run, but fundamentally have no passion or knowledge for the specific business they're in, they're just in "business."

On the flip-side, you have career developers, who just want to make the games they want to make, and treat it like it's the publisher's job to figure out how to make people buy their game, when in reality it's their job to make a game people want to buy.

Imagine Sakamoto or Bobby Kotick running Nintendo, because those are the kinds of people you're going to have to choose between. Someone who would give Nintendo developers complete creative control to make their ideas, however impractical they might be, or someone who will flood the market with cheap Nintendo titles of yesteryear, make it so that no franchise other than Pokemon, Mario, and Mario Kart ever saw the light of day on an actual console, and likely kill off many franchises like Fire Emblem or even Metroid.

The article you linked is making a really poorly and loose interpretation of what Iwata said. No where did he imply he'd resign. 

That being said, knowing how business people react to similar situations in Japan, it's not that much of a strech to think he'd end up resigning if those goals aren't met.

Miyamoto doesn't pounds fists on tables, he upends tables.

It's loose, I know. But it's still better than the absolute nothing in the OP's link.

I feel that it would have to be a REALLY big miss for him to lose his job, frankly. A vauge reference from an unofficial translation doesn't seem enough reason to worry about his position. I just wanted to post something with the actual context is all.

I don't necessarily think Iwata should resign, what should happen though is IMO, Nintendo of America should have a new head, someone who actually knows the game industry, understands marketing, and give this person actual power to make decisions as well.

And I mean *real* decisions, as in input on hardware, software projects, marketing philosophy, etc. Not just a glorified stooge that gets to decide which games to localize.

And Iwata should be forced to listen and even in certain cases defer to them.

It's still an interpretation of an interpretation. Grasping at straws, even. The quotes don't remotely imply that he will resign if those goals aren't met. The quotes only mention his commitment to those goals he set, and an admittance that things aren't the way he wish they'd be. There's nothing more in those quotes.

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[Edit:]

 After reading the actual Briefing, there is nothing in there that implies he'd resign. Your link actually makes a bigger deal out of what was reported from its source on Neogaf, by saying Iwata was actually adamant about retiring if the company's goals weren't met... Next report from an other random piss poor internet blog will be that he has in fact retired all along and is now nothing but a consultant... ¬_¬

Quotes from the actual briefing:

In terms of our financial results, as Yoshihiro Mori has just explained to you, we were not able to achieve the results that we had originally forecast for this year-end sales season, and since Wii U most recently has not been able to keep its launch momentum, we decided that it was necessary to announce a downward revision to our financial forecast in our net sales and operating profit. I feel deeply responsible for having failed to achieve sufficient results in this most crucial period of the year, the year-end sales season.

The main goal of today’s session is to explain to you our prospects for recovery in the next fiscal year, but before that, 

I would like to talk about how we performed last year in the global video game market.

[...]

As you might already know from some newspaper reports, we will reorganize our development divisions next month for the first time in nine years. Two divisions which have independently developed handheld devices and home consoles will be united to form the Integrated Research & Development Division, which will be headed by Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director.

[...]

As Yoshihiro Mori has already briefed you on our forecast for this fiscal year, you are aware that we cannot help posting operating losses for two consecutive fiscal years. We feel greatly accountable for this severe outlook.

Until now we have always shown you our specific earnings forecast for the next fiscal year at the time of our announcement of the full-year financial results. Under this circumstance, however, I am required to tell you about our prospects for when we will be able to retrieve "Nintendo-like" profits again, so I would like to say something here.

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Nothing there suggest that he will resign. 

Sega was a case study in why what you said is a bad idea.

It sounds good on paper, but history stands on it