at this point its shooting fish in a barrel. its too easy to pick apart nintendo, wiiu, or the one in charge of the circus, Iwata.

Iwata should be kept, but his powers should be reduced and he should made to understand his limitations and he should focus on the Japanese market and Nintendo's efforts there.

Miyamoto and others should be moved off the board of directors and younger folkes from Nintendo can be promoted. Miyamoto of course should be free to remain at the company to work on his own games, but not in a business/decision making capacity. They are far too old and out of touch to be making such big decisions.

What Nintendo does need is certainly a younger, Western head to take over NOA (and perhaps NOE also) who has autonomy to make decisions for those markets and has input on the broader philosophy at Nintendo. Someone who is also given a budget to greenlight and finance development of games on the Western side of the ocean.

Ideally someone in their 40s, who has good relationships with Western devs/pubs, understands what it takes to make a great game, and also understands MARKETING and design. Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa helped Mr. Yamauchi in the 80s/90s tremendously with marketing, finding developers like Rare (which led to blockbusters like DKC and GoldenEye), securing tie-in's like the Star Wars games for Nintendo platforms (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, etc.), etc. etc. Retro Studios was Howard Lincoln's idea too, not something that came from Japan.

Nintendo must get back to that, neutering NOA and letting all decision making go through the stiff, old business suits in Japan was a huge, huge mistake which would have become even more blatantly obvious if it wasn't for the temporary boom years of the Wii/DS.

Funny how all that analysis ignores 3DS's increasing levels of success. With the system selling at a profit, software sales increasing, digital sales increasing, and Animal Crossing, Pokemon and Zelda debuting globally this year, surely that will do a world of good for Nintendo? Not to discount the possibility we'll also see 3D Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda on Wii U within the next financial year?

It's also funny how people continually ignore the fact that Iwata is a member of a board that run Nintendo, not some corporate dictator making every major decision at Nintendo. I still firmly believe Nintendo will be better off with Iwata than without him. Iwata might have made huge mistakes, but he has also had huge successes, and he's also committed the time, resources and money to 3DS to turn the system around and gain traction in the West, when many would have thrown in the towel all together. Conventional wisdom was that smartphones would sink 3DS and Iwata has ensured that has not happened. Would any other executive in Nintendo make the same commitment? Would an executive from outside Nintendo fight as hard?

There's also something else angry fans and investors are ignoring about the current situation. While it is of critical importance for Nintendo to deliver a consistent stream of content for their systems, it is even more important for Nintendo to maintain the quality and reputation of their software franchises and intellectual property. What would be more damaging? The Wii U failing, or the Mario brand being tarnished due to a rushed release? Nintendo will survive losing the Wii brand; it would truly be an existential disaster if they damaged one of their big software brands in a rushed attempt to revive sales. Would any other executive within Nintendo be willing to make this commitment? Would an executive from outside Nintendo understand that Nintendo's brands are the key to its survival as a platform holder?

Slow and steady, staying the course is frustrating for early adopters and it doesn't make up for the recent failings of Nintendo's management, but it is right now the only course Nintendo can take without risking the survival of the company. If Wii U fails, the Wii brand goes and it is a major setback, but Nintendo can go back to the drawing board and launch another system, as they were willing to do in the event that Wii or DS failed. If Mario fails, if Pokemon or Zelda or Donkey Kong fails, where will Nintendo turn then? Where will the recovery come from?

It's popular to kick a man in a difficult position, but Iwata is following the right course to correct some of Nintendo's mistakes and ensure the company survives. More needs to be done, but kicking out Iwata won't increase development resources or ensure that increased development capability is up to scratch. It won't improve third party relationships. It won't improve the situation with Wii U. Nintendo need an executive reshuffle globally, but perhaps it's some of the older hands who've been at the top since the N64 era, marketing executives running NOA, and game designers such as Miyamoto, who should be stepping back, rather than the CEO responsible for Nintendo's greatest successes, and the CEO who stood by 3DS rather than allowing it to fail completely.

Still too early to call. Last year it was the same situation, they scored losses for some time then when holidays came they ended the year with a profit.
Of course, shareholders won´t wait until holidays to decide whether to keep their shares or not, that´s how the stock exchange works.
Ás the market continue to shrink year after year, this is not just a Nintendo problem. Sony had do deal with sucessive losses, and so is Microsoft, of course, counting their videogame divisions. Many developers have been cutting jobs and reporting losses lately too. It´s foolish to think that PS4 and Xbox720 will change that.

I'd also like to add this to the conversation, which is my post from the last "IWATA MUST GO" thread:

Some interesting points, but I think laying the blame--and any praise--entirely on Iwata misses the point.

Yes, he's the President, but he's also one part of a board of directors who chart the overall course of the company. Iwata doesn't make decisions or chart the strategy by himself, even if he is the most prominent face of Nintendo's corporate decision making. I'd say he's good for Nintendo while being part of the problem, but I think that without someone as simultaneously humble and as decisive as Iwata, Nintendo would be in worse shape.

There's no doubt many of Nintendo's policies--particularly online and with digital distribution--have been backward looking, but how much of this is down to Iwata? How much of the change in direction at Nintendo has been engineered by Iwata? The question that we should really ask, and that can't be answered, is how much of Nintendo's current direction is down to the rest of the board?

What has Iwata really done, and spoken about as his personal missions? Iwata has gradually increased Nintendo's development capacity. One of his first acts as President was to restructure Nintendo's long standing internal arrangement. This year he's set to massively restructure the way Nintendo's R&D divisions operate. Iwata pushed ideas like Wi-Fi Connection, Virtual Console, Wii Connect 24 and Miiverse at major trade shows and conferences as vital to the future of Nintendo. He seems to me to be more forward looking than many people give him credit, and I have to wonder, and I partially suspect, that the rest of Nintendo's board became jittery as the phenomenal growth of the Wii/DS ground down, and they demanded another change of direction. There have been plenty of voices shouting to drown out Iwata's own message over the years, and it seems many of Nintendo's investors listened to the message. What's to say some board members haven't had the same doubts? What's to say they didn't have their own doubts about the direction of the company, the wisdom and the long-term stability of the Wii/DS approach? Perhaps Nintendo's paradoxical ability to remain stuck in the past isn't down to a flippant, backwards peddling Iwata, but to a board afraid to take more risks with their company. After all, Nintendo is not a corporate dictatorship--there's a board of directors making decisions and tinkering with strategy, while Iwata remains the public face of this corporate side.

The truth is, Iwata has made serious mistakes--but has also guided Nintendo to their best ever position in the videogames industry. He has taken the fall publicly and financially for the failings of 3DS, and acted in the long-term interests of the company when many other people in his position would bow to investor pressure and have either abandoned hardware after the GameCube era or moved into smartphone development rather than placing faith in the long term future of dedicated hardware. It's very, very easy right now to throw darts at a man at the helm of a company facing serious challenges. It's easy--with hindsight--to diminish the accomplishments of Nintendo during this era and to accentuate their failings under Iwata's stewardship. But it misses the point. Nintendo is not a one man show and the blame and praise of the last decade rests on the entire board and management at Nintendo. They all need to change.

Jettisoning Iwata might seem like a good idea to keyboard warriors who assume Iwata is single handedly responsible for the direction of a company with a board of directors, but it's not going to solve anything. Iwata has already as good as said (in Japanese corporate speak) he will step down if the current plan does not follow through as he wants it to. Keyboard warriors may yet get their head on a pike and feel justified.

However, I feel those are the actions and words of a CEO you want to keep hold of--someone at the top not afraid to take drastic action, someone not afraid to confront their mistakes, not afraid to take personal responsibility for failures. We don't know what the boardroom politics are at Nintendo, but given the turbulence, failings and enormous success of the last decade, I'd say the problem isn't just Iwata. Hell, perhaps we should pause and consider the possibility it might not even be Iwata at all.

Loved your post, Asriel. I agree with every single word you wrote

If Nintendo doesn't bring in someone who understands the Western market better (and marketing in general), they are going to be a niche/legacy brand in about 10 years time IMO.

That's the one huge knock on Iwata -- he and his board of directors are clueless about the West (blaming it on Reggie doesn't hold water since he likely has no real power, which is how Iwata and company have set things up).

Replace Iwata or not, the company needs an injection of fresh blood in the worst way possible, particularly from the West.

With another CEO maybe Nintendo would have been able to give the Wii U some much needed games, instead of continuously pushing Pikmin3.... They started production of that game in 2008... That's 5 years in the making, and was planned to be a launch game, and then a Spring title, and now it's almost pushing Fall?

Thing is though, the seed for Wii and DS was sown during Hiroshi Yamauchi's turn as President, so those successes can not fully be attributed to Iwata. During his time as President 3DS and Wii U has launched, and both have/are stumbled right after launch, and the company has posted its first annual loss in over 30 years. Granted, he managed to turn around 3DS, but it's still not selling great in the West, "only" good. So that's why I said "give him another year to turn around Wii U and post a profit".

But I do agree with you that letting Iwata go could be very hurtful to Nintendo, so I really really hopes he can turn this around, that Wii U sells 10m this holiday and that they make a $1.1bn profit next year.

It isn't a spelling error, just so you know.

every cod has a 2 year developement not only one sorry. they also brought the older donkey kong's on gameboy, Nintendo always puts older games on newer hardware.