I agree with the article but this new thing where we have to add an "s" at the end of say, game industry? More grating than Justin Bieber and Miley doing a duet on stage.

Wow this guy really gets it wrong, and fast. Nintendo is *not* a games company at heart. They make their games to sell hardware, that is their role as the hardware maker, to make games that push it. Their compelling first party library is created out of a need to sell consoles.

Understanding as much is essential before one can move forward.

“The hardware is just a box you buy only because you want to play Mario games.”

- Hiroshi Yamauchi

I only came here to do 2 things. Drink some beer, and kick some ass! And it looks like the beer is almost gone...

I don't think it's all Miyamoto or Iwata's fault but this article is VERY HELPFUL in getting people to realise that Miyamoto isn't a god and has presided over a reduction in the selling power of Nintendo's games.

However amazing you think 3D World is, it wasn't the game Nintendo needed it to be and many of the decisions that led to that are Miyamoto's.

I read it already, Melstrom did an article about this and he linked to this article! And yes I agree with the motion that part of the problem is Miymaoto itself and his desire to push people to like his vision of 3D Mario. He can do wrong, it's time he took some critiscism.

I disagree. Nintendo is a toy company at heart. They want what they make to be played with. They only make hardware if it's so people can experience what they make like they want it to.

Sony and Microsoft are platform companies. They talk up hardware specs, media features, stores, accounts and subscriptions. Without the backlash I don't think Microsoft would have acknowledged games as the main purpose of their system at all. Their mission is a box in every living room.

Nintendo don't act like a hardware maker. They miss boats all the time on accounts or streaming or online. They only use the very best tech for whatever toy experience they're going for - 3D control (analogue stick), R-trigger, motion control, 3D screen, tablet.

I'm not saying this attitude is optimal for their survival. They'd do better financially doing what you say. In a vacuum they'd just make increasingly wackier toys forever.  This is why they abandoned the DS and Wii before the end; they were personally done with making their games be constrained by them. They weren't really interested, creatively, in selling more of them.

Iwata, Miyamoto, and the Genyo Takeda of the board should take the majority of the blame. They are the most senior members of the board of directors and thus wield the most power and called every one of the decisions with the 3DS and Wii U.

I'm not saying they should be fired, but Iwata even himself conceeds he doesn't understand the Western market like the Japanese market. Miyamoto should not be making business decisions, he's a great game creator, but you don't let Wily Wonka run the business side of the chocolate factory, let someone who understands the modern business do so.

Miyamoto as far as I know was also instrumental in getting Nintendo to abandon any type of CD support for the N64, which directly led to Sony basically becoming the market leader by default.

He should not have influence in these types of decisions. Whatever game idea he wants to make is just fine, he should be able to make whatever he wants with no interference, but as a business man? Time to retire Miyamoto.

As one of Nintendo's consumers, from my perspective they don't have a problem. Obviously they have some financial issues, but it's their job to worry about that. I've been enjoying their output far too much to tell anyone they're doing their job wrong.

Though I am curious about what kind of games we'd see if Masahiro Sakurai was given Miyamoto's job of overseeing all software development. For reference, Sakurai quit working at Nintendo specifically because he was tired of being asked to make sequels all the time. His departure was official but effectively meaningless, as he still works almost exclusively as a director of first-party Nintendo titles.

In the West, the senior management exist to take final responsibility for the company's actions. That's why they are paid so highly. When a company performs badly, it doesn't matter whether it's the direct fault of that management or not, they have to take that responsibility and leave.

That's clearly not the case in Japan though.