Weren't last E3 and the holiday season make or break? Whatever. I think they still have a chance at turning things around, but the chances are pretty low. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!

I already can see the chair empty.

That is a very good question. I can't say that I'm aware of any mobile developer whom has have shown sustained revenue growth. Though maybe gameloft and Kabam.  I need to do some research.  It does really seem that mobile gaming is is even more hit and miss than console gaming.  Most have not superceded their initial hits. For every hit there seems to be  a few thousand or hundred thousnd stinkers.  Though the market being less than a decade old it's really hard to tell.  There may be more patterns emerging overtime.  

I see Nintendo merchandise and tshirts in lots of places but I don't think they make any money off it.  I think that they should try Saturday Morning TV shows and official Nintendo merchandising to co opt some of those profits being made from their IP. Try making the gold seal fashionable if you will.      

I have used the gamePad and still don't see the brilliance.  Occasionally convenient isn't what I would call appealing though.  Though I'm honestly not sure what he could say outside of that response. 

With even more losses and no noticable improvements I think not get reappointed only seems more and more likely.  

can someone make the thread for me, i need 50 post to make one,

Nikkei also reports that Hirai is in a dire situation as well, i don't understand the fasctination of the media and internet on persecuting Iwata only.

Here are the details from the Nikkei on Sony’s business with Hirai at the helm:

- This fiscal year will be the “moment of truth” for Hirai

- Sony’s main electronics business has suffered three consecutive years of operating losses

- Apple and Samsung are providing stiff competition for Sony

- Hirai is facing a “formidable challenge” in bring Sony back to prosperity

- Sony’s TV business tallied up over $6.7 billion in cumulative losses since the fiscal year 2004

- PC sales pushed Sony’s forecast into the red for this March

- Hirai is yet to deliver on his promise made two years ago to bring back Sony’s electronics business to profitability

It seems like Hirai doesn’t even trust his own staff. Read this snippet of what happened with Sony’s PC Vaio line.

“Last summer, there already were signs of Yoshida’s forthcoming rise through the company’s corporate ladder. When Hirai asked senior executives whether to continue with the struggling VAIO PC business, then chief strategy officer Tadashi Saito, 60, said they should not let it go. Hirai was feeling the pressing need to overhaul Sony’s business structure, so he secretly sounded out Yoshida out on the issue. Yoshida answered that Sony should pull out of the PC market as it saw drastic change with the spread of tablet computers and other devices.”

- Kenichiro Yoshida played a key role in Sony slashing the PC business, spinning off their TV business, and slashing 5,000 jobs

- Sony is looking to emulate Apple or Samsung

- Sony earns an operating profit of more than 100 billion yen annually from financial services business, movies and entertainment. However, the Sony electronics business is sinking their bottom line

- Sony isn’t planning to sell their TV business

Say all you want about "this is not about the games" that's shit, if the company goes down, PlayStation will as well, so don't pull that out

Here is the source
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Sony-CEO-Hirai-struggles-with-bleeding-electronics-business

It seems even in Asian countries they have the stupid assumption that Nintendo needs to go mobile.

It also seems Nikkei is just calling out everyone.

There might be hope. Vita's currently seeing a pretty solid turnaround in Japan and I think the Wii U's biggest problem at the moment is the price is holding back the main audience the original Wii appealed to (yes, I do think there are Wii users who are interested in the Wii U, but won't pay more than they paid for their Wii).

It constantly bears repeating that investors are near-term thinkers. They can only see the piles of money that Nintendo would get in the short term for doing a mass software dump onto the AppStore and Google Play, and not realize how that would gut Nintendo's business model in the long run, to the dimunition of the company.

The need for constant high returns drives many businesses into extinction, and shareholders as well as private equity firms are equally predatory, though shareholders at least are democratic, so the really destructive shareholders generally get outweighed, usually...

This. If Nintendo went mobile they'd experience success for a while, and then it would grow off to even worse levels than we have today. At least that's what I believe right now, going to sleep... zzz

I really am starting to suspect that Mario Kart 8 was moved to that awkward May 30th date to save Iwata's bacon at this shareholders meeting of confidence in June.

If they released the game in March/April as was planned, it would give time for the game to spike Wii U sales, but to also then inevitably the spike would dissipate and Wii U would normalize in sales as almost any platform does a few weeks removed from a big game.

But by moving the release date to May 30th worldwide, investors won't see the downcycle of that trend, they'll only be shown the first week or two of sales of Mario Kart 8 and Iwata can say "see? Wii U is doing better, have patience with me".

It's kind of disingenuous to be honest and it would be pretty lame if they made us Wii U owners wait an extra few weeks so that Iwata could use the game for corporate politics like that.

There's not much he can do about the Wii U IMO, I think that Quality of Life is going to either save him or flop, if it flops I think shareholders will become extremely angry and vote him out or force his resignation. Right now I think he's trying to just buy himself time, by promising QoL next year -- probably convienantly next May/June launch as well, so investors can't really judge its performance properly for the June 2015 vote. It will buy Iwata another year of time to keep stringing the investors along. 

Based on those quotes, I feel like this is a poorly-translated April Fools joke. Or rather that much of the sarcasm has been lost in translation.