melbye said:
If there is no translation-errors here this guy is starting to worry me when he says stuff like this |
It's not a translation error, it's that NintendoLife pieced together their own story by picking out specific sentences of a larger interview.
What Furukawa said isn't any different than what Satoru Iwata said before he passed away. The key points are:
1. Nintendo wasn't always a video game company, so it would be tunnel vision if Nintendo's leadership operated under the premise that Nintendo has to stay exactly how they are. Hence the decision to partner up with Universal for a theme park, for example. Hence leaving the possibility open that Nintendo's core business won't be consoles in a very distant future (more than 20 years from now). Even that doesn't mean that there's a plan to stop with consoles, but merely that another area of Nintendo's business, whatever that might be, could be bigger than consoles.
2. Video games are a part of the entertainment industry, and entertainment has its ups and downs. This specific Nikkei interview with Furukawa was focused on questions about what Nintendo intends to do to increase stability of their performance at the stock market, so naturally Furukawa answers with revenue streams outside of Nintendo's console business. Nintendo's goal remains the same as it was under Iwata, namely that the smartphone business is supposed to generate at least 100 billion yen in revenue per year. That's where Furukawa's statement to release more smartphone games comes in, because that part of Nintendo's business is currently still under 50 billion yen. "More smartphone games" doesn't imply a shift of focus away from console development, but merely that there's the intention to consistently have 1-2 (or 2-3?) smartphone games release per fiscal year.
EDIT: Just noticed that I didn't post the link to the original source of the translation yesterday.
https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-president-on-risk-innovation-and-reducing-instability/
NintendoEverything's headline is already very different from NintendoLife's.
EDIT2: Late edit, because I was in a rush earlier today and didn't have the time to correct myself for what I said in point 2 above. There was no mention of 2-3 smartphone games per fiscal year, because the actual quote is about "increasing the amount of smartphone games that have a continuous stream of revenue," so the amount of releases remains at 1-2 per fiscal year as stated in various briefings for investors, but instead is intended to have better monetisation. A clear implication that the payment model of Super Mario Run won't be seen again.
Last edited by RolStoppable - on 06 January 2019
Currently Online 
