http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/outrageous_fortunes/nintendo.shtml (DEAD LINK)
Related:
http://www.geek.com/articles/games/bbc-documentary-on-nintendo-2004049/
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6093252.html
From here: https://www.egameaddiction.com/forums/index.php?topic=468.0
I found this:
-1950 Yamauchi inherits Nintendo and fires his cousin as he wanted to run the company his way.
-Talks about Yamauchi's family and past (his dad took off when he was 5 years old and he never saw him again) (Crap dad!)
-How he likes Go and plays all the time (Japanese game - looks similar to Othello somewhat) (One guy actually got his job for Nintendo by challenging him to a Go game! laugh )
-If Big Y is around, employees don't speak without permission.
-The employee who challenged Big Y to a game of Go made a Nintendo version of it. When he brought it to Big Y to show him, Big Y couldn't use the game console. He had to point to what he wanted to do and get someone to do it for him. Don't know what console - didn't say. I suspect the original NES)
-Big Y is worth $1.5 Billion
-In the 60's, Big Y tried to introduce instant rice to Japan and failed miserably. laugh
-Also owned a taxi company (which he sold when he had no money) and a love hotel* (!!!)
-A business journalist who wanted to write a book about Nintendo's business method, asked Big Y about it - who got really P.O'd and shouted "Is there such a thing as a Nintendo business method?"
-In the 70s, he introduced a product called a "love tester". (You get a couple to hold hands and each person hangs onto a wire attached to the love tester. The device measures how in love they are!! laugh )
-Big Y was looking to get into the computer industry (which he apparantly saw as the future) when he met Miyamoto-san.
-Big Y encouraged his employees to be creative and sponsors them to different things (movies, trips, museums,) to get ideas.
-Old Interview with Miyamoto - talks about how N employees aren't payed glamourously, but talks about how N sponsors them for things and the prestige of working for the company.
-Miyamoto is on the Board of Nintendo now.
-Nintendo's first game entry in the US was Donkey Kong (didn't know that!) and it was a huge hit. The first DK was installed in a bar in Seattle. Talks about Mario's popularity - Mario made over $8 Billion for Nintendo but Nintendo wanted to get into the home market.
-Shows some old school Nintendo commercials that I haven't seen in 20 years
-Talks about how the NES was introduced to the home market....it came with a robot??!!
-Talks about how Nintendo's strategy of insuring the NES only played NES games and locked competitors out. The price for NES - $99 and games - $50 (Jesus - that's expensive for 20 years ago!)
-It won 95% of the market when introduced but also brought accusations of "unfair competition"
-Talks about how Big Y convinced his son in law, Arakawa-san, to head Nintendo Of America
-Talks about how Big A needed a partner - so he hired Howard Lincoln, a lawyer, to help him
-Interview with Howard Lincoln
-Talks about their business style - "Take no prisoners, annhilate all enemies" etc.
-Big A was 32 and Howard was 40 when they teamed up.
-Talks about a rumour that Big Y convinced Big A to head NOA by getting him drunk laugh
-Big A had no idea of video games or the US market when he came. Big A apparantly dove in head first to get a good understanding.
-NOA was accused of monopolising the market and hiking prices by 30% in 1989. FTC launched an inquiry. Nintendo was accused of pressuring retailers to stock only Nintendo products and that it's microchip which only allowed Nintendo games to be played on Nintendo systems prevented other competitors to make rival games.
-NOA agreed to change business practices after the investigation (doesn't say what the actual outcome was)
-Talks about how they settled with the FTC and they were embarassed by the investigation.
-Talks about how he likes to compete agressively.
-Question - Asks Big H about how a lawyer like himself, in charge of Nintendo, couldn't know how his employees were threatening retailers.
-"Sometimes sales people can say some strange things"
-Talks about how having a large market share will bring out competitors and lawsuits saying "Your market share is unfair"
-Talks about Nintendo was fined by the EU for 92 million pounds (roughly $184 million I think) for price fixing in 2002
-Talks about contreversy when Nintendo bought the Seattle Mariners (doesn't say when) but I'm guessing late 80s/early 90s
as it talks about how high the Nintendo market share was. At the time, anti-Japanese feeling was high in America (Neph's note - remember the awful Michael Crichton book "Rising Sun"?) and the whole thing was a PR disaster. (Doesn't say how exactly)
-Howard Lincoln now spends most of his time as cheif executive of the Mariners
-Mariners are now worth $385 million but Yamauchi has never been to see them.
-15 years ago Nintendo had a 90% market share, nowadays it's 30%
-Speculation as to why - Nintendo failed to anticipate popularity of PS2 (doesn't talk about PS1)
-Others believe it parallels the breakup of Yamauchi's and Arakawa's relationship.
-Says PS2 outsells Nintendo 6 to 1. (NOTE - not sure where they got their facts - they may not have taken price drop into account so don't get your panties in a twist about it)
-Arakawa left Nintendo 2 years ago amidst rumours of a difference of opinion between the two.
-Nintendo asked the BBC NOT to contact Arakawa
-Arakawa was perfectly willing to talk to the BBC. Interview follows....
-Plays alot of golf. Lives in Hawaii. When asked about why he quit he said "The game business is a tough business. I've been with Nintendo for 20 years and I was ready to retire."
-Yamauchi's life is all business. Won't come to the States if it's not for business, even though his daughter (Arakawa's wife) lives here. He will continue to think about business until he dies.
-Yamauchi's daughter "I got to know him (Yamauchi, her father) after I got married. He's not the type of man I would marry.
-Arakawa didn't know why Nintendo would say "Don't speak to Arakawa"
-Then moves to the epilepsy "contreversy"
-Clear link established between photo sensitive epilepsy and video games. Around 3% of the population (of the world? doesn't say) is potentially susceptible.
-Interviews one person's parents who had collapsed from the PS epilepsy. (From Megaman X) They talk about his collapse. The person who collapsed is now 26 and is suing Nintendo. First time was thrown out but retrial was ordered after Nintendo was found twice in contempt of court for not disclosing information to the court. Second trial hasn't happened yet.
-There is a lawyer, Rick Trahant is representing several people who are suing Nintendo for the same thing. Says Nintendo spends more time defending itself than it does addressing the actual problem.
-Rick has an internal memo from Nintendo that's over 10,000 pages long cataloguing seizure complaints and says Nintendo knew specific games could be a danger as early as 1990
-Nintendo has consistantly testified it doesn't know what games will trigger seizures, but the memo says it does.
-A Nintendo customer service employee actually sent a person whose son had had a seizure a list of games he could play and games he couldn't.
-Interview with the employee - He asked Nintendo (while working there) what games should he tell them not to play. They gave him a list of games, but then, before released to the public, they reduced the list to stop profit loss from. Nintendo stopped releasing the list publicly soon after as complaints grew.
-Howard Lincoln - Nintendo has done all it can, as soon as it knew, to make sure its products were safe.
-A machine can test the kind of flashes and colour/repetitive patterns that would trigger a seizure. The BBC took 6 games to be tested in the machine. Megaman X failed.
-Mario Kart - Double Dash, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine and Megaman X all failed.
-Super Mario Bros. 1 and Wind Waker passed.
-75% of people don't know they're at risk for a seizure until they have one.
-From 1999, game engineers in Japan (doesn't say what company) said they want NO regulation on patterns or colour because it would make the games "less exciting".
-Nintendo says their warning have been more than adequate but they can't comment on any court cases in the U.S.
-Points out that Arakawa, Lincoln and Yamauchi are all in the background of Nintendo now.
-Miyamoto has become somewhat of a rockstar. laugh Adored by fans wherever he goes. The response he got was bigger than David Bowie, The Darkness and Marilyn Manson at a UK store signing!
-At its height, Nintendo made more profit than ANY US film studio and made more money than all of them combined.
-Interview with a Miyamoto fan. *yawn*
-Talks about how disappointing Super Mario 2 is (my personal favourite) because they took a pre-existing engine (a game called Dokie Dokie panic) and simply changed the main character to Mario, rather than developing a new game because they needed something for Xmas and SMB 3 wasn't finished yet.
-Talk to people from around where Miyamoto grew up and everyone was extremely proud he was from their area.
-The Miyamoto fanboy is allowed to submit questions to the BBC interviewer to ask Miyamoto-san.
-New Nintendo offices are in Kyoto. (Neph note - I'm going to try and find them next week and get a tour!)
-Says he is embarassed when people ask for his autograph but is proud many people use his games.
-Says he was also involved in making "Dokie Dokie Panic". He understands some fans don't like it but he was involved in both games.
The US version of Super Mario 2 was made by modifying DD Panic. (Neph - I didn't know that! I wonder what the Japanese Super Mario Brothers is then?) Says the DD Panic/SMB2 question was a "real fanatic's" question. laugh
-His role now at Nintendo is involvement on some games and supervisory or advisory role for others. He wasn't deeply involved in any recently launched games so he's thinking of making his own game soon. Says the company knows he is of more use making games than managing employees "so don't worry."
-His relationship with Yamauchi is like a father/son because he's younger. He's from the first generation of Nintendo game designers which Yamauchi treated very generously, as if they were his children. Sometimes he (Miyamoto) would bring a new idea to Yamauchi and would be given permission to work on it on his own initiative. He (Yamauchi) was a brilliant sponsor for Miyamoto.
-Miyamoto forfeited his royalties on the games he designed and stayed as a salary man at Nintendo.
-Miyamoto likes his work and has always been given what he needs to spend on his projects. He feels he's fortunate that he can spend as much money as he wants on what he enjoys doing most.
-Wrap up - What of the future?
-Howard Lincoln - "Sony should never assume that the market share is set in stone".
-Arakawa - Nintendo can't stay as a family company if it wants to continue to grow.
-The product safety court case (epilepsy) could have a big impact on the whole industry as a whole. A loss would be a big blow for everyone.
