Word: iwata
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...Xbox at 13% apiece. The next generation of machines?which could allow Nintendo to erase perceptions that the two-year-old GameCube is inferior to the PlayStation and Xbox?is at least a year away. Rather than articulate a radical plan for the company to regain its competitiveness now, Iwata's most notable action since taking the helm has been a series of price cuts, slashing the cost of GameCube consoles by as much as 50% worldwide. While those reductions have boosted market share and promise to move more units during the crucial holiday weeks, they may well have...
...Sitting in a giant conference room in the company's white, castle-like headquarters, Iwata offers up a series of deeply held yet utterly contrarian beliefs about where this nearly $30 billion industry (which makes it larger than the movie business) is headed. Online video games have been a false start so far, Iwata asserts, which is why he has no plans to lead Nintendo in that direction. The current path taken by game developers toward more cinematic graphics, richer story lines and complicated controls is a blind alley that, he says, will only worsen the current "nothing...
...What people want, Iwata says, are simpler, more accessible games that are easier to play and solve?think thumb candy for dummies. Acknowledging that he cannot hope to win a technological arms race against deep-pocketed Sony and Microsoft, he says that his company's salvation is its in-house creative team and the firm's ability to launch groundbreaking games that spawn blockbuster franchises such as the hugely popular Mario Brothers and Zelda series. "Nintendo's basic strategy is to do things differently," he says. "The key lies in developing games that customers have never come across...
...country-and-western music soundtrack. Pikmin failed to take off, forcing Nintendo to rely heavily on recycled fare such as Donkey Kong, Zelda, and Pikachu and all his Pok?mon friends. When asked about original games and concepts?and potential new growth drivers?that are in the works, Iwata hesitates. "Verbalizing a concept that is entirely new is very difficult," he says. "We hope to rediscover what has been lost between the introduction of video games and now." Earlier in the day, the company had demonstrated one such initiative: a game that connects Game Boy handhelds to the GameCube console, allowing...
...least Iwata can still count on his steady handheld business, right? After all, Nintendo's Game Boy has become practically synonymous with portable gaming?and the bleeping scourge of every family road trip. But all those gaming boys and girls are growing up; Sony hopes to repeat its console success in handhelds by focusing on adult customers. The stakes for Nintendo are high, because Game Boy hardware and software now account for about 60% of the company's annual sales and a similar share of its profits. Sony recently announced plans to enter the handheld market next year with...