Iwata’s updated “Message from the President” covers QOL plans

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has left an updated notice for shareholders and investors.

[mii-gamer]

It appears quality of life model will be not be part of the gaming business. Nintendo could be planning a new division as a new source of revenue as oppose to putting all there eggs in one basket. I'll reserve judgement until more information emerges.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

From the article:

"With a platform business that improves people’s QOL in enjoyable ways, we will attempt to establish a new business area apart from our dedicated video game business."

So, yeah, like you said; their core gaming area will stay intact and this will be a side thing for them to increase revenue.
Good thing, too; I'd hate to see Nintendo ever leave the console business, be it home or portable.

[cyguration]

Angry, basement dwelling fanboys of camps whose names shall go unnamed have disagreed with you.

Not sure why; aren't they always the ones saying competition is good?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I'll tell you why, Cyg.

It's possible they disagree with the notion that Nintendo won't be using their gaming console for their QOL plans and will be making something separate in order to cater to those plans, but I don't think that's it...

I think that they've likely disagreed, because, like so very many other haters around the N4G lately, not to mention the internet at large, they want to see Nintendo leave the home console or portable markets for the third party/mobile field, because they're too cheap/poor/prideful to go multiplatform like a sane gamer would, and instead they take to hating all over the internet at anyone who even dares to suggest that Nintendo should stay in the console-making business.

Stay salty, kids; Nintendo's not going anywhere, you'll never see Mario on anything but a Nintendo CONSOLE/HANDHELD, and your tears are delicious.

[Geekman]

"And we also vow to improve online" Miiverse crashed. Doesn't happen as often as PSN, but still.

[just-joe]

No, but when it does you're credit card information is compromised while taking Sony two week to admit it.

[worldwidegaming]

They went silent with that number!
Yeah, no way to spin that...

[sinspirit]

It was 6 days after PSN went down that they told everyone that.

This information was encrypted, unable to be used in any way.

They were busy working on redoing the entire infrastructure, they don't rely on PR for everything.

Any database is susceptible to these things. Live is actually more vulnerable and has been victim of a lot more smaller scale thefts.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

Tablet.

[mydyingparadiselost]

Ummmm.... OK......?

[sephx22]

Nintendo hiring lots of employees,all this talk about "QOL". Okay this man is up to something.

[IcicleTrepan]

The Japanese have a rapidly aging population and I've seen a lot of videos from Japan of them building robots that improve the life of the elderly.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo is entering this market which will only get bigger as the majority of the western world's populations have a large amount of people moving towards being elderly.

[colonel179]

Nintendo is not going to improve as long as Iwata remains the CEO. He is not a bad guy and he has done great things for Nintendo, but he is not the same as before. Nintendo needs to improve and modernize themselves quickly. While Nintendo has been great at making innovations, they are sticks in habits and believes from long time ago, and that needs to change, which it won't with Iwata (and some other executives there).

He is about to make a big mistake by developing games for mobile games. Nintendo doesn't need that. Nintendo needs better online infrastructure, better specs in their consoles, better third party support and better management. Iwata is clinging for money to remain as CEO, and that is a problem, because they make money the priority instead of the creativity and innovation that Nintendo is known for.

[clouds5]

They are a business company. It's their only goal to make profit. You think money isn't a priority for Sony or Microsoft?

[Realplaya]

Have you been under a rock for the last year.

They are not developing games under his watch.

QOL is them reaching out into other fields.

The console may not be super powerful but look who's hiring Vs Firing.

If your not about making money then you have no business sense. You give me one generation where they have not showed creativity.

I'm not sure if you just don't know or are trolling but you came to a positive article to spout negativity.

[N4g_null]

You are wrong on all accounts. He fought the ps1 and two generation and won. They fought 3rd parties and won. The entire market is against them this time. Behind the scenes is a lot of money hatting. The most lucrative time for money hatting was sony in the ps2 era. People want things to go back to that.

The industry knows that young naive impressionable minds enter this industry every year and the masses are corruptable with just entitlment. The simple fact that sony looses money on all hardware is dangerous and it is catching up with them. As the industry cheers for their favorite money hat it begins to burn.

Gamers here that came to game only are left with shallow Vfx fests. Where is sony first party 2d games? Rts? Puzzle games? Streatagy? Why are we only left to play online? Without online where is the replayability?

Open world, fps, simulator are all I see sony making. I'm really tired of canned sand boxes. Then the controls are pale in comparison to pc games in those very same fields. Now everyone is trying to emulate sony as if their games are great. What they see is great pr and salesmanship to youth and older gamers that forgot what things use to be like.

I remember sony having the initiative to kill 2d because it was not using all of the system. I remember snk becoming software only just to be killed off by the new sony marketing.

Just look at any old franchise and you will see that movie gaming and award driven development has turned these games into a professional circle jerk that games have to let happen now. Casltvainia is dead, ninja gaiden, mortal kombat, etc etc. Replacing them are a bunch of story based games with less game play just more tasks to do. They are no more than fetch quest with no timing, limited thinking needed and mostly easy.

So I'm glad nintendo is stubborn. Quality takes that additude. Sony has been pulling a Microsoft for many years the two are very much the same. Sony root kit and their idea of creating their own os along with making a system so complex that people can't port their game is why I can not support sony. Now we have paid online as mandatory bravo. Ms achievement unlocked.

Mario is like chess now to me. Evolving or change is not good. Let nintendo be themselves so that younger gamers can grow up and like games rather than pc like gaming on consoles, tablets, phones, Internet or on the pc. That is all a separate market. Yet it is all mixed up now. The last hold out is Nintendo.

Sony is not bad but they have painted themselves into a corner. They have become more like ms and this will hurt them. Ms will always have windows..... Sony not so much. Sony will have to restructure what publishers pay to put games on their stores to survive because games sales are not following the system sales surge. That is troubling.

[LOL_WUT]

Now their feeling the preasure that they have to venture into other areas of business. Good luck to them... ;)

[tinkypop]

Yep.
If you look around the internet you will see the wii fit board being used to help with M/S and stroke and few others.
So walking into a doc office and seeing a Wii board dose not look professional.
So if Nintendo make a more professional board. Etc etc
The health care is a gold mine waiting for a overly priced Wii board.

[N4g_null]

Health care is a gold mine. You can even use higher end tech and still make huge profits.

This along could off set any experiments nintendo wants to try in gaming. Nintendo is a huge design house with industrial design being their strong front. Sony is a patient junkie and ms is the os overlord lol. If Nintendo pulls this off you bet they could offer bleeding edge like Nvidia and still make a profit.

Mario in the hospital and pokemon for kids in bed will make huge wins for bed side manners. The wiiu with two gamepads would be sweet for chart reading or nurse charting of patients.

[pcz]

sounds like another admittance of failure and now they are going to try plan B.

[R00bot]

It's always smart to have something to fall back on. I mean, look at Sony, they have a plan B, C, D, E, F, G, etc..
They're quite lucky that they have so many plans to fall back on. Nintendo just has gaming.

[N4g_null]

I'm not sure why not admitting failure is a good thing? Sony will never admit they are 3 gens in and can't make enjoyable 2d games without online. They also will never admit they can not make franchises that competes with Nintendo they can only go after the pc market on a console. They also will not admitting they are loosing huge money on every system sold and 3rd parties are looking weaker and weaker this gen. They won't admit the crash is coming and they sped it up by competition aimed at ms which only gave ms power. Now they pretty much are Microsoft with paid online and games I wouldn't have bought. Im still waiting for sony to make a Mario killer, smash brother killer, I mean come on they don't even have a tetris killer. They don't even try any more because they would only fail.

They have to many artists and not designers... pr is suppose to fix that.

This is starting to look like 2008 banking and realastate crash. It is a bubble lacking value and ps4 owners are only investors. All patting themselves on the back for buying an investment not a game. I didn't like uncharted or the last of us and yes I've played them. I bought a ps3 for god of war the only ps franchise that is a challenge. I'm hoping I'm wrong but the order seems dry and watch dogs was a mess even bf4 was glitch galore.... now that I think about it.....

One thing holding up 3rd parties is the software check. These games could not get pass the quality control of Nintendo so they are by passing it.

Katz is a place holder for a dieing company that gamers are nostalgic over because it was many of your first system or console. Gone are the days of 16 bit neo geos, turbo grapx, snes, genesis, we had 4 systems ranging from super high end to barebones and I loved all of them because of the games not the tech. Not the story not the hype.

[pcz]

''ps4 owners are only investors''

thats true. but the same is also true of nintendo fans who blind buy every nintendo product.

i dont own any next gen system.

i am most interested in wiiu. but still, high price, low number of games = bad deal.

''I'm not sure why not admitting failure is a good thing''

admitting failure is noble, but nintendo have made it a habit now. i want to see less talk and more action. i want to see more games.

im worried what nintendos 'plan b' will involve... today might have been a massive announcement that signals the start of the ending for nintendo in them basically exiting the console business via the back door... with this plan b

[N4g_null]

Pcz you've been programmed man. He said it in the investor meeting. Gaming isn't going anywhere. This is a ten year process also. It gives them income so they can fail just like sony to make a profit. Right now Microsoft is the only player who can survive off no profit. Nintendo could but expect something to be toned down a lot.

It's wishful thinking to believe nintendo is going any where. If you are on drugs please stop your sanity is being affected.

Also if Nintendo dies so does their ip. Sure some one could buy it but ray man is the closest anything ever got to mario.

The ps4 is over priced if the wiiu is over priced... 8 gigs of ram is $10 dollars for flash on the low end. 64 gigs of ddr3 is $400 last time I checked. That ram can only be like 30 to fifty dollars of the price the apu is a joke. It's only saving grace is the videocard... meaning the ps4 is only worth $400 to me. Yet let them bring a game out I want and the price doesn't matter. When did gamers get so broke?

Also the eram in the wiiu actually would cost way more than gddr5 since you have to build it into the chip.

Power wise the wiiu hits the sweet spot and can do a lot more than what devs are putting out. Yes I have a dev kit and the sdk. Just waiting on the update that allows two game pads. Otherwise they have made huge progress with this system. Mario kart 8 really is going to show that a little more. Yet people will be busy playing it.

I'm not against the ps4 but I can't buy the hype when it's just a little better. These consoles are almost on equal ground it's just that pr and public opinion is taking control.

You are an example of this... Any one can read the investor briefing yet you still claim nintendo will be exiting the hardware business. .. actually they will only be making more hardware that possibility works with the wiiu.

The proof will be what they do for their next handheld.

[Nodoze]

Um ok. First give us what we want on the gaming side;

A new Starfox on Wii U, a new Metroid on Wii U, a Majora's Mask 3d remake on 3DS, a new Fzero on Wii U (or 3ds).

Just give us some good quality Nintendo goodness and then you can go all qol on us.

[bleedsoe9mm]

if your thinking about investing in nintendo hardware it should scare the hell out of you that they aren't taking about how to create more 1st party software or how to lure back 3rd party , but they are talking about QOL

[N4g_null]

They don't fire people.... the talent pool in gaming sort of sucks compared to what came before. Many of this guy's are riding off of someone else creations. That isn't the case with Nintendo. The creators for the most part over see their own ip. The possibilities of combined console and handheld game creation would more than double the game output for both. The account system and portfolio would give you access to everything they have made and it would flow your purchase to new systems. Systems could possibly be released in a uber power fashion and games could be scaled or just rendered high natively. 4k is coming and phone are about to drive those type of visuals.

There simply isn't nothing I want to play on ps plus. Free or not it is a waste of my time if it is not fun or entertaining to me.

I don't know maybe sony should look at releasing a 4k ps4 for a huge market up and make some money back before they fail as a corp.

Nintendo has way too many franchises to not keep making games. If we see the handheld and console merged then suddenly you will see pokemon on consoles along with every other ds, gba, 3ds game. Basically nintendo is making a platform to leverage their skills better. The QOL stuff let's them offer high end equipment to the health care fields in the doctors office along with low end offerings to lower end tech to the patient. Basically nintendo is creating another hand like how ms has os systems and Sony use to have electronics until apple and Samsung and now LG took that from them. You can spin this how ever you want but the money hat that nintendo could put out to 3rd parties would be enormous and bought sectors would be making money. The wiiu maybe struggling yet the game industry needs games eventually not just movies and tech domes trying to be open world's or adult play sets.

[Dunban67]

One key line re Iwatas health care/quality of life initiative is, they will get into/build that business over the next 10 YEARS! That is a hundred lifetimes for a publicly traded business or most any business- So this quality of life initiative is not a "fall back" because it will need to be funded for years to come via the gaming business and cash on hand-

IMO I think it is just an intentional distraction for the shareholders- When/if their gaming sales do well it will not be talked about- when their gaming sales lag it will be something he offers as hope for the future but with a ten year timetable he is not putting himself under any pressure to produce anytime soon

Iwata must have a the key voting shareholders and board members in his pocket- he sure does not act like a CEO fighting for his job or concerned he will lose it- He gives himself a 3 moth salary cut which may or may not actually effect what he takes home at the end of the year depending on how he is compensated.

Just a (slightly) educated guess, but I would not be surprised if Nintendo is taken private w in the next 2+/- years w Iwata leading the team that does it either that or they are trying to keep the stock price down in order to purchase a bunch of their own stock on the cheap