Nintendo Doesn’t Care About Competition

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says he is “not conscious” of any competition, be it Apple, Microsoft, or their arch rivals, Sony. Concentrating on others would lead Nintendo into the “trap” of “shortsighted business philosophies” and a preoccupation with “spoiling” another company’s ideas, he said.

“On the contrary,” he said, “we ourselves assume that our rival is everything consuming people’s interest, time and energy. If we were to consider one specific thing as our rival, we would do nothing but think of how to beat it.

“…Even if we ask customers what kind of games they want to play and develop one game as they requested, it may not always greatly excite them. Instead, we should develop what is beyond their imagination and let them say, ‘This is unexpectedly interesting,’ or ‘This is the very thing I have been wanting.’ We can say that our business is very unique.

“…it is more important for our unique business to always ask ourselves, and try to answer such questions as, ‘What does it mean to make people interested in something?’ ‘What is worth spending people’s time and energy on?’ Or ‘What do people find amusement in?’

“We would be glad if you understand that, as the basis, we are not conscious of any certain rivals,” he said.

On cloud computing, Iwata said, “With cloud computing, for example, customers would be irritated even by a slight delay in response after pressing a button. So, for what is suitable for cloud computing, we will take advantage of the technology in the future.

“It is also natural that we will align with a service provider of cloud computing, and not going through the trouble to develop our own facilities. Having said that, cloud computing would not conquer every field of entertainment because present telecommunication technologies inevitably involve a certain delay and limitation of transmission speed.

“We would employ Cloud Computing as far as it is useful,” he concluded.

Hmmm…. if only Microsoft and Sony could do that…