Coming off of Nintendo Direct, which was a rather sobering presentation from the company despite the showcasing of Monolith Soft’s “X”, a new Super Smash Bros and Super Mario 3D World, President Satoru Iwata was recently interviewed by The Wall Street Journal regarding the company’s stance on smartphones.
Needless to say, Iwata isn’t very big on it. However, he also stated that “If I was only concerned about managing Nintendo for this year and next year—and not about what the company would be like in 10 or 20 years—then I’d probably say that my point of view is nonsense.
“But if we think 20 years down the line, we may look back at the decision not to supply Nintendo games to smartphones and think that is the reason why the company is still here.”
As for the drop in share prices, Iwata stated that, “there are some in the market who are more supportive of doing things differently than the way we are doing it. I understand the reality that there are some in the market who are more supportive of doing things differently than the way we are doing it.
“If you want to make short-term profits from the stock price, then I am a very bad president. But I don’t think I’m so bad for maximizing the long-term value of Nintendo.”
“People will buy hardware just to buy a single game if the game is really compelling. The hurdle has gotten higher, but if we can clear it, then we think the games can still sell.” This was in regards to Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS, which helped drive sales for the handheld in Japan on release.