Author Topic: Yamauchi tells it like it is (Read 17509 times)

mantidor · « **Reply #25 on:** March 16, 2006, 12:25:54 PM »

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I hope I redeemed myself for that serious posting going on before

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #26 on:** March 16, 2006, 12:28:22 PM »

Thank you for proving my point without forcing me to lift a finger.

mantidor · « **Reply #27 on:** March 16, 2006, 12:30:31 PM »

Oh yes Im so troubled about convincing you, specially with a joke post

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #28 on:** March 16, 2006, 12:38:55 PM »

Indeed.

Dasmos · « **Reply #29 on:** March 16, 2006, 12:46:10 PM »

Yamauchi thinks Kirby looks homosexual?

lol, I remember reading this last year.

TMW · « **Reply #30 on:** March 16, 2006, 03:25:19 PM »

Oh my God.

I simultaneosly love and hate that man.

Is that...true? Did he really tell them to suck his balls?

mantidor · « **Reply #31 on:** March 16, 2006, 03:36:36 PM »

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Dont spoil the funny, but if you really want to...its a fake interview

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #32 on:** March 16, 2006, 05:58:37 PM »

Seriously? That's a shame. I actually had to give him credit for what he said to Balmer.

Yep, everything I said still stands.

Dasmos · « **Reply #33 on:** March 16, 2006, 06:32:39 PM »

Some of your points stand, but the biggest one doesn't. Nintendo would not be in the gaming business without Yamauchi. That you cannot deny.

TheYoungerPlumber · « **Reply #34 on:** March 16, 2006, 08:12:32 PM »

"He's the one who oversaw the creation of SSB and SSBM at HAL labs and I think he's going to do a great job for Nintendo. "

What the hell, SB? Iwata played major roles in SSB (a Director) and SSBM (not quite sure), but in all honesty Masahiro Sakurai "oversaw" the projects.

Also, Yamauchi is not to blame for the fallout between the two companies. A quote from a Gamasutra interview with Nao Suzuki (Square president) via Chris Kohler's "Power-Up" (page 120). Supposedly Gamasutra has video, but I couldn't find it:

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"Our true enemy," he admitted, "was our pride"....When Square originally announced back in 1997 that the Final Fantasy series would be PlayStation exclusive from now on, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi treated the affront lightly, saying that the console selection "couldn't be helped." Suzuki responded by publicly bashing the N64 and convincing Enix to join the PS camp along with them, which, looking back at it now, he realizes wasn't an incredibly smart move.

So quiet, SB.

Pryopizm · « **Reply #35 on:** March 16, 2006, 08:25:35 PM »

Would Gunpei Yokoi have been fired? Would he still be alive?

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #36 on:** March 16, 2006, 08:58:08 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: TheYoungerPlumber"Our true enemy," he admitted, "was our pride"....When Square originally announced back in 1997 that the Final Fantasy series would be PlayStation exclusive from now on, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi treated the affront lightly, saying that the console selection "couldn't be helped." Suzuki responded by publicly bashing the N64 and convincing Enix to join the PS camp along with them, which, looking back at it now, he realizes wasn't an incredibly smart move.

I said...

Quote
I'm not arguing for RPGs, I'm arguing against letting a cash cow wander out of the barn.

We agree, then: he took the affront lightly when he should have been vying for Square's support. The man underestimated RPGs, underestimated CD technology (which he had Sony build for them, no less), and handed over the gaming market by letting Square go.

He completely ignored obvious market trends because he saw the gaming market how he wanted to see it instead of how it actually was, and quotes like the first one reaffirm this fact. You CANNOT run a company with a president who is more interested in telling his customers what they want than asking them what they want.

I don't know if he could have convinced Square to stay, but the man sure as hell didn't try very hard. A hojillion Playstation and Final Fantasy sales later, Nintendo is in 3rd place, their inability to secure 3rd party exclusives being cited as the main source of the current position, the attitude of being able to succeed on their own being Yamauchi's. Yamauchi may have bitchslapped the gaming market back when a lone company could do such a thing, but the man didn't know when he should stop slapping and start practicing some diplomacy.

If Nintendo can't succeed with the Rev this gen, then I doubt we'll see another home console from them. Fortunately, Nintendo's middle name is "diplomacy" these days, as they've been excellent about securing 3rd party games on the DS and it looks like man 3rd party devs are coming back to the Rev after not making a game for a Nintendo console for two generations (like Tecmo).

I'll concede that his barbaric ways might have been good for Nintendo's push into the market and establishing the market, but I think his retirement was extremely well timed.

ThePerm · « **Reply #37 on:** March 16, 2006, 09:21:16 PM »

People who play RPGs are depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games," he noted in a 1999 interview. Yamauchi went on to call RPGs as a whole both "silly and boring."

i beleive it was Mark Rein who joked..."Nintendo gamers will end up getting really beefy forearms after playing revolution"

TheYoungerPlumber · « **Reply #38 on:** March 16, 2006, 09:42:45 PM »

Don't put words in my mouth.

Nintendo's developers care about load times. They didn't stick with a cartridge format becuase Yamauchi said so. (It was probably Miyamoto's foot that went down, if any.) Yamauchi knew the N64 wasn't about to change formats because of first party devleloper desires, so the decision couldn't be helped. Just as he said. Subsequent feuding on the handheld front only occured because the two presidents traded insults over N64, and Square started the feud. (Note Yamauchi eventually DID agree to end the feud and even provided money for FFCC development.)

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #39 on:** March 17, 2006, 06:21:52 AM »

So we know Yamauchi didn't lift a finger in an attempt to stop Square's departure, or many other 3rd parties, for that matter.

However, it begs the question: why were they all so willing and eager to leave in the first place?

This is why I'm glad Iwata is a diplomat. Like I said, when it came time to literally force the creation of the gaming market, Yamauchi was the right man for the job, but now that it's established and we have a wider selection of competitors, a diplomat is essential in securing 3rd party exclusives.

Hostile Creation · « **Reply #40 on:** March 17, 2006, 06:34:49 AM »

" No serious discussion please, you're all banned, and Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest suck! "

I was wondering how that happened, too.

RPGs are still lame. They can be popular, I'm not arguing that. There are lots of lame people in the world.

capamerica · « **Reply #41 on:** March 17, 2006, 09:00:14 AM »

I agree with what SB is saying, For what little good Yamauchi did do for Nintendo it is way over shadowed by all the damage he did. He single handily almost destroyed Nintendo. If he had steped down 1/2 threw the SNES era Nintendo would be way better off now. Sony would have never entered the market. Square would have never left Nintendo, the N64 would have been CD based. Nintendo would have never lost all its 3rd party suport. and Sega would still be alive. Things would have been much better off.

I'm glad Yamauchi is gone, now I just wish he would shut up and fade away.

Hostile Creation · « **Reply #42 on:** March 17, 2006, 09:36:07 AM »

HEY YOU STOP THAT

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #43 on:** March 17, 2006, 09:53:10 AM »

Like I said, I give him credit for being a hardass when it came to getting retailers to play ball after the Atari failure. From what I understand, they created the zapper because it changed the category in which the NES fell under from "video game" to "interactive toy" or something along those lines.

However, those were the days when 3rd parties were treated like indentured servants and Yamauchi was no exception to that. If he had perhaps been kinder to his 3rd parties and treated them as though they increased the appeal of Nintendo's hardware instead of treating them as though they were leeching off of it, they wouldn't have been so eager to jump ship to Sony when the offer came.

EDIT: and to keep this thread from getting too serious, here's a KITTEN PILE:

PIAC · « **Reply #44 on:** March 17, 2006, 12:28:35 PM »

Why is this going on in this thread. Get out.

I hear Yamauchi eats children and video game nerds who argue serious topics where they shouldn't, in their sleep. He's commin' to get you clowns.

TMW · « **Reply #45 on:** March 17, 2006, 02:20:36 PM »

I hear Yamauchi once killed a man just because he was playing a Gamegear in the bus stop in front of the Nintendo building.

breakyboy · « **Reply #46 on:** March 17, 2006, 03:02:01 PM »

I should report this to the cap'n cause there be far too many words in this section of the funhouse, but let me shut you up right here and now.

The biggest problem with third-parties (up to and including square) and Nintendo in the 32/64-bit era was the fact they went with carts which had a massively larger cost to manufacture than optical media. Not to mention it's not easy to cram all them textures and sound and whozits in a small cart compared to just plopping them on a much more spacious disc.

Misnomer #1 on all this is that Yamauchi was the one behind this. In actual fact, it was our beloved Miyamoto who had the unbelievable foresight (LOL sarcasm) to DEMAND carts because he wanted no load times on Mario 64 and any other games he made. Yamauchi wanted optical media. He knew it was the future. They went back and forth, Miyamoto either convinced him or got more sway on the board of directors or something (my memory is foggy on this point). The reason Yamauchi gets blamed for it, is that once the decision was made, he stood behind it. He's the damned captain of the team, and even if he didn't agree with it, the man has balls of steel and took it in the nuts for the team.

And as usual, Yamauchi was right.

P.S. What did he say about the DS... something about "this will either sink us to hell or rise us to heaven" (paraphrasing). Yeah, him being right seems to be status quo in the industry.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #47 on:** March 17, 2006, 04:10:24 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: breakyboy
P.S. What did he say about the DS... something about "this will either sink us to hell or rise us to heaven" (paraphrasing). Yeah, him being right seems to be status quo in the industry.

That's like the funhouse banner saying that experts agree Osama is dead or alive.

Like I said, A+ for bringing the gaming industry back from the dead, F- for diplomacy when it came to 3rd parties. Optical media or not, the N64 would have had far more support from 3rd parties if they had seen better treatment during the NES/SNES era.

animecyberrat · « **Reply #48 on:** March 17, 2006, 04:11:33 PM »

I look at all his accomploishments and see they easily over shadow his character falws, I have abosulte respect for this man. Iwata I have doubts about.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #49 on:** March 17, 2006, 04:21:54 PM »

Iwata's pushing for innovation, like the DS and the Rev.

Frankly, if Nintendo wasn't trying something new and different with their home console this gen, I'd be worried. The GC2 would not have cut it.

News:

Author Topic: Yamauchi tells it like it is (Read 17509 times)