David Jaffe, the game director behind God of War and Twisted Metal, has said on Twitter that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata should be allowed to fail given his past success with the Wii and the Nintendo DS. You can read exactly what Jaffe had to say, below.
“Calling for Iwata to step down [misses] sight of what makes Nintendo great. You’d never get the Wii-type successes if you don’t allow a guy like Iwata to fail hard as well.”
“…that failure can be a sign that a person has lost ‘it’ and needs to go OR a sign that a person is still very much relevant and has tons of great work left in them but is taking the same sorts of chances that — in the past — have lead to great successes but are now — temporarily — leading to some failures. You MUST fail if you want to grow and have new successes.”
“My point is, you WANT a person who fails for these latter reasons and you want to lose one who fails for the initial reasons. I feel Iwata is the [latter] and he’s certainly earned the right to fail more than he has to this point. And that’s from a gamer AND stockholder perspective. If you [want] make money, back the folks who fail properly. Failure isn’t just an option, it’s desired if the goal is big success. And investors who don’t value failure are idiots.”
“Many thought Wii 1 was a bad move at first as well. Point is, so what it’s a bad move? Investors need to be thinking BIG PICTURE and LONG GAME with a company like Nintendo…companies that I admire are the ones that don’t only play for the short term win. you can look at the up and down history of the company and see that if you want to invest in a company like Nintendo, those ups and downs are part of what makes them great.”
“Imagine throwing out ALL of that wonderful knowledge and understanding and HARD lessons learned by cleaning house at Sony [because] the PS3 did not perform as well as investors would have liked. Yes, sometimes the [solution] is to clean house, sometimes it’s to clean a bit of the house, but damn, I think people are losing sight of the value of failure.”
Thanks, Portaldark
Failure is no big deal, but Iwata was not allowed to fail that badly with 3DS and Wii U, neither was wise to keep wasting money on the mistakes. Something doesn’t work on your first year, you change the business model, you don’t wait 3 years losses to announce a change in business.
iwata dosent fail with the 3DS.
of curse at the start of the 3DS it looks like an epic fail like the virtual boy, but they get it right.
the same mistake with the U, maybe the could make a turn, but the marked of the U is harder den the handheld market.
the 3DS is still bringing them down. The losses are not just on Wii U side
your english is just a little bad, where are you from?
That’s only because the 3DS is selling at a loss, a first for them.
Oh, hey, look at that, another person who thinks they know their shit. Wow, I haven’t seen a million of people just like you in the last decade. Look, leave it at this. The Wii U? Kinda fucked up. 3DS? Actually fairly successful, the only downside was its price, which soon became less of a problem. And I’m very sorry that your opinion of these “failures” seems to mean so much to you. I’m pretty sure you aren’t the guy in charge of Iwata, so I’m a little confused as to how you can dictate whether the man was “allowed” to “fail” like that or not. But please, I’m only a lowly anonymous internet dweller. Take my paragraph with however much salt you want.
I’m an analyst that has been right about everything Nintendo related in the last 5 years, from Wii / DS success to Wii U / 3DS failure. I’ve been predicting their losses for the last 3 years, even though Nintendo never posted a loss before on the last 30 years, so yeah, I know my stuff.
Ooh I wanna play too.
:) im an astronaut thats been to space and walked on the moon in several occasions.
Anyone else wants to bullshit? This is the internet after all. XD
HAHAHA! XD
I have a blog where I post my predictions, and 3 years ago that got me a job into a big gaming website. I even make predictions based on teaser trailers with 30~60 seconds, like Ninja Gaiden 3 and Sonic Lost World, saying they were going to bomb.
I’m sorry, I’m just really good at this, most people aren’t
Haha, ah, ha…I hope you know that anyone who says something like “I’m sorry, I’m just really good at this, most people aren’t,” is basically waving a BS card.
Am I always here saying how right I am? Or do you see me disappear every now and then? If I cared that much of what people think of me, I wouldn’t be an analyst, or wouldn’t be a good one
Everything you say is the same stuff I knew about and called, its obvious info that you just need to look up and keep in touch with. I’m no analyst but your info is an open book to everyone. And 3DS is no failure.
Good guy Jaffe~
!
Words of wisdom, Mr. Jaffe.
Quite logical.
Agreed, though Nintendo shouldn’t have overestimated 3DS sales for FY2013-2014.
they didn’t, it was a modest 20% rise over last year, considering Pokémon was launching, that wasn’t unrealistic
So this means 3DS didn’t sell well compared to last year.
Curious about 2DS sales.
Most of those lists also do not count other models like the XL. There’s a major chance it did, but, there’s a chance it wasn’t counted too.
They do count all models. 2DS must not have sold well considering it did not push sales
3DS sold basically the same as last year, and that isn’t good, because we had Monster Hunter 4 and Pokémon X & Y this year. Was it the DS, sales would have gone through the roof
Thanks for the clarification! Honestly, I don’t think it’s that bad, the 3ds is honestly doing terrifically, Nintendo really just need to focus on the Wii U right now. Besides, I’m sure Smash Bros 3DS will surely push the 3ds sales a bit aswell.
Not really, 3DS is not doing too good and the worst part is that games won’t help it.
Portables are fighting a problem of relevance, smartphones and tablets are getting their market, they can’t fight with the same old techniques as before.
I’ve read lots of articles about the profits the 3DS brings. Compared to someone claiming to be an analyst in the comments. Ooh, we’re scared now.
I don’t keep these articles, as I know I’m not a professional analyst. But a quick search of google, and the first was this –
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/10/nintendo_financial_reports_bring_minor_profit_3ds_success_and_more_wii_u_struggles.
Pretty much the picture we all see. 3DS successes, Wii U struggles.
3DS is not doing well, if you can’t see it, even when Satoru Iwata says it himself, I can’t help you
The thing is, he has now admitted that he’s read the trends wrong. Hopefully he can re-read them and fix the company.
Hopefully with that in mind, Nintendo can get the Wii U back to where it should be.
Everyone including presidents and CEO’s make mistakes. Lets hope he doesn’t make the same one again.
It’s time for Iwata to shine and show that he cares about the company.
He did a great job with the 3ds, and it’s still getting some pretty fantastic titles. Let’s hope that happens this year with the Wii U!
He already made the same mistake twice. He SAID he was not going to pull a “3DS” by having a software drought on the WiiU. And he did it anyway, and way, way fucking worse than the 3DS launch fail.
Everyone needs to stop comparing the WiiU launch to the 3DS launch. Nintendo hauled ass to fix the 3DS launch early. They just let the WiiU rot for a year. It’s not salvageable like the 3DS. It’s too late and he repeats the same mistakes.
Nintendo should considerthemselves lucky if they break even with the WiiJ.
I agree with Jaffe, he’s a smart guy and I usually think about the PS3 when it comes to the Wii U’s situation. Yeah, the first few years are bumpy, but later on it’ll reach success. With hardships in our life, you can’t really grow as a person. Even Microsoft learned their lesson (sorta) with the Xbox One, reversing all the policies. And he’s probably the only guy in the industry that I’ve seen recently, that says Nintendo should focus on SHORT TERM success. Investors need to realize that long term success helps keep you afloat more than short term
Oh yeah, that’s exactly what it is. When PS3 first came out I didn’t know anything about the console or any of it’s games. Now that there are lots out for it, I know quite a few titles there are.
I say we give it until say Autumn time and hopefully we should start seeing the software coming. I really want Zelda U.
Give this guy a promotion.
In order to succeed, you must be willing to fail, so that you know what not to do next time. It’s hard to fail, but it’s worse never to have tried to succeed. As long as you do not fear failure, success will happen.
Iwata’s not afraid to get things wrong. At least he’s honest when he is wrong.
I agree with this Jaffe dude. Reminds me of old sayin,”What doesnt kill makes you stronger!”.
You know what? I think I going to give Iwata a another chance, I know that if I fail ones, I will be thankful if someone give a chance to correct my mistakes.
I sent this to Sickr because all the wannabe critics(aka pachter) should listen to this guy
this is the reallity we are living
the 3DS and Wii were a success enough to justify that sooner or later it would come to a fail eventually
im not justifying the fact it may fail but there are ups and downs. Nintendo has been on its ups for at least 6 years, the failure would eventaully come
this article is one of the best articles MyNintendonews has(even if not originally posted here)
Egotrippin a bit there perhaps?…
*wink*
but yes, this human must be praised for his courage and truthful statement!
“praised for his courage”? no this deserves a cookie for that man
Both then…
Many articles from many sites are not an original post. That’s how news works a lot of the time.
Reblogged this on Curiosidades na internet.
I said this exact same thing yesterday to someone on this site maybe 2 or 3 hours before David Jaffe said this. It’s true! Iwata brought great fortune to the company with the DS and Wii! He messed up ONCE with the Wii U. Some people mention the 3DS, but that is not an issue. The 3DS is a success.
I think this failure is only going to make Nintendo stronger.
I don’t disagree, but it’s very discouraging to see Nintendo repeat a mistake that was very clear, and even promised to not be repeated. The 3DS launch should have made Nintendo stronger, instead it set the bar so they could achieve an even greater fail. So why should we believe this when Iwata fed us the same shit after the 3DS launch?
As they say, third time’s the charm…
And since our empire has the holy Triforce I’d say that’s just logical…
They obviously don’t have the triforce of power or wisdom… But they have courage. ;D
Well, Lord Shibata has the power of Courage as he has done a lot for Europe…
Lord Miyamoto has the Triforce of Wisdom…
And now it is only up to our Lord Iwata to use his Triforce of Power to deliver our might…
What about Uncle Reggie?
I don’t think he has lived up to the power he is lately…
True words David Jaffe. This guy knows what it’s like to rise up from failure. I know and he knows the U will rise someday.
This is perfect wisdom… I have gained perspective from this man that Nintendo is people too and should Nintendo fail because of 1 bad console that I personally get tons of use out of… 1000 plus hours since last november and still going strong.
I don’t like agreein with Jaffe, because he’s not really great at all, but he is right.
I think the whole WiiU drama has been made out to be WAY worse than it is, and people who aren’t even knowledgable enough to give opinions shouldn’t be giving them.
Nintendo will do whatever it is in responce, i think a company that’s been around as long as them has the right to do what they want, and make their own decisions.
Same goes for the WiiU. Everyone can doom and gloom all they want, but when nobody gives the damn thing a chance, even to have a good image, it’s hard to imagine it gettin up an out of it’s slump.
The Vita is doing just a bad, if worse considering it’s been around longer. Do i see “bad Vita news” everywhere? No. Why? Because the industry is full is bias arseholes, and in the Vita’s defence there is “more” stuff on there, which isn’t saying much. But at least the WiiU has something planned, there’s stuff coming, and not small stuff, Smash and Mario Kart are 2 of Nintendo’s biggest stuff. What’s coming to Vita? Oh, Soul Sacrifice sequel, and a PSO game we’ll never get localised. Amazing.
Give the WiiU a chance to exist in the market, have expectations that aren’t fucking stupid or insane, and “bold predictions” like saying 30 million lifetime units is some sort of horrible expectation of how much it “failed”, when 30 million is a good number, for a console less popular than Nintendo’s handhelds, no “mass appeal” to idiots who won’t even buy the games people even want, and in an industry fixated on quick fixes of uninteresting story driven bullshit with the letter M on the corner of the box.
3DS Day one purchase followed by drought- shame on Nintendo.
WiiU day one purchase followed by drought – shame on me.
Next Nintendo console – I wait at least 6 months.
It’s not that they made a mistake. It’s that they repeated it while knowing full well the impact to sales. WiiU has been out a year. It had a chance. Nintendo turned it’s back on it now 3rd party is following Nintendo’s lead. Now, Nintendo is all “wait! We’ll make it right!” Devs and consumers have moved on.
Iwata is right about one thing. Nintendo needs to surprise us. Do something unexpected. It’s the only way to give the WiiU a fighting chance.
a lot of people think failure means that you have to step down, look at obama, he does fail in some area but he did give the order to have the special ops to assassinate the entire planet’s enemy, bin laden. failure is just a means to make improvements, failing is part of life.
(Nintendo in a nutshell)
This guy clearly gets it, impressive post***
But Nintendo really didn’t have to fail. Iwata failed because the Wii U CPU is underpowered and there is no hard drive to download games to. Also, the Wii U should include the controller pro and Wiimote plus nunchuck in the box with Gamepad. The Wii was successful, but there was a lot of people unhappy that the Wii was underpowered and it was. The Wii should have been closer in power to the Xbox 360. The Wii should have included a upgraded GameCube controller too. If the Wii was HD and close in power to the Xbox 360, it would have put the PS3 out of business. The Wii U is a repeat of the Wii mistake. The Wii U is too underpowered and the biggest third party AAA games abandon the Wii U like they abandoned the Wii. This time everybody knows and Nintendo takes too long to bring out Wii U games. Maybe they can’t support the 3DS and Wii U at the same time. All I know is the Wii U I bought at launch didn’t have anything but NSMBU which I had just got NSMB2 on my 3DS so I could care less at the time.
Iwata has to wake up and realize that Nintendo had to spend money on hardware in the beginning to make money on games and online service. That is how the business in played now. Get in or get out. Now Nintendo has to spend money on developers to make games to try to sell this system that nobody cares about because it’s underpowered. Nintendo needs to include the controller pro and Wiimote in the box and cut the price as well.
I would like to know how the N64 and the NGC performed in their first year of life. Does anyone have a clear remembrance of those times? I have the impression that nowadays everyone wants everything RIGHT NOW, whilst in those times everything went in a slower pace, we had one or maybe two “must have” releases in a year and it was just fine.