You may recall the Q&A that Nintendo held at their investor’s briefing a week ago. Well, there was another interesting question asked that was answered by both Shinya Takahashi and Shigeru Miyamoto. Recently, we reported on data that revealed that the ratio of women and men playing on the Nintendo Switch was 50/50 in Q4 2018, with 20% more women playing on the Switch compared to the year before, in Q2 2017. Coincidentally, at the investor’s meeting, one investor asked “female gamers are growing in number year after year, but what is the proportion of female employees in your hardware and software development departments”?
Nintendo director Shinya Takahashi was the first to respond, saying that “there are many female developers in the software development departments. Especially, there [is a lot of design work] involved in developing software, and a very high number of females among our designers. Many of them have children, and we have created an environment to work with comfort even for those who have children. I think that it is a very good workplace where women can participate actively and find satisfaction in their work”.
Shigeru Miyamoto also replied to the question, explaining that “there are also many females actively involved in development. The director of the Animal Crossing series is a woman, and there are many female designers working actively. When I had chances to look at other development companies in Europe and the US, they give the impression that they’re overwhelmingly male-dominated. Compared to companies like that, Nintendo has a lot of female developers energetically working”.
Male, female, alien or whatever, just keep making cool games.
Great! Nintendo is reputable for giving everyone the fun games they’ve always wanted. So far, they’re really doing great. It’s a struggle to attract a certain group if you don’t have someone from that group to participate in the process. It might not be difficult since there have been a solid female fanbase of some games designed by an all-men dev team, say Mass Effect for example, but it makes an excellent extra pair of hands. Plus, I’m super happy that women nowadays do take an interest in the gaming industry.
I think this simply has to do with what demographics you’re targeting. Big titles from other companies seem to target a more male demographic and who would know men better than fellow men? Not saying there’s no women who like those games or no women making those types of games (Amy Hennig of Uncharted fame comes to mind) but I think you can see my point here. Targeting a certain demographic isn’t sexist, it’s business. It’s clear that Nintendo attracts more females with the games they make and that’s great! But not everyone needs to follow suit. Also, it’s not surprising in the least that the lead on Animal Crossing is female. It’s a very chill game that I’m sure attracts a lot of those 50%.
One could argue the causation might go the other way. If you have a male dominated design and development team there will likely be a game that attracts a male demographic. Maybe that’s why the female percentage of players is growing, as more women are brought into development teams they are able to bring a perspective to games that can more widely appeal to women gamers as well.
I guess my point would be that if there are more diverse teams they are better equipped to make games that appear to a more diverse install base
I guess I wasn’t specific enough. Western developers like making their big budget competitive games. No matter what you do, that’ll always attract a mostly male demographic. The same goes games that focus on a lot of big action set pieces and/or violence. On the whole those aren’t the types of games most women are attracted to and once again, that’s completely fine.
I dont care about the gender who creates the games, just the timing. If they made games immediately the Nintendo Switch will always be shining. Then we wont have to fork over $359 then start whinning.
This is good
But in Nintendo Russia……..
always fine when men claim stuff like that … because what else should he say =)
Yeah, I also feel like that’s not his call to make. Perhaps do a survey among female employees and ask THEM how they like working there and how to improve their work environment…
Exactly. When I read something like this, I can see the women rolling their eyes and doing their work. I mean, let’s hope they’re not, but most of the times when male CEOs brag like that without anyone to support that statement, it’s pretty much like that.
It’s would be OK it there were more male developers. Males are simply more interested in STEM, including software development, compared to females. And that’s OK. Have a nice day :)
Man I miss the good old days. Hopefully ill marry a good housewife.
Amen to that broski.
Getcha a GOOD girl.
:).
I’m glad women work at Nintendo, and are increasing in these types of jobs. Women are smart, talented, and just as capable.
Is this sarcasm? Im Russian I dont get this humour.
Unless it’s Nintendo Russia.
:)
As long as they are hired because they are actually good & not just hired for that diversity check box, I don’t care what gender, race, or sexual orientation a game developer, writer, director, etc is. Too bad Lucasfilms, CBS, & Sony Pictures are too fucking stupid to get that through their thick skulls instead of screaming racist/sexist/homophobe at every single person that criticizes their stuff. *cough*StarWars8*cough*StarTrekDiscovery*cough*Ghostbusters2016*cough*
Honestly, I’d love to give STD/Ghostbusters 2016 a chance, but the attacks on fans with legitimate gripes that aren’t/weren’t happy with this/that product is/has keeping/kept me away. So to that show/movie: