Earlier this year there was some concern when it was announced that Satoru Iwata would miss E3 for health-related reasons; it was later confirmed that this was due to an operation to remove a bile-duct growth, with the recovery from that surgery forcing Satoru Iwata to miss the company's AGM (Annual General Meeting of Shareholders) on 27th June.
The company has maintained a line that Iwata-san continues to fulfil his duties as President while recovering, and in a call today (reported by Bloomberg) it's been reiterated that Iwata-san has resumed work through email "and by other means", which is likely to mean video conferencing. Below is the quote from Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa.
Iwata is recovering steadily. There is no interference with his business as president.
Bloomberg has also sought comment from investment officers and analysts on Nintendo's current performance. After the Q1 losses reported this morning Amir Anvarzadeh, manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. in Singapore, said the following.
Nintendo is a very large ship and one or two hits cannot easily move its dial. Thanks to thousands of free games being offered on smartphone platforms and its home console likely to continue to struggle, we see no recovery prospect for the business.
Hideki Yasuda, analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo, similarly sees a likely struggle with the Wii U, stating that Nintendo will nevertheless need to bear with the system for this generation of hardware.
It is difficult for Nintendo to generate a lot of benefit from the Wii U. Nintendo has to put up with it for several years and needs to wait for the next console.
Finally we have Yasuaki Kogure, chief investment officer at Tokyo’s SBI Asset Management Co, who acknowledged that “Mario Kart [8] sold well" but stated that "it didn’t solve all of Nintendo’s problems."
As we've partly outlined in our own editorial on the results, there are some worrying signs of low momentum for Nintendo at present, though the company is no doubt backing its line-up for later in the year and beyond — along with its various plans for its hardware business — to deliver the profits it's projecting.
It's also a positive to have an update on Satoru Iwata's progress, and we wish him well in his continued recovery.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 23
Well isn't this a great way to start the day.....
Heh, those armchair analysts, though they're right at some points. The WiiU while a underrated console amongst it's peers, won't top out this gen or being very likely to finish last. Nintendo has hard lessons they need learning from this gen.
That being said the smartphones and home console comparason needs 2 stop.
Slow and steady wins the race right?
Sigh, I guess I'll have to get Hyrule Warriors now to try 'n help Nintendo.
Oh My god.. Will everyone just shut up already things are getting better but things take time.
It's sad that having such a loving and devoted userbase Nintendo has such problems.
Smartphone games are over-glorified games of pong. You can play it for a while, but it doesn't take long before you get bored of it. That said, Nintendo makes deeper games that you play for days, maybe even weeks. Analysts are hardly worth posting a story about because they talk out their arse for a living. They aren't paid to look at facts.
@Captain_Toad True about the company needing to learn hard lessons from this generation. But the "Iwata Era" Nintendo NEVER learns anything. Even when they do something awesome, there's always a major facepalm to follow nearly (if not) obliterating the awesome.
Continuing to pray for his speedy recovery. I have faith in Nintendo =). It will all work out.
Nintendo can solve this problem. Easily. A Nintendo Phone.
Eh, Wii U will be fine. >.>
"Nintendo has to put up with it for several years and wait for the next console".
That's good to hear for the consumers, I want Wii U to have a good life.
They can't make enough games to support both the Wii U and 3DS...
Its such a shame they made so many weird decisions regarding the Wii's successor...I don't know how I would've done it though.
I must admit I'm a bit disappointed I have to get a PS4 to get my 3rd party fix. A one-stop home console would've been nice, especially since I love using my Wii U.
Personally I think Nintendo needs to find a way to make the Wii-U a system to have and want for the next 10 years. I think people are getting tired of a 5 or 6 year window between systems and would like to sustain a longer life on what they have. I think it can be done the Wii-U is an excellent system. It just needs a peice of new innovative software that blows away everything else. They do have a lot to overcome though. I watched my son play the Destiny Beta and I have to say.......Holy cow that will be hard to top.
groans it hurts me that Wii U is treated like an absolute failure showing how gamers treat Nintendo now with the shift to "more powerful hardware " Wii U is an excellent machine but the Internet and 3rd parties spread much hate on it influencing curious gamers to stay away from it. I'm not being baised on my opinion but looking at the facts this is true to the subject
That's good to hear.
Like Mario Kart 8. Awesome game but it seems to be the only "worthwhile" game people are buying. There's games like Super Mario 3D World, DKC Tropical Freeze, Wind Waker HD, Rayman Legends,etc yet people aren't buying them
Wow we were doing so good too. Now the bad press is rolling in again.
To heck with it. I love my console.
Iwata resuming work by "other means" must mean hes borrowing some of Miyamoto's Pikmin to help out. I did not realize that he was still working from home; I wish him well!
Expecting a couple of good games to solve it's problems was one of Nintendo's problems in the first place.
There's SOOO much more it could and should be doing to turn things around than release a few big first party games for the console and hope that solves all it's problems going forward imo.
I jist hope they ll learn from they own mistakes, and the next gen console will allow easy ports from pc and other architectures... That s why i am worried about all these talks about one single console, both handheld and home, i am worried that this will lead to even worst hardware compromises than now, putting it even more behind in the console war... They have to face the truth that nowadays they cannot face the market alone without 3rd parties and without what, unfortunately, the big mass want.... Graphic, speed, framerate...
I just wanted to say one thing, GET WELL SOON! Mr Iwata.
Get well soon, Iwata!
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