Rumour: Nintendo Has Reportedly Axed Its Quality Of Life Department

I think this QoL thing was only ever teased to appease angry shareholders who were fuming over the failure of the Wii U and the losses that were incurred as a result.

Now that the Switch is a massive success, there is no need for super-conceptual non-gaming related products to satiate investors.

@westman98 Exactly what I was thinking.

Well Nintendo still encourages people to get active and healthy with games like Wiifit and the new boxing game. So maybe Nintendo is going to focus more on getting people active with the Nintendo Switch?

@westman98 it still would be nice for Nintendo to release products, hardware, software, etc. outside of the gaming sphere. I mean Sony and Microsoft have their hands in numerous industries to make money from and it would be cool to see Nintendo do the same with their own stamp of quality.

I think that the QoL idea was a project that was directed, or at least influenced, by Satoru Iwata, and his passing may have had something to do with why the project never came to fruition.
Just a theory. I'm no insider, so who knows.

@ReaderRagfish Mario I wouldn't mind. That freaky Tom Nook, on the other hand....

I suppose it's for the best.

@westman98
No it goes back to the Wii vitality sensor announced in 2009 that never came out which I’d say was the dawn or “wacky” Nintendo that would go on to make 3D the focus of the DS successor and of course the Wii U and it’s utter failure to bring in the enormous Wii audience.

Maybe they should axe their online department too lol

@tabris95 Literally just got the update after 3 hours of waiting

10 years from now, the prototype device gets found in Reggie's old basement 😆

This QOL thing sounded like a flop from the start though.

If true, hopefully any employees part of the project aren't too terribly impacted.

Oh no! Now how am I supposed to know if I'm getting an adequate amount of sleep after playing video games for hours on end! NintenDoomed!

YESSSS!!!! best news all year!!!!!

Not to poop on Iwata’s legacy, but this is a good thing.

Oh no! How could they sleep at night?

Good riddance, it was a stupid idea.

"Instead of contuining the Quality of Life project, Nintendo will increase the salary of every Nintendo employee by a fixed amount. This '.. will result in better quality of life the most for the lesser paid employees. We're lovely like that.' said senior executive with Japanese name."

Hey, that Wii Finger Pulse thing has a buddy now in the prototype drawer.

Well okay the, I guess.

@ReaderRagfish Better Mario than Jeff Bezos. lol.

I swear I saw this story in the news like last year or longer ago.

It never made sense in the first place. Lol.

If its true: Good! Just focus on games, guys!

@tabris95 feels like they already did

Surprise, surprise. I always thought this QoL branch of the company only existed because of Iwata being ill and naturally thinking about trying to find ways to create products at Nintendo that could improve people's quality of life as a side effect of that. So without Iwata I'm not surprised it's no longer a focus.

Quality of Life quickly became important to Iwata, for good reason. But if the department isn't contributing with anything useful anymore, then maybe it's for the better to close it down.

Good, put that focus on more Quality of Games.

Oh man, that sucks. Nintendo could have saved so many lives.

The health technology market changed so much since the announcement of QOL. To some extent, the heyday of it passed in a snap. If a product did release today, it would be playing catch up.

Maybe or just Nikkei making up crap again. It was thought dead lots of times.

I could use a new Wii Fit to improve my Quality of Life. (I'm still playing Wii Fit U.)

https://www.gofundme.com/jacobs-journey-with-lfs?fbclid=IwAR0i_2pzgPjDGSlkO1McmjlEZB9L7h_j6X1H0HGhmVKbm0E3r-8qX4qtgPA
please donate or repost this to help Jacob's Quality of Life

Coming to stores this holiday -

My Labo Pillow

• where we sleep better w/ our head on a cardboard box. 😂

To be fair, the Switch's UI is also not very "Nintendo-esque".

It makes sense since with the abandonment of the Wii U, Nintendo has decided to focus on selling to gamers again, instead of trying to sell to the non gaming market like with the Wii.

QoL was an extension of that, and Nintendo has given up on that (for now).

I never really saw this being a thing anyway.

With the Switch as successful as it is, Nintendo would be better off reviving Wii Sports and Wii Fit if they were to continue down the health route.

Others have said it separately, but the QoL line seems to be a combination of a passion project from Iwata that stemmed from his own life and a need to spread out revenue opportunities in a company that took such a hard hit from a lackluster console launch.

It might have been a good direction. Health tracking and feedback is a good enough core feature for many to buy wearables that do it, and the potential is there with people discovering heart conditions. Would have been tough for Nintendo to get a foothold, but that was the time to get a start at it.

Now, Nintendo has spread out a bit with its core console and portable gaming success making it easier. There are mobile games to reach a wider gaming audience, Labo to reach STEM consumers, and, yes, amiibo have settled in as another revenue stream along with a wider licensed merchandising strategy all the way out to movies and theme parks.

There is much less need for alternate revenue streams, and it is still focused on their core game IP.

This is sad. QoL was the beggining of full inmersion VR, aiming for a device that would synch to your brain vibrations (which are different whyle you sleep) to connect you to an Inmersive world.

The Wii was also presented more like a gym/sport machine than as a console, but it still focused on gaming. And QoL has been always gaming related, always.

It was named QoL because it would help people who had sleeping problems, the same way that the wii helped people with weight problems, but both of them were gaming related.

What you all think of as QoL can be done with simple fitbits or other devisces that alredy track your heatrbeat, pressue...

If you think Nintendo needed so many years to create fitbit.... Well... that's your choice...

And knowing what the real QoL was aiming at can make you understand why so much secressy and so little info of it was made available.

The idea however lost power because of the risk of people wanting to isolate themselves in the dream world, wich would be anti-Nintendo filosophy.

That's too bad... maybe it would have helped many people...

Guess again!!!!! Bwahaha!