It was not deemed a failure of his making. Nintendo were well aware of what they did in releasing it early. He also then stayed on at the company, worked on a far more successful device (conveniently ignored in this myth narrative, because it falls apart there), maintained that level of relationship with Yamauchi - not the most forgiving of men - with no change in trreatment from within the company, and had always planned to leave at that time to pursue his own interests. Again, multiple sources cover this.
There is evidence for all of this - from coworkers, from the timeline, from how he was actually treated. He left with several coworkers (leaving Nintendo to go on to work with a failure?) to start a new company, nearly a year after it was released, and in line with the GBP. Facts. All written down and corroborated and sourced, within that book, for anyone to read.
The "evidence" to the contrary is random people wanting to think it failed so badly he was pushed out of the company because hey - it makes a nice story for them to think that. And that is all they have. Find a shred of evidence to the contrary. As with any conspiracy, please do so. There isn't any.
Sorry, but no. This is actually a myth and one that really needs to die for historical accuracy.
"Nintendo has denied that the Virtual Boy's poor performance in the market was the reason for Yokoi's subsequent departure from the company,[7] holding that his retirement was "absolutely coincidental" to the market performance of any Nintendo hardware.[8] According to his Nintendo and Koto colleague Yoshihiro Taki, Yokoi had originally decided to retire at age 50 to do as he pleased but had simply delayed it."
This is talked about further in the excellent book "Nintendo Magic", where obviously he then wanted to go on and do things like the Wonderswan, and it is also worth pointing out that he didn't directly leave after the Virtual Boy failed (which Nintendo pushed out early to focus on other things... Hardly something they'd blame him for) and his next project was the Gameboy Pocket - an extremely successful device. Gunpei was also described as being extremely close to Mr Yamauchi during the entire period, with the two regularly having dinners together as families and the two were considered something like `father and son` going by Nintendo Magic.
So... Yeah. It's a digital urban myth that the Virtual Boy had anything to do with his leaving. Apparently widely believed enough that Henk thinks it to be the case. But Nintendo deny it, his colleagues deny it, he maintained a good friendship with the company boss, the timing doesn't add up, and it wasn't the last thing he did for the company and certainly he didn't leave on a failure with the GBP.
He deserves better than for this myth to continue.
Comments 52
Re: Feature: Meet The Man Who Gave Nintendo Tetris And Got Hiroshi Yamauchi Gaming
It was not deemed a failure of his making. Nintendo were well aware of what they did in releasing it early. He also then stayed on at the company, worked on a far more successful device (conveniently ignored in this myth narrative, because it falls apart there), maintained that level of relationship with Yamauchi - not the most forgiving of men - with no change in trreatment from within the company, and had always planned to leave at that time to pursue his own interests. Again, multiple sources cover this.
There is evidence for all of this - from coworkers, from the timeline, from how he was actually treated. He left with several coworkers (leaving Nintendo to go on to work with a failure?) to start a new company, nearly a year after it was released, and in line with the GBP. Facts. All written down and corroborated and sourced, within that book, for anyone to read.
The "evidence" to the contrary is random people wanting to think it failed so badly he was pushed out of the company because hey - it makes a nice story for them to think that.
And that is all they have.
Find a shred of evidence to the contrary. As with any conspiracy, please do so. There isn't any.
Re: Feature: Meet The Man Who Gave Nintendo Tetris And Got Hiroshi Yamauchi Gaming
"[Gunpei] Yokoi left the company as a result"
Sorry, but no. This is actually a myth and one that really needs to die for historical accuracy.
"Nintendo has denied that the Virtual Boy's poor performance in the market was the reason for Yokoi's subsequent departure from the company,[7] holding that his retirement was "absolutely coincidental" to the market performance of any Nintendo hardware.[8] According to his Nintendo and Koto colleague Yoshihiro Taki, Yokoi had originally decided to retire at age 50 to do as he pleased but had simply delayed it."
This is talked about further in the excellent book "Nintendo Magic", where obviously he then wanted to go on and do things like the Wonderswan, and it is also worth pointing out that he didn't directly leave after the Virtual Boy failed (which Nintendo pushed out early to focus on other things... Hardly something they'd blame him for) and his next project was the Gameboy Pocket - an extremely successful device. Gunpei was also described as being extremely close to Mr Yamauchi during the entire period, with the two regularly having dinners together as families and the two were considered something like `father and son` going by Nintendo Magic.
So... Yeah. It's a digital urban myth that the Virtual Boy had anything to do with his leaving. Apparently widely believed enough that Henk thinks it to be the case. But Nintendo deny it, his colleagues deny it, he maintained a good friendship with the company boss, the timing doesn't add up, and it wasn't the last thing he did for the company and certainly he didn't leave on a failure with the GBP.
He deserves better than for this myth to continue.