After what seems like 99 million years at the helm,

May 24, 2002 7:12 AM

After what seems like 99 million years at the helm, Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, is finally retiring. It's certainly been an eventful E3 for Nintendo; what does this mean for the future of the console wars?
posted by darukaru (7 comments total)

CNN speculates a little. I didn't see this before making the post.
posted by darukaru at 7:18 AM on May 24, 2002

I don't think it will change the situation much, although it would be interesting to see how this changes Nintendo's perspectives and decisions on things... its almost hard to imagine Nintendo without Yamauchi. As much as I hope the new management is able to keep the big N's traditional values, I'm also keen on seeing changes in the future... one of which includes perhaps, lighting up on the kiddy marketing angle, but not 'sell out' with macho gimmicks ala Pepsi, PSX or Xbox.
posted by aki at 7:41 AM on May 24, 2002

A very un-Japanese move in some ways - a sign of changing business practice in Japan.
posted by mjane at 8:15 AM on May 24, 2002

It means they might actually produce an on-line setup. He's been very down on it all along.
posted by NortonDC at 9:55 AM on May 24, 2002

I saw the first GameCube online game at E3 yesterday. Phantasy Star I think.

Me, I'll be busy playing Animal Crossing and Mario Party 4!
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:23 AM on May 24, 2002

Is it just me, or does the new Legend of Zelda look a hell of a lot like Samurai Jack? Compare young Jack to Link...
A discussion on Yamauchi else-site was skeptical that his retirement would actually change much; he'd still be wielding a lot of power from 'beyond the grave', so to speak.
aki: I hope you're right about N changing its marketing focus; jokes about the GameCube's handle and kiddy games are almost as common as jokes about the size of the Xbox.
posted by darukaru at 11:02 AM on May 24, 2002

It means they might actually produce an on-line setup. He's been very down on it all along.

I remember reading that Nintendo wishes to allow game developers to provide their own online setup. In more ways than one, this is more liberating than what Microsoft and Sony has, and i think it might be a wise move to attract more developers.

aki: I hope you're right about N changing its marketing focus; jokes about the GameCube's handle and kiddy games are almost as common as jokes about the size of the Xbox.

I do respect Nintendo's ideals of games with universal appeal... and I tend to think of it as them being just so confident that the quality and content of the games is good enough to stand on its own merits, and that it doesn't have to hide behind Hollywood machoism, violence and other 'cool' things - but there really ought to be some more balance, a bit of excessive flash and style - it's variety, and the N64 lacked that.
posted by aki at 10:04 PM on May 24, 2002