Nintendo recently held their 72nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders at their headquarters in Japan. Today, the Q&A from that meeting was released for us peruse and scrutinize. The document contains 19 questions from the shareholders and replies from President and Chairperson of the shareholders’ meeting Satoru Iwata, with the occasional cameo from Shigeru Miyamoto.
Some highlights:
- They can’t promise they will never charge for online services, but they are not considering it at all at this time. They believe the social nature of the Miiverse and Nintendo Network will pay for itself in recommendations and word-of-mouth
- Nintendo has no plans to remove comments that could be from negative campaigns against their products in Miiverse. Iwata believes in “the wisdom of crowds” to sort out the fake from the real criticisms.
- No female board members doesn’t mean they are not open to females on the board.
- No plans to add hardware features to the 3DS anytime soon (besides the upcoming 3DS XL) because it presents too many options for the consumer.
- Nintendo plans to announce Wii U launch date and price this fall, with information about post-launch games coming at launch.
- Iwata said that “Mr. Miyamoto still will be actively creating things but we are working for the transition of power to go to younger people at the same time.”
- Regarding the Wii U being left behind by Xbox and Playstation successors, Iwata says “we don’t necessarily think that the difference between the Wii U and such console will be as drastic as what you felt it was between the Wii and the other consoles because there will be fewer and fewer differentiators in graphics.”
- Iwata had to give the old ” I am afraid I cannot say anything about your question today” line when asked about DS/3DS and Wii U compatibility.
- No plans to make board games instead of/in addition to video games.
- No plans to offer physical pre-order bonuses for digital download games.
- Iwata doesn’t believe their business model is outdated
- The most awesome shareholder award goes to the gentleman that wants Nintendo to “create software filled with dreams” and suggests “Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyamoto will go through various experiences, including deadly adventures like crossing the Sahara on camelback or exploring the Amazon, full of piranhas, anacondas and crocodiles, together with the company’s other game creators” in order to create excellent games. Who wouldn’t buy a game where you do just that?
- And finally, the award for biggest schmuck goes to the shareholder who offered this question to Iwata. It’s so douchetastic that it deserves to be reprinted in full:
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QUESTION:
I got terribly lost coming here today. Every time I come here, I feel that you should take into consideration where many of the shareholders attending are coming from and that you may want to consider offering us some conveniences like a courtesy bus from JR Kyoto Station. As I feel this is rather an inconvenient place to visit by subway or by bus, I’d like you to consider more about this sort of thing than enriching the contents of the gifts you give to the attending shareholders.
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ANSWER:
Iwata:I understand your comment is that we should be aware that our headquarters is located in an inconvenient place and that therefore we should prioritize smoother arrivals of our shareholders by, for example, providing a shuttle bus over the gifts for the attending shareholders. We will consider your opinion in preparation for the future shareholders’ meetings. Thank you. |
Source: Nintendo
