Friday is voting time for Iwata by investors, what do you think?

Thanks for the great informative OP

More info please.

I think he should look at replacing himself tentatively given his health issues, but give himself the option of returning when his health returns.

I Hope they fire that stupid goon.

While Nintendo does have a lot of thunder coming off E3 and Mario Kart 8 sales I think Iwata needs to go. The Wii U hasn't gotten the sales push it desperately needs and even advertising for the system has been lacking. Not to mention I think the overall vision of the system hasn't been achieved. At E3 Nintendo said they're committed to showing games that use the gamepad in interesting and unique ways but they said that would happen before the system launched and failed to deliver on it. At this point all it's used for is "remote play" and a map, and I think at this point even Nintendo realizes it doesn't bring something unique to the table especially at the cost and sacrifices it's forced them to make.

He still needs to go...UNLESS you actually believe that all the titles they shown/claim will be release in 2015. :P

I think the momentum Mario Kart 8 and E3 has given the Wii-U has earned him a little more time to turn around the Wii-U.

A little off topic but didn't Nintendo lose to Phillips in a law suit and now they ban them from selling the Wii and Wii U?

They only demanded the court bans Wii and Wii U sales but that'll never happen.

Phillips barely has a case as is and if Nintendo goes to US court over them wanting to ban the systems it'll blow up in Phillip's face.

Took 2 years but wii u is just beginning to spring some life, but had VERY little third party support

Either way i think they should start looking to hire new people on board before it's too late for their next system.

It's a hard call. Nintendo seems to be atm getting the wii-u on track. But the process to getting there has been painful. I'd say he's safe at least atm. The DS and Wii are still there most successful consoles. And the 3ds is still doing well.

I've wanted Iwata gone for many years now and that hasn't changed one bit. The amount of ****-ups he's done far outweighs the positives of his tenure in my opinion.

But I've no doubt he's going absolutely nowhere. He has ingrained himself too much as Nintendo's front man in so many peoples' minds, he has stacked the board with those favorable to him, and he was hand-picked by Yamauchi. I'm convinced at this point the only way Iwata is leaving is by his own doing, unfortunately.

Yup, as expected. Well, this will make for an interesting future, at the very least.

Play ball!

Did the vote already take place? I did a quick google but didn't see any news.

*Edit* Nevermind, just saw it pop up. Oh well...

? so what happen is Iwata out?

There needs to be a third option.

Although the reception of Mario Kart 8 has been strong and Nintendo came out of E3 with some momentum, Iwata still needs to go. He has had it far easier than anyone else who has screwed up at Nintendo. When Gunpei Yokoi screwed up with the virtual boy, he got a window seat. Meaning, he was still employed, but would no longer take credit for anything he did at the company. That was after one mistake. Iwata has botched the Wii U and 3DS launches, all while subjecting Nintendo to its first losses in its 100+ year history. Under his leadership, the company was unprepared for HD development despite having years to structure for it and no shortage of funds. Nintendo's fortunes do seem to be turning around, but Iwata has proven to be short sighted and almost willfully ignorant of what is going on around him.

I don't think he should be fired outright. Iwata is a software developer who worked on games like Earthbound. He should return to what he's obviously good at and leave administrative work to those who are more adept.

Edit: Welp, looks like he was re-elected. -_-

Well, that's great news. Nintendo has done nothing but crank out great software under Iwata.

Dang! :(

I think he got a lucky break, a few months ago investors weren't really too happy with Iwata's Decisions. Mario Kart 8 probably saved his seat.

Iwata was re-elected

His approval rate for last year was %77 after originally being %90 for the past few years.

Its close to getting the exact results.

I think they should give him one more year. The E3 was very impressive. Many people believe that Nintendo won this past E3. The only thing they need to do is drop the price to like $250 or less. with a 2 game bundle and we're good to go.

He was re-elected, and I think he does deserve this one last year to turn the Wii U around- if after this, the Wii U's performance is still as abysmal as it has been the last two years, then yes, I do believe he should go.

As it stands, current indications are the Wii U's performance will improve, so I imagine he will stay on.

He didn't f up half as much as they did at MS again, and again, and again.
The company is not in an easy position. I bet 90% of the CEO's in the world would have had the ship sink one way or another.

@KungfuKitten said:

"He didn't f up half as much as they did at MS again, and again, and again.

The company is not in an easy position. I bet 90% of the CEO's in the world would have had the ship sink one way or another.

And MS has since taken drastic action and replaced people at the top in quick fashion, haven't they?"

Nintendo is not in an easy position and that is entirely of their own doing. How is this not seen by so many? Iwata is not some innocent victim all of a sudden thrust into the role of CEO after one has left that's done all the damage. He is responsible and you act as if he is to be given credit for saving a ship that he himself has driven directly into the reef. Do people not understand where Nintendo stood when the Wii was raking in the money? They had everything. Yet Iwata sat around doing nothing back then preparing for today, and that's the reason Nintendo is suffering. A lack of investing all those Wii funds into better infrastructure and expansion, bettering the VC, expanding studios, preparing for HD development, marketing. Only now is this all being done (and still many things are not), and only now is the payoff being seen, but only after losses of hundreds of millions have been accrued, only after the brandname has suffered, only after consumer apathy and hostility is at an all-time high. Iwata has proven time and again to be a reactionary CEO, not a proactive one.

I would really, really like to hear valid reasons as to why this gives people confidence that Iwata should remain at the helm.

90% of the CEOs in the world would seriously have to TRY to screw up so hard to go from such a position of promise and advantage to one of utter decay in such a time period. What has transpired has been a monumental failure of leadership in nearly every area imaginable. These are not small mistakes that have been made. They are many, and they are huge, and they have damaged and are costing Nintendo dearly. There is no reason to give him another chance, and every one to want him gone.

This post at Neogaf also really grinds my gears, just one of many of similar sentiment: "Gaming is saved for now".

Jesus. This really goes to show on what basis people defend him and how his persona has affected peoples' objectivity. Iwata has accomplished his goal of getting himself into being seen as the embodiment of all the good gaming has to offer. The man that upholds its values and fights off the dirty sleaze of the industry. The mighty crusader against the oncoming crash, the fighter for our rights (even though Nintendo still insists on using some of the most anti-consumer practices out there.....namely, accounts still tied to hardware and no cross-buy). To believe one man has such power, or that given Iwata's absence everything would falter to dust and descend into ruin, is just madness.

It's just madness all around, quite frankly. This cult of personality has to die, because it's excusing a man who's being defended upon a foundation that holds no bearing on his ability to do his job.

@superbuuman: I'm sure you're aware, but yea....re-elected.

Well he was around for the DS, Wii and 3DS, and they sold a shit ton of those. The Wii U seems to be picking up speed. ( About time) He's not the best CEO in the world, but he's not horrible. The Wii U launch and lack of content is the only real nails in his coffin.

he should have stuck to the wiimote for another gen...it would of sold much better....

but they should have made all games compatible with a wiiU pro controller to get everyone to jump in...

They screwed up with their communication, delivery and understanding what the public wanted. Still the system they delivered is still very good and the games will even be better in the end. Sony screwed up last year with the PS3 as well and now Nintendo screwed up with the Wii U this gen. All 3 companies have made mistakes and will recover from them.

What MS did last year would have been even worse than what nintendo did with the wiiu if what MS talked about last year still existed now. Nintendo tried to focus on an audience they are not traditionally strong(I think they tried to focus on this audience to much) and an audience that they are traditionally strong with(they kinda ignored this audience to an extent with the WiiU). The terrible marketing, poor software output and other issues hurt the WiiU badly. I don't think this is all Iwata's fault. There may have been people on the board that influenced the WiiU's direction. They will probably fix most of the WiiU's problems with their next console.Nintendo does need to expand their audience at bit, but they really don't need to try to go after MS and Sony's audience again since they already failed when they tried that with the WiiU. They just need to focus on creating a unique platform with unique/creative and fun games that appeals to audiences that don't usually buy the other two consoles(like children, young women and people like the nintendo core). The WiiU appealed to one of those audiences and women to an extent, but did not really grab the other audiences listed above and the audience they were trying to attract in the first place. The console also has be affordable and maybe somewhat powerful(PS4 and XB1 powerful) if it is possible at a decent price point.Even Iwata admitted awhile ago they went far away from there traditional audience with the WiiU and that they have to target that audience again and that is what they will try to do with their next console and handheld.

I don't think he will be leaving nintendo until the transition period is over which may take two years according to him. He may be nintendo's ceo for at least a couple more years most likely.

@super600: your points are a bit all over the place. Nintendo has screwed up on mostly every front, but the fact remains that their mistakes stem from incompetence of leadership. Of course people on the board influenced decisions, but who do you think is responsible for appointing people to the board in the first place?

I don't see how Nintendo's focused audience holds any impact on things like the above I've mentioned. For Nintendo to be focusing on pursuing whatever audience or new venture when many areas of their business sit there atrophying by yesteryear's standards is to put the cart before the horse. They need to modernize and catch up to 2014 before they even consider what type of customer they wish to pursue, and this is still what frustrates me, because from what I'm seeing they're not doing it. Instead, we see thing like Amiibos and QoL being introduced when there remain glaring inadequacies in very fundamental elements of the company that are very reason they are hurting today.

Nintendo already has a unique, creative platform with fun games that appeal to all audiences. This has never been their problem, nor the reason that they are in a hard spot. People seem to be under the mistaken impression that Nintendo has done everything right all this time and that it's "their audience", or "the dudebro gamer" or whatnot that's at fault. I could not disagree more. The fault lies with them. Nintendo is being run into the ground by imbeciles high up, and the only thing holding them up is their past, their reputation, and their talent. But I don't know if that will be enough.

Audience appeal is one of the biggest problems with the WiiU. What I'm saying is that nintendo banked on the hardcore audience buying the wiiu and they did try to appeal to this group.That group did not buy the wiiu and as a result the WiiU failed. They also did nothing unique to appeal to other audiences(games like nsmbu and nintendoland failed to appeal to this audience). They failed to create something like wii sports to show off the wiiu,The 3DS kinda suffers from this problem to(That console focused on the core gamera bit to much, but that has been kinda rectified with the marketing towards women now) and other groups outside of the core gamer now.They need to bring that uniqueness back to their next console which is what I'm trying to say. That's why you see iwata talking about blue oceans and products like QOL right now and how the direction they went with he WiiU failed. I do think they need to fix their online infrastructure which they are planning to do right now and focus on the core gamer a bit, but I highly doubt they are going to try a full out core gamer strategy again..Anyway I do think Iwata deserves another chance to prove himself and I hope he gets their next console right.I'm not blaming the core gamer(or hardcore gamer) for not getting the console, but I do think nintendo needs to move away from this group and focus more on the bigger groups of maybe former and current gamers that probably won;t buy either a ps4 or an xb1 with the QoL, their next console and handheld and their other products like Amiibo.

Nintendo needs to decide on what it really wants and go for a very direct, focused attempt on one or the other. Either go for the (hard)core (which I do believe is sustainable), or go for the casual. But not both. To try to please everyone is pleasing no one.

I also think a large part of the problem was that the Wii's success got to Nintendo's head. They believed they could name a new console Wii again and it would coast on the name recognition alone and they could simply sit back and watch the cash flow in while putting in minimal effort. Then, when it didn't they were completely caught off guard and left hanging. It feels like Sony's arrogance going from the PS2 to 3. That's at least how it feels.

I wish they'd make up their mind...