Iwata: Nintendo is not good at competing

http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/10/iwata-nintendo-is-not-good-at-competing-so-must-offer-something-different-than-the-status-quo/

"Nintendo is not good at competing so we always have to challenge [the status quo] by making something new, rather than competing in an existing market.”

The man is correct. Are there any Nintendo games that come close to the genius of Beyond Two Souls?

lol...beyond two bores sux ass...

nintendo saw what they did with the wii....thats how you beat sony and microsoft...so its natural they keep following that path.

Wii Music. AH AH AH!

well it did sell more... you might be on to something.

nintendo stopped competing a while ago. but not for lack of trying.

you sound like sony saying the vita isnt competeing with the 3ds

No worries Iwata we still love you even if Nintendon't.

What the heck!? I thought you got the banhammer!

On Topic: Well duh, they decide to do things differently rather than have a pissing contest with Sony and Microsoft.

Everyone is back.

I feel like if they were really competing they'd go outside of their boundaries (first party games) and work on consoles. I haven't really seen Nintendo get out of their comfort zone which I can understand why considering that they really don't have room to make mistakes.

They aren't doing so well on the game front though...Release more games!!!!

I'm glad they change things up, and as long as they think of great ways for those games to play I'm okay with it. But they are always competing with the other consoles, and they need to start doing more.

AKA releasing games. Some good games are coming too, but they need to ensure a steady stream.

Nintendo can compete very well when they actually put forth some effort and release some games (see handheld market)

No surprise.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I see a bit of an issue--not that don't mind Iwata-san being honest (I've always admired he's one of few CEOs not afraid to truly point where his company may have its faults)--I honestly feel that they are still kinda just straddling a 'comfort zone' area. And I think it's to the point there they've stayed so focus on their 1st party offering and what their doing in-house they don't know how to interact w/ 'others' (meaning all 3rd party devs/publishers)--at least when it comes to the WiiU (they do at least fair better getting support for 3DS, but they've never really had a problem in their dealings w/ handheld market....well nothing they couldn't overcome).

The question is whether or not what separates Nintendo from other companies can keep it relevant as a company.

At least they're good at spamming games aimed at 5-9y olds.

Um... duh. That's because Nintendo isn't competing with Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo does what Nintendo feels like doing. They don't give a shit what the rest of the industry does or thinks.

Meanwhile, Sony and Microsoft are continually trying to one-up one another by offering different versions of the same thing.

Seems like Nintendo is the smart one to me, out of those three.

that is why they're the laughing stock of the industry since ~08

Nintendo is not aiming for the same market as the other two console makers so why would they bother competing with them.

the problem with wii us is the lack of games. soon as mario kart u comes and ssb sales will go up. i'm holding out on the wii u until those games come out.

@Neon_Noir: Good to see Nintengodno finally realizing they can't compete worth a damn.

@helwa1988: No, the problem is the Pii U has garbage hardware in addition to no good games.

by my count, we got 3 this gen, not including TP

Right. People are laughing at the company with the most revered franchises in gaming, the best first party studios in the industry, the best-selling handheld system (and game system, period) ever made, the second best-selling console of all time, and the most successful handheld on the market.

We already know this.

@Mozuckint said:

I actually lol'd xD.

Also going around a weakness is a short term thing, they better learn how to compete, and stop with all this, 'oh we're doing our own thing' bs. They aren't fooling anyone, people just the the Wii U as a Nintendo Xbox. Being different is good, but they aren't being nearly different enough to say 'they aren't competeing',

I see a few images here grabbed from Neogaf. I'll post something from there that encapsulates my feelings perfectly. Sorry to him who said it, can't remember who to cite:

"This statement really aught to be the nail in Iwata's coffin.

On what planet does Iwata think it's acceptable to nurture a phobia of competition? In what industry would that be a successful strategy? Does he think Nintendo can just make due by opening a blue ocean every few years? Because they can't, and right now we're seeing the results of that strategy. Sooner or later, something doesn't work, and you end up with your back against the wall with your entire console business facing complete irrelevancy".

Iwata coming out and saying this demonstrates such a defeatist attitude it's incredible. It's no wonder they're struggling with leadership such as this.

Truth, 100%. There's no reason why Nintendo can't compete except that they choose not to do so.

In a sense, he's kind of right. The last times they "competed" so to speak, they got beat severely. It is best that they do their own thing (even if it doesn't always work), otherwise we'd be in for one boring industry.

Although, to my knowledge, they are still doing whatever the hell they want with the 3DS. For better or worse. No "stronger library" in another market is going to change that.

Nintengodno hasn't been competitive since the snes

Are you daft? If anything, Zelda is the game that they seem to be putting the most focus on. Metroid on the other hand needs some games. We have too much Zelda as it is. Zelda 3DS, WWHD, Zelda WiiU

Too bad Samus is pretty much falling on the same ranks as Fox McCloud and Captain Falcon, but unlike those two, Star Fox (outside of a remake) and F-Zero haven't had a new game since Command and Climax respectively.

Nintendo do their own thing unfortunately, it always either hit or miss.

What I like about Nintendo. They try to be different.

Nintendo did best when they had restrictive policies and no real competition. IE the NES era. Gaming had all but died in the US after the crash of 1983. So the door was open for Nintendo and they had very draconian laws for third party devs that allowed them to get the games.

That said....Nintendo has inventive ideas that Sony and MS won't do until the ideas are successful.

Nintendo isn't going to make it if they don't make their console as viable as the others. Gimmicks hurt them in the long run.

Iwata is an idiot!

When you actually look at the history of gaming’s business, you find that Iwata’s statement of ‘Nintendo is not good at competition’ to be laughed out of town. Nintendo is sooo bad at competition that it always dominates the handheld market. Nintendo is soooo bad at competition that it kicked Sony and Microsoft’s asses (and took their names) during the 7th Generation.

@super600: Wow you're a mod now, awesome.

They can still have their different products.

Really, they just need to change some policies, and design methods. The Wii U has no real problems as far as hardware power, or the controller is concerned, but their online is weak, they aren't very open to 3rd party developers, and just don't seem to understand current market trends.

@treedoor: They can be different without handicapping their hardware

You don't seem to understand what he's saying. He's saying that they can't just create something similar to their competitors and compete. They're not good at that. The Wii and the DS dominated their respective markets in part because it was new and innovative technology. They always have the weaker system but they make up for it by fresh ideas. That is what he meant.

Not surprise they said this.

Part of the reason for that is you lwata

Let's put it this way, they aren't exactly very fit to compete against two giant corporations who do this stuff basically because they can. They try to rely on their own ideas to turn a profit, and can't really afford a prolonged race with the two when it comes to wasting a ton of money. It's not in Nintendo's best interest to fight them. It would most likely be a losing battle.

Going in a more insane route for the alternative, but the others could see the greater amount money being dumped as a potential issue to cut that certain division off their chain. It's not exactly worth much to them compared to everything else, so they could actually back out first. I'm sure that won't happen any time soon though considering how much they waste altogether anyways.

The other side of it though is that Iwata shouldn't really be too blunt about it. It just doesn't look good for shareholders. This also shows that they might not understand that competition drives people to succeed. They got the other competitors no matter what they say, so it's in there best interest to at least play a long even a little bit.

Yeah... I'm no expert compared to the real business owners, but it seems logical to me to shut up about this stuff, and just play a long and incorporate some of your opponents better ideas. You don't have to go full on copy mode, but it's not so bad to get a better infrastructure down for online components and otherwise.