Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has reiterated the firm’s policy of creating first-party hardware and core software, a move he feels will help the company “redefine entertainment.”
It comes from a new personal message from Iwata on the Nintendo site, in which he makes clear several of the company’s ingrained stances, and suggests new changes on the horizon.
It reads:
Since the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983, Nintendo has been offering the world unique and original entertainment products under the development concept of hardware and software integration. In the field of home entertainment, the video game industry is one of the few industries established in Japan that spread around the world, and Nintendo has established itself as a well-known brand truly representing video game culture throughout the world.
With the belief that the raison d’etre of entertainment is to put smiles on people’s faces around the world through products and services, what we have focused on for the last decade is our basic strategy of expanding the gaming population by offering products which can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of age, gender or gaming experience. In addition, as the business environment around us has shifted with the times, we have decided to redefine entertainment as something that improves people’s quality of life (“QOL”) in enjoyable ways and expand our business areas. What Nintendo will try to achieve in the next 10 years is a platform business that improves people’s QOL in enjoyable ways.
We believe that we can capitalize the most on our strengths through a hardware-software integrated platform business, and therefore this type of dedicated video game platforms will remain our core focus. We will continue to value the spirit of originality described in our motto “The True Value of Entertainment Lies in Individuality,” and will continue to provide products and services which pleasantly surprise people.
With a platform business that improves people’s QOL in enjoyable ways, we will attempt to establish a new business area apart from our dedicated video game business. We have set “health” as the theme for our first step and we will try to use our strength as an entertainment company to create unique approaches that expand this business. Through our new endeavors with the QOL-improving platform, we strive to further promote our existing strategy of expanding our user base, create an environment in which more people are conscious about their health and in turn expand Nintendo’s overall user base.
After Nintendo started the manufacture and sale of Hanafuda (traditional Japanese playing cards) 125 years ago, it has innovated itself from a playing card company to a toy company, a toy company to an electronic toy company and finally from an electronic toy company to a company developing video game platforms. Nintendo has continued to try new things, and with a history of experiencing many failures and small successes, we managed to pioneer the home video game market. What has remained the same from the past is that we have always tried to create something new from materials and technologies available at that time, to position entertainment as our core business and to improve people’s QOL in enjoyable ways. We will continue to value self-innovation in line with the times and aim for growth.
Nintendo intends to make progress with the support and encouragement of its shareholders and investors.
