Should Satoru Iwata be fired from Nintendo? Why or why not?

[LegendofZelda1996]

Hello everyone. Today, I have a question for all for you.

Like the title of the post says, do you think that Satoru Iwata should be fired from Nintendo and be kicked off of his Global President and C.E.O of Nintendo Co. Ltd. position?

Why am I asking this question? First of all, I am not sure if I want Satoru Iwata to be fired from Nintendo and be kicked off of his position at Nintendo or not at all. Therefore, I am curious to see opinions from other people regarding this question.

But I want to make myself clear. I have no intention of being a troll nor I want to be a troll!

And secondly, I have been hearing people all over the Internet (I know this is the Internet and all, but still...And I am not talking about just GoNintendo, but other gaming sites as well) after Nintendo's press conference at E3 2012 that Satoru Iwata should be fired from Nintendo and be kicked out from his position at Nintendo since it is obvious to them that Satoru Iwata and Nintendo has no f#@$ing idea on how to make a powerful, high quality console (like the S.N.E.S, the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo GameCube, and etc.) anymore, how to make the Wii U appealing to the core gamers, and that Nintendo is too reluctant to change (like acknowledging that usernames are better, easier, and more effective than Friend Codes, consoles need a good online infrastructure at launch and consoles have to be around 5x stronger than the current gen consoles in order to get healthy third party support, and etc.), therefore Satoru Iwata will be kicked off from his position at Nintendo and would be fired from Nintendo if the Wii U bombs sales wise.

I also heard people say that Hiroshi Yamauchi is the better Global President and C.E.O of Nintendo than Satoru Iwata is, because Nintendo games and Nintendo consoles made under the leadership of Hiroshi Yamauchi is higher in quality and power than the Nintendo games and Nintendo consoles made under the leadership of Satoru Iwata.

Now, I would like to hear your answer and your opinions regarding this question.

[Broken_Cartridge]

No, I think that the "internet" is overreacting. Nintendo has had their best sales with him as president. Just because the Wii U isn't what you, myself, or the illusive "internet" wanted does not mean it won't be successful, and that the man needs to be fired for not meeting our expectations. Nintendo has always gone to the beat of their own drum.

[gtt]

I think if things don't go well in the next 5 years, then he will be. Do I think he should right now? Not at all, he has done well.

I personally think their 'play it safe, play it cheap' strategy is going to bite them in the ass long term. Especially as more and more casual gamers move on to phones. They need to be more adaptable and willing to copy what works, and being run by old japanese dudes isn't helping towards that end. I think a western global president (not reggie) for a generation would be a breath of fresh air for them.

[bushidogamer]

I would say no. He's an extremely smart guy. Selling the 3DS at $250 without any first party Nintendo titles or the eShop at launch though? Not a good idea. Iwata just needs to be way more aggresive like Robert E. Lee. Maybe U.S. Grant would be better.

You know Hiroshi Yamauchi doesn't really play video games, right? He tried playing Go on the NES and gave up pretty quickly because he couldn't figure out the controls instantly. Last I heard, Shigeru Miyamoto went to Yamauchi to get approval for the very first DS. The main traits he brought were a toughness and aggresiveness more than likely from playing Go all day. It's all about capturing as much as you can, a numbers game.

At least Iwata is not as bad as Minoru Arakawa. I think I saw him relaxing at his home in Hawaii in a BBC documentary on Nintendo a few years back. Might be his son. Really nice guy. I can see why Yamauchi wanted his step son to lead after he retired. The problem with nice guys is that unfortunately they don't make for very good business leaders. I think everyone needs to be knocking on peoples' doors like Steve Jobs to get more things done.

Edit: After spending time at Business Insider, the best way to run a business is to cultivate an ecosystem or even several. That's what Nintendo's doing with Miiverse and Nintendo Land. Carving out a massive niche worked last gen, blue ocean strategy[1] essentially. I'm not sure if it will keep on working.

1. Between two mediocre options, Batman would go for the third favorable one that no one would see coming.

[gamerumble]

No, his sacrifices (cutting his salary) proved beneficial for Nintendo in Japan. A little bit more time, and things would start to go well for Nintendo.

As for the Wii U, it's not even out yet... But I think that it will be a game changer and he will be credited for it once it's out. Some good launch titles would be good... Remember, even the PS Vita didn't do well on its launch and while the PS3 is doing well now, Sony had to cut down the price at a loss.

So I think Iwata is doing a good job. He's not Steve Jobs, but who wants a Steve Jobs in the gaming industry? Not me for sure.

[bushidogamer]

The Wii U's game pad is a tablet combined with a controller and I know Iwata owns an iPhone. It's pretty obvious Nintendo is keeping an eye on Apple.

Oh. Forget to mention that underpowered Nintendo consoles are nothing new. That's Gunpei Yokoi's mature/withered technology principle at work. The more familiar developers are with anything, the easier it is for them to work with. The easier something is, the more you use it.

[LegendofZelda1996]

NeoGAF users seem to show so much resentment towards Satoru Iwata and they seem to question and criticize the leadership of Satoru Iwata. To me, they sound like they want Satoru Iwata to be permanently fired from Nintendo and to be booted off from his Global President and C.E.O of Nintendo position.

Here are comments from some NeoGAF users who show resentment towards Satoru Iwata:

Because Iwata is a horrible CEO.

He's clearly not accepting of constructive feedback from his employees and can't deal with those who have disagreements, since it seems in his mind they're always wrong and he is always right.

The naming of the system, the poor online infrastructure, and the same bad 3rdparty relationship really cements it.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=109

Nintendo seems to have an incredibly hierarchical company structure, much like most other japanese companies. I doubt Iwata pays much attention to the views of those lower down the chain given his recent decisions and interviews

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=146

I'm sick of Iwata. I want someone new. I don't even care if the guy's better or worse. I just want a shake-up.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=114

While I think you're being downright hyperbolic about him being a horrible CEO (the dude's pretty prescient), I do think Iwata has been dropping the ball lately in one respect: he has an acute sense of where Nintendo's weaknesses are, yet follows it up by continuing to make the same mistakes all over again. They need to be faster at changing their corporate structure.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=134

As has been said, he's also responsible for the Wii brand taking a nosedive from record-breaking profits to record-breaking lows. He's also responsible for the 3DS needing an 80 dollar price cut less than a year after launch and a dramatic retooling of its software roadmap to turn sales around.

This man's done a bang-up job completely masking what were once positives about his tenure as CEO. Couple that with this frankly flabbergasting series of obvious PR disasters and I too think it's time for a restructuring.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=147

I think there are a ton of GoNintendo users that will share the same opinions that the NeoGAF users have towards Satoru Iwata.

[Ngamer01]

While I'll agree that Nintendo sticks too heavily to tradition and that has come back to bite Nintendo on many occasions, I see this as no reason to shake up Nintendo of Japan by sending Iwata out. Besides even when the day comes Iwata is either let go or he retires on his own accord, Nintendo management has groomed their subordinates that tradition matters and to not get caught up in the latest tech and tech fads.

Basically even if Iwata steps aside or is removed, it doesn't really matter since the next top guy will continue Nintendo tradition. The only way this could change is if somebody has a ton of money to buy out Nintendo in whole...and Nintendo is willing to sell itself, but that's a pipe dream at best.

[Cassidy]

Asking the internet about gaming advice is like asking Fox News for political advice.

[Broken_Cartridge]

@LegendofZelda1996 That's because your quoting Neogaf members. Out of all the users on the internet Neogaf are notorious for complaining about things for the sake of complaining. Also, like @Cassidy said, the general consensus of people on the internet don't know what they are talking about with stuff like this.

[HammerGalladeBro]

I don't how would be a Nintendo without Iwata. Yes, I know things need to be shaken a bit, but firing Iwata won't solve Nintendo's problems, it could actually make then worse. I know they will overcome any problem, and they won't be as bad as your typical (biased) media and analysts will make them seem.
Also, Iwata used to be president of HAL Laboratory, Inc. (my favorite Nintendo's 2nd party), so the man's ought to know a thing or two about how to handle a company.
I also think that some of the new I.P.s Nintendo has brought these years (Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk/Last Window, Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents, Chibi-Robo!, Polarium, Number Battle, Clubhouse Games, Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, FlingSmash, Battalion Wars, Art Academy, Fossil Fighters, Rhythm Heaven, Pushmo, Fluidity, Art Style, ThruSpace, etcetera) could not have happened.
To be perfectly honset, for some reason I enjoy Nintendo games more since Iwata became CEO, I also ejoyed Yamauchi-era games as well, but not as much as I enjoy them right now.

[spellsinger]

Yes. If nintendo gets away from gamers.