Nintendo’s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one – “things that are praised don’t sell”

[Gamernyc78]

Nintendo’s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one - “things that are praised don’t sell” - AUTOMATON WEST

According to an executive, Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.

automaton-media.com

According to a recent article by GamesIndustry Japan, a Nintendo executive once attributed the following quote to the company’s late CEO Satoru Iwata: “Things that are praised don’t sell – it’s the things that are criticized that sell. It is best to earn a divided response.”

The quote was brought up in the context of how (or if at all) public criticism affects a game or product’s sales negatively. Reportedly, these words of Iwata were mentioned by the Nintendo executive in response to being asked about the failure of the Nintendo Labo toy kit from 2018.

This fascinating stance towards what is considered a “failure” suggests that Nintendo’s fourth CEO Satoru Iwata may have instilled into the company a policy that welcomes negative buzz as much as it does praise. Nintendo is a company whose every move attracts attention, and their most successful titles are seldom the object of unanimous praise. Even the initial announcement of the Nintendo Switch was met with mixed responses and concern, ultimately leading to a dip in stock price prior to its release. But despite this, the Switch turned out to be Nintendo’s best-selling console, selling 141.32 million units as of March 2024.

Considering Satoru Iwata’s reputation as “a legendary CEO” who supervised Nintendo’s massively successful Wii console and Nintendo DS handheld, his words carry significant gravity. Being especially invested in interacting with fans through his charismatic Nintendo Direct presentations, Iwata had undoubtedly developed a good instinct for how public sentiment translates into commercial performance. As a result, he seems to have believed that praise can never be as loud as criticism. Alternatively, his words could also be interpreted as his attitude toward product development – in the sense that an overly “safe” idea designed to avoid any form of criticism cannot lead to remarkable performance.

At the same time, it is important to consider how the Internet has changed since Iwata reportedly uttered these words. Iwata was CEO of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. While the Internet and social media were very much relevant during this time, things have undeniably grown to a much larger (and louder) scale in the past few years. Many online communities have become fragmented by echo chambers, which means criticism and hate get amplified to levels exceeding what was once considered normal. Furthermore, this environment also makes it easier for distorted or misinformed views to affect public opinion, meaning that developers have more battles to fight than simply making a good game. Satoru Iwata’s beliefs about public opinion and sales may be based on an environment that is far more forgiving than today’s.

 

[BroodCorp]

Nintendo fans very seldom know what they need and thankfully Nintendo very seldom gives them what they want.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Nintendo fans very seldom know what they need and thankfully Nintendo very seldom gives them what they want.

I mean Japan has its own tastes and basically dictates Nintendo's market sadly enough.

 

[Neversummer]

This pretty much confirms they’ll continue to stick small scope games with small budget even if the Switch 2 is at the power of PS4 don’t expect Nintendo to change there stance on there game output.

People expecting Nintendo to make bigger games with the Switch 2 & while some games like Pokemon, Mario & Zelda games that are open world will benefit from more power Nintendo will keep art style & scope of there games the same for the most part.

PlayStation really do need to look at Nintendo & learn a few thing. People are pushing PS to make the PS6 an even more powerful piece of hardware that further ballon budgets. When PS should stray away from power & go full hybrid mobile handheld like Nintendo Switch. Accessibility & mobility > power that’s the future of gaming Nintendo knows, Apple knows & Steam knows. Xbox will soon follow with there next gen hardware being a hybrid handheld & im expecting the PS6 to be a hybrid handheld aswell. And if anything Sony can stretch PS5 gen to 2030 & introduce a “PS5 GO” in 2026 (same year as Xbox next gen release ‘rumored’) that allows you to play PS4 & PS5 game natively on a handheld at 1080p 60fps. Stretch the gen since games take so long to make the PS5 gen feel like it’s been worth the purchase or people won’t buy PS6 in 2027 seeing how long it took for PS4 players to migrate since there wasn’t many exclusive truly exclusive games on PS5 to bend the knees of consumer migration

 

[Gamernyc78]

This pretty much confirms they’ll continue to stick small scope games with small budget even if the Switch 2 is at the power of PS4 don’t expect Nintendo to change there stance on there game output.

People expecting Nintendo to make bigger games with the Switch 2 & while some games like Pokemon, Mario & Zelda games that are open world will benefit from more power Nintendo will keep art style & scope of there games the same for the most part.

PlayStation really do need to look at Nintendo & learn a few thing. People are pushing PS to make the PS6 an even more powerful piece of hardware that further ballon budgets. When PS should stray away from power & go full hybrid mobile handheld like Nintendo Switch. Accessibility & mobility > power that’s the future of gaming Nintendo knows, Apple knows & Steam knows. Xbox will soon follow with there next gen hardware being a hybrid handheld & im expecting the PS6 to be a hybrid handheld aswell. And if anything Sony can stretch PS5 gen to 2030 & introduce a “PS5 GO” in 2026 (same year as Xbox next gen release ‘rumored’) that allows you to play PS4 & PS5 game natively on a handheld at 1080p 60fps. Stretch the gen since games take so long to make the PS5 gen feel like it’s been worth the purchase or people won’t buy PS6 in 2027 seeing how long it took for PS4 players to migrate since there wasn’t many exclusive truly exclusive games on PS5 to bend the knees of consumer migration

It's working for them so thy won't kick tht philosophy, however I just wish we had some bigger budget new games thrown in.