Email: Hating Customers

More than hating you and similar customers, why does nintendo hate sales?

They flee success as rapidly as they gain it or faster and continue on that path for hours before turning around.

This is a very important question. I’ve been struggling thinking about it for quite some time. I’ve finally come up with an answer that satisfies me. Would you like to hear it? (of course you do!)

The difference between Nintendo and many other game companies is that Nintendo has very strong financial walls. When a Nintendo game bombs in the market, Nintendo’s strong financial walls protect it.

This has led to a perversion within Nintendo to think of the Market as some comedian who Nintendo likes to surprise and impress (as opposed to The Master and the true Game God). For example, a game like Wii Music would have destroyed any other game company. But Nintendo’s financial walls protect it. Super Mario Galaxy was going to be placed in the bomba bin in Japan. But Nintendo’s strong financial side forced retailers to take the game out of the bomba bin (they couldn’t save Spirit Tracks from the bomba bin however).

Since Nintendo is protected from the Market’s backlash, they perceive the Market as something that explodes in ‘phenomenons’ whenever they put out a game that ‘works’. Most game companies perceive the Market as the Game God who smites those out of existence when the Market is not pleased. Since Nintendo does not suffer that financial backlash, the market is either ‘pleased’ or ‘disinterested’. Nintendo does not fear the market. Therefore, the market is not seen as Nintendo’s master.

Think of Donkey Kong for a moment. In the perverted view, Miyamoto descended from a mountain of creativity and made Donkey Kong. In other words, Miyamoto is the mover and shaker. This is not true. What actually happened is that the Market chose Donkey Kong out of many games. It is the Market that is the mover and shaker. Miyamoto has more failing games than he has had successes. But Nintendo’s strong financial walls deflect the Market’s wrath. So Miyamoto (and other Nintendo developers) can enter a make-believe world that their visions, their creativity, their innovations are the true mover and shaker of the market.

It is why we get something like Sakamoto and his Other M. It is something in the water they drink at Nintendo where they believe their ‘developmental thoughts’ are the mover and shaker of gaming. To the contrary, it is the Market that is true mover and shaker of gaming. The Market chooses which games live, which games die, and chooses which games will be the classics. Sales charts are looked upon as if they are the Oracle. Why? Because it is the Oracle. The Market is the true Game God.

Nintendo doesn’t hate customers so much as think they are irrelevant. Nintendo believes the market is irrelevant. This is why Nintendo loves to say, “The market doesn’t know what it wants,” (not true, it does) and why the market must be ‘surprised’ (i.e. Nintendo sees itself as mover and shaker).

But being a member of the Market, I am never surprised by Nintendo. Ever. When I saw the Wii or Super Mario Brothers 5, my reaction was, “Hell, it’s about time. What took you so long?”

Note how everything Nintendo says can be boiled down to Nintendo seeing itself as the mover and shaker of gaming (as opposed to the market). They see themselves in the driver’s seat, not the Market. Nintendo thinks their hands are what shapes the clay of gaming. The truth is that it is the Market’s hands that shape the clay of gaming. It is the Market that gives gaming its form and definition, not Nintendo.

Things are changing though. Nintendo’s financial walls are crumbling. Japan is a dying nation (game market there is in serious decline). Europe has many financial issues. Nintendo’s most reliable, and growing market is the United States. But thanks to jackass politicians, the dollar’s value has plummeted which converts very poorly to the yen.

Also, the current economic recession is something that Nintendo has never witnessed. NOA was established in the early 1980s which was when the current economic boom began (which ended around 2008). The United States was always very economically healthy. Now, it no longer is. This means it is much harder to sell in the country than it used to be.

These Nintendo financial walls will no longer be as strong as they once were. This means when Nintendo screws up (and they will), the backlash of the Market will be felt far more extensively than before.

Perhaps this will teach Miyamoto and Nintendo to respect the Market, learn that it is their master, and not the other way around.