Email: Yamauchi on buying hardware

Good day to you Malstrom!

I was looking around youtube today and all of a sudden I bumped into this short video:

If you watch it past the 30 second mark you’ll see Yamauchi saying this:

 

Because the user wants to play software but doesn’t want to buy the game machine made by me

the user reluctantly buys the game machine.

I’ll admit I lazily copied the above text from Youtube and tried to fix up the translation, but I thought you may find it interesting since you keep bringing up Yamauchi’s “People buy the box for Mario” comment again and again. Now we have the man saying it himself!

The origin of Yamauchi saying ‘People buy the box for Mario’ was a direct quote from Iwata Asks segment on ‘How the 3DS was made’. Here is an old post I did on it then:

Iwata:In Nintendo’s past history, (Hiroshi) Yamauchi-san has said, “The hardware is just a box you buy only because you want to play Mario games.” Those were his exact words. (laughs)

Miyamoto: I remember that! (laughs)

Iwata: Though the way he said it may be a bit rough around the edges, it was a very easy-to-understand explanation of the business model at the time.

After highlighting this comment, others began to notice it as well. Everyone knows the business model for Nintendo was, indeed, a box people buy in order to get to Mario.

Nintendo changed the webpage. It now says this:

Iwata:

In Nintendo’s past history, (Hiroshi) Yamauchi-san has said, “The hardware is just a box you buy only because you want to play games which run on the hardware.” Those were his exact words. (laughs)
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Miyamoto:
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I remember that! (laughs)
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Iwata:
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Though the way he said it may be a bit rough around the edges, it was a very easy-to-understand explanation of the business model at the time.
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The ‘Mario games’ is removed. In the updated text, does the context of the passage make any sense? Why are they laughing? Why is Iwata saying the way he said that might be a bit rough around the edges? In the original text, the laughter and Iwata saying it sounds a bit rough around the edges makes perfect sense.
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Keep in mind they are talking about built-in software here. So with the edited text, the discussion doesn’t make sense. If the software is built into it, how is it any different from Yamauchi saying ‘people buy the hardware to get to the software’? However, the discussion can only make sense if Yamauchi (as the original text showed) said, ‘People buy the box to get to Mario.’
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While I can’t seem to find the link to it, at E3 2007 with the Wii mania, Miyamoto said something very revealing. He said how happy he was because this is the first time he’s come to America and not be known as the ‘guy who made Mario’ (but rather the guy behind the Wii). This implies Miyamoto is tired of being known as the ‘guy who made Mario’ and wishes to be known as something else. It’s just selfishness on his part.
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Nintendo hardware used to always be released with a Mario game. The Gamecube Mario game (Sunshine) was delayed I think due to complications inside the company. Wii didn’t have Mario Galaxy on it at launch (Wii had Wii Sports which only 2d Mario can compare). I wonder if Nintendo is trying to decouple Mario from their hardware sales (so it isn’t just a box people buy to get to Mario).
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I don’t think the issue is so much Mario but the 8-bit Era. Shouldn’t Nintendo be happy that the Wii sold due to Wii Sports? No. Wii Sports used an 8-bit gameplay skeleton design. It even uses the NES Golf courses. Have you noticed that instead of pointing out to the game of Wii Sports as being the source of the Wii mania, Nintendo keeps pointing to the hardware or to Zelda: Twilight Princess for the reason for the Wii mania? Pointing out that the gameplay of Wii Sports was the hit undermines the ‘Gamecube-Esque- philosophy and confirms the home gaming market (at least with Nintendo) is ruled by arcade values.

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Twenty five years from now, I fully expect Nintendo to declare Wii Sports sold because of the ‘story’ and ‘puzzles’ the game contained. I’m not kidding.