Nintendo: Message from the President (2015)
Every year, in December, a message from the President of Nintendo is posted on the official website of the company. It’s not aimed at players, parents or even the press, but rather investors and shareholders. Basically, it summarises Nintendo’s strategy for the upcoming years, with a rundown of the various initiatives Nintendo is going to take in the near future.
This year, the message is from Tatsumi Kimishima, who became President earlier this year. It can be summarised in a few key points:
- Nintendo’s strategy remain the same: make games for everyone, in order to expand the gaming population. But next year, Nintendo will try to go even further, and increase the number of people who have access to Nintendo’s IPs;
- Nintendo is developing a new platform called NX, featuring a “brand new concept”. Tatsumi Kimishima reiterates that the “software-led hardware-software integrated business” will remain Nintendo’s core business, even if they’re going to make games for mobile platforms. In other words: they’re not going to stop making consoles any time soon;
- Nintendo will use its IP even more actively in the future: attractions in theme parks, visual content, merchandising;
- Nintendo will launch My Nintendo and the Nintendo Accounts in order to “establish a sustainable and continual relationship” with its consumers.
Head after the break for the full message from Tasumi Kimishima, President of Nintendo!
Since the launch of the Family Computer System (called Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan) 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 in our mission to put smiles on people’s faces around the world through products and services, we have followed our basic strategy of expanding the gaming population by offering products that can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of age, gender or gaming experience. We now want to take this mission a step further by increasing the number of people who have access to Nintendo’s intellectual property (Nintendo IP).
We are actively offering Nintendo IP in a variety of different ways so that not only current players of our video games but all consumers – including those who used to play but currently do not and even those who have never played our video games before – will also come in contact with Nintendo IP.
For our dedicated video game platform business, Nintendo is currently developing a gaming platform codenamed “NX” with a brand-new concept and our unique software-led hardware-software integrated business will continue to constitute the core business for Nintendo. For the purpose of maximizing the population that interact with Nintendo IP, we will also enter into the smart device gaming business and aim to generate revenue and profit from it as well as to create synergy with the dedicated video game platform business.
As for other initiatives to use Nintendo IP actively, we launched a new product called amiibo – Nintendo characters that come in figure or card form that work with our video games. They have been well received by many of our consumers. Furthermore, our endeavors will not be limited to video games. We are planning to offer new attractions at theme parks by using Nintendo characters. We will also strive to further increase opportunities for consumers to come in contact with Nintendo characters in their daily lives, such as through visual content and merchandising.
Thus, we are now expanding how we leverage Nintendo IP in various ways beyond our traditional use of them predominantly within the dedicated video game platform business. Furthermore, in our attempt to establish a sustainable and continual relationship with our consumers, we are creating a new membership service called “My Nintendo” and a new account system, which should work as a bridge between our dedicated video game platforms and other devices, or even environments where our consumers can get in touch with Nintendo IP and, thus, will work as a mechanism to maximize the number of people that interact with Nintendo IP.
Nintendo will continue to flexibly transform itself by adapting to changing times while constantly valuing the spirit of originality based on the belief that the “true value of entertainment lies in its uniqueness” – and will continue to provide products and services that people will be surprised and delighted by.
Nintendo intends to make progress with the support and encouragement of its shareholders and investors.
