Iwata: It’s Not Like We’re Making Pieces of Art at Nintendo

Nintendo isn’t currently focused on changing how people perceive video games or creating interactive software that puts originality over fun. Right now, president Satoru Iwata knows that his company needs to make games, and not some form of art, if they want the struggling Wii U to rebound in the market.

You don’t hear this type of stance from someone this high up in the food chain too often, but when you sell 160,000 units worldwide between April and June, it’s pretty easy to understand why you’d begin to focus on what’s worked in the past. Speaking with Toyo Keizai Online (via Kotaku), Iwata continued to push the thought that strong software will give his brand’s struggling hardware the attention it needs. Instead of building experiences meant to redefine the medium, though, Iwata simply wants to produce games that are fun.

"Nintendo developers are extremely insatiable when it comes to whether what they make resonates with customers or not. They'll do anything to achieve it." Iwata said. "Both Miyamoto [Shigeru] and I repeatedly say, ‘It's not like we are making pieces of art, the point is to make a product that resonates with and is accepted by customers.'”

For Iwata – and Nintendo as a whole – the goal is to make the consumer understand the point of the game without too much digging. The ego of the developer needs to be pushed aside in order to make a product that everyone will be able to enjoy.

"Creating is like an expression of egoism," Iwata continued. "People with a strong energy to create something have a ‘this is the strength I believe is right' sort of confidence to start from. Their standpoint is that ‘this is the right thing to do, so this must be what's good for the customer, as well.' But the final goal of a product is to resonate with and be accepted by people. You can't just force your way through. By saying ‘the point is to be accepted', I mean, if you go to a customer with your idea and you realize they don't understand it, it's more important that they do, and you should shift your idea."