Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

[Ailedhoo]

Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Japanese businessman credited with transforming Nintendo into a world-leading video games company, has died aged 85.

RIP Hiroshi Yamauchi: may your legacy continue to shine.

Here are some observations of his legacy.

 

[da dick]

too bad. not many nintendo fans here. "hardcore" gamers almost always consider all nintendo stuff to be kiddy stuff.

 

[Ailedhoo]

too bad. not many nintendo fans here.

What of Hop, Omega and others? There are plenty of Nintendo fans, for many people who play PC also play Nintendo. Anyway the importance of Hiroshi Yamauchi to the gaming industry is above "allegiances."

Any rate: the focus of this thread will be set to Hiroshi Yamauchi.

 

[nerdfighter13]

Sad to hear he's gone.

 

[CivCube]

He made some really weird decisions that often put Nintendo in last, like limited to no online play. There's no way they can catch up to Xbox and PS4 now. Maybe the next person will wise up and start developing games for Sony and Microsoft.

 

[Nintz]

Haven't played Nintendo stuff in awhile, but this is definitely the passing of a visionary. Even if he had issues later on with some tech decisions and whatnot, he was a key figure in establishing the original video game systems. Without him (or someone like him) I seriously doubt video games would be where they are today.

 

[Ailedhoo]

He made some really weird decisions that often put Nintendo in last, like limited to no online play. There's no way they can catch up to Xbox and PS4 now. Maybe the next person will wise up and start developing games for Sony and Microsoft.

Nintendo had been successful with the Wii (to the point of being number one) and I am certain that both the PS4 and Wii U are above Xbox Done. N64 was second in sales, leaving only the Gamecube as the "last one" and even then it did have some good gems on it like Wind Waker.

Nintendo will not forsake its first party path: it would not be in wisdom to forsake such first party path. If it did happen it would come to a great cost to the industry.

Anyway: back to paying respects to Hiroshi Yamauchi...

 

[Omega124]

What of Hop, Omega and others?

Here and can confirm I am (or at least used) a Nintendo fan. 64, Gamecube, and Wii owner.

Yamauchi and Nintendo singlehandingly saved the video game industry from the crash of 1983, which could have legitimately killed off video games as a genre. Even if you never used a console in your life, the state of PC gaming would be a European niche market at best without the success of console gaming to invigorate the scene. He had some great ideas (The way he structured Nintendo's development team in how they have to compete with the other teams is still genius), and some bad ones (He decided to screw over Sony and their partnership developing a CD drive for the SNES by going behind their backs with a deal with Phillips. This lead to the Playstation). In the end, though, Nintendo owes it all to him for muscling into the electronic industry.

A few things I want to note:

Yamauchi retired in 2002, just shortly after the release of Gamecube. This is very interesting because the plans he had for the Gamecube and what Iwata ended up doing with it are very different. Yamauchi beloved he could win the generation war by building the best gaming experience possible, compared to the PS2/Xbox's attempt of being a multimedia hub. He also wanted to make it cheap, which ended up making a surprisingly powerful console for its time for a low price. Yamauchi also wanted to focus on getting more third party support. Once he stepped down, however, is when the Gamecube became isolationist to third parties and tried to project a "family friendly" image. I feel like this disconnect between initial plans and later plans led to the awkwardness of the Gamecube.

Also, as I said the last time we debated sixth generation consoles, the Gamecube still objectively beat the Xbox for second place despite the above flaws. More first party games that sold better, cheaper costs to actually make a Gamecube compared to an Xbox, the fact that Xbox only barely outsold the Gamecube, etc, etc. Stop hating on the Gamecube, it was a good console and it did a lot better than people give it credit for.

 

[Antilogic]

So I was a huge Nintendo fan as a kid (Super Nintendo days, my neighbors had an old 8-bit Nintendo--I guess that's 3rd and 4th generation consoles?). Sad to see him go.