Back in June of last year, Nintendo nanounced that the company's president Tatsumi Kimishima would be stepping down from his position — while also revealing that Shuntaro Furukawa would be replacing him in the role.
Ever since Furukawa became president of Nintendo, he has been revealing his plans for the company — which include aiming for
20 million in hardware sales for the 2018 fiscal year with the Nintendo Switch(which is something that Tatsumi Kimishima proposed), and even
expanding the company's mobile game division.
In a recent interview with
Nikkei, via Nintendo Everything, Shuntaro Furukawa revealed a few interesting details about some of the things he has had to deal since becoming president of the Japanese video game company; from risks regarding hardware and software, the innovation Nintendo is very well-known for, and fluctuations in business performance.
When asked about the risks about developing both hardware and software, Furukawa mentions that there are always going to be risks in the entertainment industry, so they don't let that factor distract them from developing the best product they can.
"
We’re in the entertainment industry; there isn’t much we can do about that risk. To us, the guiding principle by which we operate is offering customers all around the world innovative and unique ways to play games. I don’t want our developers to think too much along the lines of “what should I do if we fail?” My most important role is to facilitate an environment in which they can demonstrate their own abilities. I’m not a pro developer myself, so I leave the actual development to leaders that can tell what a good game is and what isn’t."
Furukawa then goes on to talk about innovating — which is something that Nintendo has been doing pretty much since it joined the video game industry over thirty years ago — which immediately leads him to the Nintendo Switch and its software.
"
We aren’t really fixated on our consoles. At the moment we’re offering the uniquely developed Nintendo Switch and its software – and that’s what we’re basing how we deliver the “Nintendo experience” on. That being said, technology changes. We’ll continue to think flexibly about how to deliver that experience as time goes on.
It has been over 30 years since we started developing consoles. Nintendo’s history goes back even farther than that, and through all the struggles that they faced the only thing that they thought about was what to make next. In the long-term, perhaps our focus as a business could shift away from home consoles – flexibility is just as important as ingenuity."
Like everything in any branches of the entertainment industry, fluctuations in business performance are bound to happen, and Furukawa stands firm by his belief that mobile gaming can help the company's revenue, not to mention the upcoming Nintendo theme parks and upcoming movies.
"I’m thinking about little ways we can reduce that kind of instability. I’d like to increase the (amount of) games on smartphones that have a continuous stream of revenue. We’re also dabbling in theme parks and movies – different ways to have our characters be a part of everyday life. I’m anticipating a strong synergy like that."
Nintendo's strategy has paid off quite well since the reveal of the Nintendo Switch back in 2016, having a great first year in sales throughout 2017 and a strong support by third party developers also helped the company throughout 2018.
Focusing on the mobile gaming division, however, is something that Furukawa is really fixated on but may be the weakest thing to actually pay attention to. Hopefully it all turns out well for Nintendo and Furukawa manages to make both the home console and mobile markets thrive.