Looking at the company’s back catalogue, and the fact it had to get an American studio in to do a first-person Metroid series, it’s clear Nintendo is not a big believer in the West’s genre of choice.
A point Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed during a recent investor Q&A session in Japan. While acknowledging that 80% of Nintendo’s business now comes from outside Japan, he also doesn’t seem like much of a fan of the first-person shooter genre, currently led by the likes of Call of Duty and Halo.
“Currently, in the western countries especially, war-themed gun-shooting games, which are not well-received in Japan, are very popular”, he said. “It is a reality that some of these games sell 10 million units per year in those markets, and this is one valid type of video game genre. I would personally feel sad if all video games became something like that, but on the other hand, I do not think such games should disappear.”
You won’t find a more telling example of the gulf in difference between the two biggest companies in gaming than that. Too many shooters would make Nintendo sad. Too many shooters would make Activision, well, glad!
The 71st Annual General Meeting of Shareholders Q&A [Nintendo]
(Top photo by Kevork Djansezian | Getty)
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