Furthermore, although in Japan the word "Otaku" has a negative context, don't forget that this isn't the case all over the world. Some people simply see the word to mean a hardcore gamer, and it seems clear to me that Fischer is one of those people.

KingHippo

I think it's "you shit BOMBED my house!". Isn't it? (not trying to nit-pick, i use this quote frequently and i'm curious if i'm wrong)

MASOCHIST187

Once again, as in the previous story, I'd like to say that I was at the event in question and Fischer has been very much misquoted here out of context.

The event at which he was allaeged to have said this was the same event where he said that he didn't like the term "casual gamers" and believed that you were either a "gamer" or a "non-gamer". Now, let's be realistic here: had he made the "geeks and Otaku" comment and had it been intended in a condescending manner, why wasn't it reported on by the various sites who were there at the time?

As I've said in the previous story on this matter, I was there. He was asked by the journalist who quoted him about the problem of Wii memory space and Fischer explained that the majority of Wii gamers have still to fill up their Wii, and that only dedicated or "Otaku" gamers are the ones who want a hard drive just now.

People may not agree with him, and people may feel that hard drive IS essential, but at the end of the day anyone who was there wouldn't have come to the conclusion that he was trying to offend gamers with his "Otaku" statement, especially considering he was in a room full of specialist games media at the time.

This has been very much misquoted.

KingHippo

@TheSpiller: That is really what it feels like to me. I have been a loyal Nintendo fan for many many years. My first system was the SNES.

What happen to the Nintendo that would send me free games out of nowhere. I got Super Mario Kart and Super Mario All Stars for free at one point.

Now it seems they only care about soccer moms and their kids.

JustJake

a better title would have been "Nintendo's geeks and otaku gaffe pisses off jaffe"...amirite?? no?...

tok1879

Anyone remember Laurent Fischer? Marketing genius!

[kotaku.com]

For me, you are a gamer or non-gamer... I think most of you know that you can spend ten or twenty hours on an internet flash game and have not realized. The guy who plays these games regularly - he's a core gamer... Someone who is fifty-years old who only plays Brain Training, but plays it like a core gamer is a core gamer... I don't like this word casual so much. Because people consider that casual needs to be something easy. If you're good at any game you can play at a high difficulty level... Take Tetris. There is incredible gameplay, it's very simple, very easy to understand, but it's also very different. I think a game can be a light enough to enjoy and for all gamers to become a core gamer on it... There is no casual gaming. There is just a different way to play.

sofiabudapest

Well, there definately will be some sort of external harddrive coming...but apparently the guy from NOE who has now apologized doesn't seem to want it to come, but like I've said previously, when has NOE ever been in the CORRECT column?

Manator (Follow me and die!)

A comment like that is comparable to Sony saying that only the Japanese market matters to them...

MOP88

@valhum:
While it wasn't as inflamatory as the geeks and otaku bit, various Nintendo representatives have dismissed the need for a harddrive, which fixes a huge flaw in the Wii hardware, as something that only appeals to the hardcore gamers. They do seem to be taking the Nintendo approach of old, in that they know what's best for the market, consumer opinion be damned.

Nobuyuki

@valhum:
It may not be right,but it's what happens.When you are in PR,you represent your company.You are the companies face to the public,so what you say and what you do is a direct reflection of what Nintendo is.His comments fall right back in Nintdy's lap and they won't like it.

enewtabie

even if it's true that only geeks and otaku want more storage, remember this is the videogame market. i think that's all that needs to be said, isn't it?

pasquinelli

PR rep: Did I say "geeks"? Because I meant valued customers. I was using the term "geek" lovingly. Like when you call your best bud a motherf*cker.

*GASP* NINTENDO JUST SAID ALL GEEKS AND OTAKUS ARE MOTHERF*CKERS!

TitillatedOcelot

NoE really knows how to push all the wrong buttons...

Nubius

Hard drives should be the norm for consoles now whether you like it or not. Hell.... it's not our fault, you're the company that decided to go online and offer a large library of downloadables. Throw us a bone and give us a little storage space.

FreekyDeeky

"my name is ronald, not donald."
(sorry if it double posts?)

wheelerca5

"my name is ronald, not donald."

wheelerca5

I love how the opinion of one soon to be fired PR person is what EVIL NINTENDO stands for :o/

valhum

Oy. I'm assuming this is a Marketing person who's:
A) Opened mouth, and inserted their whole leg, and
B) About to be amongst the unemployed.

Seriously, this PR person was an idiot and Nintendo's gonna boot them to the curb like yesterday's garbage.

Salen

Wow, it really doesn't take long to get a little too big for your britches, eh Nintendo? They should thank their lucky stars the Wii sells a lot of hardware. ANd at a profit. After doing terribly for a long time, it appeared Nintendo was done.

I still think they will be if the Wii and "casual" gamers are their new plans for success. Because nobody developing outside Nintendo's umbrella is making even decent games. And they don't sell either.

BoringJob

I love the scene in "Can't Buy Me Love" where the main character is tricked, by his little brother, into thinking that a show about a tribe in africa is actually a show on MTV about a new dance. The character then does the dance at a HS prom and it becomes the new fad. Silly sheep of 80s movie high schools... Silly sheep indeed.

graddy

@Yetanotheruninspiredscreename:

Will this work for ya? He's apologizing now.

[www.videogaming247.com]

enewtabie

good old jaffe. always worth a laugh

Gypse-scum

@Yetanotheruninspiredscreename: Except for the last sentence in the post containing the word "if"

NoahIdea

Nintendo of Europe has a bad habit of flying off at the mouth quite often, it seems. They should probably just swing the Axe on that entire PR department and just start from scratch.

Robotube

I used to be all for nintendo but they just keep releasing crap crap and more crap and if they don't release it they support it u_u

... i wonder how much they would sell if we the geeks and otakus wont buy their products

mpar

Hey who isn't pissed off about it?? but NOE suck ass god dammit

excel_excel

Simply amazing. Kotaku keeps neglecting to put down the alledgly said part.

As far as anyone is aware there is no evidence Laurence Fisher said the geeks and otaku thing.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Right... the only gamers I know are jocks in Alpha Beta.

Hubert Humphrey Methadone

I especially enjoyed his comparison to the "bag of crap" scene in Can't Buy Me Love. That pretty much sums it up.

TitillatedOcelot

Everything Jaffe says in the post is right; In this moment NIntendo (and a lot of companies also) are really deep in the mainstream gaming market and are ignoring all the people that made the videogame market what it is right now: the dedicated gamers. I just hope they realize that this market trend will only last for about two years at most and in the end, it will come back to the old gamers...Well, at least Microsoft and Sony still paying attention to the "hardcore" gaming market...

Daisuash

I agreed so much,I had to post on his blog.Didn't know he had a blogspot too.Laurent won't have a job after this week,mark my words.

enewtabie

Ding ding ding! Congraduration, David Jaffe! A winner is you! You feel strongth well up in your body! This is happy end!

TitillatedOcelot

I'm a geek, and Nintendo makes their bread and butter on me and my kind. It's pretty clear from the majority of the wii library that Nintendo has been abandoning me. I think it's about time for geek to stand up and drop that shit. No more nintendo purchases until they clarify themselves.

kingmanic

honestly, making fun of your customer is not a good path to go down...

velvet396

Yeah it was a stupid comment. Fuck the guys whove been buying our shit for years, we've got the attention of the casual market now!

TheSpiller

jaffe is right.. as always

GBK

I hope someone at NOE gets fired for that. Not going to happen, though. Seriously, since when did it become cool to defecate on your fans. That much be a European thing, I guess.

NoE is the 2 Girls 1 Cup of VG PR.

litrock

The second one I bet =/

(俗・ ) Grey Gecko

yeah, I'm a geek. so effin what

tralfaz23

I completly agree with Nintendo... it's a topic for geeks and otaku.

But I don't think it was wise to say that publicly.

ALSO I just love the "positive" energy that David Jaffe has when he is angry.

retronaut

Always an entertaining read at Jaffe's blog. It was pretty awful of the Nintendo employee to dismiss their loyal fan-base who made them what they are today. Extremely poor form, and entirely ungrateful.

Wolfers

Good job Nintendo, keep shitting on your loyal fanbase. It's not like you need their money or anything.

Grind_Axis

Didn't Nintendo want to please everybody? If people want to spend so much money on their software that they fill the internal memory so they cant buy any more? Give them more space, so they keep spending.

Talleh

I do not bite heads off of live chickens! This is an outrage and I will never buy another product from Nintendo Europe! Even if I ever move to Europe!

KirbyMorph

1. All PRs are bound to be full of crap, so whether it was Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft, that doesn't really matter.

2. David Jaffe is always pissed, and that's why I always enjoy reading his rants (the Mario Kart bananas being the best one he ever made).

3. Nintendo is just a business, it doesn't care about what you think or what you like. They only care about making money (like all other companies). Still, as long as they continue to give me games like Twilight Princess, Galaxy, and Corruption they are "A" OK in my book.

4. Casual market doesn't care about relationships, franchises, or what and who is making something, as long as that "something" is the fad of the day. This time Nintendo stroke gold. Next time, I wouldn't be surprised if they went all the way to 3rd place or became a handheld only company.

gencid

Kinda odd that a Sony person is calling someone arrogant. Sony are the "you will just have to work more hours for a PS3" people. It's not like Nintendo forced an overly expensive disc format on people and completely killed their sells. That would be arrogant.

Dcbronco

Where's Foxtail Sixstar with his defense posts?

Also, PR people fuck up, I'm not holding it against him. But I am holding not having extra storage against nintendo, as that's what people want.

I_Hate_This_Place

slightly amused that Jaffe thought Laurent was a female name.

geekgrrl

Him and me both.

I am officially boycotting Nintendo until they do something.
[www.facebook.com]

I had made a Facebook group just before I read this so I feel like I need to share the link.

I'm going to be calling Nintendo sometime because I can't buy their product and I am only down to 2 game saves now Brawl and Geometry Wars(1 block) which both can not be transferred to the SD card.

I can't buy a WiiWare game because I have Brawl which is a game from Nintendo. Something is wrong here.

For a company that likes money they are sure limiting the amount they can make.

Mrobinson587

Stupid comments get dropped by PR folks all the time. Nothing new.

But I pose this question: Why is it whenever someone says something that David Jaffe doesn't like, does he feel it necessary to publicly make a statement about it? The guy is just looking for some free marketing.

Hey David, a lot of us don't give a shit what you think bud. If it makes you feel any better, I have spent a lot of my money on Nintendo products and NEVER on any of your products.

Annex1

@KirbyMorph: good one.

pasquinelli

I guess it's only reasonable, since this is a gaming website and not a ... I don't know ... mainstream one. But I think it's great how some people are willing to boycott Nintendo for not releasing a harddrive, but still keep buying shit from a company that sold CDs with rootkits and/or a convicted monopolist.

shimage

@kingmanic: I'm a geek, and Nintendo makes their bread and butter on me and my kind. It's pretty clear from the majority of the wii library that Nintendo has been abandoning me.

Yeah, because all you geeks stuck with them and helped them dominate through the N64 and GameCube days.

If anything, you should feel betrayed by 3rd parties for dumping on you.

People act like owning an NES back in the day entitles them to a lifetime of servitude from Nintendo. It's not true. People abandoned them in droves over the past 10 years (because of Nintendo's decisions), and Nintendo did what they needed to to get consumers back. Quit feeling betrayed because millions of other people are lining up to buy what gamers didn't want for a decade.

skrame ☆

I'm not sure Jaffe should be one to talk about arrogance.

miniboss1232

Jaffe is mocking someone ELSES "unabridged arrogance? Geeze, that guy is as clueless as the one who made the comment.

Garro

@skrame ☆: I have a GC, a N64, a wii, a DS, a SP, a GB color, a GB, a SNEs, and a NES. I'm pretty certain I helped keep them in the game in the lean years and helped them on top during the good ones.

kingmanic

Fortunately for us, Iwata values the players who want a hard drive, and I assume he has immeasurable power compared to NoE mouth # XXXXXX.

robbo_the_hood

i wish more ppl spoke up like jaffe

resetbutton

just a stupid pr guy that's all, european pr guy. they don't know any better. I'm kidding about the european part not PR though, they are pretty idiotic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

freespeech