As Long As You Keep Listening, Satoru Iwata Will Keep Talking

I saw this Satoru Iwata quote, brilliantly picked out by Tiny Cartridge, and I thought it was worth highlighting…

I do not know when people will become bored with an average man in his fifties talking at length about games, but at the moment it appears that many people are enjoying and paying attention to our Nintendo Direct broadcasts, and while this is the case, we will continue to air them.

Oh Iwata. I could listen to you all day!

That quote was taken from a Nintendo Financial results briefing after Iwata was asked what benefit its Nintendo Direct initiative — where Iwata and the team provide updates on future Nintendo titles — was having on lapsed gamers, or folks who weren’t at the core of Nintendo’s audience. What I found interesting, was a later quote, where Iwata argued that Nintendo Direct was having an impact on a broader audience.

“[I]t would be wrong to say that Nintendo Direct has no effect on a more passive audience who do not actively look for game information,” Iwata explained. “And there are numbers to show that. Here in Japan, we have what is called the “Nintendo Direct Channel” on YouTube and after we finish our live broadcasts, we upload the videos themselves onto the channel. Nintendo Direct broadcasts which excited a number of fans who watched them live do not necessarily attract a number of others to watch the same videos on YouTube. However, there is an exception to that. The “Animal Crossing: New Leaf Direct” video (Japanese only) that we broadcast in Japan the other day has attracted more than 1.1 million views. It is not exceptional for a three-minute music video to have 1 million views, but for a 47-minute video, which only explains in detail about a game, this figure is phenomenal, and what’s more, 65 percent of the views came from smart devices. This means our audience goes beyond our fans who watch our broadcasts live for information.

That is pretty impressive. Particularly considering the video was only released in Japan. Looks like Nintendo Direct may be here to stay.

Thanks Tiny Cartridge!