The games industry is going through a fairly rough time at the moment, with many studios shuttering, prolific layoffs, and discourse running rampant. Nintendo recently had a shareholder meeting where a lot of questions were asked of Nintendo CEO, Shuntaro Furukawa, which revealed some insightful answers to how Nintendo handles business. in the meeting, Furukawa was asked about AI, Accessibility, and the future of Nintendo. While there was nothing revealed about The Switch Successor, it’s clear that Nintendo has a solid strategy moving forward to address many pain points when it comes to releasing a new console, as well as plans to include players with vision impairments, as well as nurture 3rd party support. I have spent my morning translating the minutes from the meeting, and I don’t speak a word of Japanese so I do apologize if I have jilted pronunciations of names.
AI-generated content is a hot topic at the moment, with a recent study showing that many developers are concerned that AI will have a negative impact on their jobs. Furukawa was asked about plans to use Generative AI in Nintendo-developed games which was met with a very thought-out response:
Furukawa: “In the game industry, technology similar to AI has been incorporated into the movements of enemy characters for a long time, so I think that game development and AI technology have always had a close relationship. Generative AI, which has become a hot topic in recent years, can do more creative things, but on the other hand, we recognize that it also has problems related to intellectual property rights. We have decades of know-how to create the best gaming experience for our customers. While responding to the development of technology with a flexible attitude, we would like to continue to deliver value unique to our company, which cannot be created simply by technology alone.”
I think this answer is perfect, as he acknowledged the sensitivity of the topic, while pointing out the issues of copyright and focussed on the experience of the teams at Nintendo.
Furukawa was also asked about how they plan to tackle scalpers like we saw with the Wii, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles which saw opportunists snap up limited stock, and flip them at severely marked-up prices. Nintendo seems to be confident that supply will keep up with demand, stating that semiconductor shortages that existed during the current generation of consoles has been sorted out:
Furukawa: “As a countermeasure against resale, we believe that the most important thing is to produce a solid number of products that can meet customer demand, and this idea has not changed since last year. In addition to that, we are considering whether we can take some measures within the scope permitted by laws and regulations, based on the circumstances of each region. In addition, last year and the year before that, there was a shortage of semiconductor components that prevented us from producing hardware for the Nintendo Switch in sufficient quantities, but this situation has now been resolved. As for the successor models, we do not believe that the shortage of parts will have a significant impact on production at this time.”
when asked about attracting 3rd party support to Nintendo hardware, Furukawa pointed out the lengths that Nintendo have taken to adapt specific game engines and support to the Switch:
Furukawa: “In order to make our platform attractive to indie game developers in terms of both development and sales, we have been working on a variety of initiatives since before the release of the Nintendo Switch, including the development environment that includes enhanced support for developers, and appealing to developers around the world at events. In addition, we continue to provide promotion support for each title through a special program called “Indie World” that introduces indie games. For the Nintendo Switch, we prepared development environments such as Unity and Unreal Engine from an early stage, and many developers have used them. Indie games are an integral part of our platform, and we look forward to strengthening these activities in the future.”
Finally, accessibility, which long-time viewers will know is something I try to talk about in every review as I have a vision-impaired follower. Accessibility is making slow progress in gaming and there have been some games that have incredible accessibility options like Mortal Kombat 1, but admittedly, Nintendo has been lagging in this area. The following question was posed:
“I think there are people with visual impairments in the world who want to play games. Could you explain what Nintendo is working on in this direction?”
Furukawa: “We want many people around the world to play our games. I would like to refrain from commenting on specific initiatives at this time, but we would like to make various efforts so that not only people with visual impairments but also people who have difficulty playing games can play our games.”
This response shows Nintendo is moving forward with making games and consoles more accessible in mind, and I think it’s never too late to take a positive step in the right direction.
What do you think the future holds for Nintendo after the see responses? Let me know your opinion! For everything Nintendo, check out whatsitlike.com.au.