[People who play RPGs are] “depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games.”
– Hiroshi Yamauchi in a 1999 interview
Oh Yamauchi, I could do an entire article on you. As you might be able to tell by this quote, the now retired president of Nintendo was (and probably remains to this day) a very straight forward business man who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. He certainly wasn’t your average Japanese company head. That, to his credit, is what allowed him to press Nintendo forward into the success it remains to this day. Yamauchi was always direct and would grab any business opportunity by the balls, refusing to let go until he got what he wanted. Which, above all else, money is what Yamauchi wanted. He was strict and ran Nintendo with an iron fist that led them to prosperity.
That prosperity came at a cost though. While overall Yamauchi appeared to have quite a keen eye for judging video games properly despite not playing them himself, his opinions on various matters like the above quote did help contribute to Nintendo burning various bridges with 3rd party clients. After suffering under Yamauchi and Nintendo’s strict guidelines during the Super Nintendo era, many 3rd party companies jumped ship to support Sony’s Playstation back in the mid-90s. 2 of these companies, as you might suspect, were Squaresoft and Enix, companies renowned both in Japan and overseas for their various successful RPG titles. While relations have healed somewhat overtime, Yamauchi’s decisions are felt to this day in the company.
Although, to be honest, I’m still not sure to this day if this quote is really the slight folks have made it out to be. Remember, Yamauchi wasn’t a gamer. Not of RPGs or any other genres for that matter. For all we know, he felt this way about almost all gamers. I think in Yamauchi’s eyes, the biggest insult he could deal to the RPG demographic would be to call them not profitable. Regardless of WHY they played RPGs or how big of losers they are, I really don’t think Yamauchi would’ve cared much as long as they provided him lots of money. For all we know, maybe this was just Yamauchi’s way of identifying what he saw as RPGs’ core demographic.
In the end, regardless of why he said it, Yamauchi had the guts to always speak his mind back in the day and made an interesting character that helped shape the very nature of the video game industry to this day. I have to respect the man for not giving a fuck. Though if any readers here decide to follow suit, remember that that attitude might make it difficult in the business world and that you, like Yamauchi, best be prepared to strong arm people into helping you rather than hoping on their good will and sense of professionalism.
One Gamer's Thoughts 