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Thursday, June 28, 2018

New Era of Nintendo Begins: Shuntaro Furukawa's!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - But how different is he than previous management?

Remember how I said back in April that Nintendo is getting a new president on June 28, 2018? Yeah, check the date. The time has come.

We still don't know that much about Shuntaro Furukawa besides a handful of personality traits disclosed to investors. (And that's all of the KoopaTV hyperlinks I can provide about him.) His Wikipedia page is still barren.

So now this unknown guy is president of worldwide Nintendo.

Nintendo presidents comparison Tatsumi Kimishima Shuntaro Furukawa Japanese
We went from Tatsumi Kimishima (top) to Shuntaro Furukawa (bottom).
I suppose it's noticeable that Shuntaro's official company photo spells his stuff in English.

Let's scrounge for anything we can to learn more about this guy, okay? I propose comparing Furukawa's Message from the President to Kimishima's Message from the President and scan for any differences.

First of all, the first paragraph is exactly the same between the two presidents, discussing Nintendo's brand as the company that brought the gaming industry out of Japan to the rest of the world. After that, they're pretty much saying the same thing but in their own words. They all want to put smiles on people's faces, expand the number of gamers (among different demographics), and spread Nintendo intellectual property around.

The Nintendo Switch is the key component for Nintendo's profits. Unlike Kimishima, Furukawa makes a direct reference to Nintendo Switch Online as something that will “[build] longer-term relationships with consumers”, while unlike Furukawa, Kimishima made direct reference to amiibo. Kimishima also dedicated a paragraph to the My Nintendo membership service, as something that would “refine customer satisfaction”. Furukawa makes no mention of My Nintendo or satisfying customers.

It looks like Nintendo is officially doing what we all knew was happening for years: de-emphasising amiibo. Also, Furukawa probably realises what the rest of us have figured out: My Nintendo sucks.

As expected, both dedicate substantial time to discussing smart devices. Both discuss non-game uses of Nintendo IP, like merchandise and theme parks.

And then they both close saying that Nintendo will be adaptive, flexible, and transformative, with the nonsense quote, “the true value of entertainment lies in its uniqueness”. ...I guess you could say that all applies to KoopaTV, too.

Anyway, since Furukawa copied the whole first paragraph and then went out of his way to tweak everything else, then those tweaks were all conscious decisions of his. (Or his corporate communication team.) The differences aren't all that substantial, but I guess Nintendo Switch Online is the new amiibo and My Nintendo. To be continued...


Ludwig feels obligated to mention that in terms of customer relationships, KoopaTV has the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program. The current round is about to end in 24 hours from publishing, so take advantage of KoopaTV's feedback mechanism, the KoopaTV Feedback Forms and Quizzes!

2 comments :

  1. We know as much about Furukawa as we do about Metorid Prime 4. It exists but that's about it. After a few months, I imagined that we would at least have a profile of his career. Anyway, if he decided to scrap My Nintendo, I would not care in the slightest. The only decent reward is the Zelda Picross that was available since the inception. There has not been anything else of value at least to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They're gonna announce new rewards in about... one day.

      (Like KoopaTV will do.)

      I doubt he'll scrap My Nintendo because they'll need some kind of avenue for their new redeemable-for-eShop-credit Gold Points to live.

      Delete

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