"Stop Immediately!" - Miyamoto On Hiroshi Yamauchi's Likely Reaction To Nintendo Museum
No, carry on
by Ollie Reynolds · Nintendo LifeThe Nintendo Museum has been making waves recently with plenty of footage and photos emerging from lucky early attendees.
In a new interview with IGN, legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto spoke on the rational behind the Museum's creation, and mentioned that if ex-president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, were privy to current plans, he would have likely disapproved.
“You could say that we’re sort of doing something that we are not supposed to do. If [ex-president of Nintendo Hiroshi] Yamauchi would hear this, I think he would tell us to stop immediately!”
The thinking behind this is that Nintendo had always refrained from speaking about its past, instead allowing its products to do all of the talking. However, in a rapidly changing landscape, the firm believes that now is the time to showcase its achievements via the Nintendo Museum.
“Nintendo is a company that connects with its consumers through products. We do not promote the company itself, only the products. We might be talking about how old Mario has turned but we don’t talk about how many units a certain game has sold. That’s what Nintendo has traditionally been doing, but the environment has changed and we started to revisit that thought.”
To further emphasise Nintendo's belief in its products, Miyamoto proceeds to regale on how Yamauchi would approach the promotion of games:
“Yamauchi used to say that a lot of companies put a lot of effort and resources into sales to make sure that the product is advertised well so that it reaches greater sales. However, Yamauchi’s own philosophy was the opposite. He believed that if you need to over-advertise something to sell, not selling it at all is better.”
The Nintendo Museum will officially open to the public this week on 2nd October 2024. Within its walls, attendees will be able to view products from the company's history, try out interactive games with giant controllers, and rinse their wallets with the mouth-wateringly attractive gift shop.
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Are you planning on visiting the Nintendo Museum at any point? Let us know your thoughts on Miyamoto's comments down below.
[source ign.com]
About Ollie Reynolds
Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry.
Comments 23
Mr. Yamauchi wouldn't want a museum. He would've demanded more love hotels. 😘
- 2
- JohnnyMind
- 3:49pm
I can definitely get behind Yamauchi's mentality - you really should let the (quality of) products talk and not just have them sell because you over-advertise them -, but on the other hand to do so you have to give a chance to people to come into contact with them and that's exactly what the Nintendo Museum will allow, especially when it comes to relatively rare products other than of course the exclusive experiences because it wouldn't be something made by Nintendo without a fun twist!
- 3
- cedarhyped
- 3:52pm
“[Yamauchi] believed that if you need to over-advertise something to sell, not selling it at all is better.” That’s a rare way of thinking.
- 4
- Coalescence
- 3:55pm
I really wish Yamauchi was still around to give his takes. It is endlessly fascinating to read up on how the guy operated. If the Harry Potter paintings ever needed to exist, it would be to have Yamauchi, Iwata, and Yokoi in the Nintendo office.
- 5
- Markiemania95
- 3:57pm
I’ll be there in less than a week! I can’t wait to see it all.
I don’t hate Yamauchi’s philosophy, and it has served Nintendo well.
But I do also see this as more than an advert. It is a product!
- 7
- NinChocolate
- 4:07pm
It struck me as somewhat immodest to have miyamoto as the face of the museum.
For Yamauchi Nintendo was a family business and he clearly wanted it to be unpretentious as such.
Now Nintendo has decided that it’s success in the industry warrants some self-exaltation in the form of a corporate museum for public attraction.
"The first rule of Nintendo is... you do not talk about Nintendo."
@Erigen That was a different era before then. 🤣
@cedarhyped I do see where he comes from. You might lose a lot of money just from marketing, resulting in a successful product still being seen as a flop.
Yamauchi was a genius, in the original sense of the term.
Despite being orphaned at 5 and having to take over his grandfather's company at 21, he turned the card making business into one of best companies in the world. He recognized the genius of Gunpei Yoko and his makeshift Ultrahand just by walking through the factory, which launched the business into games.
He realised he needed to expand into US territory if he wanted to prosper.
He had an excellent intuition for recognising potential in people and ideas.
And all of that without ever having played a single videogame.
- 12
- HammerGalladeBro
- 4:31pm
He probably would've requested a pavilion dedicated to him and fellow Yamauchi CEOs. Maybe not.
Off-topic: If they were still with Nintendo, would Rare have gotten a pavilion at Nintendo Museum or at the very least would be part of it?
- 13
- amongtheworms
- 4:44pm
Hearing his take on (over)advertising of games is interesting in an era where we get “AAAA” nonsense and the like.
- 14
- Edu23XWiiU
- 4:57pm
@Twilite9 He did "test" the love motels tho hehehe. But, what an absolute genius, the Japanese boss everyone feared and respected.
Cool, now please start to revisit your thoughts around F-zero
- 16
- masterLEON
- 5:12pm
Sony and Ubisoft could learn a thing about saturation. If you have to over advertise to make sales, your product already failed at delivering a value proposition.
Kind of funny to think about Nintendo being a company that didn't talk about it's past considering all the franchises that stretch back to the 80s, the constant ports of old games and retro game libraries on recent consoles.
- 18
- Toastmaster
- 5:58pm
Yamauchi and Jack Tramiel at Commodore were two of the most ruthless and stubborn in business, but both of them achieved a lot.
R.I.P. to both.
- 19
- LavenderShroud
- 6:14pm
@Ooyah Alright everyone, time to log out!
- 20
- WhensDinner
- 6:34pm
"Too expensive, too expensive."
"Mario Party."
[Turns around immediately.]
It immediately hit me that Miyamoto is holding an NES Zapper and not the Famicom cowboy revolver.
@Toastmaster What I have read about Tramiel suggests he was kinda nuts and maybe not in the best ways, in some of his executive decisions.
- 23
- Ryu_Niiyama
- 6:56pm
This is a difficult one for me. Nintendo was originally a family owned business and it has functioned as a business for over a century. As in a profit maker that provides jobs and sells a product. However so many businesses don’t make it to a century let alone longer than that and not be imploding from the inside due to corruption and just inept management (I am American and looking at many of our “staple” businesses either need bailouts, apply for bankruptcy or treat employees like dirt so I don’t have a lot of realtime examples of both longevity and decent business (I am not gonna put any company on a pedestal. And their first and main goal is to make money. It’s just some realize it’s easier to do that if your employees like you and the public hasn’t vilified you).)
However, Nintendo is a cultural zeitgeist that has shaped generations around the world. I think that has a reason to be immortalized and celebrated and hey it turns profit too. Hylia knows ima spend a paycheck in there if I ever go.
Nintendo for me is objectively a positive thing no matter what role I occupy. As a shareholder I am pleased that they are helping my retirement, as a worker that didn’t work for them but in an industry that they built up (plus I was hired for my Nintendo knowledge ) I am grateful for the contribution to my overall path towards financial success, as a consumer they provide (for me) consistently great products that last decades (my NES on down still work) and as a person Nintendo has shaped my life and technically saved my life in the past. So the Museum feels like a concrete celebration of that. but I can understand why the Yamauchi (or just Hiroshi Yamauchi-san) family would possibly object.
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