{"id":31830,"date":"2024-06-03T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T08:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=31830"},"modified":"2024-06-03T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T08:30:11","slug":"nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one – \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to a recent article by GamesIndustry Japan<\/a>, a Nintendo executive once attributed the following quote to the company\u2019s late CEO Satoru Iwata: \u201cThings that are praised don\u2019t sell \u2013 it\u2019s the things that are criticized that sell. It is best to earn a divided response.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quote was brought up in the context of how (or if at all) public criticism affects a game or product\u2019s sales negatively. Reportedly, these words of Iwata were mentioned by the Nintendo executive in response to being asked about the failure of the Nintendo Labo toy kit from 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fascinating stance towards what is considered a \u201cfailure\u201d suggests that Nintendo\u2019s fourth CEO Satoru Iwata may have instilled into the company a policy that welcomes negative buzz as much as it does praise. Nintendo is a company whose every move attracts attention, and their most successful titles are seldom the object of unanimous praise. Even the initial announcement of the Nintendo Switch was met with mixed responses and concern, ultimately leading to a dip in stock price prior to its release. But despite this, the Switch turned out to be Nintendo\u2019s best-selling console, selling 141.32 million units<\/a> as of March 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nintendo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Considering Satoru Iwata\u2019s reputation as \u201ca legendary CEO\u201d who supervised Nintendo\u2019s massively successful Wii console and Nintendo DS handheld, his words carry significant gravity. Being especially invested in interacting with fans through his charismatic Nintendo Direct presentations, Iwata had undoubtedly developed a good instinct for how public sentiment translates into commercial performance. As a result, he seems to have believed that praise can never be as loud as criticism. Alternatively, his words could also be interpreted as his attitude toward product development \u2013 in the sense that an overly \u201csafe\u201d idea designed to avoid any form of criticism cannot lead to remarkable performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, it is important to consider how the Internet has changed since Iwata reportedly uttered these words. Iwata was CEO of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. While the Internet and social media were very much relevant during this time, things have undeniably grown to a much larger (and louder) scale in the past few years. Many online communities have become fragmented by echo chambers, which means criticism and hate get amplified to levels exceeding what was once considered normal. Furthermore, this environment also makes it easier for distorted or misinformed views to affect public opinion, meaning that developers have more battles to fight than simply making a good game. Satoru Iwata\u2019s beliefs about public opinion and sales may be based on an environment that is far more forgiving than today\u2019s. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to an executive, Nintendo’s late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":31833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33],"class_list":["post-31830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one - \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to an executive, Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one - \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to an executive, Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-03T08:30:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-03T08:30:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240603-31830.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1010\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"697\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one - \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"According to an executive, Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one - \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"According to an executive, Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2024-06-03T08:30:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-06-03T08:30:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1010,"height":697,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240603-31830.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one – \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0","datePublished":"2024-06-03T08:30:10+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-03T08:30:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/"},"wordCount":468,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240603-31830.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)","Nintendo"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/","name":"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one - \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240603-31830.jpg","datePublished":"2024-06-03T08:30:10+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-03T08:30:11+00:00","description":"According to an executive, Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata once said that products that divide audiences are the ones that sell.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240603-31830.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240603-31830.jpg","width":1010,"height":697,"caption":"Nintendo's late CEO Satoru Iwata"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendos-late-ceo-iwata-considered-a-divided-response-to-be-better-than-a-positive-one-things-that-are-praised-dont-sell\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nintendo\u2019s late CEO Iwata considered a divided response to be better than a positive one – \u201cthings that are praised don\u2019t sell\u201d\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31835,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31830\/revisions\/31835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}