Even after disappointing financial results, Nintendo chief is not in a mood to give up the company’s old ways saying that the company would stick with its main business model focusing on both gaming hardware and software and has even hinted at possibility of moving into health sector.
President Satoru Iwata, who is facing immense pressure from company’s investors and analysts owing to bad financial results and sluggish Wii U sales, on Thursday said that the company is planning to explore new business areas and boost licensing of its popular characters like Mario and Zelda.
The 54 year old executive said the video game making company is planning to enter the health care industry by March 2016. He said that the new business will be an entertaining ‘non-game’ one and will not include any wearable device. The new business will help “boost users’ quality of life in terms of health,” Iwata said, without giving much detail. Iwata promised to disclose more details later this year.
Iwata also resisted company’s plan to update itself to be at par with the tablet and smartphone era saying that “Nintendo has value because it is different from others.”
The company may also consider acquisitions or capital alliances for its licensing business expansion plans, he added.
The struggling game maker on Wednesday reported an operating loss of 1.6 billion yen ($15.3 million) for the nine months ending December 31 with a 30 per cent decline in the net income which stood at 10.2 billion yen ($98.8 million) down from 14.55 billion yen a year earlier. Nintendo also slashed its annual forecast for Wii U sales from 9 million units to just 2.8 million earlier.
Taking responsibility of the poor performance, top company executives have announced their pay cuts. While President Satoru Iwata’s pay will be halved, pay of two other representative directors including Shigeru Miyamoto, will be reduced by 30 percent. Seven of the other board members will lose 20 percent of their pay. The president however said he won’t step down from his post after running the company for over 11 years.
