Nintendo’s investor briefing is coming up quickly, and the financial reports for Nintendo released today were accompanied by a short press conference with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. Bloomberg covered the conference and picked up some interesting comments from Iwata.
First, Iwata confirmed that he’s taking a 50% pay cut on salary between February and June, in lieu of stepping down from his position in the company:
“I’m concentrating my mind on how to rebuild Nintendo rather than how I would take responsibility when things don’t work out in the future.
The Wii U isn’t in good shape. That’s the presumption we have as we consider reform.”
And while Nintendo has been clear that they don’t plan to offer mini-games on smartphones and tablets, they’re working on strategies for “using smart devices,” whatever that means. They’re also planning to buy back ten million of their own shares, in order to compensate shareholders for poor sales performances:
“That won’t merit shareholders, that’s why we decided on the buyback. But that’s not all the reason. We’ve been rewarding our shareholders mainly through high dividends, but we cannot generate as much profit as we used to make.”
Will the investor briefing contain strategies in response to this brief news conference? We’re not sure, but overall, it doesn’t seem like a price drop for the Wii U is something Nintendo is considering—for better or for worse.
