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Posts with tag harrison

Iwata is named Person of the Year


Who doesn't love the great Satoru Iwata. He's a very kind man and a pleasure to be around (this blogger knows, he met him a couple years ago). Not only that, but he has a good mind for business, as he's managed to turn Nintendo into a crazy-rich company with the hottest console and handheld on the market. Certainly, he deserves this honor.

He isn't the only person from Nintendo to be recognized, however. Next-Gen's list encompasses 25 people from the industry, and other notable Nintendo folk include George Harrison and Yoshiaki Koizumi (the director behind Super Mario Galaxy).

Despite Wii's success abroad, Nintendo to keep development in Japan


Now, you might want to take a seat before reading this next sentence. The Wii is very popular. Can you believe that? We surely couldn't upon reading about it and hearing from others regarding its incredible appeal both in Japan and abroad. So, considering that demand for the console is highest in the U.S., it would make sense for Nintendo to think about focusing some of their development over here, right? Well, Nintendo doesn't have any such plans, apparently.

We can understand that first-party titles are most likely going to need to be directly overseen by Iwata or Miyamoto, but what about Metroid Prime 3? It was one of the Wii's biggest titles this year, why wouldn't Nintendo want to make more titles exclusively like it, geared toward the Western gamer? Well, Nintendo thinks that's what third-party developers are for.

George Harrison (is he even leaving anymore?) commented that "They're [third-party developers] doing a great job both on DS and on Wii. They tend to provide product in categories that we aren't particularly good at doing, like sports or other genres. And since they're Western publishers, they tend to be more in tune with Western tastes." So, for the time being, it looks like Nintendo's first-party development is going to stay confined to the Land of the Rising Fun.

[Via CVG]

Nintendo says they're making 1.8 million Wiis a month


Hey, if they are, we haven't seen any of them.

Store shelves are barren, with only a fine film of dust to rest atop their usually proud selves. Online retailers often respond to requests to purchase a console with nothing more than a "404 - You're boned" or "Ha Ha." All searches for the console have come up fruitless, often leaving one in such a sad state that suicide is not only considered, but seen as a better fate.

Well, apparently Nintendo has been manufacturing quite a bit of the beautiful white console that could. George Harrison, who is due to call it quits anytime now, said that the company is pumping out 1.8 million units a month, commenting "We're at a rate now worldwide of about 1.8 million Wiis produced every month, and that's going to sustain itself until we get on top of this." He adds that Nintendo analyzes supply distribution every few weeks, citing that it is an "embarrassment of opportunity."

[Via 1UP]

Kaplan hits the road, Jack

Following in the footsteps of George Harrison, Nintendo's top PR person (and the apple of Matt C's eye) Perrin Kaplan has decided to call it quits with Nintendo. She didn't state any reason why she was departing in her correspondence with Reuters, but we're sure she just doesn't want to relocate. Leaving her home of 15 years to follow her job to a new city just probably isn't a life choice she's comfortable with.

Oh well, at least she'll have Matt to help her through the tough times when she departs at the end of the year.

Harrison on the way out, taking Beatles jokes with him


Nintendo's senior vice president of marketing, George Harrison, is leaving Nintendo by the end of the year. While he didn't state a specific reason, it's likely that Harrison didn't want to move to Redwood City with Nintendo's marketing division.

No longer will we have the option of resorting to a Beatles reference to cover for our lack of business understanding. We totally never did that, because we all have business degrees, but it's always a good idea to have a backup.

You say goodbye, and I say hello goodbye as well.

Rumor: Marketers head for the hills, a fond farewell to Kaplan and Harrison

It's sad to see her go.
It's a wild week in the world of Nintendo's upper management in marketing ... we think. Recently, Nintendo's marketing department was told they'd need to ship off to either New York or San Francisco from their current homes in Redmond. According to Game Informer, as astounding 90% decided to remain in the area and take severance pay. What's even more shocking are that Beth Llewelyn (senior director of public relations), Perrin Kaplan (vice president of marketing and corporate affairs) and George Harrison (senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications) are among the dearly departed. From Nintendo, we mean.

Those are some big names dropping from Nintendo's ivory towers, and we've got to sad we're sad to see them go. George was always a nice, candid fellow, and who can forget drunk Perrin (pictured above)? Now that was a classic. We would like to reiterate that Game Informer's claim has not yet been corroborated, so we'll post an update with confirmation or denial when we get it.

[Thanks, Jensonb!]

Harrison: Wii lifecycle may exceed five years

Chris Kohler of Game|Life interviewed Nintendo of America VP George Harrison about the future of the Wii system, and his responses were, well, generally unsurprising. We wouldn't expect Nintendo to suddenly change their strategy in the midst of such success.

Harrison said that because of the high prices of the Wii's competitors, he expected the Wii to have a lifecycle longer than the traditional five years. (Would that mean more than 35 million installed units in the US?) And it'll continue to have a pack-in for some of that lifecycle, since Wii Sports is a "cultural phenomenon" that is helping to draw people in to the system.

Harrison also mentioned that more Wii software targeted at Nintendo's new "expanded" audience would be revealed at E3, and that a game download channel is in development.

There's more, including some weird comments about localizing Virtual Console games and a response to the continuing shortages. Go read the whole thing, if you are so inclined.

Harrison: 35 million US Wiis by 2012


The success of the Wii has Nintendo feeling pretty confident about themselves. They've sold about 2.5 million units since launch, and probably would have sold more if there had been more.

Naturally, the six months following launch are completely representative of the console's whole life cycle, which is why Nintendo of America VP George Harrison, in a statement to Bloomberg, was confident enough to predict that the United States would have an install base of 35 million Wiis by 2012.

We aren't business experts, but we think Harrison might be committing a Disco Stu Fallacy here. "Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976? If these trends continue...ayyyyy!"

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