Xbox criticised by former Nintendo head

[CaptainHowdy]

when your doing that, the number of units bought loses all bragging rights.

Right, so say you. The most objective person around here

yes, and your the king of unbiased thought..

when your practically giving your products away, then you say, Hehe, people are buying mine!!!!, thats hardly saying anything..
If Nintendo cut $100 off thier price, then gave away 2 games with it, you think it wouldnt boost sales like a mofo?

 

[Johnny Awesome]

He's wrong of course. Anyone who defends his latest comments is a fool.

Xbox is fine.

 

[Kolgar]

Yamauchi's been senile for years. I've been amazed at his audacity and idiocy since about 1995, and all I can say now is that Nintendo is much better off without him. The sooner they move on and break from his influence, the better.

To tackle what he said about Microsoft, well, let's just say that Japan may indeed be a lost cause for them this generation. But "luck" isn't the only reason MS has seen the success it has. And now that Xbox Live has launched, the company has an opportunity to position Xbox as the ultimate online console - something that could eventually lead to fantastic success.

Kolgar

 

[cybamerc]

PiNkY:

> He seems to mix an unhealthy dose of nationalism into this, just
> consider that vietnam part.

That's funny coming from a supporter of "Project Midway".

 

[Magnum PI]

He seems to mix an unhealthy dose of nationalism into this, just consider that vietnam part.

i don't see what his vietnam part has to do w/ japanese nationalism...

i would have agreed if he talked about hiroshima or nagasaki (unfortunately, america had to test two different a-bomb technologies, otherwise they would only have bombed one city..)

 

[Tagrineth]

Yamauchi's been senile for years. I've been amazed at his audacity and idiocy since about 1995, and all I can say now is that Nintendo is much better off without him. The sooner they move on and break from his influence, the better.

N is definitely better off with a true game designer behind the wheel. ^_^

 

[mkillio]

i would have agreed if he talked about hiroshima or nagasaki (unfortunately, america had to test two different a-bomb technologies, otherwise they would only have bombed one city..)

The reason we dropped the second bomb was because Japan didn't surrender after the first bomb.

 

[CeiserSöze]

I think Nintendo's new top management (Iwata and this new board of directors) is doing fine: The deals with Square and Capcom speak for themselves, they seem to have done the right things (when you're looking at the result) when Retro had those internal problems and considering that third party relations were virtually at zero during the N64-years they did a great job of improving them during the last 18-24 months (every major third party except Konami is supporting them with good games and I think that especially the Triforce-deal with Sega and Namco is going to pay off in the future). They are still quite conservative (especially when it comes to fighting for marketshare) but at least they aren't stubborn like Yamauchi was.
Oh and before you tell me that the Square- and Capcom-deals happened while Yamauchi was still the boss: It is said that he lost (or volutarily gave away) a lot of his power during his last 1-2 years so I think someone else at Nintendo deserves credit for those deals.

 

[Magnum PI]

i would have agreed if he talked about hiroshima or nagasaki (unfortunately, america had to test two different a-bomb technologies, otherwise they would only have bombed one city..)

The reason we dropped the second bomb was because Japan didn't surrender after the first bomb.

i guess this is what you learned in school...

it could have been plausible if the US waited more that three (3) days before they dropped the second bomb.

perhaps the cause is not as simple as the will to test both types of a-bomb, but it's not as simple as like japan didn't want to surrender as well..

you can read lots of materials about the nuclear bombing, for example this one:
http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/HIRO2BMB.HTM
http://www.vw.vccs.edu/vwhansd/HIS122/Hiroshima.html

 

[pxc]

Yamauchi is the ultimate fanboy. But who would expect any less?

 

[Steve Dave Part Deux]

The Japanese thought the first bomb "little boy?" was a fluke. No one believed it was possible to create a weapon with that kind of destructive power(except the Germans). After the second bomb, "fatman?", was dropped the Japanese were convinced that the first explosion was indeed the result of a weapon of mass destruction and that they couldn't afford the destruction of any more civilian targets. What the Japanese didn't know was that it would have taken the US at least another 6 months to ready a fourth bomb. Not that it would have altered the outcome.

 

[BoddoZerg]

Former Nintendo head Hiroshi Yamauchi says Xbox will fail and that Microsoft doesn't understand the video game business.



http://www.fatbabies.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1327

The same guy who decided that cartridges would always reign supreme over CDs. That sure gives him a lot of credibility.

If he was half competent, he would be listed as "Nintendo head" instead of "ex Nintendo head".

 

[Magnum PI]

The Japanese thought the first bomb "little boy?" was a fluke. No one believed it was possible to create a weapon with that kind of destructive power(except the Germans). After the second bomb, "fatman?", was dropped the Japanese were convinced that the first explosion was indeed the result of a weapon of mass destruction and that they couldn't afford the destruction of any more civilian targets. What the Japanese didn't know was that it would have taken the US at least another 6 months to ready a fourth bomb. Not that it would have altered the outcome.

bullshit

why did US drop the second bomb only 3 days after the first one ?
there was no real motive to be such speedy, japanese were already militarily unable.. what the japanese could do against the US without any float ?

US could easily have waited for one week, two weeks or even more..

long enough for the japan to be able to realize what happened.

US didn't let the japanese enough time to gauge the destruction.

its a fact history you learn is censored in various way, depending in the country you are.. this is too recent..

like in japan you don't learn about "Rape of Nanjing"..
or in france you don't learn much about the horrors france made in its colony..
(the french state even hidden to its population the fact the radioactive tchernobyl clouds were above their heads, in order to protect its all-nuclear energy policy.. even now media have hard time reporting about this)

some more about the nuclear bombing:
http://www.abolition2000.org/testimony/Matagne070801.html

anyway i understand you're more comfortable with the official version.
but you know, you american people didn't bomb the japan, the decision is the one of the american leaders of this era (not of the american people !), and you don't have to blindingly show solidarity with these men.

 

[zurich]

Heheh yeah, Canada's work camps it sent its German and Japanese-decendent citizens too are pretty funny. Well, not funny that they existed, but funny that we had them and covered it up!

 

[cybamerc]

Considering that the Square studio making FF:CC for Cube and GBA is partially funded by Yamauchi it seems unwise to assume he had nothing to do with bringing them on-board.

 

[CeiserSöze]

Considering that the Square studio making FF:CC for Cube and GBA is partially funded by Yamauchi it seems unwise to assume he had nothing to do with bringing them on-board.

I think it's just a bit strange that just 2 months before the Square-announcement (afaik) Yamauchi said in an interview that he still doesn't want to see their games on Nintendo-platforms - neither on GCN, nor on GBA. Well, we'll never know what went on behind the scenes.
But actually I just wanted to point out that despite Yamauchi officially stepped down just 6 months ago Nintendo began to change a lot sooner and did things no one would have expected, let's say, 7 years ago when he was still the undisputed "king" of Nintendo: The company didn't name the GCN "Starcube" as Yamauchi would have liked (he publicly stated that he didn't like the name "GameCube" very much), they "lent" their most precious names to independent developers (it already started quite a few years ago when they gave the Zelda-license to Capcom to make the Oracle-games - something an extremely conservative "control-freak" like Yamauchi would never have approved I think), they made peace with Square again despite Yamauchi's comments about the Square-situation so soon before the announcement etc.
Nintendo obviously isn't Yamauchi's Nintendo anymore today and it hasn't been Yamauchi's Nintendo for quite a few months (or rather years). And after the N64-disaster I think that's a good thing.

 

[Nexiss]

No one believed it was possible to create a weapon with that kind of destructive power(except the Germans).

Actually, even the Germans didn't believe it was. They did have a nuclear weapons program, but because of various errors they concluded that they would need far more radioactive material than was feasible to produce. Even when the news was announced, Heisenberg reportedly didn't believe it at first.

 

[Steve Dave Part Deux]

Oppenheimer(sp?) was a German.
Magnum-

I am perfectly aware that Truman and Marshall were eager to try out their new toys. I also know that they intentionally chose targets that would cause the greatest loss of life. Hell, Marshall wanted to drop 100 h-bombs on China when it was discovered that they were aiding the Koreans. I'm not defending their actions, nor do I approve of the current administrations activities. That is just one of the explanations that I have heard.

 

[Nexiss]

Yes, Oppenheimer was a German, but he was working for the US under the Manhattan project. Anywho, it's not the point, I just felt like interjecting that.

 

[Vince]

Actually, even the Germans didn't believe it was. They did have a nuclear weapons program, but because of various errors they concluded that they would need far more radioactive material than was feasible to produce. Even when the news was announced, Heisenberg reportedly didn't believe it at first.

This is controversial, but IMHO, Heisenberg knew only too well the consequences of a full German economic and milirary ramp-up for the production of a fission weapon on the scale of the Manhatten Project.

During the final weeks of the war, Heisenberg and 9 other German physicists were kept in a bugged compound together in England. Whats interesting is that within 24 hours of learning of the detonation of a U235 weapon over Hiroshema, Heisenberg not only comprehensivly explained the workings of such a device, but talked of things like using a damper/reflector to cut the necessary critical mass down to 1/4 the size that it would normally take to produce the 80 consecutive reactions or keeping the core in two halves, only to be combined above the target as a failsafe. Smart man.

There was even a letter from a Ex-German physicist working at Princeton, that was recently unveiled, which said that he heard from his buddies still in germany that they were working on a fission weapon, but Heisenberg and several others were trying to stall the program - but they must follow orders eventually.

They did have a nuclear weapons program, but because of various errors they concluded that they would need far more radioactive material than was feasible to produce

Horseshit. In 1942, he [Heisenberg] met with Albert Speer and told him it would only take about a "pinapple" of fissionable materials to produce a critical mass to level a smaller city.

Then all of a sudden, when asked by the military experts if it's feasible to make a fission weapon within the next year - he tells then 'hell no' and proceeds to do R&D on a stable fission reaction [which is even more advanced than an uncontrolled chain reaction]... Um, somethings not adding up here.


I'd bet anything that under the leadership of people like Harteck, Weizacker, Heisenberg, and Wirtz - they could have done it if they wanted to.