Iwata Talks Monolith Acquisition, Wii Production

A newly published transcript of Nintendo Japan president Satoru Iwata's Q&A with investors has expounded on the company's position on the recent acquisition of developer Monolith (Xenogears), and clarified earlier reports of Wii production issues. Asked about Nintendo's policies regarding mergers and acquisitions, Iwata clarified that the company has never strictly opposed the practice. "We have never said that we will never do M&A in any situation," said Iwata, adding, "Actually, we are not against M&A if Nintendo can absorb the real value of the company." "In most cases," he explained, "the value of software developing companies is attached to its people, not the company, which is merely a vessel for its people... Even if we should compete with others to purchase a software company, although we might be able to increase the sheer number of our developers and to gain a short-term result, we do not think it will do good for us in the long run." "In the case of Monolith Software, Mr. Sugiura, the president, and Nintendo have a long-term relationship. How Mr. Sugiura thinks is close to how Nintendo thinks. The software Mr. Sugiura would like to create is in line with what Nintendo would like to have for its platform. So, we thought that Nintendo should support this idea, and we decided to take action," said Iwata, who also pointed out that if those types of long-term relationships can be established, the company is not against acquiring more companies in the future. Also, the full translation of earlier reports that current Wii production output is "abnormal" and something the company is trying to fix has Iwata explaining that assumptions about the Wii's basic hardware similarities with the GameCube are not quite so clear cut. "While we are on this subject," said Iwata, "it looks like some people are misunderstanding that Nintendo is not incorporating state-of-the-art technologies into its products. It is not true. Just as an example, we are using the state-of-the-art technologies to realize the compact-sized Wii console with low power consumption." "Making a significant volume of the high-tech hardware, and making an additional volume, is not an easy task at all. In fact, when we clear one bottleneck for a production increase, we will face another one... One thing is clear, though, that shipments will increase and that we are trying to increase the shipments in order to comply with the needs of patiently waiting customers," said the president, adding that more retail flow is expected within the month with recent production going into worldwide markets. The full text of the transcript, including more on regional marketing plans for games such as Brain Age, future plans for Wii Channels, and non-game efforts, including details of a recent DS-enhanced art museum exhibit of the work of MC Escher, is available at Nintendo's investor relations site.