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Nintendo buys $1.1 billion of its own shares, Yamauchi family contributes
Nintendo has bought back 9.5 million shares of its own stock, valued at 114.2 billion yen ($1.1 billion), in its first step to stabilize the company's changing financial situation. The family of Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's late (and great) CEO, sold back a portion of its shares during this buyback, according to the acquisition document. We got wind of the Yamauchi family's involvement yesterday. Nintendo's year-on net profit fell by 30 percent in the final nine months of 2013, pulled down mainly by poor Wii U sales, the company reported. Net profit during this time was 10.2 billion yen ($99 million). Nintendo expects to post a net loss of 25 billion yen ($242 million) for its fiscal year ending in March. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and his board members are taking temporary pay cuts, French news outlet AFP reported. Iwata will take half of his salary for five months, and board members will see cuts of 20 percent to 30 percent. Iwata took a similar pay cut in 2011, that time to offset poor 3DS sales. [Image: Nintendo]
Report: Yamauchi family to sell shares in Nintendo buyback
Nintendo will put into effect a 114.2 billion-yen ($1.1 billion) share buyback program tomorrow – the first instituted response to lackluster Wii U sales lowering the company's bottom line. Nintendo will seek to reacquire as many as 9.5 million shares (7.4 percent) of its outstanding stock at 12,025 yen ($119) each and, according to a report on Bloomberg, the Yamauchi family will be among those selling. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who served as president and CEO from 1949 until 2002, is credited with Nintendo's transition from playing card company into video game powerhouse. Yamauchi left his near 10 percent stake in Nintendo to his four children when he passed away last September. Nintendo has not said if Yamauchi's heirs plan to sell all of their stock or just a fraction. Whatever the intentions of this buyback initiative, it's clear that Nintendo has been thinking a lot about its future. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata outlined plans last week that included bringing DS games to Wii U and researching non-wearable health tech as means to turn back on the cash printer. [Image: Nintendo]
Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi passes at 85
Former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, credited for turning Nintendo from a playing card company into... well, Nintendo, has died at the age of 85. Yamauchi was president of the company from 1949 until 2002, holding an executive advisory role until his passing. Yamauchi was responsible for turning Nintendo into the video game company it is today with the launch of the Famicom (NES) in 1983, overseeing every console until the GameCube and putting legit gaming devices in portable form with the Game Boy. Yamauchi made headlines during the height of the Wii for being Japan's richest man, with an estimated net worth of $7.8 billion. Although that's declined considerably in recent years, he remained the company's largest shareholder.
Yoshida: Gran Turismo 6 would be 'hard to move' to Vita
Revving up Gran Turismo 6's engines on the Vita would be "really hard" on a technical level, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida told IGN last week. "As you can tell looking at GT6, it really is using PS3 to a very high level," Yoshida said. "In terms of Vita support, I don't expect the whole game to be able to run on PS Vita." Yoshida's statement follows Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi's comments concerning the possibility of GT6 evolving into Gran Turismo 7 for the PS4 during its development cycle. GT6 will be tuned to race on December 6 for the PS3. In the meantime, fans can race to GameStop or Amazon for pre-order bonuses in the form of exclusive cars and in-game credits.
Top 5: Say What?
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Top_5_Nintendo_Corporation_Quotes'; Ahh, the quote. Whether used to end an essay or defame a political opponent, the quote is a very versatile tool. Particularly in the era of blogging, every word that escapes a well-known figure's mouth has the potential to be immediately flung back at them. It's quite scary to look back on conversations I've had and consider the possibility of quotes of mine being used to define my character as a whole. In fact, judgement of character based on a quote can even usurp the validity of the quote itself. Conventional wisdom asserts that singer Lauryn Hill once made a statement to the effect of "I'd rather have my children starve than have a white person buy my album." While this is simply not true, the false statement has been cited by those who would define Hill as a racist. Even Eminem supported the fallacy in a song whose title I won't mention. Being over a century old, Nintendo is bound to have a few interesting quotes attributed to them. Coupled with a philosophy that is undoubtedly unique and perhaps offbeat, the Big N is not lacking in the department of ear-catching statements. Two weeks ago, I made a Top 5 in which I tried to downplay any tension between Nintendo and its fans. This week, I'm providing cheap ammunition. Enjoy. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Hiroshi Yamauchi rolling in gold coins
After coming third last year, former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi is now the richest man in Japan, according to Forbes. Current estimates place Yamauchi's net worth at $7.8 billion, a figure that would see the 80-year-old place 40th in the equivalent U.S. list, and 149th in the world. You would think he'd have bought some new glasses by now.It's pretty obvious that Nintendo's recent success with the Wii and DS have inflated Yamauchi's fortune massively; though he left the company in May 2002, Yamauchi retained stock in Nintendo, which was founded by his great-grandfather in 1889. "... Yamauchi's net worth soared $3 billion in the past year and has tripled since 2006, thanks mostly to booming sales of the Wii gaming device," notes Forbes."It's truly incredible," added Chris Greenhough, seventh richest blogger on the Wii Fanboy team.
Hiroshi Yamauchi is the richest man in Japan
Forbes has released their list of the 40 richest people in Japan, and a familiar name is at the top: Nintendo's former president (and current guy who receives a lot of money), Hiroshi Yamauchi. Yamauchi still owns a bunch of stock in Nintendo (the company founded by his great grandfather), and also probably retains the right to Satoru Iwata's lunch money whenever he sees Iwata in the hallway. You don't even need to make any sly references to the rumors of Yakuza connections to explain Yamauchi's remarkable $7.8 billion worth. The sales of the Wii and (especially) the DS more than adequately explain how Yamauchi could have become so wealthy. This seems like a pretty good indicator of Nintendo's success.
Nintendo's Yamauchi now Japan's richest human
Sure, we all love the above image, but have you ever stopped to wonder where all those Benjamins are going? Apparently, it's into the waiting mouth of former Nintendo chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi who, according to Forbes, has devoured enough bills to be worth $7.8 billion, making him Japan's richest man. That's not even the best part though. Yamauchi's worth has jumped $3 billion in the past year, irrefutable proof that there's at least one person on planet Earth who loves Nintendo more than Fernando Rocker.
GT5 could maybe possibly come to Chinese PCs, perhaps
Oh, that Kazunori Yamauchi. He loves to tease us. In an interview with Germany's derStandard (partially translated by develop), the man behind the Gran Turismo series says it would be "very, very improbable that GT will come out on another console." No surprise there, but then that little scamp of a developer entices us with a line about the series "perhaps [coming] to the PC. Particularly [for] the Chinese market."Of course, a PC version would be the only sane choice for the Chinese market, where the PS3 is not officially released and the PC dominates the gaming scene -- and Yamauchi didn't even confirm that such a Chinese PC version exists. But we can just imagine how this quote will morph and mutate in the hands of fanboys, until, sometime soon, someone will ardently argue that Yamauchi actually confirmed an Wii version of GT5 would be out any day now. Mark our words ...[via PS3Fanboy]
Kid-focused Gran Turismo for Boys could become GT5 feature
It's been over three years since we first sighed 'awwwe' to Polyphony Digital's plans to develop a kindly, gentler racing simulation with the kid-friendly Gran Turismo for Boys. Now series mastermind Kazunori Yamauchi has come forward about the project, and in a recent CVG interview commented that Gran Turismo for Boys is still coming, though perhaps as an included feature in Gran Turismo 5 rather than a standalone game. Gran Turismo for Boys was first revealed in November 2004 by Yamauchi as a way to hook preteens on cars, sort of like candy cigarettes, but since then there's been little said about the effort beyond the occasional footnote to let the world know that the project hadn't been run over. Tykes shouldn't get too excited yet, however, as Yamauchi admits that his team is currently spinning wheels working on GT5, and have little time to spend on side projects. Still, with the game's release about a year off maybe he'll find time to include the child dedicated feature -- and keep us from throwing a tantrum.
Ex-Nintendo chairman now Japan's third wealthiest
Hiroshi Yamauchi, former chairman of Nintendo's board of directors and the company's president prior to Satoru Iwata, is now the third wealthiest person in Japan, according to Forbes. Yamauchi reportedly has a net worth of $4.8 billion.On Forbes' list of the 40 richest Japanese, Yamauchi is noted for jumping up 11 spots, making him the list's biggest gainer. The reason cited for Yamauchi's increased worth is his shares in Nintendo; the company's stock has reportedly tripled in value since January 2006, thanks to the success of Nintendo DS and Wii.We know, you're expecting us to throw up a picture of Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto holding a DS that prints money. But we've got self control ... we'll just link to an article that already has the image instead.
Yamauchi owns the castle the princess is in
Hiroshi Yamauchi, the previous chairman of Nintendo, has enough gold coins for a few hundred extra lives, easy. According to Forbes Asia, he is now the third richest man in Japan, after coming in at number eleven last year. His net worth is now $4.8 billion dollars. In first and second place are real estate developer Akira Mori and SoftBank Corp.'s Masayoshi Son. The huge jump in net worth is thanks to his Nintendo stock, which has tripled in the last year. It's almost as if his company did something very successful, right around the beginning of the last fiscal year. But what? Oh, if only we had some kind of handheld device we could carry around and do little brain exercises on, we'd be able to make these connections more easily. But it would have to be a nice looking gadget, and light; we're not going to carry around some bulky silver thing.[Via Game|Life]
Gran Turismo creator on Motor Trend's Power List
Motor Trend's 2007 Power List has been released and a surprised face has emerged on it -- the creator of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi. The list chronicles those who make a significant impact on the automotive world. While many of us agree that Gran Turismo is an excellent title that did wonders in the realm of racing simulation, to hit the Power List is an incredible feat. Yamauchi secured a spot at #29, ahead of faces like the CEOs of Honda and Ferrari. The gaming world applauds you, Mr. Yamauchi, you've moved video games another step toward being a fully legitimized source of entertainment.
