Hiroshi Yamauchi

Hiroshi Yamauchi 山内溥 (7 November 1927 - 19 September 2013) was the third president of Nintendo, famous for transforming Nintendo from a small hanafuda card making company in Japan to a multi-billion dollar video game company.

Due to inherent difficulties in translating Japanese to English, his quotations have been grossly misconstrued.

Quotes

 * I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories. Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies.
 * Prior to the announcement of the Nintendo Revolution "Top 10 Tuesday: Wildest Statements Made by Industry Veterans" ign.comquote-


 * [People who play RPGs are] "depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games."
 * "Top 10 Tuesday: Wildest Statements Made by Industry Veterans" ign.com


 * "If we can increase the scope of the industry, we can re-energise the global market and lift Japan out of depression - that is Nintendo's mission.". Regarding lukewarm GameCube sales which had yielded the company's first reported operating loss in over 100 years, Yamauchi continued: "The DS represents a critical moment for Nintendo's success over the next two years. If it succeeds, we rise to the heavens, if it fails, we sink into hell."


 * There are many people in the industry that know nothing about games. In particular, a large American company is trying to do engulf software houses with money, but I don't believe that will go well. It looks like they'll sell their game system next year, but we'll see the answer to that the following year.
 * In reference to Microsoft, prior to the release of the Xbox "Top 10 Tuesday: Wildest Statements Made by Industry Veterans" ign.com

Misattributed

 * Hey Ballmer, suck my yellow balls
 * This comment was reported as being a response to Microsoft's offer to buy Nintendo in "How Nintendo boss silenced Steve Ballmer" The Inquirer (7 January 2005), and other news sites, but it actually derives from a parody article "Pride" that was purportedly to be in the February 2005 issue of Wired magazine, and which first appeared on the web at a Spanish gaming site, Gamerah.com
 * "Microsoft's Ballmer beat off Asian genital challenge" ~ The Register (7 January 2005)
 * "Nintendo Responds to Fake Interview" ~ Advanced Media Network (8 January 2005)