With the company's president Satoru Iwata on sick leave, Nintendo top executives struggled to calm down their investors during the annual general meeting of shareholders this month.
It is no secret that Nintendo has been in the red for several months now. The company reported losses in its last financial statement and there is no indication that the situation is getting any better.
During the shareholders meeting, one investor attacked the company's management for not giving away free games to stockholders and another one suggested that the 3DS should be altered such that it can be "manually extended to become twice the size both horizontally and vertically."
Absurd suggestions aside, the investors kept attacking Nintendo's management over one simple point: they failed to make profit.
"I do not understand video games and I even feel angry because, at Nintendo’s shareholders’ meetings, the shareholders always discuss things relating to video games or such childish topics as 'what the future of video games should be,'," one investor said aggressively. "While I, for one, was flabbergasted that Mr. Iwata continues to hold his position although he had said that he would resign if the company’s performance were bad."
At one point, Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto had nothing to say but: "Just for your information, I too have been feeling a great deal of anxiety. Mr. Iwata is a president whom I can rely on very much, and I would like to continue this journey with him."
With help from senior managing director Genyo Takeda, Miyamoto was able to steer the meeting into a more constructive dialog. It was then that he admitted that the company is still having hard time conveying the benefits of the Wii U gamepad to gamers.
"We want to pass on to our younger developers the DNA of offering unexpected and fun entertainment to consumers by doing things in different ways from others, so the company can continuously produce unprecedented entertainment," he asserted.