There’s a rumour that Iwata could be in trouble…

Iwata has never kept his admiration and desire for Nintendo games to be on Nintendo consoles a secret , claiming that it would provide a “short term profit” had Nintendo began developing for other platforms.

That’s perhaps why this rumour seems valid, but it’s definitely not something you’re just to assume as the truth. Lately since the discussion of the poor sales for the Wii U and the decline in the 3DS, users on Neogaf were debating their thoughts about the situation – then someone happened to link a Japenese Business Journal which if correct, seems to decipher dreadful news for the current CEO of Nintendo of America.

Among management, there’s a shared recognition that “Iwata is the culprit”. That is, in the company, there is a strong desire to make popular games such as “Super Mario” etc. for smartphones, but Iwata is vetoing this very strongly. Iwata, continually repeating that “Nintendo’s strength is in unified development of game hardware and software”, stubbornly rejects the “net”, and fixates over “game consoles”, possibly because of his pride as a former developer. With the death last fall of the long-reigning company founder Hiroshi Yamauchi, there is nobody left who can defy Iwata. There are frequent rumors that part of the management is scheming to get rid of Iwata.

– SOURCE: NeoGAF.

The NeoGAF user who translated the Japenese Business Journal did put a disclaimer that his Japense could be slightly inaccurate, but the general gist of the Journal still remains that there could be a rising conflict with Iwata and the rest of Nintendo.

Then there’s additional information in the article which wasn’t as well translated by the user. Accordingly, the “native” Nintendo executive are looked down upon by Iwata as he ignores their opinions and prioritises his own instead. Even after he’s been assigned as his President role, he’s still continuing to help out in software development; something which should be seen as a useful thing however it’s only understandable that this could cause disputes by disorganising the hierarchy built in the Nintendo studios.

Oh dear, I for one am hoping that these are all just rumours and nothing more, but I couldn’t help but report on the situation as this is a watershed moment if this rumour does have some truth in it.

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