Nintendo Boss Makes List of Top 30 CEO's (Despite Manhunt 2)

Nintendo Boss Makes List of Top 30 CEO's (Despite Manhunt 2)

March 27, 2007
Barron’s has released their third annual list of the world’s best CEOs, corporate leaders who are the darlings of the financial community.

Among nine new faces on the list is that of Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata (left). Said the financial publication:
While rivals Microsoft and Sony engaged in a hardware war to develop more powerful videogame platforms, Nintendo came up with an elegant and popular alternative in Wii - and Nintendo shares have nearly doubled in the past year.

Iwata isn’t the video game industry’s only chief executive to be noticed by a financial publication in recent times. GamePolitics readers will recall that, in the wake of the Hot Coffee scandal, MarketWatch named Take-Two Interactive's Paul Eibeler as the Worst CEO of the Year for 2005.

Speaking of Eibeler, let’s play six degrees of separation: 2005’s worst CEO to one of this year’s best.

  1. Paul Eibeler is the CEO of Take-Two.

  2. Take-Two owns developer Rockstar.

  3. Rockstar is the developer of the controversial Manhunt games.

  4. Manhunt 2 is scheduled to appear on the Wii this summer.

  5. The Wii is Nintendo’s new console.

  6. Nintendo’s CEO is Satoru Iwata.


Interestingly, word has it that Nintendo is working hard on a deal to bring another controversial Take-Two cash cow, the GTA franchise, over to the Wii as well.

-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent Andrew Eisen

Comments

Link89 says, "And personally I would be a bit freaked out if I was expected to swing a bat with the wiimote….Hopefully that won’t be the case."

I guess you won't be a fan of MLB 2008 will you?

I agree that the 'murder simulator' thing may get a bit more ground with ManHunt on the Wii, as it will more than likely have the player moving the Wiimote in the same way you would use the weopon i nthe game. It could be fun if done right, but I probably still won't play it. I have never liked R* games.
Rigor Mortis:

Strangely Andrew himself has made no suggestion it was humour or sarcasm. Maybe it is just you finding something in it that wasn't intended. Wow indeed.

I forget that on the internet you're not allowed to express a negative towards something without a bunch of moronic posters making "STFUAJPG" style comments, sometimes literally. Critism is obviously a right that is reserved for the trolls.
"Interestingly, word has it that Nintendo is working hard on a deal to bring another controversial Take-Two cash cow, the GTA franchise, over to the Wii as well."


oh no, not that I am against it being on the wii, or that I have any censorship issues. I'm just a bit scared that, with the wiimote, that whole "murder simulator" arguement just found a lot more ground.
And personally I would be a bit freaked out if I was expected to swing a bat with the wiimote....Hopefully that won't be the case.
About Take-Two's CEO, he was named worst CEO by one person who happens to work at Marketwatch. That person is Herb Greenberg, a long time hater of Take-Two and supporter of a hedge fund who short the Take-Two stock. Eibeler hasn't done anything to deserve that reputation and now people are parroting the Grennberg description as if it has any merit. So, I agree that is is a shoddy piece of reporting at best...

Congrats to Iwata though!!!
I thought I'd seen people miss obvious humor/sarcasm before.

Wow.
McDaddy:

No, that's fair. I guess my view on good journalism is reporting of facts in a representative, fair and as unbiased way as possible, unless clearly giving one's own opinion in which case there is some obvious leeway.

Tabloid journalism I think is catering to sensationalism, reporting rumour and making logical fallacy in order to generate interest. Think The Guardian compared to The Sun and you will probably have my way of thinking.

The internet has certainly stirred up things, enough so that Time Magazine's Person of the Year was "You", purely to point out that most of the news was reported on, or reported by the general public on the internet. I don't consider blogging to be journalism though. This is the equivelent of the "Reader's Letters" sections of Newspapers. Opinion is a good thing, but it should never be confused with good old factual reporting skills.

I hope that answers your question.
Brokenscope:

It looks like your sense of humour has no place for u in it either ;P


Andrew:

I just don't think it is perspective at all. So they share the same field - so what? If Scottish Gas did well one year and their CEO was given plaudits, would it be fair to mention Enron and pin it against him?

I, even after having read what you have said, clear version and not, think that your story is unfair. As others have tried to insinuate it was humour and not a comparison, I have to say I don't see that either. I didn't expect a bunch of other people to start getting involved but hey, its a public forum I guess.


and as such... Zach Knight:

You need to look up the the definition of putting words in peoples mouths. I have done no such thing, I merely gave a cogent paradigm for his news story. I certainly have not got my foot in my mouth and that would imply I regret saying anything, which I do not. I made my point and Andrew has replied. If you're just trying to stir up shit, I suggest going to Destructoid.
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Lol hey Gta on the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii that will be pretty cool and if it does come out it will give me one more reason to buy the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
@Chuma

I think you are being harsh as well. I think Andrew was merely trying to add a little humor to an otherwise dull positive story. I don't think that he was trying to directly tie Nintendo with GTA and all of its controversy. He was pointing out how quickly you can associate the world's worst CEO with one of the world's best.

So don't go and try to put words into his mouth and take your foot out of yours.
Andrew answered before I could. Oh well.
Humor---------------------->
chumas head------->O
Chuma:

Just out of curiosity, what's your definition of "journalism?"

And do you think that the Internet - with its myriad blogs and fanzines and whatnot, where anyone with a keyboard and access can write for public consumption - has skewed the standard definition of journalism?

Not looking for a fight here. Just some clarity.

Thanks.
(Let me make that a bit more readable.)

Chuma,

Silly as it may seem, Eibeler has received a lot of flak simply for being the CEO of the company that owns the developer that makes controversial games like GTA and Manhunt. Like it or not, a lot of people think “these games are violent crap that are poisoning our children’s minds so the head of the company must be an evil, money-grubbing sociopath.” Absurd yes but hey, how many pro-video game activists have you heard from lately?

Now, Eibeler was named worst CEO of 2005 mainly due to Take-Two’s financial issues and corporate direction and whatnot but GTA did factor into it. Like the original MarketWatch piece said, “In the end, the buck stops with the guy at the top and at Take-Two that would be Paul Eibeler.”

So, why did I bring up Eibeler in a piece about Iwata? Simply for perspective. While it’s great that one of the CEOs of your favorite industry is among the world’s best, I believe it’s pertinent to point out that it’s also host to someone considered to be the worst.

Not exactly pertinent perhaps but definitely interesting is the fact that these two CEOs on opposite ends of the competence spectrum share the same controversial games. Does that mean the games define the CEO? Will Barron’s or MarketWatch think ill of Iwata this time next year? Or do the games really have nothing to do with it and it’s all about how the company is run?

Food for thought.


Andrew Eisen
Chuma,

Silly as it may seem, Eibeler has received a lot of flak simply for being the CEO of the company that owns the developer that makes controversial games like GTA and Manhunt. Like it or not, a lot of people think “these games are violent crap that are poisoning our children’s minds so the head of the company must be an evil, money-grubbing sociopath.” Absurd yes but hey, how many pro-video game activists have you heard from lately?
Now, Eibeler was named worst CEO of 2005 mainly due to Take-Two’s financial issues and corporate direction and whatnot but GTA did factor into it. Like the original MarketWatch piece said, “In the end, the buck stops with the guy at the top and at Take-Two that would be Paul Eibeler.”
So, why did I bring up Eibeler in a piece about Iwata? Simply for perspective. While it’s great that one of the CEOs of your favorite industry is among the world’s best, I believe it’s pertinent to point out that it’s also host to someone considered to be the worst.
Not exactly pertinent perhaps but definitely interesting is the fact that these two CEOs on opposite ends of the competence spectrum share the same controversial games. Does that mean the games define the CEO? Will Barron’s or MarketWatch think ill of Iwata this time next year? Or do the games really have nothing to do with it and it’s all about how the company is run?
Food for thought.


Andrew Eisen
Chuma says
March 27th, 2007 at 11:04 am
That’s an extremely tenuous link there Andrew. Linking a controversial game to a CEO of a console manufacturer is a little like having a go at Ridley Scott over violence because he once cast Russell Crow in Gladiator.

Sorry, but this really is poor journalism.

I think you're being a little harsh on Andrew; this is far from the worst journalism out there, even if the choice of headline is a little misleading.

Your Ridley Scott comparison is quite poor as well; since Ridley Scott was involved in the making of Gladiator (unlike Iwata, who will have little to no input into Manhunt), it's not unforseeable that people could blame him for the violent content of the film.

A more accurate comparison would be blaming a manufacturer of DVD players for the violence in the film.
Actually aniki21 my comparison holds, though I could have been clearer. I meant real life violence i.e. Russell Crow getting into multiple acts of violence and appearing before court, not on-screen antics.

And I don't think I'm being harsh, I'm being honest. Journalism can be nasty for critism as usually you don't get told "thats a great story, well done" when you do well, just "is that really newsworthy?" when you don't. The fact that until now I haven't had a go at his writing probably means this is a duff story, but it certainly is tenuous and almost tabloid-esque; not what I have come to expect of Gamespolitics.

Andrew is a big boy though and I'm sure he is willing to respond to his critics, in this case me, when he reads what I said.
Barron’s is STUPID! Nintendo can't be making money, 'cuz teh Wii looks like crap!!

*the above comment was brought to you by "16 year old Internet kid" who has never bought anything with his own money*
GTA on the wii? It is...possible, it's a stretch I'm sure but possible. If it follows through a 3rd person view with the nunchaku and the crosshairs where the wii-mote is pointing, and then when driving, you just turn the wiimote on its side and drive with the 1 and 2 buttons.

...but anyways, congrats.
That's an extremely tenuous link there Andrew. Linking a controversial game to a CEO of a console manufacturer is a little like having a go at Ridley Scott over violence because he once cast Russell Crow in Gladiator.

Sorry, but this really is poor journalism.
Wow, he's really throwing the doors open. I hope this doesn't mean Laddy Jack's noise hole gets bigger
Hooray Itawa.

GTA on Wii? That'll be.... interesting.
Way to go Satoru Iwata. Glad to see a player from the video game industry on the list. Can't wait to see more industry personell in the business spotlight (in a good way that is.)

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