The President has said a lot of things through the years:
"Concerning the essence of human's play, Roger Caillois, the french philosopher, says that four factors are required: competition, chance, imitation and giddiness.
The video game meets these needs precisely.
The Space Invader game performed its part with great success as the first in a series of video games.
The theory of play is supported by the fact tha the video game maintains a wide range of popularity even after the Space Invader game has been phased out.
With hardware cost-reduced and up-graded by advances in semi-conductor electronics, new software making use of this new hardware and the growth of television system, the image experience of the micro-computer system is advancing rapidly and apparently without limit.
We firmly believe that a new, startling world of amusement will appear in the late-eighties.
We at Nintendo continue answering the [challenge] of creating innovations in the electronics amusement industry."
Hiroshi Yamauchi, in a Nintendo brochure from 1979
"We do not believe in the idea of companies getting together to establish a new entertainment business.
We need only one healthy, strong company as a leader."
Hiroshi Yamauchi around 1995
"Yes. Nintendo's business is to make games that can only be played on Nintendo systems. Nintendo's games only run on Nintendo's consoles, and no one else's. Our aim is to get people to think Nintendo's games are the greatest, the best in the world.
We're devoting all of our effort to that right now, and we'll be able to show our efforts to the world this year. We'll see how it turns out after the Christmas season, or about ten or eleven months from now."
Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 2001
"The thing with this industry is, no one actually needs what it produces. If what we were making was absolutely essential in order to live, then the consumer wouldn't complain about price or supply, because he'd be in big trouble if he ran out. On the other hand, we produce entertainment -- and there's a million other kinds of entertainment out there. If the game industry went away, it's not like people would keel over and die on the street. If it came to pass that people started saying "These games are all stupid, I gotta stop playing them all the time", then what do you think would happen? You don't need games to live, after all, so the market could fall right out. It could even shrink to a tenth of what it was."
Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 2001
"If we are unsuccessful with the Nintendo DS, we may not go bankrupt, but we will be crushed. The next two years will be a really crucial time for Nintendo."
Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2004