A Nintendo shareholder recently declared videogames a waste of time and reprimanded president Satoru Iwata for not giving Wii Fit to Tohoku earthquake victims.
“I’m concerned about the falling stock price. I own stock, but I don’t own a single Nintendo product,” said the shareholder. “I believe games are a waste of time. By the way, the reason I own Nintendo stock is because the name is nice, it’s in Kyoto and it was listed in the year of my birth.”
Iwata responded politely: “There are people in this world who don’t feel that games are a waste of time, so Nintendo continues to exist. We’d like to eliminate the thinking that playing games by yourself is negative, or when there’s a crime you immediately tie it into games. We’d like to raise the social importance of games. We’re working to expand the gaming population, yourself included.”
The shareholder then retorted with the greatest non sequitur I’ve read today: “During the Tohoku earthquake disaster, I believe people in the evacuation centers were lacking in exercise. Why didn’t you bring Wii Fit to them? Why didn’t you show off to the media that you’re doing more for the victims?”
Absolutely fantastic.
Things not to ask at a Nintendo shareholder meeting [andriasang]
