Oddworld Creator Lorne Lanning “Has No Faith” In Switch, Says Nintendo’s Thinking “Killed Iwata”
Lorne Lanning doesn’t seem to be very fond of Nintendo’s current situation or the Nintendo Switch. In a recent interview about the company’s latest console, the president and co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants made it clear that he “has no faith” in it. He also criticized Nintendo’s thinking, attributing it to a possible cause of former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata‘s death. You can read some of Lanning’s controversial comments below:
I don’t have faith. I have no faith. It’s due to experience. I see a similar level of success than they had with previous generations. Wii U, Wii. By the end of the life of the Wii, who else was making money aside from Nintendo? How many titles sold for the Wii that weren’t Nintendo first-party? They started basically evaporating third party support. We get to Wii U – same, no third party support.
You would think, OK, the Switch, it’s mobile, this is interesting, how well are other developers going to bring titles over – not very well because you’re going to have to spend more time, energy and effort to get it on that console – an underpowered console that’s going to have fewer units in the market.
The thinking has to change. The biggest problem I see at Nintendo is the thinking. Personally, I think it killed Iwata; that he couldn’t move the organisation into a really successful arena. It’s a tragedy because Nintendo brought this business back… we’re all playing today because of Nintendo’s valiantness – then they controlled quality, they had controls which were really part of its longevity and made the game business a valid space again. Now those controls… they really need to get 21st century about it and they’re not.
