Nintendo President: We Believe Diversity is Very Important - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 August 2021 / 3,330 Views
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa during Nintendo's 81st Annual General Meeting of Shareholders was asked about how some media outlets have reported Nintendo games don't fully take gender into account. Furukawa did say that diversity is important to Nintendo, including gender diversity.
"We believe that diversity, including gender diversity, is very important," said Furukawa.
"As a company providing entertainment, our goal is to put smiles on the faces of everyone connected to Nintendo, and we undertake our development with that goal in mind."
"Specifically regarding the features of each game, we must make decisions by taking into consideration a wide variety of factors, and we may not always be able to meet every request. However, we take this as valuable feedback."
Thanks, NintendoEverything.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Diversity is good, forced Diversity isnt
Spot on. Let it happen naturally and only if the story requires it.
Why does it have to be "required by the story" for someone to be gay, black or a woman? Why are why cis hetero men the standard? Try to think of the opposite, what if people were claiming that a character should only be a white cishet man "if the story requires it"? Makes no sense, right?
If the original idea had it, than apply it. Dont just apply it to satisfy people needs because than its forced. If you wrote a story and it had gay, black or woman leads in it, than it should be added in, not ignored. However if you wrote a story with neither in it, than clearly they shouldn't be in there. It all comes down to the vision of the story, not just so we can be fair and even, because than thats being forced in rather than it being a natural selection.
That's just code for "I don't actually like diversity, but I can't say that bluntly because it's not politically correct". "Forced diversity" makes literally no sense when you're talking about fictional characters and just serves as an expression for bigots to use when they don't want to see people from other ethnicities/genders/sexualities in their games but want to disguise it as something vaguely logical instead of what it actually is: bigotry.
I think the roster of Mario Kart or Smash Bros. is diverse enough. You can choose everything you need.
There are no Belgian characters in the video games apart from Tintin in the adaptations of his comics and Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter the movie the game the movie the game ...
I don't feel represented, I'm gonna cry lol
Hey! What about me, I'm Indian and I don't feel represented, I think I'll cry with you!
Random, but okay.
Of the big 3, Nintendo easily has the most games that appeal to female gamers. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the best selling games of all time, and it appeals to females at least as much to males. Iwata said that the player base of AC: New Leaf on the 3DS was 56% female. Ring Fit Adventure probably has similar demographics. Other games like Mario Kart and Mario Party are essentially what I would call gender neutral in that they appeal to both genders and there are plenty of female avatars to choose in these games. I would say that out of the big 3 Nintendo takes the possible female market of gamers the most seriously, and they are probably looking for other ways to bring more females to their system.
Nintendo take a lot of most demographics when you think about it. Woman, Elderly, Young etc. But yeah definitely more woman seem to play Nintendo games.
It's important in some ways and completely irrelevant in others.
It's spoken about as an instrumental good. As in, diversity leads to -blah- good thing. A group with more perspectives seems likely to create a more interesting game. Then again some of the worst sequels like Halo 5 were bad precisely because the original intended story was contorted and disfigured by too many hands getting involved, not least Xbox's marketing department. The actual quality of diverse viewpoints/opinions is clearly more important than gender or race quotas. Focusing on the latter, or lazily assuming that bringing in more women or non-white employees will ipso facto lead to creativity or useful introspection, has ruined far more games than it has helped. When people forget that it's an instrumental good, and so pursue diversity a priority for its own sake, other more important priorities fall down the list. In my view western studios should be looking towards other studios - eastern Europe and east Asia, if they really want to disrupt their old habits. Focusing on race or gender is and always will be a trite shorthand for actual diversity.
Of course, diversity is also not the same thing as representation, which is its own can of worms. I've always thought the word itself doesn't match its usage. When we say that, for instance, Cmdr Palmer increases women's representation in video games, or Kelly or Linda, or Miranda Keyes, it seems we really mean something like "depiction" rather than "representation". Asking who do these characters represent is a strange question. That they represent anyone except themselves is bizarre. The whole language around increasing "representation" makes you think of some political or electoral process, whereby each character represents part of the audience, rather than about storytelling or screenwriting. So people really mean "depiction". They mean, who and how many characters depicted here look, sound, or think like me? It's not a socially moot point. People need role models, and let's not underestimate how feeling as if you could be in world can increase your immersion in it. Like with female soldiers in BFV, they traded off realism for another, more potent source of immersion, which is the idea for female players that it could be them. But at any rate if we stopped using the word "representation" which carries with it this implicit moral claim that all and every type of person ought to be depicted on screen for the sake of some sort of justice, and instead chose characters to fit the story and increase immersion for the players, I really don't think a debate over it would last long at all.
Long comment sorry
I could not care less if a video game company is diverse or not. I want their games to be fun, that is all.
lol "we take this as valuable feedback... but please, don't ever bring it up again."
just confirm Birdo as trans already :p
"Diverse" with their Nintendo switch units hahaha.
True. Diversity is good.
So what about hiring more women for japanese studios?
They're probably not interested in making games. Gaming has been a traditionally male dominated hobby after all. How many people play games but aren't interested in making them?
It's 2021, there are numerous studies proving the current percentage of female gamers are closer to 45% now. Moving forward, look at this: https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-has-over-6500-employees-breakdown-by-region-and-gender-split/
I mean, it's not necessary to be a 50-50 split, but in Europe the number is 38%, in Australia it's 48%, even in America is 36%. In Asia it's not even 20%, and this not include only developers but other functions as well. It's a very high gender imbalance and Nintendo it's not the only japonese company purposefully avoid hiring women, according to global gender gap 2021 study Japan is the 117th country in "Economic Participation and Opportunity": http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf
Indeed, they are ranking behind every East Asia and the Pacific country, except two: New Guinea e Vanuatu. Doesn't look much a market-segment thing (gaming) rather a cultural and social thing.
Not providing work is one of the most cruel forms of social exclusion, and will lead to women having smaller average wages and being more dependent of their parents and husbands.
It's nice to say "we believe in diversity", but if their numbers shows such an astonishing gender gap it's hard to believe they really live by what they preach. I work in tech, so I'm an activist for more women in every tech workplace, being Nintendo or any company
Any data on the % split of job applicants?
Unfortunately I don't
It may be difficult for Nintendo to hire more women when not very many apply for jobs at Nintendo.
They're doing better. Animal Crossing's Creative Director is https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Aya_Kyogoku
In France, 48% of gamers are female. But the genres of video games they play are completely different than those male play. Their favorite style of games are : 1.Match 3 (Games like Candy Crush on smartphone) 69% of players are female; 2.Family/Farm Sim (Games like The Sims, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon) 69% of players are female; 3. Casual Puzzle (I think that category describe games on Smartphone) 42% of players are female.
Sources : (they are in french) https://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/1131943/age-sexe-habitudes-quel-est-le-profil-du-joueur-francais-selon-le-sell.htm
https://www.jeuxactu.com/tendance-les-genres-les-plus-apprecies-des-joueuses-107692.htm
Those numbers teach us something about why less women describe themselves as gamers. It's because they play mostly casualy on their cellphones during their travels in public transports.
Quote : "Not providing work is one of the most cruel forms of social exclusion, and will lead to women having smaller average wages and being more dependent of their parents and husbands."
In Honduras, they are very progressist, even kids work. It's a shame that in our western countries, we are excluding children and make them completely dependent of their parents. lol
If I had the choice, I'd rather quit my job to take care of my family than working 12 hours a day for a boss who don't care about me at all. Working is paid slavery, that's all. It doesn't "include you" or "freed you", it just provides you money to survive.
You are an activist for more women in tech ? They tried that in north european countries. It had the opposite effect of that expected. The more women are pushed to go to technical matters, the more they choose jobs with human interactions.
According to a study, the countries where the inequalities are the most marked between women and men are also those where the most numerous female students have graduated in science fields.
Source : (it's in french) https://etudiant.lefigaro.fr/article/plus-un-pays-est-developpe-moins-les-femmes-font-d-etudes-scientifiques_aa7759ae-16ee-11e8-b38a-0929f7da0ad0/
In Europe, in some video game studios it is difficult to find even one woman. For example at Playtonic, there is only one woman out of 27 employees.
Source : https://www.playtonicgames.com/team/
Nintendo is talking about this only because it is fashionable. Developers know that in video games these days the type of character that sells is the "badass woman" (a dev. said that some years ago but I don't remember his name). Most of my games on Nintendo Switch feature a female character as the main character. And I didn't even do it on purpose.
I'm shaking my head in disbelief you are comparing women in workforce with children in workforce
If you want to be housekeeper I'm all for it, just find a partner who don't mind working while you take care of your children. What is problem however is women having less access to job and getting a smaller average in active labor. Japan have a higher rate of unemployment for women compared to men, smaller salaries on average and women just has less well paid jobs than men
The same northern european countries all ranked much
higher than Japan when it comes to women in workforce and wages equity. If Japanese women were getting the same opportunities and high paid jobs then maybe your argument of women purposely avoiding tech companies would make any sense, but they aren't, at least not in the same rate as males
In continent where gender equality is high, economic labor is more even distributed and wages are the same, Nintendo have 38% of their employees being female
In Asia, specifically Japan, where gender inequality in workforce is among one the biggest of the world they have a bit over 19%
If you don't think there is a correlation here then I don't know whatever else I need to say
You hire who suits the job, never by the Gender. They should always be hiring on whoever is more qualified for the job. Otherwise you are just forcing the narrative. If woman want to work for Nintendo than they should go and get themselves qualified for an interview, much like what the men have to do.
Ok, are Japanese women so much more unqualified compared to western women to suffer such higher unemployment rates? I mean, I'm aware there are more male college enrolled for sciences in Japan (28% female, 72% male in 2018 survey). Buy keep in mind not only software engineers working on Nintendo, the 19% is the whole body of workforce and even 19% is still a lot lower than the female enrollment in tech fields. On this subject, european and American split seems more in line with universities student body
Women in Japan are also less likely to marry and have children, their marriage and birthrate are decreasing even faster than in west, so any argument of not hiring women because they are mostly housekeepers makes no sense either
I understand there is a ratio, however the only way to solve that is by getting yourself qualified. If 80% of Japanese men go to uni and study programming and only 20% of woman do the same, than the results speak for themselves. That's how businesses operate, its unfortunate however that's the reality of the situation. Its like house builders, most are men because most men apply for the roll and get themselves fit for the job. Woman can do it to, but how many woman want to do it? Some do it sure but the ratio is clearly male dominate. Hiring woman just because they are woman is not the correct way.
Hypercritically: If you own your own business and can choose 6 people to work for your company, and you can choose from 10 people, 5 men, 5 woman. 5 males will bring in more profits while the 5 woman will bring in less profits. Would you hire the 5 males and 1 female or would you go 3 males and 3 females just to level out the genders? Majority of the time the business will go with who will benefit the company more.
I wanted to work in a bar in my mid 20s, i was refused because i was a male and they wanted to hire young females. Barmaids attract more customers so logically it makes sense. Not saying there isn't any Male bartenders, there is plenty but it just comes down to what they needed at the time.
How many JP women cares about making games compared to men?
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