Nintendo News: President Iwata Discusses Layoffs, Wii Vitality Sensor With Stockholders

Despite any suggestion Nintendo would fire staff to cut its losses, President Satoru Iwata recently denied the possibility of layoffs, and also explained what's been holding up one of the company's missing in action accessories, the Wii Vitality Sensor.

First off, regarding the very serious layoff issues, Iwata made it clear at a stockholders meeting that he does not believe that getting rid of staff will help the company. In fact, Iwata believes that getting rid of employees would damage the company far worse than any dip in profits.

"If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, however, employee morale will decrease, and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world," said Iwata.

Iwata also spoke at length about the long-lost Wii Vitality Sensor, a device announced at the 2009 E3 Expo that would monitor a user's heartbeat. Iwata explained that it is always difficult to pick the best time to announce new products, and unforeseen delays in perfecting the technology have caused the device's lengthy delay.

"The Wii Vitality Sensor is an interesting device, and we did various experiments to see what is possible when it was combined with a video game ..." said Iwata.

"But, as a result, we have not been able to launch it as a commercial product because we could not get it to work as we expected and it was of narrower application than we had originally thought. We would like to launch it into the market if technology advancements enable 999 of 1,000 people to use it without any problems, not only 90 out of 100 people. I actually think that it must be 1,000 of 1,000 people, but (since we use the living body signal with individual differences) it is a little bit of a stretch to make it applicable to every single person."

Nintendo's president delivered some witty remarks in the shareholder address, and demonstrated a firm knowledge of the industry by prioritizing creativity and perfection over profits in assuring the company's long-term future during this rocky period.