Nintendo to Enter New Business Area Focusing on Health

One of the big new announcements in Nintendo's latest shareholder meeting was company president Satoru Iwata outlining plans for Nintendo to expand its business into a completely new area, focusing on the theme of "health."

After first speaking about Nintendo's goal over the past decade being that of expanding the gaming population by appealing to all people, regardless of age, gender or gaming experience, Iwata says that, going forward, he plans to "redefine the meaning of entertainment," and thinks that now is the time to "extend the definition" of it.

Nintendo has decided to redefine the meaning of entertainment as "something that improves people's quality of life (QOL) in enjoyable ways," which will be the first step forward in expanding the business, and seen as the goal for Nintendo over the coming 10 years. While this includes dedicated video game platforms, Iwata says that the first step into this new business area is the theme of "health."

Mentioning that there are a number of possibilities to seek in order to improve QOL, including "lifestyle" and "learning," "health" is the first stage for Nintendo. Instead of following others into the same markets, though, Iwata pointed out that Nintendo has always strived to be individual, and wants to establish "a new blue ocean."

Speaking further, Iwata says, "We wish to achieve an integrated hardware-software platform business that, instead of providing mobile or wearable features, will be characterized by a new area of what we like to call "non-wearable" technology."

Acknowledging that so many people in the world are conscious of their health, as an entertainment company, Nintendo aims to keep people engaged, focused and entertained, assisted through the use of the non-wearable feature, and integrating experiences daily into people's lives. Nintendo would then continually provide feedback to its users, with the goal of increasing the fit population.

If successful with this ambition, Nintendo would later try to expand this new QOL business and the new themes that are created into video games on its future platforms. In turn, Nintendo hopes that it will increase its user base through its new QOL-improving platform.

Iwata says that he plans to reveal more details on the specifics of its new vision and shed the light on the non-wearable feature within 2014. The new business plan will launch during fiscal year beginning April 2015, which ends March 2016.