What not to say during a Nintendo Shareholder Meeting…

Nintendo held its annual shareholders meeting yesterday, and a query from one such attendee is sure to bemuse many.

“I’m concerned about the falling stock price. I own stock, but I don’t own a single Nintendo product,” the investor began. “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.”

Priceless.

Nintendo’s global president, Satoru Iwata, was still able to come up with a constructive response: “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.”

However, this wasn’t enough for this particular shareholder who went on to query “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?”

Iwata explained that whilst Wii Fit was seen as a benefit in promoting exercise, many had lost loved ones in the tragedy and would want to spend their time quietly. Nintendo therefore felt it wouldn’t be a good idea to send out their products.

The company did actually ask the governing bodies of affected areas and sent needed items, and did the same for evacuation shelters. However, they didn’t want to use such actions to gain publicity with the media.

[Thanks, Andriasang]