Harrison: Iwata is wrong

Former Sony Studios boss and general partner at London Venture Partners Phil Harrison has dismissed Saturo Iwata’s recent criticism of the App Store revolution at GDC.

"Iwata-san has done an incredible job rebuilding Nintendo over the last few years," Harrison told Industry Gamers. "He is a great leader of that company, but in this particular case he is wrong.

"He is mistaken if he thinks this is some kind of fad that will go away. Social networks, as a way of powering our game and entertainment choices, is here to stay.

"I thought it was fascinating that pretty much simultaneously with Iwata-san talking about Nintendo, in a hall across the street Steve Jobs is talking about the iPad 2, which got massive pickup and global coverage.

"Some people are talking about 50m to 80m ‘smartpads’ being sold a year for the foreseeable future. It’s going to create an enormous market, dwarfing every other market."