Nintendo made the real news this week, with news that they’ve made their first ever annual loss. Ever the helpful sort, I thought I’d employ Street Viewtiful – out vaguely regular jaunt around the gaming globe via Google Street View – to look around their properties to see where they might be able to save money.
Closest to home, Nintendo UK is holed up in part of a building in Windsor. On the negative side, Windsor is not a cheap place. But on the positive side, at least the building’s not Windsor Castle. And Windsor’s proximity to Heathrow means cheaper taxis journeys when Reggie comes to visit. That makes good business sense.
Gently moving further afield, Google Street View hasn’t bothered to visit Grossostheim in Germany, where you’ll find Nintendo of Europe. So it must be remote, and therefore cheap. Again, good business sense.
What of Nintendo’s global headquarters in Kyoto? Bleak functionality is the order of the day from the look of the outside of the building. More good business sense, there.
Which leads us to Nintendo of America.
Oh dear. Flowers are not good business sense. That’s an immediate cost saving right there. Hedges? Trees? Those can go too. Lighting and road signs in the car park? Gone. In fact, scrap the whole car park; everyone can walk to work.
There we go then: an instant solution to Nintendo’s deteriorating financial results, which it turns out were all down to Nintendo’s opulent American base.
Nintendo – you’re welcome.