While we have at least a couple of years left of his rule (he periodically mentions retiring -- and first started several years ago), it's obvious that he's starting to get a bit crankier when it comes to the competition. He's blatantly mean to some folks, and brutally honest in his opinions. While we love to hear his honesty, we still cringe at some of the things he says.

Rather than just tell you what he said, we're going to accompany our coverage of his comments with our own take on what it might mean to Nintendo, other companies and you as a player.

Square
What Yamauchi Said: "We do not have a contract with Square, and do not plan to even consider a contract in the future... [Square] is free to say whatever they want, but we have no intention of signing a contract, and there's little chance of one being signed in the future."

What We Think: Yamauchi obviously still harbors some anger at Square for taking the Final Fantasy series to Sony. However, the fact that he's letting his personal feelings interfere with his business acumen reflects poorly on him. Square sells games, plain and simple. As a result of Square's popularity, its games sell systems. Players who might otherwise not bother to buy a Game Boy Advance would likely buy one in order to play a Final Fantasy game for the system, and Yamauchi is not only losing that market, he's estranging the rest of the Square fan base by using terms like "we do not even plan to consider a contract in the future." Most people will take this to mean that Square will never develop for a Nintendo system again, and that's not good business. It would have been far smarter for Yamauchi to say something along the lines of "we do not currently have a contract with Square." Period. Why bother saying that it won't happen?

As for whether or not Square will actually develop for a Nintendo system, well, it's plain that Yamauchi has no intention of letting it do so. And even though Electronic Arts and Square have a partnership for development and publishing in Japan and the US, any Square games developed for a Nintendo system will still require Square to enter a contract with Nintendo (even if EA publishes the game), and if what Yamauchi says is true, Square might have some problems. However, Yamauchi isn't stupid -- he did manage to turn Nintendo into a billion-dollar game empire, after all. If push came to shove, it's likely that he'd realize the potential of Square games on Nintendo systems, and relent. At least we can hope.

Microsoft
What Yamauchi Said: "Everyone agrees that Bill Gates is a great businessman, but he's human after all -- there are things that he does not know. Games are one of them. If you know nothing about sumo, you can't expect to become a Yokozuna. I believe that in a year's time, we'll start seeing the consequences of this."

What We Think: Meow! There's one thing Yamauchi has failed to consider with these words: Bill Gates might not know much about making games, but he can afford to hire people who do. Now, rather than embark on some defense of Xbox and listen to the flood of mail calling us "bias," we'll instead examine what Yamauchi means when he says, "I believe that in a year's time, we'll start seeing the consequences of this." In a year's time, the Xbox will have just launched, along with the Gamecube. Yamauchi is very confident in the Gamecube launch, and it almost seems as though he knows something we don't -- which is quite possible. Microsoft is a US company, and it will likely have a difficult time breaking into the Japanese market -- especially if it can't get some of the more serious Japanese developers on board. But Yamauchi's statement appears to go beyond that to the ability of Microsoft to market and manufacture games that sell units and make money, which is something Nintendo is very good at. Ultimately, however, it appears that Yamauchi is gazing right into the heart of the problem: software. The Xbox sounds very impressive on paper, and even some of the games heading for the system sound interesting -- but as interesting or exciting as Nintendo's possible launch lineup? We hardly think so. The success of a console isn't in its technology -- it's in the games that come out for the system, and Nintendo is great at making games, while Microsoft will have to rely on third-party developers to create the system-selling titles for the Xbox. We suspect that Yamauchi knows this, and is not terribly concerned with the Xbox at all.

Sega
What Yamauchi Said: We don't have a translated quote for this one, but he essentially confirmed that Sega is working with Nintendo to create Game Boy Advance games. When asked about the rumors of Nintendo buying Sega, Yamauchi scoffed at the notion.

What We Think: The fact that Sega is developing games for the GBA is great news indeed. Sega is a great game developer (although not quite as good as Nintendo) and its contribution to the handheld will doubtless result in some vastly entertaining games. Development is already underway, and we can't wait to find out what Sega has up its sleeves. As for the thought that Nintendo might buy Sega, we could see where the dismissive nature of Yamauchi could come to play. Nintendo has a lot of money, and most of that money has been made by doing what it does best -- making great games. Nintendo certainly doesn't need help in this regard, and it really doesn't need to buy Sega to help out its already fantastic game production process. However, keeping Sega as a developer will only enhance Nintendo systems, and we hope that Sega's "agreement" with Nintendo expands to include Gamecube games.

However, it's unlikely we'll see Sega go over purely to game development for Nintendo. Sega certainly hasn't given up on the Dreamcast, and there are still lots of games in development for that console. It's also quite likely that set-top boxes that play DVD movies will also play Dreamcast games, much like Matsushita's much-vaunted DVD player that will also play Gamecube games.

On The Videogame Market
What Yamauchi Said: "It all comes down to software. It all comes down to how innovative we can make the console's software. And we won't know [how things turns out] until we release it and see."

What We Think: We've been saying this for a while: It's all about the games. A game system's success is dependent on one thing and one thing only: the software. If a system has great games, then players will want to play those games, and they'll buy the system. The PSOne wasn't successful because it played CDs when the N64 didn't -- it was successful because game developers liked making games on CD, and so it had many more games that appealed to the current videogame marketplace. The next-generation systems are all going to push millions of polygons, they'll have tons of RAM and they'll have storage mediums that contain gigabytes of information. That's all fine and dandy, but when one system has better, more entertaining games, then that is the system most players will buy -- plain and simple. Yamauchi knows this, and that means Nintendo knows this. And that means that Nintendo will do its best to make games that not only look great, but are the most entertaining games on any console. And that will make Nintendo successful.

On Retirement
What Yamauchi Said: "I will retire when it's the proper time to do so."

What We Think: When is that? No one knows. He's said before that he wants to stick around until the successful launch of the Gamecube. Yamauchi is a cornerstone of Nintendo, and while many of us would gladly see him step down just so we could see what Nintendo would do, the company would lose something integral should Yamauchi no longer hold the controls. Nintendo is a public company, but it's run very much like a private one, with Yamauchi as the owner. But everything must change, and it's time for some fresh blood. There's plenty of speculation regarding potential successors, but Yamauchi has said nothing. It's thought that Minoru Arakawa, the current head of Nintendo of America, might step in to fill Yamauchi's shoes (he is Yamauchi's son-in-law, after all), but Yamauchi certainly hasn't confirmed that. Regardless, when Yamauchi finally retires, it will be a time of celebration as well as humble acknowledgement of a great leader. He might say some pretty screwed-up things, but you can't help but respect a man who turned a playing-card manufacturer into the videogame giant that it is today.

Many thanks to Gamers.com for the translation of the Bloomberg Japan interview.