Nintendo concerned about possible “smear campaigns” against its products by Miiverse users

By Debabrata Nath

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata feels that “product bombing” campaigns is a problem that Nintendo needs to pay special attention to when building the Wii U’s Miiverse.

Miiverse, which’ll be similar to an internet forum, will allow users to express their opinions about games publicly, which’ll be instantly visible to other users who’re part of the community. This might put the reputation of a game at stake as unfair opinions can have a negative influence on the user.

During a shareholders meeting, Iwata said “negative campaigns on the internet in which false opinions are deliberately posted to ruin the reputation of a product” are a “big problem and could be considered business interference”.

He also said that it’ll need to be careful while trying to balance between genuine complains and freedom of speech.

“It is very difficult to tell consumers’ real complaints from those that are posted as part of a negative campaign. If we were to delete anything negative about our games, it could constitute a suppression of free speech and you would not able to believe in even a good reputation.”

However, he said that the number of people involved in such campaigns is “just a fraction of all users” and thinks “in a community in which a number of users with fair opinions exist, opinions posted just for the purpose of a negative campaign will be gradually overwhelmed by the majority of posts of fair impressions.”

“Also, if a number of game players put a remark to indicate “I think this comment is inappropriate,” the subject comments will be seen as unreliable and thereby decreases their influence on other consumers.”

Iwata warned that Nintendo may not allow the community to moderate itself on its own.

“We cannot afford to always act on “the ethical doctrine that human nature is fundamentally good.” At the same time, however, we would like to believe in the possibility of “the wisdom of crowds,” which could create a very interesting and fascinating world, and make efforts for the services to realize it in one way or another.”

Thanks, CVG.