Nintendo Talks the Future of Wii

Via Eurogamer (which offers a highlight reel of the article), a long piece at MTV Games where Stephen Totilo sits down for a chat with Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime. Unlike some other question-dodging executives, Reggie shares some interesting details. We have release dates (WarioWare in January, Mario Party in March, Mario Galaxy sometime after March), confirmation that they'll try to bring GoldenEye to the Virtual Console, a few details about the first online game for the Wii (Pokemon Battle Revolution), and word that there would be several Wii-related announcements in January. From the article: "For Fils-Aime, some of the projects he'd love to see happen in the U.S. can only be executed by his bosses in Japan. As a result, part of his job is to lobby for what he thinks American gamers want. 'The piece that I am more and more involved in is really looking longer-term and making sure the full range of games are being brought to the Americas. Making sure we have core gamer games like 'Metroid,' like 'Galaxy.' Making sure we have our types of market-extension games not only for Wii but for DS. Where's our analogous cooking game? Where's our analogous 'Brain Age 2' for DS?'"

Comments

All I want...

[twilightzero]

...is a goddamn KEYBOARD I can plug in! Everything I heard said you'd be able to plug in any old USB keyboard and it would work, but now I find out that I'm stuck 1-letter-at-a-time-point-&-clicking to get anything typed!

ARGH!

Other than that, I love it =)

Sweet Jebus, what an awful site.

[bunions]

NEW YORK -- Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president, is a man on a mission. His mission is to sell the red-hot Nintendo Wii and make sure people who have them love them.

"Are we feeling good about our success? Do we think we can have more success in the future? Absolutely," he said during a stuffed 40-minute interview with MTV News in a hotel just south of Central Park. "I do think that highlights a difference between us and our competitors: We're not arrogant. We don't view success as a right. We feel we need to earn success every day. And we're going to do that by being true to the gamer."

In the same hotel 51 weeks ago, Fils-Aime gave MTV News an early handle on the Nintendo Wii controller (see "First Look: Nintendo Revolution Controller Feels Smooth As Puppet Strings"). Now he's ready to talk about any Wii topic under the sun -- to a point.

"We're looking at this as about eight days into the mission," he said, opening with a report of the company's recent success. Nintendo has sold 600,000 Wiis in North America and nearly half as many extra Wii controllers, Fils-Aime said (see "Wii Unmasked: Nintendo Reveals Price, Launch Date, Lineup Of Games"). The company has also sold more than 450,000 copies of "The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess." He said "Red Steel," "Rayman Raving Rabbids" and "Madden" all have sold well, as has the surgery game "Trauma Center: Second Opinion."

He offered a preview of the Wii's winter lineup. In addition to support from third-party game developers, Nintendo will publish three more titles for the Wii by the end of March: "WarioWare: Smooth Moves," "Wii Play" and "Mario Party 8." The first two will be released in January, the latter in March. All are compilations of shorter games.

"WarioWare" is a continuation of a popular series that barrages players with seconds-long games. "Wii Play" contains nine brief games, including an homage to "Duck Hunt," and will come packed with an extra Wii controller (but not a nunchuck). Nintendo has shown contraptions that turn a Wii controller into a "Duck Hunt"-style gun or, in the company's terms, a "zapper." "Wii Play" would seem to fit the bill, but Fils-Aime said, "We want the right title" to introduce it with.

Word broke of that early-2007 Nintendo trio earlier this month. Some fans complained that there weren't any meaty adventures on the list and predicted a winter gaming famine similar to the one that followed the launch of Nintendo's last two consoles. "I disagree with the comparison," he said. "I wasn't here for the GameCube launch, but there was a time period when there were no titles. There wasn't even titles you could or could not sink your teeth into. 'Wii Play' and 'WarioWare' are going to be hugely fun titles."

And for people who want more of an adventure to sink their teeth into once March passes? "Of the next batch of Nintendo releases, 'Metroid' is going to be next on that list," he said. And "Super Mario Galaxy"? Fils-Aime said to expect it any time between the end of March and next Christmas.

He fielded every question, even if he couldn't always give a rosy answer. People want Wii controllers bundled with nunchucks? If people start buying them in a one-to-one ratio, Nintendo would consider offering a bundle. Is there a DVD-playing Wii coming to the U.S. any time soon? "The answer is no." Will third parties start using the Miis -- Wii player avatars -- in their games? Fils-Aime said developers outside Nintendo now have the ability to drop them into their games as well, but,"Is there anything I've seen? No." Does he think the Reggie Mii his colleagues at Nintendo made looks like him? "The one they made had more of a scowl than the one I made."

Fils-Aime hyped an upcoming baseball game from 2K Sports as a perfect title for the Wii controller and said that "Godfather" Wii from EA is "very interesting." And he leapt to the defense of the weakly reviewed but strong-selling Ubisoft Wii game "Red Steel." "I think a lot of the reviews have been overly cr

Re:Reggie Who?

[WillAffleckUW]

you're both right. Fils is either son or wire. Aime is love or like. Masculine of course.

So, technically, it's Son-Loved. Which in English can also have a dual meaning.

And in French, having two or three meanings is a grand coup and a really good thing to do.

So, think of it as Wire Lover, Loved Son, or Sun Loved - all meanings are valid.

Goldeneye

[norminator]

And goldeneye on the wii? It's good that we get a classic game, but what about new franchises?

And if you think about it long enough, you'll realize that Goldeneye is based on a James Bond movie from over 10 years ago... They're not talking about a new Goldeneye game, but a Virtual Console version of the original game (the Virtual Console on the Wii is an online service that allows you to purchase and download games for older Nintendo systems).

The reason why people care is because GoldenEye 007 was one of the most popular games for the N64.

Hopefully this background information answers your questions... I'm not trying to provide too much information, you just didn't seem to understand what you were complaining about.

Word complete feature

[goodenoughnickname]

You can turn on a word complete feature by clicking that Eject button above backspace. It helps out a lot.

Re:question-dodging executives?

[kinglink]

"10 New VC games did not come out Monday as promised. Only 3 (I think), 2 TurboGraphix16 titles and Ecco the Dolphin. Where the hell is my Pilotwings? SMB? Come on guys, you want me to buy NES games at $5 a pop you're going to have to give me decent choices and soon. Playing these games legally on my TV is at least 30% of the reason I bought the Wii, don't disappoint me."

This is completely wrong.

First they never said 10 new games a monday. They said new VC titles every monday, 30 games by the end of the year, and then 10 games a month starting in January.

Second. It was 1 turbographix16, 2 genisis games (Ecco and Golden axe).

We all want all the games, but give them time to get it all right.

Re:I call bullshit.

[Chris Burke]

Continue reading. The next paragraph:

"[UPDATE: Readers have noted that some games slated for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan and not for the U.S. by year's end include surefire American favorites like "Super Mario World." On Tuesday, Fils-Aime addressed that point: "I do think here in the Americas we want to be a bit more strategic in how we use the titles ... If there's a month where we don't have a fantastic lineup of Nintendo-packaged software, that's where I want to release a great SNES game or a great N64 game to maintain the momentum."]"

So yeah, they're taking a strategic approach to game releases, which is what I always thought they were going to do. I never expected them to release an old Mario/Zelda game around when they release a new one, or to flood the VC with all the triple-A titles right off the bat, much as I would like them to. Filling in gaps in the release schedule of new games with good VC games is also something I would have expected. The strange part is that apparently they don't think this is as important in Japan. The bad part is that it looks like we're getting shafted as a result (even though all those games will almost certainly come out on the U.S. VC in time).

I think Nintendo doesn't fully understand the difference between Japanese and U.S. game markets, and more to the point doesn't understand how they've been coming closer together over the past few years especially now that the internet lets us all know what the other markets are getting well in advance.