Dante Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 From A+E Interactive. By Dean Takahashi I inteviewed Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, at Dice. Reggie was very confident and here's some of what he had to say. If I get time later, I can transcribe the interview. In the meantime ... Reggie said that new data on sales will be out in the next week or so, but it's clear that the Wii is going strong. It sold 1.1 million units in North America through December, and about 4 million units manufactured last year. About two thirds of software sales were by third parties, so "developers are sharing in the success," he said. The DS continues to sell well even though there were two or three weeks when it was completely sold out. Worldwide, the DS has sold more than 35.6 million units now. "We're making millions a month, but the demand is above that," he said. He said he anticipates surpassing the installed base of the Xbox 360 with this sales rate. "The question is when," he said. "That's going to be drivenn by our own sales rate and getting good software released at the right time. It's clear they are slowing down. It's not unthinkable to see that next year we could surpass their installed base." The PlayStation 2 is competition of sorts, but Reggie said it's not direct. He said it is more like competition for the GameBoy Advance or the DS.I told him that Bill Gates said he didn't believe that the Wii was direct competition for the Xbox 360. "When you're as rich as Bill is, you can say anything," Reggie said. "They have done some things that are brilliant at Microsoft. We want to bring gaming back to the masses. Consumers are voting with their wallets and pocketbooks." I said critics have said that the game play of the Wii is limited and its novelty may wear off. He said, "I wonder if they saw Zelda? It has 90 hours of game play." He said it is a fact that the PlayStation 3 inventory is "stacking up worldwide" because it's too expensive and doesn't have the right games. He said Sony made too big a bet on Blu-ray and on the price that the consumer is willing to pay for gaming. He said the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war is shaping up to be a "bloody battle that won't be resolved soon." Reggie said that the upcoming Wii Play would drive more sales soon. He said Nintendo is courting developers and is encouraged by the number of fresh ideas for using the Wii remote. He was happy that the Wii was becoming a cultural phenomenon, as evidenced by Conan O'Brien playing Wii Tennis with Serena Williams on his show. He said the marketing that worked best was getting the Wii in the hands of consumers through programs such as kiosks with Wiis at shopping malls. He said the death of the contestant in the "hold your wee for Wii" contest was unfortunate. And he said that the strap issue really meant that Nintendo had to work harder instructing consumers not to let go of the Wii remote when they were playing. He said the return rates on the Wii for general problems were "miniscule." Reggie said that getting the Wii in the hands of key mainstream media has also been important. Three million people have viewed a commercial that Nintendo released on the YouTube video service. More than 30,000 videos have been uploaded by people who have customized their Miis, the avatars that users can create for their Wiis. Reggie thinks that Nintendo will score some points in the sports area for the first time in a long time with Electronic Arts' upcoming SSX Blur and Tiger Woods titles. Asked if first-person shooters look bad on the Wii, Reggie said that "Metroid Prime 3" looks and plays excellent and it will end the debate over the Wii's aiming problems. He also said that the aiming in Wii Play would put those concerns to rest. Asked if the Wii would run out of novelty and peter out, he said that skeptics said the same thing about the DS and its dual-screen and stylus play. He said that third-party development has done quite well and would continue to generate novel uses of the Wii controller. And he remained confident that the Wii would expand the market of games to non-gamers. As for online, Reggie said that Pokemon Battle Revolution is doing well in Japan and would be the first online title in the U.S. He said online development kits have been seeded and titles are coming. Nintendo is starting to capitalize on the fitness benefits of the Wii in its marketing. "We're about moving to the next rocket stage in our growth," he said in closing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibur Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 word. thanks Dante. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kav Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 You can always trust Dante to dig up something good! Cheers Dante! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 He said Zelda = 90 hours? I hope the rest of the interview wasn't a total exaggeration too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddage Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 He said Zelda = 90 hours? I hope the rest of the interview wasn't a total exaggeration too. Well to be fair I've played Twilight Princess for about 100 hours, so as far as I'm concerned it isn't an exaggeration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christophicus Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 anyone know where I can see a video of conan o brian playing wii tennis? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hero-of-Time Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 He said Zelda = 90 hours? I hope the rest of the interview wasn't a total exaggeration too. Agreed, I beat the thing in around 40 hours including all sidequests. Nice to hear they are sorting the online gaming out even though this kind of thing should have been ready from the start! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christophicus Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 OK I got a link to a video of conan o brian beating the williams sister at Wii tennis. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6962464170986751836&q=conan+wii+tennis+serena Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven_blade2006 Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 All this talk about online functionality. Talk is cheap, show us the goods already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowV7 Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Agreed, I beat the thing in around 40 hours including all sidequests. Nice to hear they are sorting the online gaming out even though this kind of thing should have been ready from the start! What!? I've played it for about 60 hours and I haven't done everything yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeldaFreak Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 Agreed, I beat the thing in around 40 hours including all sidequests. Nice to hear they are sorting the online gaming out even though this kind of thing should have been ready from the start! Damn you beat me to the finish by 4 hours. No fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konfucius Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Agreed, I beat the thing in around 40 hours including all sidequests. Nice to hear they are sorting the online gaming out even though this kind of thing should have been ready from the start! In your second run through or did you use a walkthrough? I rushed Zelda quite a bit until I got to the last dungeon and had 30 hours on the clock. Reggie said that "Metroid Prime 3" looks and plays excellent and it will end the debate over the Wii's aiming problems MP3 is (almost) bound to be outstanding but still some reassurance is always good. Give us a demo on VC - now! But I tend to take Reggie interviews with a pinch of salt more and more. He seems to exaggerate quite bit most of the time. Sure he wouldn't do a great job if he talked everything down but still it's a little irritating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyson Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Asked if the Wii would run out of novelty and peter out, he said that skeptics said the same thing about the DS and its dual-screen and stylus play. He said that third-party development has done quite well and would continue to generate novel uses of the Wii controller. And he remained confident that the Wii would expand the market of games to non-gamers. [/b] Great point. I was worrying about the same thing, but that has reassured me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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