More Wii U online talk from Reggie, cross-platform play with 3DS likely different that competitors, no 3D in near future, more
Reggie on how Nintendo can explain Wii U to those who haven’t played it…
“What we are doing with Wii U is creating an ability for games to leverage two different screens; the big screen in your room, and the smaller handheld screen in front of you. By doing so it opens up all of these different experiences. The experience I use to describe it to someone is to imagine a first person shooter, where instead of constantly having to look at the screen, now I’ve got things happening all around me.
“It’s a great experience. I don’t think it’s going to be a hard sell. I think that communicating to consumers through the magic of the second window, you can have a totally unique experience, with another player still in the room… I don’t think it’s a difficult sell.”
Reggie on how Nintendo will market Wii and Wii U when they’re both on the market…
“This is a device that will launch in 2012, after April 1st, so we will deal with that situation at the appropriate time. What I can tell you is when we launched the original Wii, there was an overlap with Gamecube. When we launched the original DS there was an overlap with the Gameboy Advance. I actually think maybe that one is more applicable, because Gameboy Advance was a tremendous, tremendous platform in its own right, and yet it sold side by side to the original DS, at least here in the US, for almost two full years.
“So as long as the content is there, and as long as the way to differentiate the two is there, I think they can survive side by side for a period of time. Certainly we’re going to get to a point where [The Wii U] is the one standalone system, especially given all the backward compatibility.”
Reggie on whether or not he thinks people will be confused by two Nintendo consoles on the shelves…
“They are different machines, and they’re going to have their own separate software. Even though the Wii software is backward compatible to Wii U, the branding will be a little bit different, the messaging will be a little bit different. I think we’ve had enough experiences separating out consoles in a transitional period to make that happen.”
Reggie on Nintendo’s product lineup, with numerous DS models available and two different Wiis…
“Well, first off, Wii U is an enlargement of our platform. If you look at our handheld space what I would tell you is we have a clearly differentiated line of products. We’ve got DS Lite, which I would argue is appealing to young kids as well as older consumers who play Brain Age and things of that nature… DSi and DSi XL users are playing that robust library of DS games, it really has a very broad footprint. And then we’ve got the 3DS, that right now is targeted toward that young adult gamer. So we think they’re differentiated enough. Certainly over time there’s going to be improvement to the product line. The way we do that is we let the consumer decide, and as we see some trends we’ll be preemptive and will look to improve product lines and move forward.
“We’ve made it clear: This is not a tablet, it’s not meant to be a tablet. But having said that, yes, it has a screen, yes, it has a range of input buttons, and yes, you’re going to be able to have a great console experience right in the palm of your hand.
“But as we at Nintendo often do, we’re essentially creating a whole new type of game. It’s not handheld, it’s not a tablet, it’s a different type of experience. It’s an experience that most consumers have said, wow, I’d love to do that. I’d love to be able to have my home console gaming experience while my spouse is watching something else, whether that’s live sports, whether that’s some other entertainment option. Once it’s described, people are tremendously excited about it.”
Reggie on if it’s possible to watch TV on the controller…
“The messaging comes right from the console. So the programming would need to originate off the console.”
Reggie on whether or not the console needs to be on for the controller to do anything…
“No. It’s got to be powered through the console.”
Reggie on whether Kinect’s lack of controller and Nintendo’s focus on controller is indicative of a basic philosophical difference between the two companies…
“Well, all I can say is that this is not the first time that Nintendo and our competitors have had dramatically different views on the future of gaming. When we launched the original DS everyone was saying the handheld competitor coming from Sony has more powerful graphics, that’s really the way to go. And we showed that no, two screens, a touch screen, a microphone, that actually led to better gaming experiences. With the Wii, again, at the time our competitors were all about high resolution graphics. We said we think that a motion controlled experience could be more fun. Eighty six million units later around the world, I think people would say we got that one right as well.
“In this case we’re saying that this two screen experience –either two screens playing the same game or two screens doing fundamentally different things– is the future.”
Reggie on how Wii U can communicate with Nintendo’s handhelds…
“All we’ve said to date is that we see the opportunity for cross-platform playing. We have one key developer with a very strong relationship to Nintendo, the same developer who created Smash Brothers, that is envisioning a Smash Brothers experience that will be cross platform between Wii U and 3DS. So we’re certainly thinking about it. What I would say is our experience will likely be very different than what our competitors are doing.”
Reggie on Wii U’s online service and how Nintendo won’t be offering the sort of experience that can be found on Xbox Live…
“I don’t think it is an issue for us, and here’s why. We’ve seen what our competitors have done, and we’ve acknowledged that we need to do more online, starting with the launch of our eShop on Nintendo 3DS, and we’re going to continue to build our online capability. For Wii U, we’re going to take that one step further, and what we’re doing is creating a much more flexible system that will allow the best approaches by independent publishers to come to bear. So instead of a situation where a publisher has their own network and wants that to be the predominant platform, and having arguments with platform holders, we’re going to welcome that. We’re going to welcome that from the best and the brightest of the third party publishers.”
Reggie on whether or not it would be reasonable to expect there might be a new or significantly upgraded online presence for Wii U…
“We’ve said that the Wii U will have an extremely robust online experience. There will be other publishers talking about that as well, and from our perspective, we think it’s much more compelling for that information to come from the publishers than to come from us.”
Reggie on whether 3D will come to the console at some point…
“In our view, what’s key to the 3D experience is that there be nothing between you and the machine. So for us, 3D gaming without glasses is a key part of the proposition. Right now the TV’s that offer that… I would argue they’re overpriced.. and a fairly small screen. There may come a time when 3D without glasses becomes appropriate for console, but we don’t see that in the near future.”
