Doug Bowser: Nintendo “learned a lot” from the NES Classic, licensing, no focus on VR right now
Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, gave TechCrunch an interview at E3. Below are a couple of his key statements:
On the NES Classic:
“We’ve learned a lot from the NES Classic. We’ve learned there’s a real passion for retro gaming. The NES Classic was originally intended to be a holiday item and obviously there was high demand. So we doubled down and continued to produce it as we went into the next quarter. But we decided we wanted to focus on other areas. So we’re not producing any more at this point. But we’ve learned a lot.”
On getting people in touch with Nintendo’s IPs:
“We’ve got a strategy where we want to increase the number and frequency of touch points with Nintendo properties with consumers. We’re doing that in a couple of ways. First, the console business with the Switch — through our dedicated console platform. We’re also doing our mobile business. We’re doing it through licensing agreements, such as the Vans deal or the Uniqlo deal that we did this year. And we’re doing it with out of door experiential opportunities, such as Universal Studios.”
On VR:
“There’s obviously some VR opportunity on the floor. For us, that’s not our focus right now, but we always look at opportunities and where we can take gaming experience further. But we have nothing more to announce right now.”
