Reggie on making Pikmin 3 a success, Wii U launch window, more
IGN has published the extended, written version of its interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
In the discussion, Fils-Aime comments on how they’ll make Pikmin 3 a success unlike its two predecessors (which starts with Nintendo Selects: Pikmin 2), what the Wii U launch window is, and more.
Head past the break for the full Q&A.
Reggie on how Nintendo is doing with regards to North America…
“Well, Nintendo of America’s performance really mirrors the total company performance, because we’re such a large chunk of the overall company’s financial results. Fundamentally, if you look at our last fiscal year, it was driven by two things. First, obviously, the yen to dollar… And also the yen to euro currency conversion, it’s really tough right now. Because everything gets reported back into yen.
“But then the other issue, as Mr. Iwata touched on in his financial briefing, was that with the price decline on 3DS, we were selling hardware at a loss. Which is something that we don’t do. We never plan on doing it. So those two in combination really drove the negative financial performance. The reduction on 3DS was a lesson for us, right? It reinforced that we have to have great first-party titles at launch. It reinforced for us that we have to have a strong digital offering at launch. And it reinforced for us the importance of making sure that the other entertainment offerings for a device are there at launch.
“So if you see how we’ve applied those learnings to Wii U… Great first-party titles that are going to be within the launch window. A robust online experience, highlighted by Miiverse. And then all of the great entertainment partners with, candidly, a lot more to share at a futture date, as to what we’re doing there. So, tough results, certainly, our performance mirrored that. But a lot of key learning that we’re approaching and applying to Wii U.
Reggie on why Nintendo sees Nintendo Land as the Wii Sports of Wii U…
“I think that Nintendo Land, and the collection of 12 attractions that game will have, are a fantastic representation of asymmetric gameplay. I’m doing something with the GamePad that you’re not doing when you have the Wii Remote Plus. I think it’s going to be one of the best examples of Miiverse integration. And so from that standpoint, that’s why we believe Nintendo Land really is our best foot forward in helping explain the Wii U concept.
“And there’s a lot to explain with that Nintendo Land game. What are the different attractions? How do they play? What’s the role of that main street area? There’s a lot of information that we’ll be communicating, especially tonight at the round table. But that game is very important to us. And we’re going to spend a lot of time helping players understand how great that game is. It gives me a lot of confidence, whenever I can I head off to our booth and the area for Nintendo Land is absolutely packed. That tells us that the game is as fun to play as we all hoped it would be, and now we’ve got to keep driving the communication.”
Reggie on whether or not Nintendo is considering Nintendo Life as a bundle…
“We’re still working through all of the launch details. Launch price, launch date, the specifics of what we might offer from an overall value standpoint. I’m not going to comment on “will we bundle it in?” But what I would tell you is, our goal is to drive a very high attach between Nintendo Land and Wii U. And we’re going to go after that goal really aggressively.”
Reggie on who he which type of gamer he sees Pikmin 3 for and how Nintendo intends to tackle the challenges of bringing it to market…
“Sure. Well, a couple things… You touch on it, there hasn’t been a new installment in the Pikmin franchise in eight years. You didn’t say it, but I will – Pikmin was launched on the GameCube, which was not our most successful home console. And so we have a challenge.
“Part of the way we’re beginning to overcome that challenge is by launching Pikmin 2 as a Nintendo Select. Against that installed base of, you know, approaching 40 million Wiis here in the US, we’re going to look to get those consumers having a great experience with a Pikmin game. And then step two is really helping the player understand what this game is all about. You asked, is it for you or is it for your mom? Candidly, it’s probably more for you. And I say that because there’s strategy involved, there is a lot to be keeping track of as you’re playing the game. So it is a bit more of a complicated experience. We need to make sure we appropriately go after that audience who’s going to appreciate it.”
Reggie on when Pikmin 3 will be available…
“So we’ve said that that’s launch window. Everything that we’ve shown from a first-party perspective is definitely launch window. …Eh… More than that (Wii U launch window longer than a couple of months). It’s launch plus the following three to four months.”
Reggie on Nintendo’s game plans for Wi U and whether or not they’ll be communicating more first-party efforts about the console between now and next E3…
“A couple of small corrections. First, in terms of Wii U, as I said, Lego City Undercover, published by Nintendo. Sing, published by Nintendo. There’s a game that you may not have seen called Project P-100. Developed by Platinum Games, has that same kind of funky vibe as Viewtiful Joe. Lot of fun. That’s going to be a launch window title, published by Nintendo. So more than three is what I would tell you.
“The second thing I would say is… You know, it is critical for us to pace our games in a way that’s going to drive that momentum. Interestingly, again, if you go back to the launch of Wii, we had some games at launch, and then there was a bit of a lull. Then we came back with some more. There’s not an exact science to this, but clearly, if you look back at 3DS, what we didn’t have with 3DS was, at launch, the the first-party killer app. It was not Steel Diver, it was not Pilotwings Resort. And certainly we will not be having that same challenge with the launch of Wii U.”
Reggie on any concerns about keeping the pipeline of games going…
“You know, I don’t have that concern. And again… I think it’s illustrative to go back and look at the Wii launch. At launch, there weren’t a ton of titles. What we did have was Wii Sports packed in, which gave a lot of enjoyment. But if you truly look at the launch window group of games, it was actually a bit sparse. You look at where we are right now, we showed 23 games during the press conference. There’s a lot more here on the show floor. So we’re pretty confident that there will be a great pacing of content during those first number of months.
“And certainly Nintendo is actively working on what’s going to be that next grouping of titles to propel us all the way through our second holiday. So we’re giving it a lot of thought, and for that active gamer who’s looking to buy something brand new on a regular basis, there’s going to be a lot there.”
Reggie on any concern that Wii u doesn’t necessarily have games like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil 6, and thoughts on third-parties…
“Well, certainly the typical western developer does wait for the installed base. Unless they are so passionate that they make a big bet, like Ubisoft has made a big bet. Obviously Warner Bros. has made a bet.
“Beyond that, I wouldn’t take the fact that things haven’t been announced yet as a signal that it’s not happening. But, you know… My job is to launch the system and to drive its installed base, and we’re going to do that very effectively. And then hopefully that will create the opportunity for third parties to jump on board.”
Reggie on the options being weighed in terms of pricing for Wii U…
“The first thing I would say is we focus on value. So it’s what you get for what you pay, in terms of that overall proposition. Second thing I would tell you is that Nintendo believes in being a mass-market product. Unlike our competitors, when they’ve launched historical systems, to maybe start at a really high price and work their way down, we don’t believe in that. We want to launch at a price that is going to represent an ongoing great value.
“You look at the Wii, we stayed at 250 dollars for a really long time. And so we’re going to give that same level of thought to the Wii U. How do we launch at a value that we’re going to be able to sustain for a long time? I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, if you will, about the way we’re managing the value equation.”
Reggie on whether or not Nintendo is looking at bundling multiple controllers with the system at launch…
“So, again, we’re not going to talk about our configuration. But what I would tell you is, we’re cognizant… US 40 million units, globally 100 million units. Against all those units there’s a lot of Remotes and Nunchuks, a few Balance Boards. And so we want to leverage that installed base and not have the consumer to pay for another accessory when they already may be fully satiated with what they have in the household. We’re going to be very thoughtful. That’s the beauty of what we have, all of that is backward compatible. The consumer is going to feel great about that aspect of our value.”
Reggie on Nintendo’s strategy on social integration for Wii U, and whether or not Nintendo plans to support some of the mass-market social programs like Twitter and Facebook…
“Maybe I should deal with that last one first. So… We, today, have an active presence on Facebook and Twitter, so if your point is, hey, can my activity on Miiverse show up on Facebook or Twitter… Right now, the way we’re thinking about it is that Miiverse is gaming-focused. It’s your gaming friends. And so right now we’re thinking about that as, if you will, an established community. Lot of potential options for what we do in the future, but right now it’s gaming first.
“In terms of how we’re thinking about integrating it into the games, candidly, we’re going to go into this in a lot of detail in the developer roundtable, because both New Super Mario Bros. U as well as Nintendo Land are great representations of what we’re doing with Miiverse, and we’ll have the game producers talking about both of those later today. What I would tell you is that… The ability to have the community reinforcing what’s hot, what’s exciting… The ability for the community to share information… We think that’s powerful. We think that there isn’t anyone doing that today in the gaming space. Not the way that we’re thinking about it.”
Reggie on whether or not Nintendo Network will compete with the likes of PlayStation Network and Xbox Live and Nintendo’s ambitions/ideas regarding the larger online game experience…
“Again, what I would tell you is… We don’t look at what other people are doing. We step back and say, what would be fun, what would be unique, what would be different? And that’s what’s driving us. But having said that, is our vision that consumers are going to be super excited about Miiverse and super excited about what it represents? Absolutely.
“The way that we’re going to integrate it into the games, the way that you’ll be able to pop in, pop out, do your messaging, get information, we think it’s hugely powerful. It is somethinig that not only from a first-party standpoint, but from a third-party games, additional applications standpoint, there’s a lot of excitement about how we’re approaching Miiverse.”
Reggie’s thoughts on how Wii U will compete with the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 successors…
“We’re about to launch a tremendously powerful system. A system that pushes out great graphics, a system that has an opportunity to do a lot of things. What I’ve heard the fan community say is, I want my Mario, I want my Zelda, and I want the best of third-party. And that’s what we’re looking to bring to consumers.
“I think in the end, the consumer choice is going to be… Once I buy my Wii U, that satisfies my Nintendo cravings and my cravings for all of these other great multi-platform franchises, then what is the role of a competitive platform? It’s going to have to live on the backs of some sort of unique proposition, or unique content. And to me that’s the million-dollar question. Of our potential competitors down the road, who’s going to have that compelling content that’s going to say, hey, now I need to branch out and pick up this additional system? I think it’s for them to answer.”
