Reggie talks Skyward Sword, 3DS, third-party sales, more robust/compelling digital strategy in the works, and much more
Reggie on the strategy behind revealing a ton of content at E3…
“Well, a couple of things. First, even with all that we revealed, we describe only the surface of product that’s coming out over the next, call it, nine months. So there is a lot of content coming on our systems, which is great. In terms of our strategy for this show, because we’re in such a fortunate position of having so much great content, and 99% of which is coming very quickly, we were in a very enviable position to be able to share it all, which is great.”
Reggie on if he can offer opinions on Move/Kinect…
“I really can’t, and that’s because while I have seen people play their products, I haven’t played it personally. One player hasn’t announced their pricing strategy, so that’s a big [component that’s] missing still. What I can say is that I believe the consumer knows which company has been the innovator in this space. I also believe that we have demonstrated with “Zelda: Skyward Sword” how a one-to-one controller can bring you deeper into a true active gaming experience, and no one else has done that. No one.
We will continue to innovate, we’ll continue to bring consumers closer and closer into the experience. And we believe that if we do that, the consumer will vote with their wallets and pocketbooks and continue to show that Nintendo is the company bringing these great experiences forward.”
Reggie on what the differentiator is between the Wii and Move…
“The differentiator is the gaming experience, right? The differentiator will always be the gaming experience in the software. What they haven’t shown is exactly how their ‘one-to-one’ can make for a better gaming experience than what you could get today on the Wii…Well, it [software and the experience] certainly hinges on the development teams that are creating the content.”
Reggie on whether he thinks Zelda fans will be put off by the control scheme/design/layout…
“I’ll tell you: I’m a longtime ‘Zelda’ fan. I played ‘Zelda’ before I ever considered that I could be working for the company. I cut my teeth on ‘Link to the Past.’ I’ve picked up that control scheme and it feels like a great ‘Zelda’ game. I mean now, I have the sword and shield. I am the one deciding how to attack a particular enemy. It feels great to me. I found that it’s a fantastic new way to experience the ‘Zelda’ franchise.
In terms of the look, [Nintendo’s chief Zelda guru Eiji] Aonuma-Mr. Miyamoto highlighted this-is very into our history, and they wanted to look that was more impressionistic, and that’s why you see the color palette the way it is. And I think it’s great. I love that we have done everything from, you know, the look and– …Right, all the way to the ‘realism’ of ‘Twilight Princess’ and everything between. I think it’s great, I think it’s what helps keep the franchise fresh.”
Reggie on whether there is a teaser in the trailer that there will be a vehicular element…
“[At] the developer roundtable, Mr. Aonuma shared the skyward element of this game. The storyline goes that Link is living in a cloud world and finds a way to go down to the ground. And the gameplay will take you between this ground world and the sky world…So that’s the traversal.”
Reggie on whether he feels that an axis mechanism is a core part of the Zelda series now…
“I think it is…Well, in ‘Link to the Past’, you had light and dark, too…So, these two worlds are a key part of the Zelda franchise. And you know, being able to do certain things in world, different things in the other world — now, Mr. Newman, Mr. Miyamoto are the developers — but as a player, a lover of the franchise, to me, yes, those are core parts of the franchise.”
Reggie speaking about third-party support on the 3DS and Wii…
“A couple of different things. First, you can clearly see a progression between DS, Wii and 3DS in terms of third party support. When we launched DS, there were number of developers there at the start, but they did not have content that really showcased the capabilities of the system in a big way.
There is a lot of different reasons for that, including maybe a little lack of belief, especially. Remember PSP was launching at the same time as the DS, and popular opinion was that it’s all about graphical horsepower. That was then. Now, jump to the Wii and there was a much broader line-up of support for the Wii right out of the gate. Pretty good support. (And at this point, the DS is still enjoying very strong sales momentum.) Now, with the 3DS, it’s become much more extensive, because I do believe developers know that our hardware approach and the input devices really will lead to compelling experiences. That’s one aspect [of how things have changed].
There is another aspect though that developers now, and publishers now, I think are just becoming to understand. We have got almost a 30 million unit install base on the Wii, and these consumers are different. They react differently when you launch content, compared to the more smaller install bases of our two competitors, which are predominantly very, very, very active gamers, right? And so you have a product like–I mean, pick one, ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’, massive sale peak and then pretty rapid…
…Decline. That is not the sales curve that you see on the Wii. A title like ‘New Super Mario Brothers Wii’ that sold five plus million units, it had a strong peak and then it stayed fairly high. The same thing ‘Wii Fit’, same thing with ‘Wii Fit Plus’, same with ‘Super Mario Galaxy’. Hopefully, the same thing with ‘Super Mario Galaxy 2’. Publishers like Ubisoft saw that kind of curve with ‘Just Dance’.
The reason that the sales curve is important is it drives your marketing investment decisions. When you have got this massive spike and a massive fall down, everything is front-loaded. With something that’s more even, you have to spread your marketing investment, right? Spreading marketing investment [like that ] was not done on, you know, pick a third party publish title for Wii. Not one of them, with one exception, “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games”, both summer and winter. And by the way, when you look at that sales curve, it looks more like a Nintendo first-party sales curve.”
Reggie on how long the timeframe is for prepared marketing support (not just at launch)
“You know, it’s intuitive, it’s based on game quality. I will give you an example, ‘Style Savvy,’ that we launched last year on the DS. If I were a traditional publisher after the first couple of weeks, I might have pulled all my marketing support. Because the sales, you know, they didn’t go the way we thought it would go, didn’t come out of the gate like gangbusters. But, boy, that third week, we saw a nice big spike, fourth week spiked again. It’s a different type of sales curve.”
Reggie on whether he can attribute the sales curve to anything in particular…
“You know, it’s the awareness build and how it’s happening title by title. It’s the word of mouth, which ties back to the quality of the content. You know, when I have these type of conversations with publishers, the main message I deliver to them is, ‘Look, if you have a game and the quality is high, invest behind it. And invest behind it over time, it will pay you back.’ And when publishers have done that, that’s exactly what’s happened. Again, ‘Just Dance’ is a great example. Fun game, high quality, fantastic buzz value that kept the sales curve go, and yet it continues today.”
Reggie on third-parties who have said that they made a big bet on the Wii and didn’t see the results that they had hoped for…
“[Laughs] You know, it’s — we have very candid conversations with all of our publishing partners, to share the benefits of our knowledge. And all I can tell you is the ones who really hear the feedback and apply the feedback have seen very strong results. You know, another great case in point is ‘EA Sports Active.’ Steady level of investment over time, strong sales over time…I don’t think it was about expectations, I think what EA took to heart in that particular launch was an understanding that with a high quality game (which it was) targeted to a demographic that is not thinking, you know, ‘Let me run right out on launch day,’ they had to have ongoing support in order to maximize the sales over time.”
Reggie on Nintendo’s stance that how Nintendo’s goal of expanding the gaming audience relates to how you talk about what’s on the platform/the technology in the platform…
“It’s everything, it really is a philosophy that yes, absolutely starts with the game, but then extends to system, it extends to the marketing approach, the communications approach, everything needs to be aligned. If you believe that, then apply that thinking to what our competitors are trying to do.”
Reggie on whether they haven’t figured out Nintendo’s messaging yet…
“I’m not–you said that. All I’m saying is that you cannot try and address a nontraditional demographic with traditional mechanisms.”
Reggie on the lack of Vitality Sensor at E3…
“Sure. It’s a very easy decision. E3 is about excitement. This show is for folks like yourself running from booth to booth, interview to interview. It is high-stress, high-pressure, high activity…It’s actually the perfectly opposite place for a product like the Vitality Sensor…Our concern was that people are so amped that to show a product that by definition is about looking inward and being calm and, if you will, listening to your body, that it was just not the right place. So we’re going to show it, it’s continuing on track, but we made decision not to show it here.”
Reggie on when the 3DS became the Wii Nintendo delivers 3D/when the decision was made…
“So there are a couple of other insights to Nintendo product development. First, when we have an idea stuck in our heard, we keep working on it and 3D has been stock in our heard for 15 years…[Going back to the] Virtual Boy. Absolutely [there is a legacy there]. Second, we were fortunate that we have software developers side by side with our developers. And when the software developer comes up with an idea that can’t be done with the current system, that’s when hardware development for the next generation truly begin to earnest. Project Sora, which began what? Just over a year ago. You know, I wasn’t there but I suspect someone came forward with an idea that said, you know, the technologies at the point where a 3D game can be done and we have got a perfect franchise to do it with, and it’s “Kid Icarus” [which started as Project Sora]…It starts with, ‘We’ve got an idea.’ We have been working with this technology for a long time, suddenly, the tech capability has caught up with our vision and we have this creative idea to bring it to life, now it’s time to go.”
Reggie on the decision to bring Kid Icarus to the 3DS/why Mario wasn’t the character to debut the system…
“Well, ‘Kid Icarus,’ because of the flying and the ground battle, really is tailor-made for the 3D type of experience. There’s another way to think about this, though. I mean, yes, we are fortunate that we have a veritable vault of fantastic franchises. But the other thing that we pride ourselves is constantly looking for new experiences and new franchises. You know, I am absolutely looking forward to ‘Kid Icarus: Uprising.’ But, the next game I personally will buy will be ‘Steel Diver,’ because that’s another one that, to me, in a 3D environment plays exceptionally well.”
Reggie on the delivery system that will be used for content partners/non-game content partners…
“We haven’t finalized it. We haven’t finalized the business terms for something like movies. But the great news is that we do have a variety of different options.”
Reggie on whether Nintendo feels confident in building an online hub like the App Store or leaving it up to the partners…
“Let’s take this out of specifically movies. One of the things I love about this company is that we constantly look at our performance, and even when we are dominating a particular generation, we look hard to say what can we do better. And as we sit here today, we know we have to do digital better. And so, we will do digital better. How that looks will be different than what current players do in digital.
Why? Because we’re compelled to innovate, we’re compelled to bring this experience forward in a way that in our view is more compelling for the consumer. And so, I can’t and I won’t give you the details of our digital strategy, but what I will tell you is that our digital strategy will be significantly more robust, significantly more compelling than what we have done today…That is very true. What I can tell you is when you rollout a new hardware, it’s a perfect time to roll out this type of step-change.”
