Reggie Fils-Aime feels gamers are 'insatiable'

[garyopa]

Plus the company is looking for 'most appropriate ways' to announce new products to consumers



According to NOA's president the community is 'unable to differentiate between a phenomenon and something that is ho-hum'.

In a recent interview with Kotaku, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime made an "unexpected" and critical analysis of Nintendo's consumer base, following widespread complaints about the company's E3 press conference.

He said that, while he loves the passion and enthusiasm gamers possess, sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming.

"One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles tremendously about not only our fanbase but the gaming community at large is that, whenever you show information, the perspective is: Thank you, but I want more. Thank you, but give me more."

"I mean, it is insatiable. For years this community has been asking, where's Pikmin? Where's Pikmin? Where's Pikmin?' We give them Pikmin. And then they say: what else?

"For years this community has said: Damn it Reggie, when you launch, you better launch with a Mario game. So we launch with a Mario game, and they say, so, what's more?

"I have heard people say, you know, you've got these fantastic franchises. Beyond what you're doing in Smash Bros, isn't there a way to leverage all these franchises? So we create Nintendo Land and they say: Ho-hum. Give me more. It's an interesting challenge."

He also believes that Nintendo Land has the potential to be the next "trailblazer" claiming that people not excited by the title do not realise it will be a success.

"What's the fan community reaction? Ho-hum, until it sells millions of copies. When we showed Wii Fit on stage... go back and read your blogs, what was the reaction? It's a question of, as a gamer, is this for me and something I can get excited about? And Wii Fit did not get that reaction. And yet it sold 43 million copies around the world. It's a phenomenon.

"And so I would argue that the gaming community is unable to differentiate between a phenomenon and something that is ho-hum."

On a related note, seems that the company is now aiming at “most appropriate ways” to make announcements following E3 and Nintendo Direct news.

“At E3 we had very specific announcements that we wanted to focus on,” Nintendo told IGN.

“We had a lot of things to talk about, and we had to decide which things were most appropriate for each method of announcement. E3 is just one of the many opportunities for companies to make announcements, and we’re always looking for the most appropriate ways to both inform and surprise consumers.”

So, it seems that Nintendo will be taking E3 "less serious" in the future.

What do you think of all this?

NEWS SOURCE #1: The trouble with the never satisfied gamer (via) Kotaku
NEWS SOURCE #2: Nintendo aiming at most appropriate ways to make announcements following E3 nintendo direct news (via) VG247

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[billysastard]

phenomenon - wii sports

ho-hum - nintedo's entire e3 presence

[mattias800]

Well, it's pretty simple, the last 4-5 years, Nintendo has been losing touch with its market.
This business has evolved, without Nintendo. They no longer know what the market wants and I have a hard time believing that WiiFitU will 43 million copies as well. Try more like 1.5m copies. I think it will be the same thing with Wii vs WiiU.

Nintendo sales are declining. Not because they make bad games or don't reinvent themselves (they often do), but, in my opinion at least, because everything they make feel so conservative and old. Every game they make feels like a great game released in 2002.

Remember the hype when Twilight Princess was announced? People went nuts. Remember the hype when Skyward Sword was announced? Right, there wasn't much hype at all, even though that game was at least as good. They announced two Mario games at e3, and they looked pretty much like the same game. And they were copies of New Super Mario Bros on the DS. The first game was awesome, but how many times do I want to play New SMB copies? "But this game has THOUSANDS OF COINS" .. And no one cared. Obviously.

Very few people were begging for Pikmin. It was more of a suggestion for a franchise that has been forgotten for a while. Like Kid Icarus was before. And soon Metroid.

Nintendo need to use their catalogue of franchises, create some new franchises, and make MODERN, immersive games. And if they can't do it themselves, find more studios like Retro and buy them!

[MadonnaProject]

oh blah blah blah, who cares.

[billysastard]

Nintendo sales are declining. Not because they make bad games or don't reinvent themselves (they often do), but, in my opinion at least, because everything they make feel so conservative and old. Every game they make feels like a great game released in 2002.

i agree with pretty much all you said other than the bit i quoted.

Nintendo sales are not declining other than as part of the natural life-cycle, the 3ds is selling really well now and whilst the Wii u most likely wont repeat the success of the Wii history has shown that the weakest (and cheapest) console tends to be the market leader (or owner in the case of psx and ps2 and gameboy and ds) so i wouldnt count it out entirely just yet.

[mattias800]

i agree with pretty much all you said other than the bit i quoted.

Nintendo sales are not declining other than as part of the natural life-cycle, the 3ds is selling really well now and whilst the Wii u most likely wont repeat the success of the Wii history has shown that the weakest (and cheapest) console tends to be the market leader (or owner in the case of psx and ps2 and gameboy and ds) so i wouldnt count it out entirely just yet.

Yeah, life cycle is a cause for declining sales as well of course.

Here is food for thought:
What if they also had an online service on a level similar to Xbox Live. And Call of Duty, Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed, Bioshock, etc.
What if they ported Donkey Kong Country (the Wii game), Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, the Metroid games, to 3DS?
What if they made a new 2.5D Metroid for 3DS, like Zero Mission but rendered in 3D.
What if they made a genuine sequel to Super Mario World?
What if they made a genuine sequel to A Link To The Past?
What if they got the best indie developer (Braid, Bastion, Limbo, etc) working on 3DS titles?
What if they made a Zelda game with a huge Final Fantasy-style story and cutscenes? Or Skyrim sized lore? (maybe I'm the only one that wants that, heh..)

There are tons of awesome things they can do, but they don't. They give us two more copies of New SMB instead.

[billysastard]

Yeah, life cycle is a cause for declining sales as well of course.

Here is food for thought:
What if they also had an online service on a level similar to Xbox Live. And Call of Duty, Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed, Bioshock, etc.
What if they ported Donkey Kong Country (the Wii game), Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, the Metroid games, to 3DS?
What if they made a new 2.5D Metroid for 3DS, like Zero Mission but rendered in 3D.
What if they made a genuine sequel to Super Mario World?
What if they made a genuine sequel to A Link To The Past?
What if they got the best indie developer (Braid, Bastion, Limbo, etc) working on 3DS titles?
What if they made a Zelda game with a huge Final Fantasy-style story and cutscenes? Or Skyrim sized lore? (maybe I'm the only one that wants that, heh..)

There are tons of awesome things they can do, but they don't. They give us two more copies of New SMB instead.

once again i agree, and once again only one bone of contention, i'm not sure an xbox live service is something to aspire to, forcing customers to pay to play online whilst creating a platform that shuns both single player and social multiplayer isn't that great, nor is charging people to use services that are free (or require a separate subscription) on other platforms, i'd prefer to see a better version of psn where everything important is free and a sub is offered to those wanting a real bonus although of course with cross game chat as standard.

[mattias800]

I'm not talking about the business model, I'm talking about the quality of the service
Things like being able to press the Xbox-button and message friends, add new friends, see what friends are playing, invite friends, create parties with voice chat, etc. Everything is built-in, instead of every game having to implement it. This is exactly the way it should be, and neither Sony nor Nintendo is getting it.