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Fils-Aime: We Haven’t Ignored Core Gamers
Speaking to G4 following Nintendo’s E3 press conference on Tuesday, the president of the firm’s US arm rejected the notion that core gamers would not be satisfied with the company’s newly announced titles, reports CVG.
"How could you feel left out?” Fils-Aime said. “The Animal Crossing that we've been hearing about that people wanted. Fully connected to the Internet, go to other people's towns. Plus, as I said, Grand Theft Auto on the DS. How do you feel left out with those types of announcements?”
Also announced this week for release on Nintendo platforms were Wii Music, a Pokemon Ranger DS sequel and a US version of Cooking Navi, titles one wouldn’t necessarily associate with the core gamer.
However, Fils-Aime did reiterate Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata’s comments that the company’s internal Mario and Zelda teams are “both hard at work” readying titles for the Wii.
"Make no mistake, Mr. Iwata said quite clearly: Mario teams, Zelda teams are working, they're bringing product out for Wii this generation," he said. "We're going to continue to bring all our best franchises to both of our key platforms and continue driving that experience both core as well as brand new consumers."
Alfie,
Nintendo went from fame at being the biggest platform in gaming to shame for forcing stores not to carry competitors products, screwing over contractors and sticking with pricey cartridges because you had a hefty profit margin because you fabbed them.
These things led to the perfect storm of (perhaps) muted consumer ire, the contractor releasing their own gaming platform and said platform offering games that offered developers a much higher profit margin.
When Nintendo forced developers to go to other platforms, they drove off the gamers with them. Thus Nintendo entered their "buy the Nintendo console for it's two good games" phase.
It's arguable whether or not they've even recovered yet because of the percentage of games coming out that honestly, most people wish hadn't.
To suggest that Nintendo was only doing their best when they released a purple game console with a handle is disingenuous as well.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Core gamers deserted Nintendo before Nintendo deserted them. After Sega was forced to bow out of the hardware business with the Dreamcast, Nintendo would have quickly gone the same way if it hadn't dramatically changed its gameplan in the way it did. The Gamecube felt like the console of a dying company despite offering fresh takes on the Mario, Zelda and Metroid franchises and new IP.
Again with Wii and DS we've already been given new Mario, Zelda and Metroid releases, it's just that Nintendo's new target audience is one that can not only keep it in the race but lead it. Things could have been much worse for us with both these formats when you consider Nintendo no longer needs us. Sure there wasn't much from Nintendo to please core gamers at E3, but there wasn't all that much to get the newcomers off their balance boards and away from Dr Kawashima. It was simply a bad conference.
Reggie probably doesn't give a crap about core gamers, because they're all playing Xbox 360s and PS3s anyways. Why put time and effort into making a lot of games for a demographic that's not buying your products? They make games for the people who actually DO buy their products.
It's clear by reading this, or any other gaming site, that most core gamers have already written off the Wii, why peddle to them then?
Core games? Where are the new games period?
First off, there was *nothing* announced for the "core" gamers. There was just a side interview with mention that Nintendo will still, eventually, churn out more Mario/Zelda games. I'm glad there will be yet another Animal Crossing, but it's not a new gaming experience.
Second, for all of Nintendo's "innovation" of hardware (which really just requires purchase of more and more peripherals - including one to make the Wii remote be accurate,) it didn't bring anything new, much less innovative, to the software side of things.
For all intents and purposes, Nintendo could have grabbed the names of fifty random games, tossed them in a hat, randomly pulled out five of them, and decided to re-release them, just with (forced?) Wii remote functionality. Is the Wii a game console or a hardware console? I'm definitely missing the former...
As of right now, I cannot think of a single game I want to buy for my Wii in the next year...
I know I can't think of anything more likely to appeal to core gamers than Call of Duty with two buttons. You don't need to do anything other than fire and jump, do you?
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Agreed Nintendo needs a game with a little more meat and subsistence, not one of the best announcement is Animal Crossing for the Wii. I mean we all love our DS lites but I wouldn't say any of those games except Zelda and Mario appeased the "gamer" crowd. A new Mario or Zelda game would definitely bring the house down, or maybe, dare I say, a new overhauled MegaMan game! (with 2008 graphics please, no retro remakes)
Well I guess for now we just have to keep being entertained by uncoordinated people throwing out their arms on Wii baseball....and family Wii night...uggh....lol
I really don't understand what all the bitching is about to be honest. Just because Nintendo didn't highlight any core games during the press conference doesn't mean what we already know about has disappeared into thin air. We know for a fact that Fatal Frame IV, Arc Rise Fantasia, Rune Factory, Dead Rising, The Conduit, Call of Duty: WaW, Deadly Creatures, Tales of Symphonia: DotNW, Tenchu IV, another "mothership" Tales game, Monster Hunter 3, etc. are coming very soon. From a mass market standpoint, Wii Sports 2 is HUGE, so is Animal Crossing and the fact that we finally get voice chat. It's games like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, and Wii Music that will have the Wii selling at or over 600k units each month in NPDs. The core/hardcore gaming niche is SMALL... ever seen Sony and Microsoft's financial earnings for their game divisions? Core Wii gamers have plenty to be excited about., Nintendo didn't show off much for us in their press conference, but they don't need to. They know exactly what they're doing.
Are you excited by any of the games you mentioned? Ok, The Conduit looks promising, but other than that one... Funny you forgot to mention MadWorld (the 'other' 'core' Wii game).
But how can you say Nintendo know what their doing? This is E3, not some House & Garden event. E3 has always been a 'core gamer' event, no? Then again, does anyone know what the point behind this year's E3 was?
I certainly don't believe that statement. Not when you announce Rayman Ravving Rabbids 3, Animal Crossing N64 v4, WiiMusic, WiiSports without the Sports, and a small array of fairly uninteresting 3rd party games for family get-togethers. GTA could have saved them a little if they showed some of it off, other than a stupid logo. But no, not even a trailer to wet our appetites. Nintendo needs to visit the Sony conference to see what it means to appease core gamers. One or two games isn't going to do anything, other than make you look bad when you say stupid shit like that.
Has Reggie lost his marbles? He must realize that the 'core' is not going to be happy with something like Animal Crossing. Maybe as a dessert after a new Zelda or Kid Icarus, but certainly not as a main course.