Nintendo "troubled" by "insatiable" gaming community

Nintendo "troubled" by "insatiable" gaming community

Mon 25 Jun 2012 4:52pm GMT / 12:52pm EDT / 9:52am PDT
Business

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime laments gamers' constant lust for content

Nintendo of America

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime took some time during E3 to talk about the challenges of dealing with an increasingly growing gaming audience, one that has more or less grown up on Nintendo systems. With gamers continuing to want more and more titles from franchises, Fils-Aime simply believes that gamers will simply never be satisfied.

Going so far as to say that the trend is rather 'troubling,' Fils-Aime remarked to Kotaku that he is worried that announcements like consoles and next-gen games are just not enough for the crowd. "One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles me tremendously about not only our fanbase but about the gaming community at large is that, whenever you share 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?'"

Many have pushed back at Nintendo for what was perceived as a lackluster showing from the company. A new console and multiple new titles did little to sway the core gaming opinion that Nintendo simply didn't 'wow' the crowd at E3 2012.

"They say, 'Ho-hum, give me more.' So it's an interesting challenge," Fils-Aime said.

Of course, Fils-Aime doesn't deny that their titles have been selling stupendously well at market. The Wii, which has the most console sales this generation, has been a massive hit for a company that is only recently seeing the kinds of sales problems that have been affecting Microsoft and Sony.

Gamers are simply expecting something different from Nintendo, not more of the same from titles like Wii Fit, it is pointed out. Regardless, Fils-Aime pushes back, insisting that 43 million units sold is "a phenomenon."

"I would argue that the gaming community actually is unable to differentiate between a phenomenon and something that is 'ho-hum… Until they play it. Until they experience it. Until their friends and their non-gaming associates say, 'Hey, have you seen X?'"

17 Comments

Christopher Bowen
Editor in Chief

Gaming Bus

Thank God Reggie finally called a spade a spade.

Posted:10 months ago

#1

Kevin Patterson
musician

I don't understand why you don't get it Reggie, what Nintendo fans wanted was a 3D Mario or Zelda title at launch, give us that and we would have been happy. I don't know any Nintendo fan that hasn't been dying for a true Super Mario 64 sequel/reboot, or a Zelda like the concept demo you showed at the first look at the Wii-u. Saying that were insatiable is dismissing your fans as unpleaseable and that is hardly the case.

Nintendoland and Pikimin look great, but they don't hold a candle to the desire for an HD Mario or Zelda. New IP at a consoles launch would have been nice too.

I was eagerly awaiting Nintendo's Wii-u debut and was very disappointed. I didn't see a reason why I have to own a Wii-u and I wanted that. The crowd at E3 evidently felt the same, the crowd acted underwhelmed at the end of the E3 conference.

Posted:10 months ago

#2

Doug Paras

The problem KEvin is they only just released a major Zelda game and they usually take what 2-3 years to develop. They are going to be releasing a 3D MArio game aswell as 2 mario and mario related games for WiiU.

Posted:10 months ago

#3

Kingman Cheng
Illustrator and Animator

I've met Reggie and he's a fantastic guy, but it's a bit disheartening to hear this. Especially after they said that they know they need to focus more on software, lessons supposedly learnt after the 3DS. I don't think the WiiU is a bad bit of tech at all but if you can hear that the fans want more top titles, and you're saying 'We gave you a couple, isn't that enough?', it's not really pleasing your fans. A couple more first party titles to show off would have done a lot more good than damage.

Posted:10 months ago

#4

Tynan Muddle
Writer

You know, it's more the journalists and "news bloggers" than the fans. Fans love Pikmin 3, and the Wii U. The gaming media, on the other hand...

Posted:10 months ago

#5

Bruce Everiss

Very good marketing positioning.

In a nice way he is saying that the critics are wrong.

Posted:10 months ago

#6

Antony Cain
Lecturer in Games Development

Lancaster and Morecambe College

What Tynan said

As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, there will be a big Zelda game on the Wii U. There will be a big 3D Mario game, there will be a Mario Kart...

What Nintendo folk need (the bulk of people who buy Nintendo products, not the vocal fraction that are big Zelda fans) is the Wii Sports/Wii Play/Brain Training/Nintendogs/Layton equivalents that define the system. Mario and Link didn't make the Wii or the DS - although the little guy did help the 3DS, I admit, but then the 3DS was missing the "Ahhh that's what it does" game from launch, too.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Antony Cain on 26th June 2012 9:25am

Posted:10 months ago

#7

Kingman Cheng
Illustrator and Animator

I agree Antony but a little boost for launch wouldn't hurt surely? :)

Posted:10 months ago

#8

Antony Cain
Lecturer in Games Development

Lancaster and Morecambe College

I wouldn't have begrudged a 5 second fade to black of Link's face doing the slow-mo Hollywood look up at the end of their set to be fair ;)

I know it's coming though, so I won't lose any sleep

Posted:10 months ago

#9

Kingman Cheng
Illustrator and Animator

Haha sure it probably just won't be a launch day grab for me. :)

Posted:10 months ago

#10

James Prendergast
Freelance

"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?'"

Isn't that just a case of responding too slowly? Ask me what I want for breakfast and don't be surprised if I complain when you try to serve it to me for dinner.

Posted:10 months ago

#11

David Radd
Senior Editor

IndustryGamers

Perhaps the problem with Pikmin 3 was, after roughly eight years after the last Pikmin game, it didn't look too radically different. Granted they probably weren't going to completely change it, but it still looks something that could have come to Wii (other than the tablet controls). New Super Mario Bros. U also looked like it could be a Wii game other than the tablet controls and the social features they're baking into it. Nintendo Land is built from the ground up for the Wii U and has some interesting asymmetric gameplay... but that kind of a mini-game compilation is not the sort of thing that's going to excite most core gamers following E3; same with SiNG and Wii Fit U.

Perhaps core gamers were looking for something that proved that Wii U had greater graphical capabilities than the Xbox 360/PS3. Barring that, maybe they wanted something that was at least a graphical showcase for the system from Nintendo - whether you're excited about the above titles or not, it's hard to argue that any of them are this. More than a few people had specific expectations of a new 3D Zelda or Mario game; again, no dice. Finally, some people were maybe looking for something different, something they maybe can't define very well but is unexpected - a surprise from Nintendo, and I don't think many people thought they had that.

People fundamentally wanted to believe there would be something there that would validate their purchase of a Wii U this holiday season and, I think, for many they came up empty handed.

Posted:10 months ago

#12

Dan Howdle
Editor - X360 Magazine

Imagine Publishing

I was absolutely, unquestioningly ready to buy myself a new console this Christmas. At least, I was until Nintendo spent two hours talking me out of it.

Posted:10 months ago

#13

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

David, I think you touched on the issue a little. Their E3 presentation was largely aimed at current Wii owners. That's why games like Batman were highlighted. They were targeting people that don't own a PS3 or X360. I'll grant that's not the best tactic to take with E3 but it does explain their presentation. And when you look at from that perspective, it was a decent presentation. They say they plan to have other events that will appeal more to the core PS3 and X360 fans later but we'll see if they hold to that word.

Dan, it was only a 1 hour show. But that in itself was part of the problem. There wasn't enough time to showcase things outside the Wii only crowd they were targeting.

Posted:10 months ago

#14

Christopher Bowen
Editor in Chief

Gaming Bus

@Kingman and others: actually, this is kind of the point. One line is about "it's not really pleasing your fans". Isn't that Reggie's ultimate point? His fans are completely insatiable, a word that should only be used to describe Marilyn Chambers. You can't please them anymore because they don't know what they want anymore.

Posted:10 months ago

#15

Greg Wilcox
Creator, Destroy All Fanboys!

@Jimmy: I've been saying that since the conference. Nintendo isn't targeting the jaded press out there or folks who've played the games they showed already on their PS3 and 360. That said, they really needed to do something outside of preach to the choir and expect the games media to not want to be knocked out of their seats by a bigger announcement post-conference that could have made for a nice reveal. Or whatever, as at this point, they could have shown off a new Zelda game and someone writing about it would be griping about SOMETHING not being "right" about it...

Posted:10 months ago

#16

John Owens
CEO

Wee Man Studios Ltd

The problem with Nintendo presentations is that you can't play the games they're showing. Only until you get hands on can you appreciate where Nintendo are coming from rather than being blown away by technically fantastic graphics.

Posted:10 months ago

#17

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