Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is worried that the video game community is simply insatiable, and no matter what the publisher reveals in the future, gamers will never be fully satisfied.
Fils-Aime made his comments to Kotaku shortly after Nintendo's E3 conference earlier this month. When questioned about the lack of new Wii U announcements during the show, Fils-Aime admitted that he was troubled by the response he had received from gamers.
"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," he said.
He continued, "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?'"
He added that the same situation has arisen from Nintendo's inclusion of a Mario game at the launch of the Wii U, and with the announcement of Nintendo Land -- notes Fils-Aime, "they say, 'Ho-hum, give me more.' So it's an interesting challenge."
The key, he says, is for gamers to try the games before forming opinions. For example, he notes that while Wii Fit did not receive a great reaction when it was first announced, it then went on to sell 43 million copies worldwide.
He finishes, "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?'"
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just sayin' =)
What did I want from the WiiU launch? Call it Metroid Omega - a FPS+Action/Adventure/Exploration game utilizing the amazing gamepad that allows players to create their own character to join Samus and other Hunters on a amazing journey into... [YES Reggie, I have a story treatment for this game - hit me up!]
I'm just as guilty as other fans, considering I recently laid into Nintendo for a sucktastic E3 presence. http://inlandstudios.com/en/?p=1666
Still, I get where he's coming from and I think it's definitely starting to weigh on him. I saw an interview with him on Gametrailers.com just after the E3 presser and you could see the frustration in his eyes as Geoff Keighley basically told him to his face on live TV that, with those titles shown on stage, WiiU has an uphill climb. I'm not generally a fan of Keighley but that was pretty ballsy.
More recently, I've started to see a trickle of good titles planned for this holiday season. It makes me wonder why none of this was mentioned at E3 but I am glad to see Nintendo starting to show a strong push for 3DS this holiday. The jury is still out on WiiU though.
Announcing a console that will be underpowered for the impending generation of games is a disappointment. Doing a bad job of selling the screen controller for the Wii U is a disappointment. The absence of most of Nintendo's franchises is a disappointment. Continued focus on their already-lost market of casual gamers is a disappointment. These things are disappointing because we want them to knock it out of the park and are saddened when they don't, not because we're a homogenous blob of entitled jerks who don't know a good thing when they see it.
The sound you're hearing is the legion of fans who grew up with an NES or SNES and want you to return to those glory days.
I would argue that Mr. Fils-Aime is getting a bit burnt out, and maybe ought to step back and reassess what it is his company hopes to accomplish.
i also have to agree on your comment about the super mario game i agree the last few mario games looked exactly the same i played the super mario wii and DS etc. they all look exactly the same i saw no real upgrade to the game i mean i love the classic mario 2D side scroll feel but change it up a bit nintendo :/
mario 3D land was a good example of change which i enjoyed.
but like i said most people thought E3 was a disappointment because almost nothing new was announced, sorry reggie but you should have shown the stuff we wanted to see instead of some stuff no one really cared about.
I generally agree with what Reggie is saying, though. Look at the general reactions from people when the pro gamepad was revealed. Instead of being happy that we're getting a standard controller, people are pointing out that it looks a lot like the 360 controller, or that the right stick is in the "wrong" position. There are many cases where Nintendo is put into a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" situation, so I always take a wait-and-see approach to everything. If you write off something immediately, you might miss out on something great.
They even did overtime(ie Nintendo Direct) to show more of the same. Yes they brought Mario, but they were basically 2 of the same sidescrolling Mario games...yes they sell a lot...but I think people would have bene more interested in a new concept---like Galaxy blew my pants off when it came out....More sidescrolling...yeah...not so much.
The new Pikmin---it was an incredible addition to the conference, but becuase it's not a game that appeals to the masses, there needed to be more.
I think the big crapstain all over E3 Nintendo conference was Nintendoland---yes it looks like it could be fun for 5 minutes or maybe an hour in a group---but fuck---if you want to relive the Wiisports phenomenon---well it ain't gonna happen. Nintendoland just seems like a "throw-in" game that there isn't much special about it.
And I guess that's what E3 came down to in my mind---Nothing Special.
Yes, there were good games, but there were many games that we already knew about, there were games that are being ported, there are games that are just rehashed....Nintendo used to be the company, in my mind, that brought fresh thinking to the table...but I think they are losing steam in one way or another---maybe not in terms of software or hardware...but presentation was god awful.
dont get me wrong i love the ideas that wii u has to offer it does fix multiple problems like they said being able to switch from tv to the game pad is good for families that share a tv and one problem is when you are kicked off the tv so someone else can watch it, and you finaly included a web browser and flash player to play youtube videos and such thats good most people want web browsing. its nice to see the graphics improve dbut only to current gen graphics while the next xbox and playstation will leave you behind and can probably add the same features you just made later. :(
Nintendo's been pushing out quality "Disney movies" for the whole family for quite some time now. Maybe some people are getting tired of it?
If I didn't have a young kid, Nintendo wouldn't look very attractive. One of the best games I played on the Wii was Cursed Mountain of all things. I'm about as diverse as you can get, I guess.
That said, I'm still pumped for the Wii U. Brilliant idea, but I can't get any more excited about it... no matter how many Pikmin they throw at me. ;-)
Also we need use a little common sense. Something people on the internet never use. Zelda just came out last year. Nintendo is not Sony who can make 3 Uncharted games in 6 years. You get one new Zelda every 5 years. Hell it took 9 years to get 3 2D Mario games. So people really need to think before they start complaining about not having anything. Nintendo has a way they do things when it comes to releasing games. If Nintendo start bringing out games at the rate Sony does. All we would have would be games that under achieve at retail.
What could 5th Cell do with Zelda? What could ThatGameCompany do with Metroid?
What about Wii Music and Wii Fit on the Wii? Both were new and both were definitely fresh.
On the DS come Nintendogs and Brain Age to my mind, when I think of new and fresh IPs.
I agree, the 3DS lacks new IPs so far, but the a spectacular new Kid Icarus game, a complete reimagination of a franchise Nintendo hasn't touched in more then 10 years, is, at least in my opinion, as fresh as Mario64 or Ocarina of Time were on the N64 or Metroid Prime on the GC.
The issue is that people like Nintendo still care about opinions on the internet. Like the forums. RARELY does it happen that you get civilized conversations and intelligent people on public forums.
Back in the day you'd write an actual letter to Nintendo, so people had a chance to read it back to themselves and realize how stupid they are. Nowdays you just bash on the keyboard and hit submit.
Also, everybody are on the internet, and again it's so easy to post, it's like Nintendo suddenly realized that you can't please everybody and that everybody like something else.
They should just look at the figures and see that people are buying their games. The thing is that, any "uproar" that happens on the internet is like 10% of people that actually spend time crying on forums and then there's the 90% that are happy. It's like this with any game.
A shame, you miss one of the best games for the 3DS, it plays very different from Metroid Prime Hunters, because of the stand, but that only on a side note.
You are right, all new franchises I mentioned are most probably not for core gamers, but I didn't understand Reggie's words as being about "core" gamers, but about gamers in general, but that may depend in interpretation.
No theatrics or climax or buildup, felt very corporate.
Let's go over Nintendo's "competition," who we'll call "Apple" for the sake of argument. Apple is a company that spends minuscule amounts on R&D. It almost never brings a new feature that its competitors have not already tried to sell. And yet Apple's "existing technology, Apple logo" conferences never cease to attract praise from its fans.
What I'm seeing that Nintendo isn't offering has little to do with new products, and even less to do with innovation. Gamers and consumers will clamor insatiably as Reggie has noticed, because what they want isn't the truth, they want a *show*. It is a pity that we are fickle creatures who want stage and spectacle, and somehow our complaints against Nintendo are about substance. People went crazy over the horseback fighting in Twilight Princess, people could never shake their doubts of Skyward Sword's 1:1 control scheme, and no one was impressed but many, many people seem to have bought Wii Fit.
The first mistake in giving people what they want, frankly, is thinking they know what they want. And I respect Nintendo for listening closely, but also trusting its gut. I think they know what they're doing and I would rather behold their brilliance instead of stifle it with my misguided demands.
I understand why fans want specific things from Nintendo but catering to those whims just undermines their own creativity. That's why Zelda has been underwhelming at times: they keep trying to please people who only want to play Ocarina of Time again.
I also think Zelda is overdue for another 2D top down adventure.
But I'm just one gamer.
If you went by these people, then the Wii should have tanked hard, the PS3 would be the best selling console in the world, and Microsoft would likely be out of the game business entirely by now.
Personally, I didn't like this years's E3, but it wasn't just Nintendo. It was the simple fact that there was nothing I learned or saw that really made me excited. However, that doesn't mean that the Wii U will succeed or fail really. Given behavior in the current generation, and previous generation, I think its hard to figure out right now. Both the PS2, and the Wii did incredibly well for a long time even being under powered for their generation.
I suspect that if Nintendo does fail this time around, it won't be because Sony or Microsoft succeeded, but because of other vendors coming out with new and more interesting stuff.
One last comment about people wanting new game types and play. I've been following games since the mid 80s, and in doing so it has been my experience that the company that generally does the best is not the one that comes out with a new thing, but the one that takes that new thing and improves upon it by merging it into the current mainstream. So saying that Nintendo/MS/Sony didn't come out with something new is silly. Those new things usually come out from startups/indies, and then get merged into the mainstream later.
And Rare games haven't done that well on the 360.
Have you played Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby-Magic Yarn or Kid Icarus:Uprising? These three games were prime examples of taking an established franchise and make a game in an interesting and new way.
"Golden Eye 64 was one of my all time favorite games, Nintendo should have bought Rare back then and developed that game and games like it to broaden their appeal."
When I look at what Rare does today, I have the impression the people responsible for anything interesting are long gone. Besides doing another head shot FPS would be the opposite of what I think would "broaden their appeal".
They obviously hated to change their original layout to what later became Star Fox Adventures-
seriously, reggie is in full whine mode. it's the insatiable appetite of game consumers that drives this business. if not, we'd all still be playing mario on nes for the billionth time.
if someone at nintendo believes pikman is a console seller well then good for them. i hope they clear up the popular notion that the wii u controller is not an add-on to the wii before launch.
Besides, Nintendo wasn't explicit in trying to bring in people who don't give two drops of urine about Earthbound and Mario. They wanted games that didn't just fill the charts for one month and disappear. (and yet, that's totally health for the industry?) They can't just cater to the 'core' gamers. It sure as hell didn't work for the Dreamcast and Sega.
Essentially, game culture early adopters have created a culture of shredding the hand that feeds them to the bone, then moving on to the next piranha swarm.
I think what was said above is actually pretty mild.
Nintendo Land is a new IP.
I can't comment on Pikmin, because I never was able to make time to play or get into the game. But I am rather disappointed with the fact that the new Mario game for both 3DS and WiiU look exactly the same as the NewSMB on the original DS... and still using the same 3-second audio loop in the background for everything. Gameplay changed a bit, sure, but.. while we can't obviously tell without having gone to E3, first impressions do not show a game that has enough going for it to excite me.
And therein lies the rub. They showed a lot of stuff, but none of it was a "OH MY GOD I GOTTA HAVE IT!" going for it. I'm still upset that Saint's Row on 3DS got cancelled... and have still yet to see anything that absolutely made me want a system like that. ZombiU was about the best looking and interesting thing I could come away with from E3, but almost nothing shown from nintendo itself was enough to warrant a purchase right away.
Pikmin was probably the only thing that people might not have expected before hand. Announcing Netflix doesn't get me to say, "WOW" it gets me to say, "It's about time," same for the controller. Mario will probably be a good game, but I think, "yea... I'm sure it'll be good," not, "FINALLY A NEW MARIO!"
It was nice to see high quality ports of existing games, but there were no new ips to launch the wiiU with. "Our big announcement is... A COUPLE YEAR OLD GAMES!" falls flat too.
That's the much larger problem. All of their announcements fell flat. Nothing really generated any excitement. Even with a lot of the content being there to potentially pull off a good show it felt more like a, "Hey, we're finally on par with consoles that have been out for 6 years!" rather than, "Look at all this awesome stuff we have!"
The main problem is simply that one should not be focused on "satisfying" (funny that the Latin "satis fecit" means "doing enough") users, but rather should strive to "blow their mind", then they should be satisfied.
With the same games over and over, a slightly underpowered new console to come, it does seem like a company trying to do just enough.
I'd say aim a bit higher if you actually want to satisfy in the end.
AAA Game Companies are afraid to experiment/invent because we keep buying "generic first person shooter version XY"
I'll say it right now that I'm a Nintendo fan and I'll be getting the U, while ignoring any new consoles (I have a PS3 and I feel there's nothing else you can add to make me spend more money, Nintendo at least has an excuse for a new hardware).
Trying to please the hardcore gamer crowd, have proven not to be necessary. Nintendo became big by appealing to children. Those children have grown up. They can try to appeal to the adult, but they'll be safe being a toy company. For kids and teenagers, Mario will still be new and familiar and will lean to those, while allowing to keep up with the 360 and PS3.
I believe it's unfair to expect more from Nintendo, because they have never disappointed me. Every thing they bring out have a great amount of consideration. I can see it as them very effectively beating a dead horse, but it's still moving.
I think there is still more you can do with the wiimote and a the tv DS touch screen. They're going to try to focus on game mechanics, using familiar franchises, giving a new step for the people behind