In a recent interview with Industry Gamers, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime discussed how Nintendo are encouraging third-party titles on the Wii, what he thinks about so many devs moving to the 360 and PS3 consoles, and why he believes games such as Bioshock 2 and Dante's Inferno aren't going to pay off their investment.

While Nintendo continues to do phenomenally well with the Wii, it does seem that since last fall publishers have been reallocating resources towards PS3 and 360, especially when it comes to core games. We asked Reggie how Nintendo is addressing that situation, and how Nintendo might help out third parties.

"Let me answer the question two different ways. First, as a platform holder our responsibility is to create a large installed base for developers to create content, to provide them with the tools and the insight to help them create great games, and to have in place a profit model that motivates them to create the content and reap the rewards. We've done that; global installed base is over 67 million for Wii and there are 120 million in the DS family. So there's a large installed base, an easy platform to develop for and a strong set of tools out there," Reggie began.

Reggie also questioned the long-term sales curve of the so-called core games. "On the other hand, the interesting thing about this business is that developers love to create technically advanced games, and very visually stunning games, but the fact of the matter is not all of that content is selling exceptionally well either," he said.
"Look at the most recent NPD results. I'm not sure how much was invested into a game like Dante's Inferno, or how much is invested into a game like BioShock 2, but if that sales level is the best that they will do in a particular month, and it'll fall off rapidly from there, then those games aren't going to pay off their investment.

That said, we decided to play devil's advocate with Reggie. Since the installed base is there, from a business standpoint, Nintendo is doing very well and the hardware and software from Nintendo continue to sell. The casual consumer that makes up the majority of the installed base probably only buys a few games a year and is very happy with the Nintendo games that are developed for the platform. And so, the third parties can go do whatever... why should Nintendo care?

Reggie responded, acknowledging that Nintendo absolutely has to continue courting developers for core content: "Well, luckily we don't have that mentality. For us, it is important that third parties bring their very best content to our platform. You could say 'Why?' It's because... well, let me focus in on the West. There are 28 million Wiis out there in the marketplace. We know, based on our data, that we've got consumers from 5 to 95 playing on our platform. The fact of the matter is we know we create great content for younger consumers, we know we've got great content for more casual players, and we want fantastic content for that more active player who loves Metroid or Zelda but maybe also wants something like a BioShock 2 to play as well. And we also recognize that we don't create that type of content ourselves. We're not good at it and it's not a key focus area. So we want that content on our platform, so we have to court third-party developers and encourage them to make [those games], but it also has to be financially viable for them as well."

Miss Razz via industrygamers.com »