Fils-Aime points out that while hardware sales are down, software sales will be big this year and next. The record year of 2008 is very difficult to overlap.

"I look at our performance and see it's right on track with where we believed it would be," Fils-Aime tells Bloomberg. "What we are seeing today is a strong momentum for hardware and software. Profitability in this industry is in software."

Fils-Aime sees this year and next year the software peak for the industry. "This industry is cyclical in that a system's sales peak in the third calendar year," he adds. "The fact that we've seen a decline year on year is standard."

What was not standard was Nintendo's incredibly strong sales of 2008. "The record year of 2008 is very difficult to overlap," the Nintendo exec concedes. That year, it seems, is how Nintendo's success is currently being judged — an unfair and unrealistic metric for comparison.

Nintendo Sees Strong Demand for Year-End Game Sales in U.S. and Nintendo Drags U.S. Video-Game Market Lower as Wii Sales Slump [Bloomberg via GoNintendo]

At a BMO Capital Markets event for game companies and investors earlier this month, Reggie Fils-Aime presented two slides that, based on Nintendo of America research, put the population of female "primary players" of home consoles at roughly a third of the population of their male counterparts.

These "primary players" are the main users of consoles in their homes, he explained.

Of course, Fils-Aime brought this up in order to demonstrate how much of that market is dominated by female Nintendo console-owners: 80% or, roughly, nine million.

"This didn't happen by accident," he said during his presentation. "It's the result of a deliberate attempt to expand the market."

Fils-Aime and I had been discussing the shorter hype cycles Nintendo has been using for games such as The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The Nintendo executive told me he hasn't seen Nintendo's short hype cycles hurting sales of the company's games, noting that Wii Sports Resort sold almost two million copies since its July launch despite the company keeping quiet about most of the game's details until the month before its launch. (The game had been shown a year before, but few details had been offered in the intervening 12 months.)

I mentioned to Fils-Aime that I've seen Kotaku readers lament that Nintendo's short promotional cycles might be hurting smaller Wii games. The short strategy seemed to not offer much of a boost for lower-profile titles, such as Metriod Prime Trilogy, Fire Emblem or Battalion Wars, which haven't sold close to the millions of a Wii Sports Resort. The complaint, I conveyed, was that Nintendo hadn't tried to push those games.

"I'm not satisfied with the volumes that we do on a Fire Emblem, for example, or a Battalion Wars," Fils-Aime responded. "These are high-quality games that I have challenged the team to think about: How do we up our marketing on these types of titles to do a more effective job?

"And I think you are going to see that more with a title like [2010 Wii shooter] Sin & Punishment 2, where it is much more targeted to the active gamer. It is a title that I believe we need to do a better job getting out in front of." (That's Sin & Punishment 2 pictured atop this post.)

Fils-Aime cited the company's new Nintendo Week 12-minute weekly video shows as one way to get more information out.

Curious about other things Nintendo has been quiet about, I asked for an update on the MotionPlus add-on which launched in June, enjoyed some third-party support then but has only had one Nintendo-made game, July's Wii Sports Resort, released for it since then. I asked: Is this the roll-out you guys planned?

"Our hope was that Red Steel 2 would have launched in this holiday season," Fils-Aime said, referring to Ubisoft's now-2010 first-person shooter/swordplay game. "That's a title that we had always looked at to be a key part of the strategy to drive the installed base of Wii MotionPlus. Having said that, even without the benefit of that launch, we've sold over four million at this point in time. That's a very strong start."

Fils-Aime confirmed that Nintendo is developing games that use MotionPlus, but did not detail them.

And what of Nintendo's next major add-on, the Vitality Sensor? The device, which reads biometric data from a person's finger, debuted at E3 in June, but Nintendo has yet to explain the kinds of games or software the company will release with it.

No news on that yet, Fils-Aime said, offering only "E3 2010" as a timeframe for more. "We will show off the Vitality Sensor with software [at the show]."

I asked: Would that include games?

"I'm not going to give you any more hints beyond that."

During my recent interview with Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's president, we got to talking about a so-called Wii HD by way of talking about his appearance last week at an event featuring presentations by top executives of gaming companies. Top men from Activision and Ubisoft showed trailers for the complexly-rendered Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed. Neither game is slated to be released on the Wii, coming out only on more powerful platforms, such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

I asked Fils-Aime what he, as someone who wants his console to do the best, thought of that.

"I'm extremely disappointed," he said. "I've had this conversation with every publisher who makes content that is not available on my platform. The conversation goes like this: 'We have a 22-million unit installed base. We have a very diverse audience… We have active gamers that hunger for this type of content. And why isn't it available?'"

I told him that I assumed that technology was still a formidable obstacle. While Nintendo boasts that Resident Evil 4 and Call of Duty World at War each sold well over a million copies on the Wii, it seemed to me that more recent games, such as a Grand Theft Auto IV or an Assassin's Creed 2 just wouldn't be able to function on the console, given its level of horsepower.

"I think for those games, typically decisions are being made two years prior," Fils-Aime said. "And so the decisions two years ago were that those types of games would not be effective on the platform. But we've shown that that's just not the case. High-quality, effectively marketed against our installed base will sell, period end of story."

It seemed, I suggested, that a more powerful Wii would help.

I observed that even Nintendo's engineers and execs were discussing the prospects of the company getting into the business of making an HD-compatible console at a recent investors' event in Japan. And I mentioned that people like games financial analyst Michael Pachter and Game Trailers TV host Geoff Keighley had openly speculated that building a more powerful Wii that could do HD and the games that are made to that standard would seemingly check off the last box where Nintendo didn't have parity with the other console makers.

Fils-Aime and I weren't seeing things the same way.

He said: "The fundamental issue in the logic flow is that — and this is what I'm hearing, whether it's from you or Geoff or Michael himself — is that, gosh it's such an opportunity to take HD capability and link it with the Wii. And what we have said, repeatedly, is that that's not the way we at Nintendo do things. The way we at Nintendo do things is, you know, when we will move to a new generation, it's because there are some fundamental things the [current] console cannot do. What that says is that simply the addition of HD capability will not be the next step for us. There will be more to it. There will be additional capability. There will be additional elements, and, given that, it is far into the future."

In jest, I replied: "So, no new Wii in 2010?"

Fils-Aime: "Not to announce with you here today."

Last Friday, Reggie Fils-Aime sat with Kotaku and got to discuss the unusual: Releases, within a month of each other, of new games in his company's two star series (no offense, Pokemon).

The Mario hype train was already trundling along by the time we spoke, charging through a Sunday release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game Nintendo is marketing heavily as a four-player twist to the most classic of its video game franchises.

Fils-Aime, who chatted with me in his suite at New York's Waldorf Astoria, was ebullient. "I really do believe that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will satisfy even your most jaded, even your most competitive player," he said. "I'll tell you, there's nothing like playing New Super Mario Bros. with three of your friends. You're picking each other up and throwing each other into the lava pits and the crevasse. This game is the most fun."

The biggest concerns I had seen from Kotaku readers prior to the game's release has been among those who believe their lives don't allow for co-op shared-couch Mario adventuring. They'd either have to play the game alone or lament its lack of online play.

Fils-Aime maintained that the game is "superb" for single-players, but he admitted desire for online options. Nintendo's multiplayer racing and fighting series, Mario Kart and Smash Bros., did have online on the Wii. New Super Mario is the odd one out.

"This was a decision made purely by the developers," he said. "They believe this experience, in the same room, to be elbowing your friends and family members as you're playing the game [is ideal]. It was really their decision. I personally would have loved for it to be online capable as well, but having played the game, I really can't fault it for not being online multiplayer."

In just a few weeks Nintendo will release a Zelda game as well: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Fils-Aime refers to it as the game he is "personally looking forward to most this holiday season." Despite that enthusiasm it's among the Zelda games Nintendo has kept most quiet about. The company announced it in March, showed it at E3 in early June but offered little news about the game since, before publicizing in recent weeks that hero Link would spend this adventure alongside an active Princess Zelda this time.

Why keep so quiet about this game for so long?

"We believe that to tease fans over an extended period of time really doesn't do the gamer just service," he said. "So, we have always been mindful of: When's the launch date? When's the right time to share information? How do we break information? In particular, with this game, given the Zelda dynamic — which you find out about right at the start of the game — we really wanted to keep that secret and have it be a big reveal. That is something very new and very different in a Zelda game, [having] Princess Zelda essentially playing along with you. That's essentially what drove the strategy for how we reveal the information, when do we reveal the information and the fact that it had to be fairly late."

I related to Fils-Aime the discussion that the blog Press The Buttons started regarding the different box art for Spirit Tracks in Europe, Japan and America. For the American gamer, the box is darker and Link looks a bit tougher than he does on the package being sold in other regions.

"We just thought the package art we developed with [Nintendo's Japanese headquarters office] NCL that highlights the train and highlights the Phantom… was a great representation of the game," he said. Does it show that Americans want a tougher, more aggressive Link? "Not at all," he replied. But he did note that he was proud that Zelda sells more copies these days in the U.S. than in other regions, meaning Japan and Europe.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is in stores for the Wii now. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will be released in North America on December 7 for the Nintendo DS. (And if Pokemon fans are feeling left out, a new downloadable Pokemon game is out today.)

Drone Confusion: Last week, right here in Notebook Dump, I posted about Mass Effect 2's helper drones, having held that information out of an earlier preview until I had gotten some details in my notebook confirmed. Turns out that the confirmation I got from BioWare and EA wasn't quite on the money. Thankfully, one of the game's top designers dropped me a line to clear things up. So Dumpers, head on back to last week's updated entry to find out the proper details on the ME2 drones.

FOX'd: The Fox News network made some news on Kotaku due to how they covered the terrorism level of Modern Warfare 2 (the most troubling thing for me was that they didn't even talk about that topic for most of the segment). Later in the week, I showed up on MSNBC to talk about the same stuff. But did you know I made it to Fox today, as well? I was on their online show, with a less skeptical crew. We talked Mario as well. I'd share a link if I could find one. I was on the 11/13 episode of Gadgets and Games. It streamed live here but doesn't seem to have hit the archives yet.

What Reggie's Playing: I interviewed Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime today and will have a lot more from that interview soon. One minor detail not worth a post of its own but fun enough to shareis his mention of which game he'll be dislodging from his DS once the new Zelda is released: Scribblenauts.

A Few Discs: I met with Square-Enix people today to check out their holiday and early 2010 line-up. It was interesting to be with their U.S. PR reps just minutes after the release-date announcement trailer went live. One rep was happily refreshing GameTrailers, marveling at the rise in traffic on the clip. Given the excitement about the date, which promises both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases of the game on March 9, 2010 in North America and Europe, I asked a question I see our readers asking frequently: How many discs will the 360 version require? The Square reps recalled that this was mentioned in a developer interview earlier this year and said that the goal is 3-4 discs. While we will know a lot more about Final Fantasy XIII once it is released in Japan in December, it seems that details about the 360 version — which isn't coming out in Japan — may take longer to become clear.

I feel bad that I've got so much stuff in my notebook that I haven't shared, but most of it is full-post-worthy. Be sure to be back next week! I'll be back on the site this weekend, hopefully, with a report from Nintendo's re-creation of the Mushroom Kingdom at the Nintendo World Store in New York City.

Oh, and that silly shot at the top of this post was taken Monday evening at a Modern Warfare 2 New York public demo event. A company set up a green screen and promised people the chance to be added into a Modern Warfare 2 screenshot. I was expecting something a little more Forrest Gump. But it's funny anyway, yes?

"I have the utmost respect for all our competitors," he told the Post, "but it's interesting to try and answer the consumer question of 'What's in it for me?' in that product."

Other tasty morsels: If it knew then what it knows now, about the ravenous demand for the machine, Nintendo still wouldn't have priced its Wii above $250 like its console competitors. He said the lower price point was integral to the console's acceptance in the mainstream.

Fils-Aime also added that Nintendo has no interest of getting into the phone business; on the other hand, it feels well-positioned to deal with any threat from Apple's mobile gaming devices because of the "fabulous experience that can only be brought to life on the DS."

A Level Closer to the Mainstream [The Washington Post via Go Nintendo]

Despite the recent price drop that's sure to spur sales and the release of Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii prior to the gift-giving frenzy, Reg feels that Nintendo is well prepare for demand.

"We have a tremendous amount of product in inventory," Fils-Aime said in an MSNBC interview. "We've been flowing product into retail. We do not expect to have shortages on our products. Now, if we do experience them, I'd love to have that problem, but we're not seeing that happening this year." A good thing, by Reggie's other prediction, as "literally millions" of potential Wii owners have been waiting on the sidelines to pick up the console.

That confidence in stock applies to the Nintendo DS as well. Reggie says he's "feeling very good about the holiday," noting that Nintendo has sold 2.2 million DSis since launch.

Nintendo's Holiday Push [MSNBC]

Nintendo dropped the price in North America from US$250 to $200 — similar price-cuts were announced for Japan and Europe.

"There are literally millions of consumers out there who want a Wii and had been on the sidelines," Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told FT.com. "They'd been waiting for that little nudge to go out and pick it up — the price decline, the sampling, the launching of key software like Wii Fit Plus - we believe it's what's pushing them over the edge to get into the category."

If the price-cut does not convince them, Nintendo hopes a strong holiday line-up with Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii will do it.

While Fils-Aime says it is too early to start projecting post-price-cut sales figures, he adds, "The consumer response has been very strong to the price reduction."

Wii sales get price-cut boost - Nintendo chief [FT.com via VG247] [Pic]

Reggie tells Fast Company that the same confusion—and maybe even some mockery—followed the introduction of the Nintendo DS and the Wii Remote, two Nintendo endeavors that have turned out to be pretty darn successful. He says we should expect the same forehead-smacking understanding of the Vitality Sensor's capabilities when the software is shown.

"Until you have that software, it's tough to understand," Fils-Aime says. "If I told you that you would be standing on an oversized bathroom scale, and having fun doing it, you probably would have said, 'Reggie, I don't get it.' And yet here we are with the balance board arguably as the third largest development platform across the globe."

The whole point of this pulse-monitoring device, Reggie says, is finding a new audience, one "who hasn't yet been compelled with the first-person shooter, or an action side-scrolling adventure, or a fitness game."

Oh, I get it, Reg. I'm on board. If someone can sell me a copy of Am I Dead Yet? via WiiWare, consider me personally compelled.

Nintendo's Innovation Console: A Q&A With Reggie Fils-Aime [Fast Company]

The previous chapter of this Chain Interview had concluded with a question EA Sports chief Peter Moore gave me during our Wednesday afternoon interview during E3 week in L.A.

[This post is the fourth in a series that recounts the chain of questions and answers I solicited from the people I interviewed during E3. I asked each of my interviewees to ask a question of the next one. Hence: Chain Interview.]

A mirthful Moore jokingly wanted to know why his boss, EA CEO John Riccitiello could buy en electric car just to guarantee himself one of the only two reserved parking spots at EA. Moore explained to me that these two spots were at a prime location at EA headquarters, marked for electric vehicles. I'm not a car person, so Moore had to explain me what a Tesla is, the brand of fancy electric car that Riccitiello owns.

The next morning, as Riccitiello and I wrapped our interview and the CEO told me he needed to get to his next thing, I asked him to answer Moore's query.

John Riccitiello responds: "The honest truth? I'll try the truth. I'm a gigantic believer in the environment. And I'm the CE of a pretty public company. And if everybody knows that I drive one of those things, it makes them think. And that's exactly why I did it. For good or for bad, that's why I did it. And I don't mind the parking space."

With Riccitiello's answer in, I thought I had just one more question to obtain. I needed the EA CEO to give me a question for the president of Nintendo of America. The chain was about to end close to where it began, back in Nintendo's E3 meeting area a few feet away from where Shigeru Miyamoto had started things.

Some context is needed for Riccitiello's question. Earlier in the week, Nintendo had hosted its annual E3 briefing. As is typical, Fils-Aime was one of the main speakers during the presentation. What was atypical was that many of the invited guests did not get to witness the presentation in person. The press did, inside L.A.'s Club Nokia, but developers, publishers, retailers and other business people had to watch the presentation via video at the nearby Nokia Theatre.

John Riccitiello asks Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime: "Why did you show the development community the video of your presentation but the press the live presentation? What were your considerations?"

I ferried this question to Fils-Aime, who tackled it at the conclusion of our half-hour interview. It should be noted that, by answering, Fils-Aime became the first repeat participant in my Chain Interviews. He was in the first one, too.

Reggie Fils-Aime responds: "Let me give a little bit of background. As we were prepping for this year's E3 and had the objective of a venue close by, to be convenient for all of the attendees, the options were quite limited. In the end, we chose Club Nokia with the expectation that a house of about 1200 people would be appropriate. Unfortunately, between the media, business partners and guests from around the world, our total invite acceptances ended up being over 3000. So that's what created the challenge of finding a second venue in very short order, which is why we did that supplemental experience in the Theater. So, we made a tough business decision that it was most important for the media to see it live, and we also made a decision that we would not make hierarchical decisions as to whether any business partners should view it in the Club.

"Said another way, I would have loved to have John in the Club. I would have loved to have had [Activision Blizzard chairman] Bobby [Kotick] in the Club. I would love to have [Activision Blizzard CEO] Mike [Griffiths] in the Club. Where do I draw the line? So we made the business decision to have all of our retailers, all of our other business partners, all of our publishers in Nokia Theatre."

And so the chain interview would have ended, because I had no one else to interview. But I suggested to Reggie that, if he was interested, we could extend the chain from him to Kotaku's readers. "I would love to ask the readers a question," he said."

OK then…

Reggie Fils-Aime asks Kotaku's readers: "In the same vein of Team Ninja working with Nintendo to re-imagine Metroid, what development group would your readers love to see partner and collaborate with Nintendo? And on what franchise?"

I warned Reggie that he'd be raising expectations with a question like that. He laughed. "Maybe it'll give us some further options on what to consider."

Please keep the chain going, Kotaku, by answering Reggie.

We hope you've enjoyed the Chain Interview.

The company that's been riding high on its own Wii and DS successes has recently had some trouble convincing people that marquee games from publishers other than Nintendo can do well on Nintendo's machines.

Sega's hardcore-hyped MadWorld launched on the Wii with 66,000 copies sold in the U.S. in March, according to the NPD group.

Take Two's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars — the best-reviewed game on the DS — launched that same month with fewer than 90,000 copies sold in the U.S.

"There is no magic number that says x = profitability," Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Kotaku during our E3 interview last week, further clarifying earlier comments on the matter.

Two non-Nintendo games he expects to perform well are Sega's The Conduit and EA's Dead Space Extraction, both first-person games with a darker tone that Nintendo's standard. "I am really optimistic about The Conduit," he said. "I think it looks great, plays great. I think Dead Space Extraction is going to be fabulous given the early builds that I've seen. So, I do think that we will continue to see not only great titles, but great sales, on higher-rated M and T type of titles on our platforms."

Fils-Aime addressed the seeming struggles of some of those M-rated games on Wii and DS from earlier this year.

As other Nintendo reps have said before him, Fils-Aime thinks Chinatown Wars may have been counted out too soon by people focusing on its launch numbers. "In the handheld space, with Nintendo platforms specifically — whether it's Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS — the fact is that first month sales really don't matter," he said. "You have a title like Mario Kart, in its first month, a holiday month that did just over 200,000 copies. New Super Mario Brothers, which launched in the summer, did over 150,000 in its first month. Those are not huge numbers, yet both of those have gone on to sell more than four million units apiece and to be in the top 10 total industry titles for the last two years running. So, first month doesn't matter in the handheld space as long as it's a high-quality game, which Chinatown Wars is, has some continuous level of marketing support — whether its retail marketing, consumer marketing, online — as long as you keep the buzz going it will continue to sell millions and millions. And that's my expectation for Chinatown Wars. As long as the team at Take Two and Rockstar give it a long life, it will do very well."

Reggie said he would have liked to have seen higher sales for MadWorld but doesn't think its launch counts out other M-rated Wii games. "The challenge with home console is that for a 'gamer game' you need to have the buzz and the expectation early and you need to support the title for a number of months to drive the sales. On both of those fronts, I'm not sure MadWorld was able to do that."
It's not an M-rated Wii game, but EA Sports Active just had a blockbuster debut of supposedly more than 600,000 copies sold in its first two weeks, according to EA.

Those are the arguments. Don't count Wii and DS third-party games out for 2009 yet, Nintendo says. There will plenty of high profile games to test that.

The Conduit is out this month. Dead Space Extraction ships in September.

Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata unveiled the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3 and has since explained in interviews that the Wii add-on will use light to measure bloodflow and therefore certain bio-rhythms for people who use it.

But this product's still a head-scratcher, and Nintendo did curious onlookers no help by not showing any software using the device. By contrast, Nintendo unveiled the Balance Board at E3 2007 with a live demonstration of Wii Fit.

So, we asked Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime at E3, what's the Vitality Sensor all about and why unveil it this way?

"We've been very clear that our objective is getting more and more consumers into this gaming industry we love," he said. "In our view, as we grow the consumer base, it will drive a vibrant, healthy industry. We've been able to get a certain number of consumers with Brain Age. We've been able to get more with Wii Fit. We're constantly thinking about what's the next innovation that will drive the consumer who, today, is still saying, 'I want nothing to do with video games,' to get into this industry and have a great experience. In our view, the Vitality Sensor and the software that will accompany it is a step down that path."

Fils-Aime said there are "some unique elements" not yet revealed about the sensor, details that may be revealed early this year. If not, then next year will hold the key. "The product is something we're anticipating to launch some time in 2010," he said.

Confusing as the Wii Vitality Sensor may be, Nintendo's ability to turn head-scratching into head-nodding with the Wii remote and the Balance Board suggests that this next Wii peripheral may still be worthy of the benefit of our doubts.

Reggie Fils-Aime was his usual confident self during Kotaku's interview with him in a Nintendo meeting room this past E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Fils-Aime was proud this time of, in his words, "a holiday with content that speaks directly to the core Nintendo fan."

He was one E3 removed from many Nintendo fans' least-favorite Nintendo moment of the Wii era, the 2008 E3 media briefing that focused on more casual gaming experiences and was capped with the non-hardcore Wii Music. No regrets from Nintendo, of course: "Last year we focused on Wii Music, and that is a title that's very important to [Nintendo's head of game development, Shigeru] Miyamoto," Fils-Aime said. "And for all of the criticism, it's still a title that on a global basis has sold over two million copies."

This year Fils-Aime could talk about Wii Fit Plus. But he could also talk about New Super Mario Bros Wii, the surprisingly deep gameplay of Wii Sports Resort and even a new Metroid game, Other M. ("As fans will see, 'Other M' has a number of meanings, which we'll reveal in the coming months.")

But this being E3 2009, even with Reggie Fils-Aime, our most urgent topic of conversation had to be the buzz-building Microsoft Project Natal.

"We have been very familiar with that technology," Fils-Aime said of the hands-free camera-and-sensor tech Microsoft debuted for the Xbox 360. "I have personally seen a lot of iterations of similar technology. Our first reaction is that it is ironic that, three or four years ago, the prevailing industry opinion was that prettier pictures or more horsepower were the waves of the future. And now it's clear from both of our competitors that physical activity in gaming is the wave of the future. It's also ironic that, for Nintendo, the future is here. The future is now."

Fils-Aime said that it is too early to judge whether Natal — or Sony's new motion control technology — will be a success. Such a question can only be answered when the projects' launch software and prices are announced, he said.

And could he see Nintendo doing a Natal-type technology of its own? "We have pioneered many interface options that people take for granted today," he replied. "We've looked at similar technology and will continue to look at other technology for the future. What's different, I think, for us, is that the experience is what drives us down a particular path, not simply how nifty the technology is… When we looked at this technology and other technology, we decided that the best way to drive immersion and precision as well as creating an environment for publishers to flourish was the Wii remote coupled with the nunchuck."

Fils-Aime and I kept most of our talk on business and broader topics, as Mr. Miyamoto and a pair of Metroid developers engaged most of our gaming questions during other appointments. For Reggie, I wanted to know about some platform initiatives.

One of the new initiatives to launch since my previous interview with Fils-Aime was DSiWare, the downloadable gaming services for the DSi. Nintendo posted a list of 15 upcoming DSiWare games and applications (read animated sketchpads and clocks) during E3, which follow the first month's worth of games and, well, clocks, released for DSiWare. Fils-Aime said that Nintendo is "very pleased with the DSi connection rate to the DSi shop," but he declined to offer any download stats yet. "Our expectation is that it will quickly grow to be robust just like WiiWare," he offered. "WiiWare today has almost 90 titles. Including greatly acclaimed titles like World of Goo and Lost Winds. We think our model of highly-polished, immersive, innovative experiences is the right model to have."

Leading into E3, it was widely discussed by the gaming media that Nintendo might announce a Virtual Console service for the DSi, which could include games from old consoles as well as old Nintendo portables. "I know there has been a lot of speculation, but we have no plans for that," he said.

Nintendo is moving ahead, however, with Facebook integration into the DSi. As announced at E3, the connection will enable DSi users to upload photos taken with the system's cameras to Facebook. It's not a service that connects to Nintendo's home console, a point of contrast from the Microsoft-announced integration of Facebook into the Xbox 360's Xbox Live. "We think it makes a lot more sense for the DSi [than the Wii] from two different standpoints," Fils-Aime said. "One: the portable nature of the device and that instant satisfaction that you get from something like Facebook. More importantly, because of the two cameras and the 10 different camera lenses [in the DSi], we think that's where the appeal is. For me to take your picture, blow up your head, blow up your nose, post it on my page, [and say] 'Ha ha ha, look what I did to Stephen,' we think that's just a lot more fun and that's the direction we'll go."

Another partner that has been discussed as a possible collaborator with Nintendo is Netflix, which enhanced its streaming arrangement with the 360 at this E3 with an improved integration of movie-watching and Xbox Live. The Wii had been pegged as another potential console partner for Netflix. "We have nothing to announce [as] a partnership from an online streaming standpoint," Fils-Aime said. "Should we go down that path we will do something different than our competitors."

The NOA president and I also discussed the Wii Vitality Sensor and game sales for the Wii and DS. More on those topics in future posts.

Company president Reggie Fils-Aime dishes about why the company signed the developers to do Metroid, "We could've done a fine job on our own. But, we saw the Team Ninja group as a way of adding a little extra special sauce, if you will, to make it a really compelling experience." Just like Team Ninja has made its own games compelling.

So far, the industry reaction to the Team Ninja announcement seems to be good. "One of the pieces of feedback I've heard is that as we made that announcement," says Fils-Aime, "that there were a lot of development teams and publishers who started to say to themselves, 'Wow, Nintendo is open to these types of partnerships. Let's think of other ideas to bring forward.' Which I find exciting."

Then those same publishers say to themselves, "Wow, I wish I had know that Nintendo has had these kind of partnerships for a long time." Game Boy Advance Zelda games from Capcom, anyone?

Reggie Interview [GameSpot]

Yes, Nintendo of America executive vice president of Sales & Marketing Cammie Dunaway will be there. Also appearing will be Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime, the company announced today. The three amigos of Nintendo's E3 keynote will be handling all new Wii and Nintendo DS announcements at this year's E3 expo, delivering a fresh batch of promises and an update on Nintendo's smiles per faces tie ratio.

Since this one's "about the games," expect more focus on promised Mario and Zelda titles, less onstage demonstrations of Personal Trainer Walking. No mention of a Wii Music jam session, but we can always hope.

The action kicks off June 2nd at 9 A.M. Pacific Time. Nintendo fans in Mario outfits bearing supportive signage can begin loitering at the Nokia Plaza in downtown Los Angeles at 7 A.M. if they'd like to be photographed.

So says Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who flat out denies that the upcoming Wii boxing game will add any contenders beyond the already announced thirteen. So when will we get first party DLC, Reggie? Folks desperate to spend Wii Points want to know!

"I'm certain that there will be opportunities for that down the road," Reggie tells GameTrailers TV's Geoff Keighley. "But, really for us — you know Mr. Iwata has said this many times — the way we look at our first party is we look for a way to drive the install base of the hardware."

We suppose that Rock & Roll Climber might do something like that for Wii Fit Balance Boards. OK, that's a long shot, but that's the Nintendo DLC philosophy.

"That's what we're trying to do," Reggie explains. "That coupled with downloadable content isn't as great a match, but I'm certain there will be some opportunities down the road with downloadable content from a Nintendo perspective, just not on Punch-Out!!"

But just think of the possibilities for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Reg. You're leaving money on the table!

GTTV Extended Cuts: GDC 09 Reggie Interview Part 2 [GameTrailers]

"When we're gonna work on a Mario title, we're gonna bring it to Wii or DS," Fils-Aime told Geoff Keighley on the most recent episode of GameTrailers TV. The company announced last year that the Mario and Zelda teams were hard at work on new titles, one of which it recently announced.

"WiiWare's not good enough for Mario? Is that what you're saying?" Keighly questioned.

"That's not the point," Reggie fired back. "The point is, we want truly innovative content to be first launched on WiiWare. That's awfully tough to do with a Mario title."

But could WiiWare be a more appropriate platform to relaunch or spin-off other Nintendo franchises, ones that don't carry the same weight as the Mario Bros. series? The company doesn't do much with its stable of mascots on WiiWare, but perhaps what Nintendo has learned from Xbox Live and Xbox Live Arcade will give us a chance to play Clu Clu Land Online (or something along those lines that wouldn't be a terrible idea).

"We've always looked at what they've been able to do from an Xbox Live standpoint," Fils-Aime told Keighley in response to what the Nintendo of America exec is "worried about" from a competition standpoint.

"We constantly want to say 'What can we do to be better than Xbox Live?' I think that's certainly the best element of what they've been able to bring to bear."

Oh, I can answer that, Reggie! Wanna take a meeting?

GameTrailers TV - Reggie Interview [GameTrailers]

If so, what's up with Wii title Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse? When asked about the game, Tecmo replied, "Nintendo holds the publishing rights to 'Fatal Frame Wii,' which was developed by Tecmo LTD. and Grasshopper Manufacture and released in Japan on July 31, 2008. Nintendo of America has since then decided not to publish the title in North America – consequently, the title will not be released in this territory. As the owner of the IP, Tecmo feels very unfortunate that the fans of the series in North America will not have a chance to play the game, but respects the final decision made by Nintendo of America."

Previously, Reggie Fils-Aime told MTV Multiplayer that Nintendo "was not the publisher of that title in the Americas."

Fatal Frame Never Coming to America? [IGN via Kombo]

Thursday, Totilo finally got an official response on the matter from Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America.

For those who are unfamiliar with Bob's Game, it's a one-man effort, more than 15,000 hours put into a top-down 2D adventure/RPG game. Late last year, hearing nothing from Nintendo about his request for a software development kit, he staged a locked-room protest that didn't get much of a reaction. That was followed by a bunch of strange antics that either were viral marketing ploys, or retconned as such when people started worrying about Pelloni's mental health.

OK, got all that? Now, at last, here is Reggie's side of the story, as told to Totilo.

[Pelloni] did submit to be a licensed developer. We have an evaluation process. We evaluated the opportunity. We decided at this point in time that he did not meet the requirements to be a licensed developer.

Totilo presses Reggie, asking how an amateur developer might get a favorable reaction to his idea from Nintendo. Reggie cites 2D Boy and "World of Goo" as a good example to follow. Totilo points out that 2D Boy and Kyle Gabler weren't "a garage developer," they brought credentials to the table when they asked for Nintendo support. Reggie's response:

There are a ton of stories. "Tetris." Just a guy out of Russia. "Pokemon" is another example. Before that was published in Japan, what was "Pokemon"? I think it's fair to say that Nintendo has a history and a legacy of bringing novel, unique ideas to the marketplace.

So, amateur coders, all you have to do is create the next Pokemon or Tetris and Nintendo will happily back your efforts.

I have some sympathy for Nintendo, because its role in this mess is not unlike a stalked movie star. But what Reggie's saying is sort of what Pelloni had assumed would pay off for him: If the idea and the game are truly compelling, things will fall into place. Pelloni clearly believed his game was that compelling through 15,000 hours of coding it, only to find out Nintendo didn't feel the same way at the critical moment.

Nintendo Finally Comments on Bob's Game Situation [MTV Multiplayer]