Nintendo president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime talks about the company's latest iteration of its motion-sensitive controller, the Wii Motion Plus, at its E3 press briefing in Tuesday in Los Angeles.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)LOS ANGELES--Although the video games industry has begun to take some hits--suggesting it may not be recession-proof after all--Nintendo has managed to maintain a solid financial performance.
Its sales are up 19 percent year-over-year, according to the company, which would be impressive in any year, but is particularly so in the current economic climate.
At E3 here this week, Nintendo made a few bold moves, but tended to play it relatively safe. It unveiled a new version of its mega-hit exercise game, "Wii Fit Plus," and showed off the next-generation of its motion-sensitive controller, the Wii Motion Plus.
Nintendo President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Overall, however, there was the impression that the company was sitting on its lead. For while Microsoft has had some very impressive sales numbers and Sony has picked up its pace over its early PlayStation 3 stumbles, Nintendo's Wii has managed to stay on top of the sales charts. Similarly, the Nintendo DS has also had sky-high sales, and continues to defy expectations, more than four years after its launch.
At E3, CNET News' Daniel Terdiman had a chance to speak with about the video game industry as a whole, and about how Nintendo plans to go after the few demographics it hasn't already captured with the Wii and the DS.
Q: What's your feeling about where the video game industry is right now?
Reggie Fils-Aime: The video games industry is not just at the center of the entertainment industry, but is driving the entertainment industry, not only economically, but from a cultural impact standpoint. Having said that, consumers are having to make tough economic choices today. Nintendo's in a very fortunate place. The industry through April is down about 4 percent, but we're up about 19 percent. So consumers are voting for us with their wallets, which is a great place to be, especially when so much of our best content will be coming in the second half of the year.
Can Nintendo sustain that performance if the economy worsens?
Fils-Aime: Consumers are looking for ways to entertain themselves. In tough economic times, certain parts of the entertainment business have always done well. Whether or not the industry or Nintendo can sustain where we are really comes down to the experiences we're offering. And based on E3 and the smiles I see from people playing Wii Sports Resort, or Zelda DS, or Mario vs. Donkey Kong, I believe that as long as we continue to bring great, innovative entertainment, consumers will continue to choose us.
Speaking of Donkey Kong, I was thinking about the attempt at E3 on the world-record Donkey Kong score, and about how well the game and other classics like Pac-Man and Frogger and others from that era have held up. Are there current games that 20 or 30 years people will still be playing and appreciating?
Fils-Aime: It would be wonderful to see. If you look at something like Super Mario 64, that was a launch title for DS, 53 months ago, and continues to sell exceptionally well, as does Super Mario Galaxy for Wii. I do think there will be some key titles that folks will look back on 10 or 20 years from now, and say, "Boy, I would have loved to be a gamer when these games were launched."
Was there a design philosophy in the 1980s that designers could learn from today?
Fils-Aime: I think actually (Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata) touched on this during our press conference. He talked about games like Donkey Kong or Space Invaders presenting an incredible challenge but also being inviting at the same time. And that duality is something that is really tough to do from a game design standpoint, and as we think about Wii Sports Resort, or Super Mario Galaxy 2, we're also trying to find that great balance.
Nintendo is currently selling both the DS Lite and the DSi. Is that not confusing to some consumers?
Fils-Aime: I don't think so, because a consumer walking in the door is going to be compelled by the plethora of great titles for DS. Then it's going to come down to, "Do I want a DS Lite or a DSi?" The first thing they'll see is that there's a price difference, so that will drive people one way or the other. The other thing they'll say is, "How important is it to me to download games. How important are the two cameras. And as we showed yesterday, with a million DSis sold in two months, and 400,000 DS Lites. And I think consumers are making their choice based on a number of factors. We have some who are saying, "I want pink." To little 8-, 9-, 10-year-old girls, features don't matter, It's, "I want the pink one." And having that available just for DS Lite is driving it that way.
Do you think all the innovation we're seeing in accessories for Wii, Xbox, and PS3 is making a rush to the next generation of consoles unnecessary?
Fils-Aime: We certainly believe there's a lot more Wii volume to be done, and a lot more games for the Wii. And that's not just what we've been able to do with accessories like the Balance Board, or future accessories like the Vitality Sensor. It's also what we're able to do with Wii Motion Plus, from an archery standpoint, or what we're doing with ping-pong, in putting this big spin and curve on the ball. Who would have thought that possible three or four years ago? Nintendo's driving a focus on innovation that maybe wasn't in our industry four or five years ago. I think that's where the major difference is.
One of the things that has driven the mystique of the Wii has been how hard it has been to buy one. But now it's available anywhere, anytime. Does that take away the mystique?
Fils-Aime: I don't think so. From the start, we wanted to reach out to people who did not consider themselves gamers. The only way to reach them is for the product to be readily available, because they won't sleep out in front of a store to buy a Wii. We had to get to the point of having massive availability. We're selling 300,000 or 400,000 units a month, 30 months after launch, and that's never been done before. We've blown past the PlayStation 2 sales rate after 30 months.
How did you solve the availability issue?
Fils-Aime: We've been manufacturing it at a rate that's never been seen before.
But why were there still shortages last holiday season?
Fils-Aime: The fact is, we've been producing at this rate for a year. It's taken us that long to satisfy all of that pent up demand. Now we can do some outreach to people who in the past were saying, "I might be interested in the Wii, but I'm not going to go sleep out in front of a retailer."
With their announced new motion-sensitive control systems, Sony and Microsoft seem to be planning to aggressively go after the elusive mainstream audience. But perception-wise, at least, Nintendo maybe has the opposite problem: You've got the mainstream. How do you reach that core gamer?
Fils-Aime: We have near-term, mid-term and long-term opportunities. The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends. We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus. The mid-term opportunity is the more mainstream consumer who saw Wii at a friend's house but just needs a little extra incentive to get into our game. That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and new Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve. And the long-term opportunity is that person who currently says, "I don't play video games and I have no interest in playing video games."
What about the Halo audience?
Fils-Aime: We think we win over the Halo audience with something like The Conduit, a multi-player, online, shooting experience, or Dead Space Extraction. And you know what? Once those people buy into Wii, they'll go buy Mario Kart or Wii Fit Plus. We're not going to be satisfied just picking up that existing gamer. We have to reach beyond and get that consumer who doesn't game. That's the only way we'll be able to continue growing as a company and as an industry.
That's not an unlimited audience, right?
Fils-Aime: It's not. And actually the challenge increases the further you dip into this group. Two years ago, theoretically, there were ten consumers who said, "I would never play video games." We picked them off one at a time with Wii Fit or Brain Age 2. Now maybe there's five left, but now the bar is substantially higher for how to get them. Which is why we're looking to push the envelope with something like the Vitality Sensor, and why we have to make current gamers say, "Huh? What is that?" But that's exactly the type of reaction we got a couple of years ago when we first talked about "Wii Fit," and look where we are now.
You just announced the multi-player Super Mario Bros. Wii. How important is that for broadening your Mario audience?
Fils-Aime: I think Super Mario Bros. Wii will first appeal to the traditional Mario fan. But I think we'll also appeal to the consumer who first bought a Wii to play Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus, who maybe has felt that platforming games are a little too challenging. We'll get that consumer because it's Mario, and because they can play with other people, whether competitively or cooperatively. That's exactly what happened when we launched Super Mario Bros. DS. Initially it was the Nintendo fan. But the only way it's been able to stay in the top ten month after month is because we've reached beyond the Nintendo fan into the brand-new consumer who's picked up a DS for the first time.
Can you talk about what you saw from Microsoft and Sony when it comes to the motion-sensitive controllers. It will be a sort of a new arms race.
Fils-Aime: The only thing I'll say is a rhetorical question. Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, "Well done." But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, "Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?" It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained. Our focus is how do we take active play and make it entertainment. And that's what we're going to continue to focus on. And I think we've done a great job with Wii Motion Plus, and the Balance Board. And we're going to continue to push the envelope in ways to make it more fun.
Steve Wiebe, the star of the documentary, 'King of Kong: Fistful of quarters,' working to try, once again, to break the all-time 'Donkey Kong' world record.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)LOS ANGELES--Steve Wiebe is at it again.
The star of the documentary, "King of Kong: Fistful of quarters," Wiebe's past attempts--and failures--to break the "Donkey Kong" world record have been well documented and discussed.
But now, here at E3, Wiebe is taking another shot at the record--currently 1,047,200 points, and held by the other star of the documentary, Billy Mitchell--courtesy of the TV network G4, which, even as I write this, is hosting Wiebe's record pursuit on its stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Already today--while most of the E3 world was focused on the big Nintendo and Sony press conferences--Wiebe had taken at least two shots at the record, and with one, had gotten close: He'd topped 923,000. But both times, he'd come up short.
So now, with a couple hundred people watching and rooting him on, with shouts of "Let's go, Steve!" ringing out, Wiebe got going.
As long as you are at least somewhat familiar with the game, even if you haven't played "Donkey Kong" for years, the music it makes when it starts is oh-so-familiar. It's simple, '80s-era digital music, nothing fancy. Yet it sticks in your mind--forever.
Wiebe began his third attempt and he was doing well, playing flawlessly--at least to this amateur observer--and racking up the points. Around me, murmurs of wonderment were flying fast and furious.
"I didn't even know how to do that," one audience member said.
"This is the (level) that always kills me," another said.
Watching Wiebe play "Donkey Kong" is a study in calm. His technique, at least what I could see of it by watching his body language and a live video of the game being displayed on screens all around him, is smooth, calm, relaxed, and patient. He seems to know exactly what he's doing and what's coming at all times. Which, I guess, makes sense for someone who is good enough at the game to have a legitimate shot at breaking the all-time world record.
Every now and then, for example, the G4 crew point their cameras at a section of the audience, encouraging them to break out in a big cheer, which they do. These sudden, loud bursts of applause and yelling don't even seem to faze Wiebe.
"He makes this look really easy," an audience member said.
Within about 20 minutes, Wiebe has broken 100,000 points, a very impressive number for an amateur "Donkey Kong" player like me. But then you realize that it's only a tenth of the record score and that he could be at this for three hours, at least.
Watching Wiebe play, I was struck by how well "Donkey Kong" has held up over time, especially having just come from the Sony press conference, where I saw games with graphics and game play that the folks at Nintendo couldn't even have dreamed of back when they were making "Donkey Kong."
At least a couple hundred people watched as Wiebe pursued the world record score.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)But the game, as well as others from its era--games like "Pac Man," "Frogger," "Dig Dug," "Space Invaders," and others--are still considered classics and seem to be regularly re-issued by their original publishers, or others. I wonder if the same will be true of today's games in 20 or 30 years.
Suddenly, the video screens showing Wiebe's play went haywire. Clearly, there's a glitch. Is this the end of the attempt?
It turns out that the power was inadvertently lost to the "Donkey Kong" machine, ending that attempt. But again, Wiebe looks imperturbable. It's probably good that he was only 100,000 points or so into the game. I wonder if he would have been so calm if the power had gone at 900,000 points.
Actually, though, he wanders over to talk to some of the G4 folks, and I hear him say to one of the nearby spectators, "The pace wasn't very good anyway." Which means that maybe, just maybe, he kicked the power loose. OK, I'm kidding.
After 5 or 10 minutes, the power is back on, and Wiebe takes his seat again. The machine turns back on, play is pressed, and once again, we hear that familiar "Donkey Kong" music.
And then, just like that, he's back up to 100,000 points.
I wanted to see what happened, and whether he'd break the record. But E3 is a busy event for me, and I had to leave. I guess to find out whether he made it or not, you'll have to turn to G4. But hopefully, I'll be able to update this story later with the final results. Stay tuned.
Updated at 5:38 p.m.: Wiebe is now at 903,000, but has just one life left. And he just cleared level 19.
Updated at 5:42 p.m.: He's at 929,600 now.
Updated at 5:54 p.m.: Wiebe passed another level but died almost immediately after, with a final score of 989,400.
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