Merrick interviewed by German newspaper

Jim Merrick, head of marketing at Nintendo of Europe, has been interviewed by a German newspaper. Here are Merrick´s quotes translated with the interesting parts printed in bold:

"Nintendo is an entertainment company. We do not own movie studios. Neither are we hardware manufacturers. The ´Revolution´ may be able to play back movies on DVD - but that is not an important feature for us. We offer good interactive entertainment instead. That is not a question of hardware or power, though. All that is irrelevant. Only the games matter," says Merrick.

Microsoft may also be pursuing the strategy of widening the target audience, "but we see nothing of that - they still produce the same games, which are perfected only with a particular target group in mind. We prefer to take a step back in order to widen the target audience," says Merrick. "The average person today cannot relate to a videogame. (...) If you picture a videogamer nowadays, it is a pale juvenile who drinks Cola and eats crisps. That should not be so."

"The youngest gamers are four to five years old. We will not abandon our market share in this demographic. But we will try to score with the older target groups. In Japan, games which exercise your brain are very popular with people around 35 and older. Those are not the kind of people you would call videogamers," says Merrick.

"We are well aware that the game market is price-sensitive, especially when trying to reach a mass market. I very much hope the ´Revolution´ will cost less than the Xbox360´s 400 Euro," says Merrick. The new Microsoft console was only expensive because of, for instance, its support of high-definition television (HDTV). "But only few people can put that to use. We will not do that," says Merrick.

"Nintendo will also establish an online community. But we do not want to make the mistake of charging for such a service first, and only later make it worth the consumer´s while. With our portable console Nintendo DS, we will choose a different path. Our online service, starting with the game ´Mario Kart´ in November, will be free to gamers. (...) With the Nintendo ´Revolution´, however, not all online games will be free of charge for users."

"We are not worried because of the Xbox. The offering will be limited and the type of games will not be appealing to all target groups. There will always be a group of tech-fans who will instantly buy the new console generation. But the mass market will not move in on the device - at least not, until they see what Sony and Nintendo have on offer next year. If our strategy of reaching a wider demographic takes hold, we have a very good chance of becoming market leader by the end of 2007," Merrick hopes.

Bold statements, there. Unusually bold for a company that has always preferred to avoid the issue of leadership in the home console market.

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24.10.2005, Nr. 247, page 21

Thanks to: Product_Number_18