Reggie spills more beans

Nintendo may already be working on yet another DS incarnation, the Revolution´s final name may not be announced at E3 and Reggie claims he has never seen the ´Nintendo ON´ clip. That is a brief summary of Reginald Fils-Aime´s most recent interview, courtesy of the good people at Engadget. Nintendo of America´s executive vice president of sales and marketing started by talking about the DS Lite.

We will continue to make ongoing adjustments and tweaks to our product design, always with the eye of the consumer in mind.

Does that mean we could probably expect a third iteration of the DS about 18 months from now?

I wouldn’t say that that’s an unreasonable assumption. Look at how many times we’ve improved on the Game Boy Advance in terms of the look, the feel, screen changes, and everything else. We believe that type of constant innovation is critical to driving this industry, and certainly if you look at the world wide sales of Game Boy Advance, I don’t think anyone would disagree. (...)

Where is Nintendo right now with the development of the Revolution?

We have been sharing the controller mechanics with developers across the world. We have shipped over a thousand controller dev kits to developers so that they can begin getting experience with the controller mechanics. The response to the controller has been fantastic. Developers are truly embracing the innovation. They’re embracing the approach and quite frankly, they’re embracing our vision; our vision of creating games that are as sophisticated as the core gamer wants it to be but could also be as straightforward and as accessible as brand new gamers. (...)

You mean in terms of the competition and what they’re doing?

Exactly. They have gone down a path that is very expensive for consumers, very expensive for developers to create content against, and they're providing a level of horsepower technology that not many consumers want. We [believe] in providing to consumers and to developers an approach that is certainly high-tech and certainly powerful enough to create the most sophisticated games, but also has an approach that is open for developers to create whatever type of content they want. (...)

Has the release of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess been pushed back once again?

No, it has not. We have gone on record that we are launching it in 2006 on GameCube and that is still the plan.

I ask because some retailers are showing June 1, while others are showing May 15. Is that about when we should expect it?

No, we have not told retailers a specific launch date and we’ll be working with all of our key retailers and sharing that information shortly, getting pre-sales set up, and really driving the buzz and the interest in this title in the way our fans want it to be. We know -- and our fans know -- that Zelda certainly will be the biggest and best title ever for GameCube. And we will market it as such and we know the consumers won’t be disappointed.

Speaking of GameCube, if you play a GameCube game on the new Revolution console, will you be able to use the Revolution controller or will you have to use the older style of controller?

Well, all of the GameCube games will be compatible only with GameCube accessories, so whether it’s a WaveBird or whether it’s a wired controller, you’ll only be able to play those titles with those accessories. Essentially what we’re saying is that Revolution titles are the only ones that will leverage the new controller. (...)

Will we see some brand new franchises for the Revolution?

Yes we will.

Something that will be as big as a Nintendogs or a Zelda?

That is certainly the goal, but you’ll have to tell me when you see it at E3. We will be showing a lot of information about Revolution at E3. You know we’ve said publicly that this year’s E3 will be Revolution’s coming out party. Now, we’ve also been quite clear that there are innovations inherent in Revolution that we will be sharing ongoing. That it is simply not a one time event for us to share information about Revolution and all of its innovation. I have seen blog entries on your site and other sites that criticize us for that, but quite frankly, it’s just good business. In terms of letting the consumer know what’s involved and sharing that information all the way up until launch.

Is Revolution going to be the final name or is it still a code name?

It is still a code name.

Will you unveil the new name at E3?

Maybe. (...)

If you'll indulge me, I wanted to ask you something that I also asked Miyamoto when I sat down with him a few months ago, and that's about that Nintendo ON video that was circulating around E3 last year. It's the one where all the game play is done wearing a sort of virtual reality helmet. Have you seen it?

I have not seen that one.

You haven’t seen, but are you aware of it?

I am aware that it was done, but I have not seen it.

It sparked a lot of speculation and enthusiasm from the Nintendo community. Why do you [think] that something like this resonated so powerfully with your fan base? (...)

In terms of an innovation like a virtual reality helmet, I think that the industry, our fans – and even our competitors -- expect that type of innovation from us. They expect that we will be the ones pushing the industry and pushing the envelope with brand new ideas. And I think that’s another reason why that video resonated out in the marketplace. That’s my reaction.

So it wasn't passed around the office there?

I didn’t get a chance to see it but who’s to say if either Perrin [Kaplan] or some of my other executives didn’t get a chance to see it.

On a number of forums, Reggie claiming not to have seen the Nintendo ON clip caused some level of disbelief. There were rumours that he had offered its creator a job in an interview with Gamespot. I have not been able to find that interview, so it may turn out to have been only a rumour after all. But it still is weird for Reggie not to have seen that clip, especially since, in closing, he claimed to read Engadget and Joystiq on a regular basis.

Source: Engadget
Thanks to: FHussain