[NDS] Mega intervista a Merrick (NOE)

[Turrican3]

Il responsabile di Nintendo of Europe parla dell'imminente arrivo dell'online (Wi-Fi ) per il DS, delle strategie future e fa autocritica per il passato riguardo a scelte di marketing e non solo... tutto questo nella lunga intervista pubblicata da www.computerandvideogames.com

We've seen some massively unconventional DS titles like Electroplankton and the Brain Training games make a big splash over in Japan. What are the chances of these kind of non-game games finding a market over in Europe?

Jim Merrick: Yes, we're definitely going to bring Electroplankton over - I hesitate to call it a game, I'm not sure what it is - but it is fascinating. It's a time sponge - you turned the system on and I've spend an hour fooling around with little plankton. We'll definitely bring that over because it shows the capabilities of the system and it has the ability to captivate people who would not normally look at a game. Do I think it has potential as a huge commercial success, no. Something like the brain training games also, we'll absolutely bring over. They're doing so well in Japan and they do show a very strong appeal to an older demographic and also to a more female demographic which is part of our objective in expanding the marketplace.

Something like Electroplankton is obviously requires some clever marketing to reach its potential audience over here and Nintendo seems to have had huge success with its uncharacteristically extensive marketing campaigns for Nintendogs across the globe. Can we expect similar large scale awareness campaigns from Nintendo in the future?

Jim Merrick: Well, obviously, we tend to create bespoke marketing campaigns for each title, but around Nintendogs, marketing's been ongoing now for months with lots of sampling tours, promotions and activities going on for quite some time. In the case of Nintendogs, it's pretty well known at this point. Its popularity and success in the US is a big story right now and our above the line campaign really does focus on, you know, cute puppies. That's almost all you need. With the games media, you've got to get hands-on. You've got to play it to understand that while it is a game that can appeal to non-gamers, that does not mean that it excludes you. Obviously as well, Japan is a different market, the US is a different market and we have Nintendo Europe and Nintendo UK too so we can do the right things these markets.

It sometimes seems from the outside that while Microsoft and Sony gleefully throw huge sums of money into marketing, Nintendo isn't pushing as hard as it could to raise public awareness of its products. What would you say to someone who suggests Nintendo marketing strategy simply isn't aggressive enough?

Jim Merrick: You know, there's always more marketing money you can spend - we can get a larger share of course. That doesn't mean our marketing is better for it - there is very high awareness on Sony title or Microsoft titles that don't necessarily translate into sales and so we try to very practical about measuring our marketing effectiveness and making sure we are really targeting the people who're going to buy our products and that they're taking away our key messages from our advertising. We'd love to do more and more marketing, but on the other side, we are a for-profit enterprise - we're actually in this business to make money, as opposed to some of our competitors so we have to practical.

Metroid Prime 2 and Resident Evil 4 are perhaps some big name Nintendo titles that appeared to get lost amongst competitor's products when they hit shelves - in terms of sales did they satisfy Nintendo?

Jim Merrick: Resident Evil 4 has done great for us. We did a hardware bundle with it and it drove a significant volume of GameCube hardware in addition to very strong solo stock, so we're very happy with that. Metroid, a little bit less so. It sold just under half an million in Europe and I would have liked to have seen better - I'm not sure we communicated the strength of that title as well as we could have.

What do you think the problem was there, with regards to putting out that message?

Jim Merrick: There's a little bit of a battle with a title like that. It's a bit more mature and people don't necessarily associate it with Nintendo. We probably did need to be a bit more aggressive with out marketing and promotions to overcome preconceptions about the Nintendo mother brand. (Friendly PR man pips in to remind us that in the UK at least, Metroid was released at a very crowded time alongside GTA: San Andreas and Halo 2 was definitely a factor).

It's interesting to hear you say that you struggled to push a game like Metroid Prime 2 because it targeted a non-traditional Nintendo market. How important is this mature audience going to be in Nintendo's strategy, moving forward into the next generation of consoles?

Jim Merrick: Nintendo is a company who's in a unique position to produce games for everybody. While we're sometimes criticized for having a kiddie-focus on some of our titles, I think there's more than a little jealousy hidden in some of those criticisms from some of those people who wish they could sell to that age group but, that said, it tends to pigeon-hole us a little too. Mario is a game that can sell to everybody, Zelda is a game that can sell to everybody. Pokemon is definitely a youth-orientated game and a phenomenal success story, so we're not going to walk away from it by any means. But we'd like to broaden our portfolio to offer more games for our existing consumers as they mature and their tastes change.

Compared to something like the GameCube, the Revolution's design is pretty sophisticated. Do you think something as straightforward as the console's aesthetic appeal is going to help broaden the Nintendo brand?

Jim Merrick: Yeah, I think so. I mean there's four colours that we're showing right now - and none of them are purple. There are things in design that help us to associate and this is not a lunchbox - you have an elegant, simple design that should be a bit more timeless and ageless. Anyone of any age should be proud to say "This is my Revolution".

When are we going to hear more about the Revolution and what's more is there to say?

Jim Merrick: There's actually a lot more left to tell but I don't have any fixed dates yet. It's important to keep things back, because of the competitive nature of our business. In general though, Nintendo doesn't like to get involved in the pre-launch specifications arguments - you know, we can talk about polygons and mega-flops like anybody else. But at the end of the day, it's meaningless - we'd rather have the game speak to us. The consumer is buying an entertainment experience, not a polygon machine. That said, we need to keep informing people about the Revolution and to stay in people's minds and not be end up like "Oh, whatever happened to that next-generation system from Nintendo?" There are many months left between now and whenever we decide to launch.

Don't you think there's a degree of hypocrisy there, talking about Nintendo's philosophy of letting games speak for themselves, given that Iwata's presentation at the Tokyo Game Show focused solely on the Revolution controller hardware without a single game in sight?

Jim Merrick: Really the purpose of the keynote speech in Tokyo was to follow up Mr. Iwata's speech two years ago where he was saying we were recognizing a change in the market and that we were going to take action to address a broader audience - obviously this was pre DS and pre Revolution. Now, we've come back two years later and presented a lot of data on what has happened in the Japanese market, how the success of the DS has changed, the buying habits and life cycle of software and so forth. The Revolution's controller is obviously an extension of that - it's the next step in this process of expanding. So, it wasn't so much about this is the time to unmask the Revolution - it was an integral part of what he was saying. We realise that there's a certain critical mass of information flow that we have to have and it's a bit of a balance. If we could, I think we love to keep everything to ourselves and just launch when we're ready - but that's just not realistic.

So, now that the world's had a chance to see what Nintendo has up its sleeve in terms of the controller, what's the next big message you want to get across before the Revolution launches?

Jim Merrick: Well, you know, we've gone a little bit contrary to our thinking by demonstrating a technological feature without showing its manifestations in gameplay and when we announced the DS in January 2004, we said it had two screens but we didn't say it had a touchscreen. We held that back until E3, until you could put your hands on it and understand the value of that feature. We knew that people were going to be scratching their heads wondering "What are they thinking?" So we're kind of breaking that - but it's important, that's the next step. You've got to play it and realise these guys are not crazy - this controller is amazing. That'll be our next stop - whether it's with our own software of third party software, its got to be put into context or games you want to buy.

Obviously, as exciting as the Revolution is, it's some way off just yet. What will Nintendo be concentrating on this Christmas as its main focus?

Jim Merrick: Well, actually, we've got a pretty good Christmas line-up. We've talked about Nintendogs and that's just on the horizon now - October 7. That's going to be big - we know its selling really well in the US, it's done phenomenally well in Japan and there's every reason to think its going to do great here. Retail support is very strong, consumer interest is high so we think that's going to be a big hit. In fact, I was very pleased with the comments made by Robbie Bach made about it in Japan. The next thing then on the DS is Mario Kart - of course, it's a huge title and it has a history of outselling the US here in Europe. For whatever reason, Europeans love Mario Kart and I think with the wi-fi capability, we're really adding something to the game. I mean, actually, I prepare the local area play because we can sit in the same room as each other and I can taunt you and I can see your anguish - but nevertheless, you'll be able to jump online and play with people in Japan: it's a pretty cool feature.

Why does Nintendo think that now is the right time to launch something like the wi-fi service given its passed reticence to enter the online gaming market?

Jim Merrick: You know, we sort of stayed out of the online argument for a number of years and it's kind of funny because people say Nintendo's never been online because we've actually done a lot in the online space. From offering modems for horse racing and stock trading with the original Famicom in Japan through to online banking with 16-bit systems, our in-flight and hotel systems that are all over the world which are basically online systems, but we've never done the big commercial online service because - and I spent years working on this project myself - the value proposition for the consumer just isn't there, the consumer doesn't perceive the benefit. I think the industry went about online in a bit of a backward order, trying to monetize it first and deliver the value second and I think we've got to go the other way. I think mass market consumers need to understand the value on the online brand first and then maybe we can monetize it.

Obviously, Microsoft has already had some success in the online area. How does Nintendo's approach to online gaming differ from the Microsoft model?

Jim Merrick: You know, we see online and we think it really should be an extension of the game - you don't even necessarily perceive that you're online. I came to play Mario Kart, I didn't come to play Xbox Live and spend twenty minutes trying to match make somebody - I want to get into Mario Kart and find somebody to play against as quickly and as painlessly as I can. Whether it's my friend or somebody I don't know, I want a quick and easy way to do it and I want it all in the context of that game. What Nintendo wi-fi connection looks like in Mario Kart is going to be completely different to what it looks like in Metroid, in Animal Crossing or even Tony Hawk. In and of itself, it's very transparent in the way that you use it and I think that's where we start to communicate the benefit of wi-fi and against remove the barriers to the online experience. Videogames, particularly console videogames, have been successful over the years, in part due to their simplicity. Console games just work - plug in a cartridge, stick in a disc, turn it on and it just works. No patches, no installation, no set-up, no nothing. Now, you try to marry that console simplicity with the internet and its like diametrically opposed with DNS, WAP keys and all those reasons why not to play online games and so we wanted to insulate people from that as much as possible, even to the point where you have no username or password, you can just jump on.

With this obvious move to appeal toward the less techno savvy gamer, what are the key strategies Nintendo's adopting to create a more user-friendly service?

Jim Merrick: If you have a buddy list, you can play against your buddies wherever they are. If you go out to play against anonymous players, it depends on the game, for example, with Animal Crossing, you probably don't want to open up your village to anonymous people on the internet who'll come in and dig up your trees and, you know, so we probably won't allow that at all in Animal Crossing - I don't know, it isn't done yet. In the case of Mario Kart, in a competitive game, one of the things that people have said - and not just to us in our own research, but in discussion online - you get into some games and there are people who've devoted a significant percentage of their young life to that particular game and you die the moment you die, because you have no chance of winning. So, we want to match it up to people of similar skill level for a start. We're also very conscious of the fact that because our games appeal to all ages, we have a responsibility to protect from inappropriate behaviour online. Most of which comes through chat I think, so in some games when you're playing against an anonymous player, we may not allow you to chat if that game is one that's targeted to youth. If it's a teen or 18 + game then probably we won't impose that restriction.

[Turrican3]

Are we likely to see the DS' microphone used for in-game voice chat down the line?

Jim Merrick: We demonstrated it at E3 this year with voice over IP and it's certainly possible. How it'll get used, what games will use it, I don't know. People ask if we're going to make the Nintendo DS a real IP phone - I don't think so. I think that's even worse than holding the N-gage up to your head.

Once you're linked up to Nintendo's wi-fi service then, everything should be pretty straightforward. What steps are people going to have to take to actually get their DS online? How is Nintendo ensuring it's not a complete nightmare for casual users?

Jim Merrick: If you're buying broadband, you'll have the option to get wi-fi from the start - that's what every service provider offers. If you're an existing broadband user and you don't have wi-fi, there are two routes you can go. Either run down to the store and buy a wi-fi router and set it up, or Nintendo will be offering a USB wi-fi adaptor and this just plugs into your PC and operates as a wi-fi access point. Whichever option you choose, there's certainly going to be some installation and set-up. I expect that you'll find Nintendo's version to be very simple. Out of the home, there are another two routes. First, Nintendo is placing a number of wi-fi hotspots in major retailers or retail locations - malls or other places. These are hotspots that are completely free, there's no set-up or anything associated with that. Your DS will recognize them when you walk up to them and you can play. I think a lot of the retailers are excited about driving traffic into retail. The other flipside is that we're in negotiations with a number of wi-fi providers - who we're not prepared to announce yet - across Europe to provide free internet connectivity within existing hotspots. So if there's someone who's got hotspots in airport lounges, coffee shops and so forth, you'll be able to take your Nintendo DS to them and plug in their for free as well. In all of those cases, there's no authentication, no log-in, no username, almost no set-up. I say almost no set-up - the one thing you might have to do is if you're running WAP encryption at home, which I recommend as it's the right thing to do, you will have to tell the DS that key. We've done a lot of work with various access point providers to get a good database on our website on how you get your WAP key. I know this is true for many people - when they bought their wireless routers, they entered some key and forgot about it. The next time you bring home a wi-fi device, you don't have a clue what your WAP key is - so, we've got a database we're putting together to help people find their WAP key. The worse case scenario is that you just reset it on all of your devices - but that's not a problem with the DS, that applies to all wi-fi devices.

When can we expect to hear more information about the Nintendo wi-fi service, given that it's supposed to roll out in tandem with Mario Kart in Europe in little over six week?

Jim Merrick: Uh, R.S.N. - Real Soon Now. It's imminent. The Mario Kart is on November 11 and it seems like it would be a good idea to have the service running by then. You can imagine, it's quite a task working with different broadband providers across Europe to get this up and running. One of the objectives that Mr. Iwata has stated is that he wants, really wants, one hundred percent of the consumers who by wi-fi enabled games to at least try it because so many consumers who have online enabled games just never try it. While Xbox Live has done a good job driving a subset of costumers who're inclined already to try online it's really not reaching that mass market point just yet.

So, we've known that both Mario Kart and Animal Crossing have been designed from the ground up as online title for some time now. What was the thinking behind delaying Metroid Prime Hunters to implement wi-fi features at such a late stage, potentially risking more disappointment for Nintendo fans after the Zelda announcement?

Jim Merrick: It's just a taunt, just something we do to show that we're in control. Uh, no, it seemed that as development progressed, it would really add to the game and I know that it seems weird because we used Metroid extensively at launch by bundling the demo in with the DS to show how the touch-screen can really be used for targeting, much like the Revolution controller, it seems hard but if it really changes the gameplay and can really help us get that objective of getting many more people to try online than are inclined to try it today, then it's a good decision. Because we've got Mario Kart and Nintendogs this fall, we've got a strong lineup on DS anyway.

Obviously we know that Nintendo has a whole bunch of games in the pipeline for the DS, including the new Mario - can we expect many of these titles to develop wi-fi functionality as they travel through their development cycle?

Jim Merrick: Without making any commitments, yes, I think it's highly likely. Our development teams are very excited about online capabilities and in fairness, some of our developments teams have been very keen to do online games for years. So now, its out of the box, they can do it.

Finally, how important is Nintendo's online strategy going to be to the company from now on?

Jim Merrick: It's a fundamental part of the design of the DS and if we were pacifistic about it, we wouldn't haven't invested in it. It will extend the work we're doing in infrastructure - the wi-fi connection applies to Revolution as well and it's a major part of our strategy.