Newsweek's N'Gai Croal chatted with Reggie Fils-Aime at GDC, and since that show was so rich with creamy, flavorful news, this interview has only now found its way onto the site. The interview is largely on the subject of third-party support for the Wii and DS, and for the most part, Reggie takes personal responsibility for what he sees as positive developments.For example, Reggie seems to credit his own meetings with former Take Two CEO Paul Eibeler for the advent of Wii Manhunt 2. He also claims that his conversations with Laurent Dutoc of Ubisoft led to ... pretty much half the stuff on the Wii. We aren't business experts, so we don't know, but could it really be as simple as that? Is Reggie charismatic enough to personally influence publishers' plans? Or is he using personal terms as a shorthand for more complicated business dealings?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-02-2007 @ 7:15PM
Lalaland said...
Yeah, I knew it's NOA's fault. I don't like the idea of games like "Manhunt" coming to Nintendo systems, and it could only be the american branch who thinks the Wii needs a violent, "mature" line up like an Xbox or Playstation.
This really gets me a little upset. Everywhere you read about what a fantastic guy Reggie is and what he does for Nintendo - you know what? I say he doesn't really know or care about Nintendo and their philosophy. He is a manager, he's been working for other companies before, and had Sony called and not Nintendo, well, he'd be sitting in a Sony office now. His stupid "Manhunt" deal shows it clearly: He doesn't get what Nintendo is about.
I was always kind of proud to say: Xbox or PS is mostly for undereducated, 14-16 year old boys who need 23 billions of brainless, violent egoshooters and gangster games to impress their friends or compensate for something or whatever. Nintendo don't need that.
Well, if Reggie had his way, the Wii line up would be identical to the PS and Xbox ones, I guess.
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4-02-2007 @ 7:16PM
Loom said...
So, he's responsible for all the launch sh!t from UbiSoft?
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4-02-2007 @ 7:49PM
Mr Khan said...
@ lalaland
You could look at it that way, or you could see it as Reggie shoring up Nintendo's weaknesses
Nintendo's got the whole family thing nailed (especially this generation), and now Reggie is trying to make Nintendo "badass" but in a non-abrasive way (usually, sometimes he gets bothersome)
Remember the quote, "I'm Reggie, i'm about kicking ass and taking names, and we're about making games"
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4-02-2007 @ 7:52PM
mirage said...
I have to disagree with the first comments. As someone who grew up with NES and SNES I believe games like Manhunt 2 are a perfect fit for the Wii. I stopped playing Nintendo consoles when they stopped allowing third parties to create "adult" style games for their systems. The Wii is an amazing platform and it would be pretty naive to declare a game as unworthy to grace it just because it maybe too violent for some people's taste.
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4-02-2007 @ 8:04PM
Matters said...
A bit over the top but thats the gist of it Lalaland... That's life man you should know that by now. He didn't come from the same background as some of the guys in Japan did. He's not a former developer type guy who helped pioneer the company into what it is today or a member of the family who owned it for over a hundred years. He's management. That's what he was hired to do.. That's just the way it is... Yup Nintendo's got those bastards too..
He does well enough, plays the politics game well, and won some popularity contests (my safe assumption on how he got to the top)... but that doesn't mean he doesn't care about the company.. You can bet your ass he does.
Anyway I don't see what your problem is with manhunt. You say it's not what Nintendo is about.... I don't agree. It's not what Nintendo as a first party developer is about, but that doesn't mean they don't want it on their system.
Expanding their user base is exactly what they're about. It's not just about keeping their existing fans and going after new unexplored markets (non-gamers).
I want to play this game.. I'd also like to have a decent Rainbow Six game (Vegas), GRAW and a few others.. I have a Wii and that's what I want to play them on. Eventually I will throw down a few hundreds bucks on a 360 when I could be giving that money to Nintendo instead.
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4-02-2007 @ 8:33PM
Lalaland said...
Well, I don't like brutal or sadistic games, but that's just my opinion, of course. As I live in germany, I wouldn't get to play any of these anyway, because a lot of M-rated games are banned here.
It's not that I hate darker games in general, though. I like shmups like R-Type, for example, but games like Manhunt or Scarface seem to be centered around realistic violence and brutality. I don't want to decapitate citizens or smash their faces with barbwired baseball bats, thank you.
So that's basically it. I don't think ultraviolent video games are ok. But that would be a long discussion, I'm afraid...
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4-02-2007 @ 8:52PM
Schneider said...
I have nothing of worth to add to this discussion, I would just like to point out that:
"He also claims that his conversations with Laurent Dutoc of Ubisoft led to ... pretty much half the stuff on the Wii."
That made me laugh.
Thank you.
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4-02-2007 @ 10:39PM
George said...
Reggie is one ugly human being. He looks like he got his face smashed with a frying pan on a weekly basis growing up
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4-03-2007 @ 10:56AM
Justin said...
He'd make an excellent Frankenstein
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