Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Reggie had a lot to say to GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley, as the interview between the two back during GDC has finally aired. In it, Reggie drops a few bombs on all of us with a soft spot for The Big N, commenting that great content is on the way for Wii during the second half of this year, but we won't be hearing about it until E3.

He does tease us, though, commenting that this "great new content" will maximize "all of our key franchises." But, the biggest bombshell of them all is that there will be one "big game for the holiday that gamers will want." He says it's going to be something appealing to both the hardcore audience and the new expanded audience. Let the speculation begin!

[Via Joystiq]

Maybe when Reggie said we could expect something good by the end of September, he meant the actual end. That means he's got until Sunday, but he's cutting things quite close. Maybe sometime today we'll hear something ... or do you think it's silly to get our hopes up? A lot of people have been speculating that it has something to do with recent forum closures or the changes in store for Nintendo Power, but unless we're getting that content in channel form (a possibility, to be sure), then that's probably not it, since Reggie was talking about channels and WiiConnect24 at the time.

So what -- and where -- is it? We've been very good, and we deserve a surprise.

Possible megaton alert! Cue the excitement -- or the yawns; your mileage with these announcements-about-announcements may vary. NoA President Reggie Fils-Aime dropped a not-so-subtle hint that we'll be seeing something special on our Wiis come September. A surprise, and just for us! He even says it'll be a good surprise; awesome, says us, because that's the best kind. It's probably not the Check Mii Out channel, because he was talking about that in the same breath in his interview with Game Head's Geoff Keighley. So what could it be? Perhaps an early peek at WiiWare? Some of you thought such a thing could be possible (though not quite that early). A channel we haven't heard about? Maybe demos? Get your speculation on.

In the past several years, it seems the reputation of gaming industry executives has begun to reach epic levels, proportionate, perhaps, to the spread of gaming as a culture. But we're also starting to think that maybe the corporate hype machines are getting a little out of control. What matters more, personality or product? Maybe it's just us, but it seems the lines are beginning to blur.

We can understand a healthy dose of Miyamoto-worship -- the man is a legend in the industry, and he's responsible for more of our cherished childhood memories than we'd like to admit. And sure, we love Reggie, and Iwata is the man (by that, we mean one hell of a savvy businessman), but is it really their personalities that make Nintendo what it is right now? No, it's certainly their skills ... so what's with all the executive worship that is spreading throughout gaming communities? Is it just that industry execs are out in the open more and more often, or is it something else? After all, most of the people that we're chasing in the industry are just in marketing. They're not doing much to create the things we spend our time on; they're just a face. A name. No different than mascot characters -- it's just now that we're growing up, apparently Sonic and Mario can't bear the brunt of the console wars any longer, and we've moved on to Reggie and pre-exodus Peter Moore. But let us know what you think -- that's why we're here.

This morning, at the Nintendo Media Summit, NoA President and resident badass Reggie Fils-Aime had some interesting statistics on the Nintendo juggernaut. While a lot of it may not be the best news for the hardcore gaming contingent, the massive revenue increases indicate that the wider potential market may well be what powers the industry in the coming years. One particularly telling statement backed up the figures: "We don't consider Sony and Microsoft as our only competitors. We're competing with other leisure time entertainment. If people stay at home and play Wii bowling instead of going to the movies, we win."

It's not all gloom and doom for the hardest of the hard, however. Reggie had some interesting things to say about this summer's highly anticipated Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It "will reinvent the control scheme for a first person shooter. It's the closest you can get to PC control in a [console] game." A lot of people hoped Red Steel would pull that off for the Wii at launch, but leave it to Nintendo to really show us what the Wiimote and nunchuk combo can do for the FPS.

Reggie also added that the DS continues to print money, just in case none of us knew.

Over at GameDaily, Chris Buffa (ha!) has put together a list of what he believes are the "top 5 most overrated industry people," calling out industry gods (and rightfully so) Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto. Surely, anyone who ever doubts the abilities, contributions and impact one Mr. Miyamoto has on the industry deserves to have their head examined ... with a sledgehammer.

First, we'll get into his comments on Kojima, a man we'd probably be thankful to if he even took the time to set us on fire. We love him that much. And with Chris' criticisms of the Metal Gear Solid franchise (all play the same, no idea what is going on in the games, etc.), we're that much more sure the man is off his meds. The reason all the "traditional" Metal Gear Solid games play the same is because they are good. Why fix what isn't broken? Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was our favorite game of 2004, and for good reason. As for not being able to understand the game's content, we suggest you actually pay attention to the cut scenes.

As for Mr. Miyamoto, to say that he is "falling back on the same overused franchises" over and over again is a misinformed statement. He isn't falling back on them, he's helping to improve them. Whether you believe the hype or not on a certain Super Mario Galaxy, it's probably going to reinvent the platform genre (we can say that, we played it). To try and downplay his contributions at Nintendo is just idiotic.

Finally, Chris takes time to bash Reggie Fils-Aime. Aside from the GBA Micro debacle (seriously, why was that thing made?) at E3, Reggie has done nothing but improved Nintendo's place in the industry. And that's not to downplay Iwata's contributions, but for as much as we all love to make fun of Reggie, he's probably done more than most for the company during his stay with Nintendo.

[Via Joystiq]

In a Q&A session with GamePro, NoA's King of Awesome, Reggie Fils-Aime, did indeed state that he was "blown away" by the resounding success of the Wii, and while it's exactly what Nintendo was shooting for, he's surprised that it happened so quickly ... so quickly, in fact, that Nintendo can't even seem to keep up with the demand. And of course, comparisons to the DS had to be made; after all, the Wii is taking its cue from the DS in many ways. However, when asked if we'll soon be seeing multicolored Wiis like we have with the DS, Reggie brushed that off as a concern for the future. Right now, they're more interested in getting more units into stores -- and we're sure that's good news for many of you.

It's worth noting that the issue of HD came up, and when asked whether or not Nintendo was planning on any kind of upgrade for the Wii that might add HD functionality, Reggie didn't say that it wouldn't ever happen ... but did cite statistics indicating that 83% of American households are not currently equipped for HD. What good is it to add something that many people can't even use? After all, Nintendo is trying to reach beyond the "hardcore" gamer and into every household ... a strategy that doesn't work very well if one of your biggest games is so dependent on HD that parts of it can barely be seen by the majority of potential gamers. The verdict? DVD is coming, but don't expect an HD dongle any time soon.

MTV.com's Stephen Totilo recently sat down with Nintendo's one-and-only, ass-kicking, name-taking man in charge Reggie Fils-Aime, where the problem of battery life came up. Reggie seems to think that any kind of rechargeable solution to the problem will have to come from third-parties.

This comes as a surprise to us, given that Microsoft's rechargeable solutions for their controllers were, and are, such a hit. Why would Nintendo deny themselves the money from selling rechargeable packs for their Wiimotes?

[Via 4cr]

NoA president (and popular photoshop subject) Reggie Fils-Aime made a special guest appearance on phones and answering machines across America yesterday. If you pre-ordered a Wii at GameStop, you got the message included after the jump. If you didn't ... you can still hear it!

Nothing like getting a recorded message from Reggie to make the waiting a little easier.

During a video interview with Reggie Fils-Aime, CNET's Rich DeMuro grilled the Nintendo president about the upcoming console. Turns out, we should expect no mystery announcement, no major new bomb, basically nothing more until the launch of the console. Reggie wants to dispel all rumors that the company is planning a major announcement pre-launch. For the most part, we're thankful, because the roller-coaster ride has near caused a coronary in us already. We just want the console already!

[Thanks :P!]

As if the man has done anything else lately, Reggie has conducted an interview with AOL Games, discussing everything from the Wii to their goal of attracting non-gamers, as well as Reggie's ultimate fantasy career. What's most interesting about this interview, we believe, is Reggie's views on the industry's current lack of originality and love of sequels. Reggie goes on to say:

"Do I think the industry is suffering from a lack of originality? A lot of the same old content? Sequelitis? Absolutely. Absolutely. As a consumer, is it challenge to parse through all the different choices available to find those great games out there? Absolutely. Yes, there's a lot of dreck out there. But I think a measure of our success is if you go to an EB or Gamestop and look at previous used product for sale, the fact is, you won't see a lot of Nintendo published product. Why? Because we make product that people tend to want to hold onto. The replay value is there. There's emotional attachment to the software. But is there a lot of dreck, especially on the competitive platforms? Absolutely."

In the most shocking news of the week, Nintendo has announced that they're -- are you ready? -- working to market the Wii toward women and the elderly. You know, like they've been doing for a long time with their Nintendo DS! Who expected that, huh? "We want to appeal to mothers who don't want consoles in their living rooms, and to the elderly and to young women,'' Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said. "It's a challenge, like trying to sell cosmetics to men."

But is it so hard? Even more so than with the DS, the Wii sells itself. From the moment the Wii controller surfaced, even non-gamers were considering the vast possibilities the system would bring to the industry. In that same report, Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Japanese research giant Enterbrain, seemed to strike closer to the truth. "Wii definitely could become the most popular console of all time. Non-gamers can see how fun it is to play just by looking at people playing it." We here at the Fanboy offices can attest -- even our mothers and our non-gaming friends (we do have a few) seem interested in the Wii. Perhaps the best thing Nintendo could do to sell the Wii is to simply ensure their demo kiosks are everywhere. All the system needs is exposure, and it will sell. The only factor that is up in the air is how successful it might become. How many people will stop and want a longer look, and end up taking one home? Time for a little holiday sales speculation -- tells us what impact you think the Wii will have outside of the traditional market.

MTV (yeah, really) has a great GameFile piece up right now that speculates on the upcoming battle between the Nintendo Wii and the PS3. But though the rest is interesting, we only had eyes for one little thing that Reggie Fils-Aime let slip:

"We're reaching out to every publisher, frankly every day. I'll be spending some time later today with the folks over at Take Two to see what type of support they can give our console. ... The fact is there will be M-rated content on the Wii console."

This is either the sign of the apocalypse or the red carpet down which the Wii may strut to console wars victory. Take Two Interactive is, of course, the publisher behind the impossibly popular Grand Theft Auto franchise -- a franchise that has never appeared on a Nintendo console, though GTA has surfaced on the GBA.

We'll give you a moment to consider that one. It's okay. We'll wait.

Yesterday, Nintendo revealed that several of their key personnel had been granted prestigious promotions, the most grand one being that of Reggie Fils-Aime being shifted to the role of President (we have to write it like that at least once) of Nintendo of America. Sure, Tatsumi Kimishima (now CEO) and Mike Fukuda (now executive vice president of business development) play important roles in the magical inner workings of Nintendo, but we haven't come to associate them with name acquisitions and posterior ass-aults quite like we have with Reggie.

So, Reggie's the president. What does that mean for you, me and the creepy, unshaven guy reading over your shoulder? Well, apart from an increased desire to come up with a new and entirely daft nickname (The Preggie), not much. With the Wii's marketing plans already in full swing and a strong games lineup ready to be released and marketed to death, it's unlikely that a dramatic change in Nintendo's focus or image will manifest within the immediate future.

The long run, however, may reveal some changes. When Reggie first took the stage back at E3 2003, many were surprised by his determination and attitude, qualities that didn't quite seem to fit in with Nintendo's supposed "family" image. The man can spin things at uncanny speeds, that's for sure, but there does seem to be conviction and passion beneath all the marketing hooplah. In his new position, Reggie may be able to influence Nintendo of America even more forcefully than before, taking command of its direction as opposed to just explaining why they've chosen that particular path.

I'd like to know what you (creepy, unshaven guy included) think about all this. "Big deal!" or big deal?