Perrin Kaplan: Wii Features Rolled Out at 'Pace That Makes Sense'

February 21, 2007 | By: James Brightman

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While hardcore gamers want to see everything the Wii can offer right now (you know, like actual online gameplay...) NoA VP Perrin Kaplan told us during DICE that Nintendo is selectively rolling features out to make it palatable to the mass market consumer. Also, could a Wii hardware revision be in the works? Massive interview awaits...

GameDaily BIZ: The Wii did quite well this holiday season. At last count Nintendo sold over 3.19 million units worldwide. Did you expect to sell that many or did that level of success surprise you a bit?

Perrin Kaplan: We actually projected really strong numbers like that before our launch, because any public company needs to do that... But again it was a really high risk to bring out something that innovative and different and we are really kind of in awe that consumers are so high on the product. I mean we had hoped for it, but when you do something that different you never really know how people are going to react, and the fact that everybody—teens, dads, moms, cousins, young kids—everybody is totally into it, and then the DS is selling extremely well... we're kind of in awe of all of it. It's a great, great thing and I think it means a lot of good things for the whole industry.

BIZ: That was actually something that Doug Lowenstein talked about earlier today in his speech. He said that the industry needs to take more risks, and shouldn't rely on the same type of content over and over. And he specifically mentioned the Wii and Will Wright's Spore...

PK: Well, consumers are really savvy. They've been enjoying [what the games industry offers] for a long time, but I don't think [purchase patterns] reflected a healthier appetite. Buying games has been sort of staying level, but I don't think people were feeling inspired. In fact, some of the core gamers were like, "I thought I was getting bored and I wasn't sure, and now I realize I was totally getting bored. And I now I feel reinvigorated." And those who've left gaming, we need them to come back in order for the industry to grow, and then those who've never played, we really want them to enter the fold because it's very fun. So yeah, we've got to get risky and get out there, and obviously sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

BIZ: Nintendo built up a lot of momentum over the holiday season, but what's the plan to keep that momentum alive and well? Inevitably there's going to be a lull, so how do you keep the buzz around the Wii and people buying it?

PK: Well, there's various buzz now. If you look on the Internet, there's everything from how to hold your own Wii party to how to do a Mii parade to change Mii codes to how to lose weight... all these different branches that have come off this tree. So the momentum has not slowed down. Conan O'Brien and Serena Williams were just playing Wii Sports tennis on TV the other night; that's the kind of stuff you thought would only happen during launch and it's still fast and furious. There's a lot, a lot of talk about it. You have to remember that even though you played the Wii many months ago, it's still new to a lot of people; there's a lot of "eurekas" to be had by a lot of consumers. So for us I think it's just about continuing to get the product out there, letting people have a chance to touch and feel it themselves and play it, because hearing about it is one thing; seeing someone play it is another exciting thing; and the third thing is if you play it yourself, for the most part, 99% of the time, people are like "I love this!"

BIZ: How much credit would you give Nintendo's marketing team for this early success? You've had some unique marketing where you took the Wii to an AARP convention, advertised with Oprah...

PK: Yeah, a lot of that actually started with the DS with Brain Age and Nintendogs and our efforts to try to take those products and populate it into different kinds of audiences. You know, the AARP thing was a little bit tough at first. They were like, "We don't really want to talk to you because we're all grandparents and we already buy stuff for our kids," and so we said, "No we want to talk to you about you." It took several attempts for them to finally say, "So why do you want to talk to us?" And it's because we have products for them as well now; so it really started with the DS and has continued on with the Wii. But I will say, at the end of the day if you have a poor product it doesn't matter how great your marketing is. I think our marketing efforts have been stupendous but it has only been icing on top of a really great cake, not in absence of a really great product.

BIZ: Getting back to my point about the lull and keeping momentum, though, the Q1 lineup for the Wii looks pretty anemic, honestly. And long droughts were a problem with the GameCube. Reggie Fils-Aime recently declared that there would be no droughts on the Wii, but it's as if we're starting to feel a drought already right now. I mean, when are we going to see Metroid or Mario?

PK: Well, first of all, number one you're a hardcore gamer, and we're selling to the masses as well. As I had mentioned earlier, there are millions of people who have yet to even experience Wii Sports. We've got 27 products between January and June, which gives people a lot to choose from, and that doesn't even include all of the Virtual Console games. You know, we've got Metroid and Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Bros. and a lot of other really cool products... Elebits for example is getting really rave reviews and it's a really cool product. So we have about 2/3 of our products coming from third parties, which is really healthy; so while you, a core gamer are kind of waiting for our next product, there's still tons for people to experience and to find. And a lot of the hardcore products are going to continue to come and come soon.

BIZ: Ok then, so what is the expected release timeframe for Metroid and Mario?

PK: I wish I could tell you. You will learn soon.

BIZ: How many new IPs would you say Nintendo has in the works for the Wii right now? Is there a certain quota you have for introducing new properties?

PK: I wish it was as simple as that, but it's really not. When you're in the business of art... I don't think an artists sits down and says, "I'm going to create this many masterpieces this year." I mean, we do try to plan the year so that we've got sort of flagpole products that are launched during key times in the year to keep people engaged and bring them something new, but we don't sit down and say we're going to do X number. If you were to ask [Shigeru] Miyamoto and his team, creativity blooms at the time it blooms and they're constantly working and there are a certain number of games that I think they do try to accomplish creating, but it's really in reverse; it's an art, not a science.