Speaking to Cnet, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime talked at length about Nintendo's core business with the Wii and DS. The interviewer noted that while Sony and Microsoft went to the core gamer first and are trying to expand to the mainstream audience, Nintendo has the opposite problem. As Fils-Aime sees it, it's all about different opportunities.

"The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends," said Fils-Aime. "We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus. The mid-term opportunity is the more mainstream consumer who saw Wii at a friend's house but just needs a little extra incentive to get into our game. That's what Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii will hopefully achieve. And the long-term opportunity is that person who currently says, 'I don't play video games and I have no interest in playing video games.'"

"We think we win over the Halo audience with something like The Conduit, a multi-player, online, shooting experience, or Dead Space Extraction," he added. "And you know what? Once those people buy into Wii, they'll go buy Mario Kart or Wii Fit Plus. We're not going to be satisfied just picking up that existing gamer. We have to reach beyond and get that consumer who doesn't game. That's the only way we'll be able to continue growing as a company and as an industry."

Reggie's bluster aside, we're openly skeptical of these claims. Without a robust online gaming service or HD graphics, it seems more likely that there'll just be a serious divide in the audience, rather than the Wii coming back to reclaim the hardcore.

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