E3 07: Nintendo hits the big issues

Is Nintendo really serious about online? How have third party relationships changed? Why is Nintendo so sure that the Wii has longevity? Our sister website Next Generation asks Nintendo marketing director George Harrison these questions and more in this extensive interview...

Next Gen: Earlier this week, Reggie had talked about getting serious about online. Sure, there are a lot of online gamers using Wi-Fi Connect, but I look at things that Sony and Microsoft are doing with their online programs, where they're really creating communities and focusing on user-generated content on top of multiplayer online. Where is Nintendo as far as that goes in regards to Wii? Right now we've only seen a few multiplayer online games like Mario Strikers Charged and Mario Kart Wii.

George Harrison:Yes, they're mostly competitive type games... I think our first project was trying to open up that online gameplay itself to all the publishers and have a variety of those kinds of experiences. The other thing that was important that we just announced recently was WiiWare, so developers can get underway doing some new content and it can be downloaded online. That will come probably I would say in early 2008. It just depends on how long it takes them to get going.

NG: How has the developer reaction been to WiiWare?

GH: It's very strong. I think there are a lot of outlets that people want to find for creativity that aren't necessarily going to justify going to a publisher and having a retail sale of a product. You've got to do 200-500,000 units of a product to be able to justify [a published retail game]. But a developer may just have an idea they're working or a character they want to try out to see if it has appeal. So we think it's going to be a really good outlet for them.

NG: So it'll be games that aren't ready for retail?

GH: Or just types of gameplay and to see if there's enough there. It's really wide open for experimentation so people can do most anything with it.

NG: I just would like to get a better grasp of where Nintendo's going with online, because to me it seems that's where everything is, from distribution to online play to community. I see other companies really pushing that whereas Nintendo, as they did last generation, is still kind of sitting back playing wait-and-see. Is that the kind of attitude you're taking towards online?

GH: Online's going to be always one of those things that's peripheral to gaming. Well certainly we tried to figure out when would be the right time to jump in, and we really didn't believe in the last generation that it would turn out right for us with Nintendo Gamecube. So for us, online's going to be always one of those things that's peripheral to gaming. We heard Microsoft talking about how many movies they've downloaded and things like that. That's not really our business though, competing with Comcast cable boxes and that type of thing. So the things we do online are going to be related to gaming, and most of its going to be around competitive type gameplay.