A great piece on Nintendo, its fans, and a breakdown in communication from MTV’s Stephen Totilo, here.

Apart from the astute observation about the issues with Animal Crossing (why DIDN’T Nintendo address these problems?) one of the most notable points comes from Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime’s comment about Nintendo’s commitment to core gamers.

“There’s one thing I do want to reinforce. I could almost put myself into the ‘geeks and otaku’ camp. I grew up playing all those great Nintendo games. And so for me I look at product like “Animal Crossing” and I get tremendously excited. I look at “Wario” and get tremendously excited. I look at “Sluggers” coming out and get tremendously excited. So this mentality that we have somehow lost our soul and [are not] speaking to our fanbase, there is nothing further from the truth. And if you talk to Mr. Miyamoto, you really understand that we really have the interest of our core fanbase right at the top of the list. The recognition is — and I think this is really the point — we’re not going to tease you over 18 months or 24 months. We’re going to show you something that’ll make your jaw drop and make it available shortly thereafter.”

Evidently this new strategy of late reveals is going to take a bit of getting used to - particularly after a late 2008 line-up that’s arguably Nintendo’s weakest for a good three years at least. But at least Reggie is aware of fans’ concerns and is attempting to address them. Here’s hoping we get a few announcements before Christmas that make the early part of 2009 a period to really get excited about.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm by Chris Schilling
Columns & Opinion, Disappointment, e3.