Games Thirst – Amazing Life
Nintendo of America’s face isn’t impressed.
Reggie Fils-Aime’s body isn’t ready for the games launching alongside Sony’s and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles. Speaking with IGN, Nintendo of America president said the Wii U’s value is great for consumers, considering what it offers, especially from this Fall and on; the price cut also helped.
So, when the Regginator was asked why should the consumers pick Nintendo over Sony or Microsoft, Fils-Aime answered:
“It’s all about the games. The competitive systems have announced their launch lineups. I’m allowed to say ‘Meh. I look at our lineup of titles and I feel good about our lineup. We’ve got Zelda. We’ve got Mario. We’ve got Donkey Kong. In addition to great titles like Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101, I feel very good about our lineup, and I feel very good about the value proposition we’re putting out there for the consumer.”
Fair enough, Reggie. But the Xbox One will offer the almighty cloud, for example, and my Playstation 4 will let me play Final Fantasy XIV with my friends on the PC and the Playstation 3, or continue my Assassin’s Creed IV experience on the Vita. Many of the Playstation 4’s games are also cross-buy on Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita. How will Nintendo, having the Wii U and the 3DS in their arsenal, compete?
“We’ve got cloud technology that we’re delivering with Wii U. Nintendo TVii is all cloud-based technology. But the difference is, we don’t talk about the tech. We talk about the experience. We make sure that the consumer has fun with the game experiences that we provide. And so I think as you compare and contrast Nintendo with other players in the space, for us it’s about games, about the fun, about the entertainment value, and not about the tech.”
Our take: I’m giving Reggie a thumbs up for being honest. The next-gen launch lineup isn’t all that impressive, apart from a couple of games (Killzone: Shadow Fall, for example, is my most anticipated next-gen launch game). He’s also right when he says Nintendo is about the experience, and not the tech; after all, “cloud” is a fancy name that sits better on the tongue and goes out more eloquently than “300.000 servers working 24/7″. In the end, Nintendo was always, for me, the incarnation of pure, innocent fun.
