E3: Nintendo's David Yarnton Comments by Ellie Gibson

"Wii People" LOL

=( no wave race wii mention (currently addicted to the vc n64 version all over again), and no, jet-skiing in sports resort doesn't count.

Good to see that not all games industry execs are completely devoid of humour / personality.

. Great interview. Seemed to have rattle with all those motion questions and the games. Liked this part

Eurogamer: Some Wii owners have complained that your great first-party titles are too few and far between. In the meantime, they're left with nothing but a load of shovelware - piles of quickly churned out, cheaply made games designed to sell on the basis of the cover alone.

David Yarnton: Are you having an interview with EA, Activision, Capcom? Are you going to ask them that question as well, suggesting the product they make for Wii is second-rate? Because I've seen some fantastic product out there.

HE seemed to have been rattled. And BTW I have said its going to real tough for Nintendo soon. This E3 has verified my comments. They will need a new console or a huge price drop sooner than people think.

Ellie, I think you should have asked him if they're going to release Pilotwings... :P

Where were the questions about his beard?

Well done, EG all the right questions, and you didn't let him off the hook.

I would have paid good money to see him squirming.

The plain fact is that for the games audience who read this site will struggle to find 5 games they want for the wii this year, regardless of the amount of disposable income they would like to give Nintendo to keep them entertained.

Great questions, rubbish answers.

Best answers:

"David Yarnton: Who knows?"

(Clue: Not Dave)

"David Yarnton: The thing is, you can never predict anything with our company. Even if I said something it could be proved wrong in the future."

(Translation: I haven't a clue.)

I think if you'd asked him a few more times, they would've started development just to stop you asking! Great interview Ellie! I was hoping you'd ask "of everything your competitors have presented this E3, what do you wish you'd been showing?" It's always fun watching them come up with an answer for that one. Either complete honesty or total lies.

"Sorby Hall of Residence Mario Kart Champion 1996"

I think not. That accolade was held in Sorby's resident annex 28/30.

Person least likely to know what's up his sleeve: Dave.

I loved this bit:

Eurogamer: Is it Pilotwings?

David Yarnton: You're a Pilotwings fan, are you?

Eurogamer: Is it Pilotwings?


Ellie, you come across a bit unhinged sometimes...

(not a criticism!) :)

Wow... That was an awesome interview. I've never seen the execs asked the questions which reflect the whining of the internet community so directly and brazenly before :O

His answers aren't surprising though, and it's not his fault. If they're making Pikminwingfox Zero and they haven't announced it in their big keynote, and Shigeru isn't opening his gob, then you can guarantee he's simply not allowed to say. Letting something slip is not worth his job/career.

All the companies do it, and they need to do it. If all Nintendo's games from this E3 were announced at the last E3 (with no difference to the release dates) then all the hype would've died by now and we'd be bitching that they've got nothing to show this year. I'd bet a lot of money they're working on big name titles now which will be announced and shown off next year.

@ LazyDan - its all well and good not mentioning things until realtively close to their release, but the real question is why are they so far from release, and what are people supposed to play in the mean time?

Nintendo are currently unable or unwilling to produce enough quality games throughout each year to satisfy the customers, and the third parties arn't doing well enough to pick up the slack.

Fantastic interview! Good to see you pushed him close to breaking point with the continuous questioning.

Ellie is the new Paxman. "Is it Pilotwings?" is the new "Did you threaten to over rule him?".

Sorby Hall? I went there too! How exciting. The annex was a dirty place for dirty people.

It's all gone now though :-(

I love the slating of the numerous rubbish Wii third-party games and his completely dishonest and fiscally controlled "well it's just your opinion some idiots buy them and that's all we care about" response.

Ellie is the Paxman on video game journalists... i love it :D

Brilliant as always. :D

[PR chap: "Just to butt in, the three guiding principles of our gaming service have always been 'simple, safe and free'. We don't see a reason why they should be changed at the moment, because people like it. People say it is complicated but it's complicated for a reason - to keep people safe."]

So then, it's not "simple, safe and free" then, is it?

So the guiding principles can be updated to just "Safe and Free". Think of all the man hours that can be saved by not typing, saying and printing the word "simple" over the next few years.

This is fantastic - if only Ellie did all interviews, everywhere, ever.

I'm not aware of too many complaints about [Friend Codes].


RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

I'm not aware of too many complaints about [Friend Codes].

Haha that made me laugh - Nintendo unaware of complaints about the utterly terrible friends codes system, much like they're unaware of the complaints that they're not producing games for the hardcore.

Where's my Pilotwings?

"[PR chap: "Very possible. It wouldn't surprise me."]"

Hee.

When you look at the Wii's installed base of more than 50 million units, DS with well over 100 million... We don't look at winning or losing as such,...

Facepalm much?

thats got to be the largest amount of side stepping i've seen in an interview for some time.

He must have gotten all the way to another state by the time the interview was over

That interview was epic. It's great to see that you didn't let him off the hook throughout. I was looking forward to the wii before it came out, i was looking forward to the potential it had. It seems even Nintendo have just given up making games and now just make lifestyle products.
Please tell me that interview was recorded, we want to see him squirm!!

Much love to Ellie for that!

I'm not aware of too many complaints about [Friend Codes].

This bit reminded me of Gordon Brown at PMQs. :)

Superb interview. We've complained every year about EG interviewers pussyfooting around the important issues at E3, nice to finally see some pressure applied, even if he did give useless stock answers like a twat.

You should have questioned him about F-Zero :P

But it seems like for every Boom Blox I have to play nine Hasbro Family Game Nights, Golden Balls, Carnival Sports Party Surfing Nightmare Fiascos...

wow, that sucks, I'm sorry for you, and it's because of stuff like this that I congratulate myself every day for being a gamer and not a gaming journalist.

I like how he was obviously shaken by the question about shovelware. It's the classic defense: "Are you going to X, Y and Z and are you going to ask them that question?"

am i the only person whos reading this thinking that its a wasted oppurtunity to find out something useful and instead just a load of questions that were obviously not going to be answered

@roz123

yes, you are. if you'd like to read Mr. Yarnton's standard answers to the standard questions of a regular interview, please check one of the 28 other news outlets that have interviewed since E3 started. but beware, the questions as well as the answers are extremely similar across all interviews.

i for one like the fact that somebody puts the hard questions to them, of course he's never gonna answer them intentionally, but chances are he lets something slip. or makes his pr dude look like an ass, which is quite funny

I think the question of "Do you think there's too much shovelware and not enough quality games on the Wii" has been answered with a resounding yes.

Well, one thing's for certain: David Yarnton wasn't hired for his glowing wit or brilliant sense of humour.

Good job, Ellie!

Nintendo are currently unable or unwilling to produce enough quality games throughout each year to satisfy the customers, and the third parties arn't doing well enough to pick up the slack.

The weekly sales charts would strongly disagree with you, Wii/DS pretty much dominates week after week after week.

Absolutely love your work Ellie! :o) Keep it up!

@roz123 : "am i the only person whos reading this thinking that its a wasted oppurtunity to find out something useful and instead just a load of questions that were obviously not going to be answered"


Nope.. i thought that too.. but this is the internets.. and she's female.. so all the forum nerds "love" her regardless.

So, if you want replies other than the usual po-faced, dull, homogenised, bullshit-bingo, corporate bollocks, you must be an Ellie-loving forum nerd.

Yeah, right.

but they're never going to say anything useful that was not in the actual conference. they're programmable (any ngc fans remember david go-sen?) and never stray from the company line.
at best they just ignore what is said

Eurogamer: Students liking Mario Kart? Does it? I almost failed my degree because of that game. I was Sorby Hall of Residence Mario Kart Champion 1996.

David Yarnton: Well, there you go. So there's a big uptake, and it seems to work OK.

makes sense?

Eurogamer: Is it Pikmin?

David Yarnton: Who knows?

you should!!
(guess it's a no then)

PR chap: "Due to problems with the exchange rate over the last year, we raised the cost price. Whether retailers choose to pass that cost on to customers is up to them. We have no control over what they charge for a Wii.

um . . . .sure you don't.

best to just have a laugh with them in this context, i think.

I am amused. I don't think they tell Nintendo UK much. Good interview

Eliie you really nailed that 1, fantastic read very funny.

I don't know, I have some misgivings about the interview style at times, unless the person is in tune with, and happy to go along wit the tongue in cheek nature it seems like a mistake to go about it this way, as it comes across as very awkward such as when David Yamton told Ellie to ask third parties direct about their titles.

For those taking it at face value as a good way to attack Nintendo, even if it was supposed to be a serious interview why would a UK head of Nintendo know anything about unannounced projects and even if he did why would he reveal them if higher ups didn't?

I think this interview style is perfect, the number of Press people who get the chance dont ask the right questions, yes some questions might be silly but we are all thinking of these questions :D

Questions like, Shovelware, what is nintendo doing next, can it compete if the high graphics machines get waggle, seriously good questions if you scratch the surface of some of the comments.

You are a brilliant jounalist Ellie. This is top stuff!

Nintendo is like a Rock Band, who has been touring for years, and decided to make Bon Jovi-songs instead. It sells bucketloads, but doesn't do well with their classic audiance. Now they expect everyone to be happy, because they are making some hardcore games. If they had invested more in de development capacity they wouldn't have had this problem.

I LOVE YOU ELLIE.

Ellie: So what do you think of your competitors new motion sensing products?
David: I like trees and clouds and getting wet - in the rain
E: What do you say to people who claim Sony and MS had a better E3?
D: Have you tried these donuts? They're delicious.
E: What about the hardcore gamer that feels like Nintendo have abandoned them in recent years?
d: bbeeeeebbbbbwww bbeeeeebbbbbwweeeeeeeeeeeee!

If they really think 'no one is complaining' and friend codes then Nintendo REALLY don't know what the internet is as they've clearly never read a forum or been on twitter.