Nintendo UK keeps evolving Interview

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Eurogamer: You mentioned you want to achieve further handheld growth in 2006 - are you going to achieve that with another iteration of the DS hardware?

David Yarnton: We've got the hardware there now and I think one of the things we've seen in Japan where the growth has come is the release of the content. I mean, Nintendogs was the first one that came and gave us a spike - okay, seasonality as well, but we still haven't actually caught up on Nintendogs and there's still demand out there we haven't supplied. Next one is Brain Training and we've seen the same thing in Japan and as I mentioned with Brain Training it was 13 weeks after launch that it hit its first big spike and then continued to get higher - and those people are new users as well, so very much the content is the thing now.

Eurogamer: That's true obviously, but Nintendo does have a history of redesigning handheld hardware and there has been all this discussion about whether you guys are going to do a DS redesign this year.

David Yarnton: If I turned around and said to my staff that we're doing something new they'd probably throttle me, because what with this last 12 months of product that we've done and also what we've got in the first quarter...

This generation.

Eurogamer: Can you categorically rule out then that you'll have a DS redesign announcement at E3?

David Yarnton: That's been rumoured, I don't know for how long, but we haven't got any plans at the moment. Nothing I know of.

Eurogamer: One of the things we have heard Nintendo talk about and even Nintendo UK, which is obviously different to the way things have been in the past, is the next-generation console. Obviously you're not talking about that today, but in general, Microsoft's done a global launch, Sony... although they're being quiet about it, from what we've heard from publishers and so on, they're saying they absolutely have to launch in all areas this year. Are you going to be the only people that launch a console in 2007?

David Yarnton: If you look at other companies... We've got so many products to juggle. One of the things is we always want to make sure we do it properly and do it right, and we'll launch when we're ready and when the product's right, and that's all under control as far as we're concerned.

Eurogamer: Would it be fair to say that the questions we have regarding price and release date and so on will be fully answered in May when you do your big Revolution presentation?

David Yarnton: I think E3 will be the big one to wait for when, and I don't think anyone in the UK is going to get a sneak piece of information on something as important as that [laughs].

Eurogamer: How will you be supporting the GameCube this year?

David Yarnton: Ah well, look, we've got to be honest in the UK, especially. GameCube we can't say is, uh... We're number three and we've got product to release there, but I think what a lot of people don't realise is that GameCube in Europe is probably number two when you add up the other territories, and in Japan it's number two and in fact it's been outselling Xbox 360, so on a global basis GameCube is a very strong business for us as such. Unfortunately the UK market hasn't been our best area, but you know that's why we want to make sure for the future. And I think you'll find that a lot of things we've been doing and the way we've been doing things have been different to what we've done in the past, and not just I suppose in communicating with the media but also to some extent in the way we're dealing with trade. We're doing a lot of things with trade differently than we have in the past, and it's all to sort of make sure for the future that we do a better job.

Eurogamer: One of the things you said during your presentation... You had a slide talking about how Sony lost it a bit with the Walkman and now Apple's moving into their space - all part of your evolution theme. Obviously you guys have made no secret of your intention to move away from what you see as traditional gaming...

David Yarnton: No I think that's wrong in context, to the extent that we see it as one aspect of the business. We're not deserting the market that we have or those who've supported us over the years. What we're looking at doing is growing and to grow that we need to look in other areas, because that's a finite number of customers that you can have there and we're not going to, as I say, desert or neglect that.

Next generation.

Eurogamer: Well yes, it was one of the three parts of Satoru Iwata's TGS speech along with keeping old gamers happy and attracting disenchanted gamers back, but what I was really getting at is that you're talking a big talk at the moment, and is that a reflection of Nintendo's ambition? Do you see yourselves as being able to regain what some would probably call your former glory?

David Yarnton: Our ambition is to be number one, so there's a number of different areas for us to do that. We can take them head on or we can move outside as well. We aim to be number one. We're number one in the handheld and there's no reason we can't be number one in the console area? In a number of markets, as I say, Sony dominates, but we're not far behind.

Eurogamer: So in this generation, you think?

David Yarnton: This generation as in GameCube? [Laughs] I don't think we'll catch up with GameCube.

Eurogamer: I'm already moving on a bit, sorry. In terms of Revolution, obviously.

David Yarnton: Who knows. Who knows.

Eurogamer: Have you played Xbox 360? What do you think of it as a machine?

David Yarnton: I've seen it, but I haven't played it to be honest. We've got one in the office and I've seen it in store. Some of our guys sit and I watch them play it. I was watching, I'm trying to think what the racing game was...

Eurogamer: Project Gotham?

David Yarnton: Yeah. It looked nice, but... I won't talk about opposition products.

Eurogamer: Okay so you're not talking about opposition products, but where do you see multiformat gaming going given that you're diverging so much? Are we likely to see popular games appear on the three consoles any more?

David Yarnton: I mean, you can look on Nintendo with popular games like Mario Kart and a lot of our games which are only on one format and they still sell really well, and a lot of people are probably wishing they were on multiformat. And there's room for that on all of them, and I think looking at the support we're getting from third party, I think it'll most definitely be not only multiformat games but also we know they'll develop exclusive games for Nintendo products as well. So a lot of them have seen the success of DS and the support we've got with them and the number of titles coming through is reflecting that. A few people may have made some wrong bets early on, but it's almost a floodgate coming back as far as support there. And we've got something like 20 titles that'll be launched just with ourselves on DS between now and April, and then you add third party on top of that so there's no dearth of titles.

Eurogamer: Don't you worry though on the Revolution that people are going to take a PS3 or Xbox 360 game, port it on the Revolution and then try and figure out how to make the control system work with it?

David Yarnton: One of the things we've said before with DS is that it's the start of us being able to provide consumers with a human interface, more opportunity and that's the progression I think we look at there, offering that much better gameplay experience people can have through the console or through the hand control, whatever it may be, making it simpler and easier while not neglecting the opportunities for complexity as well. But we can make it simple for people.