Hey there Sean,
I didn’t see this interview posted on your blog or any other site, so here it is:
Reggie, interviewed by Gamespot at E3, gives a speech about Nintendo, its software lineup and disruption. He sums up Nintendo’s strategy quite well, and the pace is nice and slow. Hope you’ll find it useful.
I’ve actually been intentionally ignoring this interview. I just have too many problems with it.
First, we don’t get to hear any of the questions. Reggie sounds as if he is giving a brilliant monologue which, we know, isn’t the case. The lack of questions makes it difficult to understand what he is answering.
Second, Reggie uses the word ‘disruption’ in a non-Christensen way. “We are ‘disrupting’ this. We are ‘disrupting’ that.” This isn’t how Christensen would say it. Normally, when Reggie has used the disruption phrases, it always matched Christensen’s context. For example, “We’ve disrupted the industry before, and now we are doing so again!” was said by Reggie at E3 2006. He was referring to the NES of twenty years ago. This is very accurate. But he is becoming way too loose in using ‘disruption’. My gut sense is that he is intentionally saying ‘disruption’ because he thinks guys like myself will pick up on it and start saying, “Hey! Reggie is talking disruption! OMG!!!” But in how he is saying it, he makes no sense.
Third, in order to sell Metroid M, Reggie is giving some very strange numbers for the sales of Metroid Prime. Every indication we have seen, including NPD sales charts (which were leaked at that time), show higher numbers than what Reggie said. You can tell Nintendo felt pleased with the sales of Metroid Prime or else they wouldn’t have bought Retro, greenlit two more Prime games, and made two Prime spin-offs of Pinball and Hunters. To me, Reggie is turning himself into a pretzel to explain why Metroid M is being made. I mean, Reggie just can’t flat out say, “One of our Nintendo developers wants to re-invent Metroid to his vision. He wants to make a Manga Metroid!”
Fourth, Reggie talks about how other game companies are surprised that Nintendo is open to partnerships like with Team Ninja. In other words, either Reggie is talking spoof or game companies are pretty damn stupid. Nintendo has been making these type of partnerships ever since the 16-bit generation! Where were they when F-Zero GX or Starfox Assault were made? Where were they when Super Mario RPG or Super Mario Strikers were made? In this case, I wouldn’t be surprised if game companies are absolute idiots. Despite Nintendo leading the game industry as well as being the creative fountainhead for it, no one ever studies Nintendo even in the slightest way. It really shows just how inept and stupid this industry has become.
People love to call me a ‘Nintendo fanboy’, but I do not respond to what Nintendo says by saying, “Hail! Hail!” I look it up first to make sure they aren’t spinning me a web. When Miyamoto said that he was trying to make a co-op version of a Mario game since the beginning, I didn’t take his word. I looked it up. Sure enough, hidden in the code of Super Mario World, Mario 64, and New Super Mario Brothers, were pieces of an aborted attempt to add in a second co-op player. NSMB DS very nearly almost became co-opt.
This interview by Reggie, while very smooth, stunk to me. There was nothing substantial said that passed my fact-check. C’mon folks! Trailers were shown of games that weren’t going to be out for over a year! What’s up with this change? Why the push toward user generated content, which is in a red ocean?? No one is asking these questions and, even if asked, I doubt they would be answered.
I liked Reggie citing NPD at the end. I bet he was in for a surprise to find that the Wii momentum had collapsed in America at that NPD.