Nintendo super-smashes expectations
Company on a great run since last console launch
LOS ANGELES— Canadians are Zelda freaks and Poké- maniacs, says Reggie Fils-Aimé, and he should know.
“The Canadian audience is the very tip of the mountaintop when it comes to Zelda games,” said the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America during an interview this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3.
“There are certain franchises that overperform in the Canadian market. Legend of Zelda is one. I can’t tell you why but the Canadian consumer loves it. Every single game in the series has done better with the Canadian audience than the U.S. audience, and the U.S. audience does better than Europe or Japan. Another phenomenon, and this is a recent trend, over the last 10 years is Pokémon. Po
kémon games do exceptionally well (in Canada).”
Sitting down with Fils-Aimé for a wide-ranging interview at North America’s largest videogame conference, it is evident that Nintendo is having a particularly great run. On Tuesday the company announced the release of Fortnite on the Switch console, and it went on to be downloaded 2 million times in its first 24 hours. Fans were also excited to try a Switch demo of Super Smash Bros. Ul
timate, the next instalment in the fighting-game franchise that pits characters from many different games against one another. In the game, players can often come out of nowhere and snatch unlikely victories. Simi- larly, there is no company that does a reversal of fortune better than Nintendo.
Since it launched the portable/hybrid console Switch last year, it has been on an incredible roll, with new games arriving every week combined with strong sales and continued momentum — which Fils-Aimé acknowledges is night and day compared with the poor performance of its previous console, the Wii U. “We have a lot of momentum out there. It’s wonderful. But we also know that in this games business, things change quickly,” he says.
“What we’ve been able to do with Nintendo Switch is a number of very important things. First, we’ve been incredibly clear with the positioning of the product. Why should you purchase this device? Well, it’s because you can play this great content, anywhere, anytime with anyone. Tell me what the Wii U proposition was in 10 words or less. We weren’t as incredibly clear.”
Evidence for Fils-Aimé’s argument is how many other developers are making and porting their games over the console, which wasn’t the case with both of the company’s previous consoles.
Beyond Nintendo-produced titles, the list of big games coming to the device keeps growing, including Ubisoft Toronto’s Starlink: Battle for Atlas — which made a splash this week by announcing Starfox’s Fox McCloud will be a playable character — as well as Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, Dark Souls Remastered, and many more planned.
Of course, Nintendo’s beloved franchises are what the fans want, and the company is also delivering on those. Mario Tennis Aces launches next week, Super Mario Party is coming, and Pokémon: Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee arrives in November. Nintendo is also offering a new Pokéball controller, which will surely be prized by all those Canadian Poké- maniacs. A “legendary” Pokémon character, the elusive Mew, will come as a pre-order bonus.
Nintendo is also ready to launch its paid-subscription service this summer to help people play online, similar to its competitors, in September. In Canada, the most expensive plan will cost $34.99 a year, and though players are promised connected play and the power to save to the cloud, it still likely won’t be as robust or featurefilled as Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. For instance, player chat will be handled through a phone-based app, which is a different approach than the others, and it remains to be seen if will be up to par.
But the place that Nintendo has staked out and continues to own is the family market — which its competitors pay far less attention to. “We are happy that they don’t,” Fils-Aimé says.
“It’s been an incredibly important market because the kid who’s 5 or 6 today is going to be 12 or 13 and not all that many years later 18 or 19 … And when you have an affinity for Pokémon or The Legend of Zelda series or Mario Kart or Super Mario Bros. that affinity carries with you.”
He says the company’s Labo product, games mixed with buildable cardboard models, is doing well, and they hope to make it a platform and are looking at working with schools. It also plans to continue to launch two or three mobile experiences a year, with Mario Kart Tour coming by March 2019.