In Part I of our two-part interview with Nintendo of America president Reginald Fils-Aime, he explained some of the steps he took to win back the support of third party publishers that had walked away from the Gamecube, but rejected the notion that some sort of Nintendo seal or award was necessary to persuade Nintendo fans to take a closer look at games other than those made by his own company. Here in Part II, we continue to press Fils-Aime on his contention that the underperformance of third party games on Nintendo machines is solely a development problem--while he disputes our characterization of the "Read my lips" pledge he gave to Wii owners last year on Level Up.

Given your background in marketing, you don't look at [the challenge that third party publishers face on Nintendo platforms] as a marketing problem. You look at this as a development philosophy problem.

Absolutely. Why do I say that? Because it has to start with a great game. Once the game is there, we can certainly provide some marketing expertise, but you know what, the third party publishers are pretty smart in their own marketing. It has to start with the game. And when the game is there, the game sells and it does extremely well. We'll provide all kinds of support--Nintendo Power [magazine], Nintendo.com, all of that is there--but without a great game, it just won't help.

True. But let's look at games like Okami, let's look at games like Viva Pinata, let's look at games like your own Elite Beat Agents. All phenomenally reviewed, but sales weren't commensurate with that. At the end of the day, the consumer's going to buy what the consumer buys; it's kind of tautological. I appreciate everything you've said about the development challenge. We know, we won't name any names here, because I don't want to get me in trouble or get you in trouble, but there were definitely some prominent third parties that early on in the DS life cycle were putting out shovelware, crapware or whatever you want to call it. But looking at the purchasing patterns of people who own Nintendo platforms, even allowing for the successes, even looking at one-third, two-thirds split--and that's considering, y'all only published two, three, four titles so far?

Uh-huh.

You do the math on a per-title basis, that's a lot going Nintendo's way, and a lot less going the third party's way. It seems that marketing to people who buy your hardware is a challenge. There is a marketing challenge. Maybe there's a demographics issue. Maybe there's some sort of deeper data mining, some sort of deeper psychographic analysis that you could do. Because your audience, the people who buy your machines--and I'm not saying that they're monolithic--but their purchasing patterns are pretty clear: they buy the games you make. Not all of the games you make, but they buy a lot of the games you make, and comparatively a lot fewer of the third party stuff. So it seems that there is a marketing challenge, a demographics challenge, perhaps a sort of an anthropological study challenge, an I'm wondering, is that going to be part of the process and the learning that you dig into and share with third parties to solve this?

You know, we look at our marketing and talk to our consumer on a daily basis. And the depth of information we have at NOA is tremendous. Are we sharing that information with licensees? The answer is yes. But do I anticipate even more of that sharing? Absolutely? A classic example is with the Touch Generations genre. We've done that extremely well. We've had tremendous learnings with Brain Age, with Nintendogs, how to go after alternative channels where these types of products have the potential to sell extremely well. We're in the process of sharing that with key licensees, especially key licensees who've come to the table with product that fits that genre and have the capability to deliver strong sales. So N'Gai, don't get me wrong; we have opportunities to share information on the marketing side, and we're doing it. But as you look at, for example, Elite Beat Agents, I would argue the issue certainly was partly a marketing one, but the bigger issue was with that genre of game, how do you break through the mental barrier, if you will, of consumers as well as retailers, and get that product out there--it's not purely a marketing challenge.

Even with the success of DDR and on a much greater level, Guitar Hero?

You know what? DDR took a number of iterations for that product to become as big as it has. Guitar Hero, the first one did okay. The second one is what really blew the doors off from a volume standpoint. That's why we're thrilled that the team that worked on Elite Beat Agents is working on another product. That has been announced, that's public knowledge at this point. We think the second iteration really will help drive that genre to a whole new place.

Julia Roether, publicist: N'Gai, you have about five minutes.

Okay. Well with time winding down, I think I need to give you the opportunity to ask a question. My friend, MTV News correspondent Stephen Totilo did an interview with you vis a vis the read-my-lips pledge that you made to me, there were some things that you wanted to clarify, that maybe I'd misunderstood. So I'm all ears. What's up?

[Laughs] You know, we had a conversation that talked about how there would be no drought of games to support Wii. I think you took that as a first party comment, versus my intent, that it was from a total standpoint. If you look at what's been published so far, what's been announced though Q2, the support out there in terms of the range of games is tremendous. So I believe the read-my-lips pledge was delivered, and as you said earlier I'm a fairly honorable person, I want to make sure that you live up to your own credibility as well. [Smiles.]

Well, if we go back and look at the exchange in question, perhaps there was a little misunderstanding there. But in fact, the question was specifically about first party software, because that's what historically has been the drought--and especially given what we've talked about, the interest among people who buy Nintendo platforms primarily being in Nintendo's own games, that was the context. If you look at the answer that you gave, you were speaking specifically in terms of Nintendo products. One of the things that you said--and then I subsequently I said "Is that a read-my-lips pledge?" and you said "Yes"--was that Metroid was going to ship in early 2007. And time's running out on early 2007. Stephen says that he gives you until the end of June; once we get to the halfway point, then early 2007 is over. But I think I was fair, in term of the question that was being posed and the context of it.

You know, a number of things. Speaking specifically to first party; we've had tremendous success with Wii Play, and frankly that game is focused against an audience expansion type of consumer, a consumer where Wii is in the home, but they haven't yet picked up the remote. That product is doing extremely well. WarioWare that we shipped in January, is doing well in the marketplace. We've announced Super Paper Mario in April, that product is going to be phenomenal. The first Mario title on the platform. Some may look at it and say, "Well, all you've done is taken a Gamecube game and adapted it too the Wii." Well, we did that for Zelda Twilight Princess to a certain extent, and that has done extremely well in the marketplace. Big Brain Academy we've announced. We've announced Pokemon Battle Revolution in the latter part of June. From a first party perspective we've got quite a number and quite a flow and arguably the best flow we've ever had on the launch of a new console to support it. Where is Metroid? Metroid is not going to ship by June. We've announced all of our games through the end of June. And the fact with Metroid is we want to make sure that that game is perfect. Unfortunately, Metroid Prime 2 didn't live up to our expectations, it didn't live up to Retro's expectations--

Is that in terms of sales or the actual game itself?

From a sales standpoint. I think we were all happy with the product itself. Certainly it won quite a bit of critical acclaim, but the sell-through wasn't what we wanted it to be. We want the sell-through as well as the critical acclaim for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption to be the best in the series, and that's a lofty bar. To do that is taking a little bit more time than we had anticipated. But it's coming. And it will be great.

Lastly, real quick. I saw you at the Sony press conference; we chatted briefly beforehand. What was your reaction to what Sony showed, both Home and Little Big Planet?

You know, I think the best thing shown by Phil Harrison [Playstation's head of worldwide studios] was LittleBigPlanet. The group doing that game is fantastic, and I say that having seen the rag doll little product that they had created. Frankly, Nintendo wanted to do some business with those folks, but to give Phil some credit, he got there first. That product, I think, is quite intriguing. I'm not sure how well it will do on the Sony platform, quite frankly, but I think that the product they showed was outstanding.

Home, I am less excited about, but that's Sony's challenge to go figure out.

Do you want to give your catchphrase?

[Laughs.] That it seemed Mii too? You know, it's been done before. They've got to figure out how to make it distinctive and how to make it work for them. My job is to figure out what we're going to do from a Nintendo standpoint to maintain and further accelerate our own momentum. We'll see who wins in the marketplace.

So...not your problem?

It is not my problem.

Great. Reggie, thanks for your time.

Thank you.