The Thanksgiving holiday period is well underway over in the US and Game Informer decided to catch up with Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications, George Harrison, to discuss various subjects related to the phenomenal sales of Wii and Nintendo DS, who the company is actually targetting, the company’s future and even about Harrison’s impending retirement.

Quick off the mark, Game Informer asks Harrison why people should bother choosing Wii over the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 during this holiday period, to which he replices “it’s just more fun.” And after all, is that not why all of us like playing videogames for in the first place - to have fun? But Nintendo also believes that since it is aiming at a different audience it “may wind up not vying for the same customer” anyway. As for new content this year, Nintendo is introducing the Wii Zapper, complete with Link’s Crossbow Training, all for a bargain pricepoint. But other than Medal of Honour: Heroes 2 from EA, Ghost Squad from Sega and Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, there is no actual First Party support for the device and Harrison attributes this to the fact that Nintendo needs “to try to build up an install base with the Zapper. We’re very optimistic, and we’d love to sell a million units of the Zapper in the first 90 days, and then we’d feel comfortable that we have an install base against which to develop games.” He is confident that Third Parties will adjust their games to utilise the accessory, though, and it has already been hinted that Activision has something in the works, most likely related to its Call of Duty franchise.

As for the downside of Super Smash Bros. Brawl being delayed until early in 2008, Harrison feels it is not particularly going to affect business in the slightest since there has been no slowdown since the announcement of the delay and it could well prove beneficial in the long run as it helps to give Nintendo “probably the strongest first half of a calendar year in 2008 that we’ve had in quite some time, with Smash Bros. coming in February and then not too long after that Mario Kart and Wii Fit”. So there are three very strong First Party games straight away that will keep Wii afloat in the New Year. But rest assured that Nintendo will continue to use its core franchises during the rest of 2008, most likely with the Kirby GameCube project finally getting released, as well as the fully-fledged Tokyo studio-developed Donkey Kong adventure that has been touted since Wii was first announced. And then people need to remember there are the likes of F-Zero, Wave Race, Pilotwings, Star Fox and Pikmin that Nintendo could draw upon to buoy sales. But Harrison also says that “What I think is exciting is Mr. Miyamoto is beginning to think of things outside of our core franchises, like Wii Fit.” So who knows what might be coming next?

Game Informer then goes on the offensive, stating the “hardcore Nintendo gamer who’s been your following for the past 25 years or so seems to be left in the dust for this new target demographic. Do you have any comments on that?” And Harrison responds with:

George Harrison: “Certainly, it’s not our intention to leave any customer behind. We’re working on core franchises—as you mentioned, we launched with a Zelda title, Paper Mario came in the winter and Mario Galaxy launched this week. That’s a great game. One of the things we’re trying to keep in mind is you can also have these games appeal to the expanded audience. So, we think a game like Mario Galaxy is a classic from Mr. Miyamoto. It’s intriguing, easy to get started on and very challenging to finish. So the novice gamer can get started and enjoy it, but the core gamer will have a real challenge to finish it. We’re trying to balance both of those. Part of that is trying to make sure that we have more third-party support than we did on GameCube and they have the confidence to bring some of their best titles and innovation on our system.”

Game Informer: “Do you think we’ll see more of an influx in 2008 of first-party titles that may appeal to the hardcore?”

George Harrison: “I don’t know if there will be an influx in 2008. We’ll always try to have a balance. A lot depends on how we deploy our own development resources and then what second-party developers we can work with. We try to keep a balance in the portfolio, but it really is driven by what products are ready to launch at what time.”

Moving on, the topic moves to Retro Studios, the part-owned Nintendo company that has done all three Metroid Prime games and recently confirmed it would be doing other non-Prime projects. However, Harrison reiterates what many of us had already assumed, that Metroid Prime was meant to be a trilogy, but that “doesn’t mean that it’s the last Metroid game, it just means that that’s the wrap of that particular aspect of Metroid.”

On the matter of the third DS model that is being lined up, he mentions “it’s not necessarily true. We’re not quite what the source was for that story. At this point, the DS is selling so well for us that there’s no need to even contemplate a newer version or any sort of an upgrade. We can see ourselves all the way through 2008 continuing with the current DS Lite.”

Rock Band has been talked about as coming to Wii, but EA has left Nintendo’s format out of the launch line-up for that title, to which Game Informer, like many of us, finds somewhat confusing. When asking about whether or not Nintendo is pursuing EA about why this is, Harrison is also bemused as to what “the reasoning or rationale was for not including it on the Wii. Certainly, Guitar Hero III has done quite well on the Wii, and we view those as games that can appeal to the expanded audience, in the same way that Wii Sports does or any of the Brain Training types of games can. I’m not clear what the decision was for not bringing it to the Wii.”

Changing subjects quickly, once more, the issues of WiiConnect24’s lack of use since launch was brought up:

Game Informer: “There was a lot of promise when WiiConnect24 was announced, with additional downloadable content that would magically appear on your Wii when you woke up every morning. Right now, it seems like it’s more of a blinker when you get Wii e-mails telling you when you can buy new stuff in the store. And third parties don’t have the ability to use it yet, either. Do you see that expanding more in 2008?”

George Harrison: “Yeah, I think it will expand more in 2008. Certainly, the WiiWare will be coming sometime—we’re not quite sure when we’ll announce their window for the first titles that are available, but it shouldn’t be too far along in 2008. That’s very encouraging. We’re trying to deliver other things like marketing messages and interesting information and game trailers, as we did for Metroid. I certainly think the use of that will grow in the next year. I’m not really clear on what the status is of tool delivery for the third parties to allow them to be able to do that.”

On the topic of Third Party support increasing in quality, Harrison said, “We saw some nice support from Ubisoft and others at the launch of Wii, and we do have dedicated support teams that go out and show people how to use the tool and can share. One of the biggest ways that people can learn is by looking at the other publishers’ games.” As for keeping up with demand, it is a case of knowing “what’s the ultimate demand. We don’t really know that.” President of Nintendo Japan, Mr. Satoru Iwata, announced recently that the production levels of Wii would remain at 1,800,000 units per month worldwide, even during early 2008 when it is normally the time to scale back on production as demand dies down. But “He’s going to keep it up at that 1.8 million level and stay there until we can find out what’s required to keep it in stock and have adequate inventory.”

Finally, talking of his retirement from his post at Nintendo of America, Harrison states:

“We’re working really hard. We’ve opened our new offices, so we have a lot of new people on board who don’t necessarily have the history with us, but they’re enthusiastic and bring a lot of new thinking. It’s going to be sort of strange to lock up and head out the end of December. We’ve got a pretty good base of leadership that will still be in place. Certainly Reggie is here as the president, and then a lot of our departments we have key leadership in the sales area and some of my marketing department. We think it’s going to survive and do really well. These are young, enthusiastic people who are going to have new ideas. They all have a passion for gaming, so I think it’s going to be great.”

Game Informer: “What was your favorite experience while working for Nintendo?”

George Harrison: “Wow, there have been a lot. I think probably the most startling for me was when I went to a Pokemon event in Japan in Makuhari. We knew Pokemon was successful, but until you saw 100,000 people lined up waiting for hours to get a Pokemon character, I didn’t understand the breadth or depth of the passion of these consumers in Japan. It made me realize that we had a long ways to go in the U.S. to be able to generate that same level of loyalty and passion about many of our products.”

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