Interviews// Nintendo UK Marketing Manager, James Honeywell

SPOnG: The launch lineup looks to be quite heavy on the core games, like Mario Kart, but also has the odd casual title like Nintendogs. A good mix, basically. Is this all reaction to core gamer feedback regarding the Wii’s current situation? Are you trying to make amends?

James Honeywell: I think that really all we’ve done is created the Nintendo 3DS, and given developers a toolkit of various different functionalities - one of which is the 3D, obviously. It’s kind of up to the developers to decide what games that they launch on the platform. Whether it’s Konami with PES or Team Ninja with Dead or Alive, it’s actually been their choice as to what games they create for it.

You can also see from our side, that we’re trying to make sure that we have our big franchises out there. You mentioned Mario Kart - but that’s actually a massively popular title that appeals to a huge kind of audience. I think overall, what we wanted to do was work with teams who can bring something new to their franchises, and try to offer as wide a possible range of games for the platform. Hopefully we’ve succeeded in that we’ve got games from everyone, whether you like shooting, driving, first-person, third-person… pet sims… there’s something for everyone.


SPOnG: Did you have the Wii’s current situation in regards to core games in mind, when you decided on your 3DS lineup? I remember a while ago hearing Satoru Iwata say that how the company had shifted its focus towards its blue ocean strategy in recent years and that it has to grab back its core fanbase. Do you think this lineup is Nintendo following through on that?

James Honeywell: I know people talk a lot about Nintendo’s success recently, and how a lot of that seems to come from titles like Wii Fit and Brain Training and so forth. But perhaps some people forget that we still make all of the classic games that we’ve always made.

Today we showed Legend of Zelda, hinted at Mario Kart, we have things like Kid Icarus… but even when you look at the Wii and DS, we still make all of those classic Nintendo titles that everybody grew up with and love. So I don’t think, from our point of view, that the 3DS lineup was any kind of reaction. Nintendo’s still doing what it does best, and it’s allowing its third party partners to develop the games that they want to develop.


SPOnG: Sticking to the Wii for a second, how much of an effect has Microsoft’s Kinect had - in terms of technology and games lineup - in drawing customers away from the Wii and onto the Xbox 360?

James Honeywell: I guess we’ve gone through a period of a lot of innovation from Nintendo. If you go back to 2004, we launched the DS with the two screens and touchscreen functionality, and now you see that in many other devices. In 2006 we came along with motion control - again, now you’re starting to see that available in other products.

I guess that’s the brilliance of 3DS, it’s that now we’re moving onto the next step. We think we’re able to offer something very new, 3D itself is starting to build momentum but we really feel that as Nintendo, and with the quality of the software that we have, we can actually broaden that out even further and really bring people in to 3D where perhaps they hadn’t considered it before.


SPOnG: So you’re not particularly concerned about Kinect’s existence in terms of competition with the Wii? You’re quite happy with how the Wii’s standing at the moment?

James Honeywell: Well, I mean we’ve just had a really good Christmas. We sold a huge number of consoles, so it’s very difficult for us to kind of put a number on what other people are doing.

The Wii has been very successful for us, it continues to be very successful, we’re still going to have a strong lineup of software this year, and obviously today we’re here to just talk about 3DS so again, kind of that next innovation.


SPOnG: Nintendo handhelds have always had a penchant for breaking sales records, especially in recent years with the DS. But do you think there’s a threat in the rise of Apple’s iPhone now, which is quickly becoming a pretty big contender in the portable gaming space?

James Honeywell: All business in itself is competitive, and therefore what we always try to do is bring new experiences. We don’t sit around worrying what other people are doing. We just concentrate on bringing new pieces of technology, bringing new types of software that offer a new experiences, and it’s down to the consumer what they choose.

We feel that the model we have is successful and will continue to be successful, and 3DS will just be that next experience as an extension of that. Once you get your hands on a Nintendo 3DS and you see that 3D screen for the first time, I think it’s enough to kind of convince anyone.