http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ngai-croal/dialogue-tree/nintendos-innovation-console-qa-reggie-fils-aime

When you look back at the success of Wii Fit and the Balance Board, how much of this did you anticipate, when you first got wind of it and when it was announced a couple of E3s ago?

Well, we've always anticipated that, as Nintendo would demonstrate business potential with an idea, others would follow. And we believe that based on history: rumble, joystick; things that we invented if you will, and first put in video games, others quickly latched on to. So as you look at where we are today, the combination of fun and fitness one could argue is quickly becoming Red Ocean. One could argue that in the future active motion control may become Red Ocean, so from our perspective we always have to be pushing the envelope in ways that we believe benefit our strategy, which is driving more and more people into this category, and that's what the Wii Vitality Sensor is all about.

It's all about pushing the envelope as to what can create compelling content, and an entertaining experience in ways that haven't been done before. Because to date that consumer, who hasn't yet been compelled with the first-person shooter, or an action side-scrolling adventure, or a fitness game may be compelled with something that we do with the Vitality Sensor.

In terms of what drives you, what drives Mr. Miyamoto, and what drives Mr. Iwata, how much of the balance is the hare trying to stay one step ahead of the greyhounds that are chasing it, and how much of it is actually rushing towards future audiences?

No, it is about chasing. We respect all of our competitors, and when I talk about our competitors, all of our competitors for entertainment time and leisure time. So for us it's all about getting more and more people into this category, and as we do that at the same time providing them more and more compelling experiences, so that more of their leisure time is spent on gaming.

That's why you see in one press conference something like Metroid: Other M, which is very core and very much gamer-centric if you will, coupled with something like Style Savvy, which is what we would call "new core." These are girls who have bought a DS or DSi, and maybe have played something like Nintendogs or maybe have played new Super Mario Brothers for DS. This is another step in the journey for them, and then also the showcase Wii Fit Plus, and then to showcase the Vitality Sensor.

So for us, we have to do both, we have to continue filling the bucket, if you will, with more and more new consumers, and once we've captured their interest to provide them more and more interesting experiences.

So when you look at your competitors' press conferences of the show--Microsoft with a depth perception-sensing of camera control without controllers, Sony with true one-to-one motion control--what do you think?

My take on it is that they are now seeing the opportunity that we saw. What they have shown and discussed inherently is not new news to us.

And N'Gai, I have to say, we have been in this business for over 25 years. We have worked with a range of input approaches. We've worked with the range of mechanisms to drive immersion into the gaming experience. There is a reason why on a DS you get that little click when you press a button. There is a reason that it was important to have a microphone in the Wii Remote. So for us what we see is two competitors who are looking over their shoulder at what we've been able to do, and are trying to participate.

Interestingly, our next advance in precision control [the Wii Motion Plus peripheral], launches on Monday. I'm not sure when their products will come to the market, but I can tell you by the time that happens, we will have to continue to move on, to drive more and more immersion on the part of the consumer.

So you are basically confirming today, that there are more plastic peripherals coming.

I've not said those very words, what I've said is, we're going to continue to drive more and more immersion on the part of the consumer.

Going back to the Wii Vitality Sensors and looking at how one might use it, I've used those sorts of sensors for relaxation, and heart rate monitoring. I get the potential for meditation, fitness, that kind of stuff. But thinking about this for traditional games, it seems like depending on where it's placed, it might take one hand out of play--

Good thing we have a one handed remote.

[Laughs] You thought ahead. I know you can't talk about specific games but do you see that as a barrier to building a traditional game that also monitors a player's heart rate?

So what I can tell you is this. You and I probably had a very similar conversation when we first showed the Nintendo DS: how is it going to work, why a touch screen, voice activation--I don't get it. We probably had a similar conversation about the Wii Remote: how is this going to work, how is it going to work with the games that I want to play--I don't get it. Now I'm hearing something similar for the Wii Vitality Sensor. And all I can tell you is, with the game developers that we have, we will bring forth an experience that you will say, "Wow, I get it."

Until you have that software, it's tough to understand. If I told you that you would be standing on an oversized bathroom scale, and having fun doing it, you probably would have said, "Reggie, I don't get it." And yet here we are with the balance board arguably as the third largest development platform across the globe.

So I'm lacking imagination?

And you're lacking the specific software example that undoubtedly will show exactly how it comes to life.

At this year's show, in the case of the Wii Vitality Sensor, you showed an image of what it might look like, and explained how it might work, but you didn't show anything playable. When you look at what your competitors did, and their decision to show some tech demos of varying degrees of polish--or some might say the lack thereof--is that something you think about? That when it comes to capturing the imagination of consumers, it may be dangerous to show this stuff publicly when it's not ready for prime time?

N'Gai, I hear you, and we debate this a lot. In this case we believed that was important, especially in the critical role that Mr. Iwata plays in our company, for him to showcase in our view an example of the future, and doing it in a way that is not 100% product centric, but doing it in a much more conceptual way. And it's a choice that we make, and we make those types of choices every year as we structure our press conferences.

But the fact is that Nintendo will continue to push the envelope on what a gaming experience is. Now, we're doing that, because as we showed, there are a 150 million consumers in the markets that we do business, that say they'd be interested in video games if they had the right content, but today don't play. Those are the consumers that we believe something like the Vitality Sensor with the right software could compel to get in the game.

*************************

Heh, that's what I've been thinking for a long time, as soon as they come out with something successful everyone will flood the market with copies and quick shovelware. I think WF+ is launching this soon because it's still riding the fitness craze and later than this year will mean a market that is so saturated that won't buy WF+ in such quantities as it would now.

BTW This is why I believe WSR won't be that successful. The market is already oversaturated with sports mini game collections and WSR came too late. It will be successful, but it could have been way more successful had it launched before the sports mini game collection became red ocean.

Let's see what they have planned for the future, but I wish they wouldn't do this with every perpheral, which is launch 1 game and then forget about it so we have to move to the next peripheral and all the potential this one had is lost because Nintendo is not willing to support their own peripherals. I just hope WM+ gets 1st party support soon, let's not have to wait until 2010 to get more WM+ games. If they postponed the launch to 2009 they should have at least have a couple of games for people to experience WM+, at least in other genres. Sports is already oversatureated for WM+.

Discuss.

Wii Sports Resort has sold half a million in Japan in two weeks.. The sports minigame compilation genre may be packed but there isn't one that is the sequel to the best selling video game of all time. There is also no other title that shows off Wii MotionPlus as well or one that has the depth of Wii Sports Resort while having 12 different sports.

You also forget that Nintendo will be pushing this game HARD with the biggest advertising campaign they've ever put together.


Aside from that, yes I beleive Wii Fit Plus is being released to combat the other fitness titles coming soon or just released that do certain things (designing a workout etc) better. Just as Microsoft and Sony move into the motion control space, Nintendo will try to take the focus off of 'motion control' and onto 'superior software.'

The Vitality Sensor will expand the market, yes.. But it will also be a device tries to show consumers that it isn't all about motion controls, it's the games that use them that are fun, just as the balance board would have never been successful without Wii Fit or the Wii Remote without Wii Sports. The Vitality Sensor will only take off if the software is strong and Nintendo will want to show that.

Uh... Have you ever been to the beach during a red tide? Does Nintendo really want to compare the fitness market to that?

Of course the image also brings to mind a woman's monthly cycle.  More fitting, but still just gross.

^ That's an ocean they should never dive into.

@puffy: Is that you Iwata??

The fitness market games is becoming over saturated which is whats the problem is with this generation. Everyone tries to copy whats successful. Nothing wrong with what works but what do these other games offer that Wii fit already does?

Same situation with Nintendogs. Third partys (especially ubisoft) flood the market with pet sims and go ""we understand the market"" but they dont. Nintendogs was successful because there wasn't anything like it at the time to compete with. People aren't that dumb yet, we know a knockoff if we see one.

"BTW This is why I believe WSR won't be that successful. The market is already oversaturated with sports mini game collections and WSR came too late. It will be successful, but it could have been way more successful had it launched before the sports mini game collection became red ocean."

Just for arguments sake, I kind of disagree with you, based on the fact its to usher in WM+, so it is still somewhat a blue ocean strategy.

My opinion is that they should have released the peripheral with some other games alongside WSR.

The Sports Mini Game collection is an oversaturated market already, people might want to try WM+ on something new. So giving the customer more choices would have been way better.

I'm not denying the success of WSR, I'm saying it came too late and people might not want to buy another sports mini game collection to get M+, so they might end up buying it alone, but whenever a game on another genre that is not sports, gets released.

They did. Two tennis games and Tiger Woods. And Red Steel 2, soon enough.

2 Tennis games, 1 Golf game and 1 Sports Collection. That's 4 games in the same genre for the launch of the peripheral. A little more variety wouldn't have hurt right?

I'm sure it'll do fine.