Earlier today, we caught up with Nintendo of America's president, Reggie Fils-Aime, who chatted candidly about Metroid Other M, Galaxy 2, Pikmin 3 and Miyamoto's E3 roundtable. Below, we've provided the interview both in video and transcribed forms for your viewing pleasure.
IGN: We saw Metroid Other M and Galaxy 2 on video, but you guys aren't showing either in playable form. Why not?
Reggie: Those games are 2010 games. What we have in playable form is really what we're focusing on for this year. That's really the only difference.
IGN: The other question sort of related to that is, what happened to Retro Studios' next project? We know it's deep in development. We know it's going to be big. We thought it'd be here, but it's not.
Reggie: We have nothing to announce right now. The team at Retro is hard at work. They're doing great stuff. But it's not ready to show quite yet.
IGN: Is it going to blow us away? Can you give us a super hype filled comment? [No shame, we know]?
Reggie: Let me put it this way. Did Other M blow you away? Did Galaxy 2 blow you away? Did New Super Mario for Wii blow you away? Our goal is that everything we do blows people away.
IGN: You have a bit more insight on the development of Galaxy 2. What's the direction for the game? Do they really want to blow it out or will it be more of the same?
Reggie: What Mr. Miyamoto has shared is that if the first Galaxy was maybe more inviting in terms of all the audiences, what Galaxy 2 is going to be is maybe a little more Nintendo fan / harder gamer focused. A little tougher. The use of Yoshi makes it a little more challenging. We showed some of the snippets of some of the activities -- it's a bit more challenging. It's going to be, if you will, for more of that passionate Mario fan who grew up getting challenged with Super Mario World. It's going to be much more in that area.
IGN: What can you tell us about Metroid Other M other than what we saw in the trailer?
Reggie: What I can tell you is that it's going to be fabulous. I've seen it working. I personally didn't have a controller in my hands, but it looks great. And it really is going to do a fabulous job giving you more backstory on Samus, taking you more into the mythology of what Metroid is all about. It's going to be great.
IGN: So this is going all the way back to her teens?
Reggie: We're not going to tell you exactly where it fits in the Metroid mythology. We're going to share that a little bit later. But it definitely fills in some of the gaps.
IGN: You didn't show Pikmin 3, which is what we were expecting you to show. That kind of surprised us. Why not?
Reggie: Matt, we're all about surprises. We will show that game when it's ready. At the right time. Close to when it's going to be launched. It's not there yet. But Mr. Miyamoto still has his roundtable to do, so maybe you'll see. Maybe you might get that surprise after all.
IGN: Yeah, that's the next question. Mr. Miyamoto didn't have a stage presence here today. The first question is, why not because he usually does? And then, he is here. He has a roundtable. Can you give us a hint as to what it's about?
Reggie: Sure. Well, first off, if you look at how Mr. Miyamoto has interacted in our press conferences, it's been a wide range -- everything from making an appearance at the end in 2004 to being on hand to do a demo. This year, given all the content that we had, we thought it would be best for him to go in-depth with a handful of games during his developer's roundtable and that's what he's going to do later today.
IGN: So you think we might get a surprise or two out of the roundtable?
Reggie: Again, we're always trying to surprise you. So we'll see.
IGN: Are you going to be saving any announcements for Japan? We heard there was some sort of mystery conference.
Reggie: The meeting in Japan is much more retailer oriented so they'll be going through all the details specific to when products are launching in Japan. And within that, there really isn't anything new versus what we've announced today.
IGN: We saw a bunch of games on your show floor that you didn't really highlight at your event. Titles like Line Attack Heroes. We didn't, however, see games like Trace Memory or Cosmic Walker. What's going on there?
Reggie: The interesting thing is that even though E3 is back into a larger footprint, this footprint here is about two thirds the size of our footprint in 2006. So that always forces us to make tough decisions about what we show. And even here today, I'm hearing that we have a line around our booth for Spirit Tracks for Zelda. We have more content than we're able to show in this type of space, which means that fall conferences that we hold here in Americas -- those take on more meaning to highlight some of the games that you mention.
IGN: So if a game isn't here, does that necessarily mean that it won't release this holiday?
Reggie: There are maybe some games that will still make it this year. A lot of it is how the final tuning in development goes. And again, anything like that we'll talk about in the fall.
IGN: Your press event had a few games that were more hardcore, but you didn't show some of the titles that we think are of the highest caliber for the traditional gamer. Titles like Red Steel 2, Silent Hill and No More Heroes 2. Was that a calculate decision?
Reggie: You know, there's no master plan in terms of not showing those titles. It's really all about what we think is best ready to highlight and show and where's the best way to show it. Do we show it in the booth? Some of those games are here in the booth. Is it something that the licensee wants to highlight in their own booth. Really, all that comes into play.
IGN: What're your thoughts on Natal, Microsoft's controller-less video camera getup?
Reggie: It's interesting. You could make the argument that the health genre, like Wii Fit, is becoming red ocean -- there's a lot of different content coming out. You could say that in the future, that potentially active playing might be a red ocean in the future depending on what happens with our two competitors. For us, we're making precision control a reality today. What we're showing with Wii Sports Resort really takes the way you handle the controller to a whole new level. So for us, we're focused on the reality of today of how to drive that in an important way within gaming. We'll let our competitors talk about what might or might not be in the future.
IGN: Finally, what are you personally excited about at the show?
Reggie: In terms of what I'm excited about, in many ways I'm becoming the prototypical gamer that Nintendo is going after. I'm really enthused with Wii Fit Plus. I love New Super Mario Bros. for Wii. I love Spirit Tracks -- I'm a Zelda fan all my life. And I love Wii Sports Resort. So for me there's a little bit of core stuff. There's a little bit of more audience expansion stuff. Plus, I was thrilled that I got to make the announcement about more Golden Sun. That's one of my favorite franchises. For me, everything that we touched on really strikes a chord with the type of consumer we're going after.
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