n3xtgen
11-14-2006, 07:40 PM
And the pitchman brings plenty of game
BERTRAND MAROTTE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
MONTREAL — Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s chief pitchman in the Americas has been handed the assignment of a lifetime: break through the wall -- the two-thirds of households that don't have a video-game console -- with a paradigm-busting new way to play.
Reginald "Reggie" Fils-Aimé, a former fast-food, beer and cable-network executive whose claim to fame in the 1990s was launching the decadent Bigfoot Pizza, says video game entertainment is overly fixated on high-powered, high-definition, special-effects-driven performance and needs to come back down to earth.
His mission is to win over a portion of the huge non-gaming demographic -- women, men over 35 and families -- with a simple, easy-to-use, popularly priced system, dubbed the Wii and set to be introduced in North America on Nov. 19.
"We are going in a dramatically different direction than both our competitors [Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.]," Mr. Fils-Aimé said.
"They simply want to create eye candy for the core gamer. We want to bring it back to the masses and make it fun again."
The president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America Inc., accompanied by an entourage that blared "I'm a VIP," was in Montreal last week to make a presentation at the Montreal International Game Summit.
Three years in the making, the Wii relies on an innovative wireless controller that does away with the confusing buttons and joysticks on conventional units; the motion-sensor console -- shaped like a conventional TV remote -- can be swung through the air to hit a virtual tennis or golf ball or cast a fishing line, or it can be pointed at the screen to activate various commands.
A more sophisticated secondary controller -- called the Nunchuk -- can be added; a nod to Nintendo's base of hard-core players, which the company doesn't want to lose.
An online Wii service will offer about 30 classic Nintendo titles -- such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. -- and other features.
The Wii is priced at $280 ($250 in the U.S.), compared with between $400 and $500 (U.S.) for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and $500-$600 for Sony's new PlayStation3, which is due in stores Friday.
Mr. Fils-Aimé, 45, said he's confident the Wii is the breakthrough product that will finally vault gaming out of its narrow niche catering to a core audience of graphics-obsessed males younger than 30.
He cited statistics indicating that 25 per cent of the players of its popular Big Brain Academy are women. The mental-agility training game runs on Nintendo's wildly popular hand-held DS system.
The system's success -- it is credited with single-handedly powering growth in the U.S. game industry so far this year -- is largely based on its appeal to a non-traditional audience and that bodes well for the Wii, said Mr. Fils-Aimé, who joined Nintendo of America in late 2003 after a stint as senior vice-president of marketing at MTV affiliate VH1.
He has risen quickly in the ranks at Nintendo of America, with a promotion in May to the position of president and COO, after a stint as vice-president of sales and marketing.
He credits his varied background -- he was also an executive with a U.S. Chinese takeout chain and marketing chief for Guinness Import Co., but had no previous video game experience -- as one of the elements that impressed Nintendo, which trails Sony and Microsoft in the game console market.
"My success in a wide variety of businesses shows how I have been able to meet many challenges and that I have the abilities to lead an organization," he said.
The marketing specialist credits his outsider's perspective as being exactly what Nintendo needs to revive the brand.
As president and COO of Nintendo of America he's responsible for all sales and marketing activities for the video hardware and game software company in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
The Wii targets set by the company are aggressive: worldwide sales of four million units by the end of December and six million by the end of March.
BERTRAND MAROTTE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
MONTREAL — Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s chief pitchman in the Americas has been handed the assignment of a lifetime: break through the wall -- the two-thirds of households that don't have a video-game console -- with a paradigm-busting new way to play.
Reginald "Reggie" Fils-Aimé, a former fast-food, beer and cable-network executive whose claim to fame in the 1990s was launching the decadent Bigfoot Pizza, says video game entertainment is overly fixated on high-powered, high-definition, special-effects-driven performance and needs to come back down to earth.
His mission is to win over a portion of the huge non-gaming demographic -- women, men over 35 and families -- with a simple, easy-to-use, popularly priced system, dubbed the Wii and set to be introduced in North America on Nov. 19.
"We are going in a dramatically different direction than both our competitors [Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.]," Mr. Fils-Aimé said.
"They simply want to create eye candy for the core gamer. We want to bring it back to the masses and make it fun again."
The president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America Inc., accompanied by an entourage that blared "I'm a VIP," was in Montreal last week to make a presentation at the Montreal International Game Summit.
Three years in the making, the Wii relies on an innovative wireless controller that does away with the confusing buttons and joysticks on conventional units; the motion-sensor console -- shaped like a conventional TV remote -- can be swung through the air to hit a virtual tennis or golf ball or cast a fishing line, or it can be pointed at the screen to activate various commands.
A more sophisticated secondary controller -- called the Nunchuk -- can be added; a nod to Nintendo's base of hard-core players, which the company doesn't want to lose.
An online Wii service will offer about 30 classic Nintendo titles -- such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. -- and other features.
The Wii is priced at $280 ($250 in the U.S.), compared with between $400 and $500 (U.S.) for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and $500-$600 for Sony's new PlayStation3, which is due in stores Friday.
Mr. Fils-Aimé, 45, said he's confident the Wii is the breakthrough product that will finally vault gaming out of its narrow niche catering to a core audience of graphics-obsessed males younger than 30.
He cited statistics indicating that 25 per cent of the players of its popular Big Brain Academy are women. The mental-agility training game runs on Nintendo's wildly popular hand-held DS system.
The system's success -- it is credited with single-handedly powering growth in the U.S. game industry so far this year -- is largely based on its appeal to a non-traditional audience and that bodes well for the Wii, said Mr. Fils-Aimé, who joined Nintendo of America in late 2003 after a stint as senior vice-president of marketing at MTV affiliate VH1.
He has risen quickly in the ranks at Nintendo of America, with a promotion in May to the position of president and COO, after a stint as vice-president of sales and marketing.
He credits his varied background -- he was also an executive with a U.S. Chinese takeout chain and marketing chief for Guinness Import Co., but had no previous video game experience -- as one of the elements that impressed Nintendo, which trails Sony and Microsoft in the game console market.
"My success in a wide variety of businesses shows how I have been able to meet many challenges and that I have the abilities to lead an organization," he said.
The marketing specialist credits his outsider's perspective as being exactly what Nintendo needs to revive the brand.
As president and COO of Nintendo of America he's responsible for all sales and marketing activities for the video hardware and game software company in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
The Wii targets set by the company are aggressive: worldwide sales of four million units by the end of December and six million by the end of March.