E3 2007: Nintendo of America Interview with Beth Llewellyn

AMN was able to sit down and talk with Nintendo of America’s senior director of public relations Beth Llewellyn about Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Disaster: Day of Crisis, Wii’s future, and her future amongst other topics Nintendo.

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AMN: So here we are with Beth Llewellyn, from Nintendo of America and we are going to ask her a couple questions about the big show, the Wii, and the Nintendo lineup. Also yesterday was a pretty big day for Nintendo at the Press Conference you guys unveiled Wii Fit and it seemed to be kind of the highlight of the show. How you guys planning on marketing this game in the future?

Beth Llewellyn: As you said we just announced Wii Fit, showed it off the first time yesterday, and introduced the new Wii balance board. You know at this point it’s a little early to talk about specific marketing plans. The game won’t launch here in the US until sometime in the first half of 2008. So that’s kind of our project now when we get back to the head office we’ll start thinking about and planning the effort that we’ll use to launch the title. But we are very excited about the reaction so far.

AMN: It kind of seemed like something that would be perfect, I told my mom about it right away, and it seemed like something that would be perfect on Oprah as a way to get the word out. Is that something you guys might approach?

Beth Llewellyn: (laughs) You know we have a lot of fun with the marketing efforts behind our titles and certainly want to approach it in as unique a way as possible to make sure we reach the broadest audience possible. So we’ll see, you know, we’ll see where it lands.

AMN: Very good. Well we’ve had some great interviews in the past with you and you’ve always been quite nice to AMN and you’ve always offered your time and we really appreciate that. Here have been rumors though that a few of the top Nintendo executives and people in marketing are going to be departing here (Nintendo) soon. Is there any truth to that rumor? And will you be departing?

Beth Llewellyn: (Slight pause) Well you are talking about Nintendo’s plans to open up offices in New York and San Francisco, where actually it’s the Silicon Valley area, which we are doing and it’s really quite of a much bigger strategic effort to have presence in both of those key markets. That will be happening over the course of the next few months. You know we aren’t talking about specifics right now as to who’s going, what’s happening, but rest assured that all the marketing efforts, all the sales efforts, everything we have started that momentum will continue and there won’t be any break in that.

(Long Pause)

AMN: Alright, what audience would you say you were targeting in the Press Conference the other day in terms of gamers. New gamers, casual gamers, people who have been playing Nintendo since the NES days?

Beth Llewellyn: (laughs) You know Nintendo really we are talking to kind of everybody and certainly if you were just talking about who was physically in the audience it was primarily people who are very familiar with games. You know journalist and analysts who cover our industry. But you know to a bigger or a broader view certainly we are talking to everybody. You know we want to reach out to not only that hardcore gamer who has been playing videogames since they could pick up a controller but to someone like your mom, who you know may be doesn’t really play but just now become intrigued because of the types of games that are available. So we really are talking to everybody and we want to make sure we have games that are or will appeal to everybody and as Mr. Iwata mentioned in our Press Conference our next big effort will be to kind of break down that psychological wall that separates what people feel that’s a core game, that’s a casual game, we like to think that someone who may be just started playing games will feel comfortable to pick up Zelda because the interface is very easy and it’s a great game and somebody who doesn’t think they’ll enjoy it probably will.

AMN: After yesterdays show a lot of our readership felt that you were more focused on the casual gamer and less on the hardcore gamer. You showed Mario Kart and talked a little about Smash Brothers Brawl but you didn’t talk about future new franchises for the core gamer.

Beth Llewellyn: We came to E3 with very specific strategic approach in Mario Galaxy, Metroid, introducing the Zapper, on the DS side we had Zelda, Brain Age, so we felt very comfortable with sort of the approach we were taking because we felt we do have something for everyone and we were looking at the core gamer the type of games they wanted certainly talking about. So for people out there thinking that Nintendo doesn’t have something for the core I think that’s a mistake because we absolutely do have games that will appeal to the core. Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, the Zapper and the type of games for the Zapper. And then our third-party publishers have plenty of games that are going to reach out to them. As far as Nintendo, New IP, what’s next you know Nintendo, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes we just choice not to use (strong emphasis) this (/strong emphasis) opportunity to talk about a lot of that.

AMN: When will we hear about that?

Beth Llewellyn: Well we’ll pick the right time. Also E3 all the companies are here, everybody’s talking, it’s a very crowded time for the news perspective so it doesn’t make sense for us to come out here and talk about everything we have going on. It’s much better for us and much better for you to hone in on some of the key things and then we’ll come back at a later time to talk about the other games.

AMN: Why were games like Project Hammer and Disaster Day of Crisis, which were shown at E3 2006, absent from yesterday’s show?

Beth Llewellyn: A game like Disaster that is still in development and certainly when the time is right we’ll come back and talk more about it. Some of the other games either we have shifted development resources for the time being and again those are titles that we may talk about at a later date.

AMN: So is Project Hammer canceled? We’ve been hearing reports that it is.

Beth Llewellyn: Yeah, the development resources we shift those for the time being so it may come back but right now that’s not a focus of ours.

AMN: Does that mean the game is currently not in development? On pause?

Beth Llewellyn: (pause) Probably, yeah. Again we shifted our focus.

AMN: Is the same true for Disaster Day of Crisis?

Beth Llewellyn: Disaster is still in development.

AMN: One thing that you mentioned before is that we have seen a lot third-party support coming out for the Wii. We’ve heard executives saying “We’re sorry we didn’t support the Wii more.” You got companies like EA rolling out games. How did Nintendo turn the tide from the Gamecube, which was kind of noted as being a Nintendo only console, to now the Wii has tons of third-party titles rolling out?

Beth Llewellyn: Well just back on GameCube, GameCube did have a lot of third-party support. We had a big library so it was by no means lacking third-party support. But in the case of Wii you know it was something new and I think when we showed it here at E3 last year people saw the reaction and realized Nintendo may be onto something and it may be more than just graphics that are going to sell the next system. It really is about the interface and it certainly was once we launched with the excitement around launch and the continued excitement, I think we really just opened peoples eyes that there is more to gaming and I think it added a lot of excitement to the industry. So other companies are looking at different types of games they can do that may be they didn’t think about before. Again I think it’s really helping the industry just create some fun, some new experiences, and luckily a lot of those are going to end up on Nintendo platforms.

AMN: Well you mention new experiences and one of the things a lot of reviewers we’ve been talking to mention about the Wii is that we are seeing a lot of ports of things like PS2 games from third-party developers. What are your feelings on games getting ported to the Wii and does Nintendo feel that it’s kind of not what the Wii is about and are they doing anything to combat this?

Beth Llewellyn: Well it’s not so much combat this. Certainly when you are in the early stages of a life cycle from a development resources, developers haven’t had a lot of time to play around with the tools too figure out how to push the system, create their vision. You’re going to see more and more new titles coming out that really do take advantage of the control scheme. We are already seeing that on DS because DS has been out a little longer but you’re definitely going to be seeing more of that on Wii. So I think it’s just natural in the early stages of a hardware system that it just takes a little bit of time to get use to the system and get those new IPs or new approach to an existing franchise for those titles to appear. So you’re definitely going to see more in that way where they are on a new take on something or a brand new game.

AMN: I got kind of an odd one here for you too. We got this one from a couple readers actually. They first wanted to know what does the Nintendo Seal of Quality stand for and has that changed lately? Because some of them are saying they are seeing games that are as quoted “Almost unplayable.” landing on a Nintendo console when before Nintendo consoles were always the noted for having a certain quality level.

Beth Llewellyn: Well Nintendo’s Seal of Quality obviously has to do with it being an officially licensed game so it’s an official title for our platform. As far as what third-parties do we don’t necessarily control content that it certainly up to the third-party. Our hope is that games will always appeal to gamers and some games may have stronger appeal than others. But it has more to do with the Seal of Quality that it is an officially licensed product.

AMN: Well in terms of Nintendo not to do with the content then why is a game like Manhunt 2 not being allowed to be released on Wii?

Beth Llewellyn: Well you know that’s not really up to us. We’ve always said that we won’t have AO titles so that’s a game that was given a preliminary rating of an AO so it’s up to the publisher of what they want to do. If it has a rating that matches what we publish then certainly it will be available on our system. But we won’t have an AO rated game on any of our platforms.

AMN: Switching subjects here. Why is Nintendo having so much trouble meeting demand for the Wii and manufacturing enough consoles for consumers?

Beth Llewellyn: Well you know this is definitely a demand issue. Demand has been huge for Wii and far more than we could have ever anticipated. We had a great launch and it has just continued. We are doing everything we can to get product out there and we recognize that demand remains really high and everything that we can do. We’re at max from our projection level and able to recognize that it’s not just here in the US it’s a global phenomenon. The demand is high all over.

AMN: If consoles are selling out like crazy then why isn’t Nintendo expanding their manufacturing?

Beth Llewellyn: You know we do everything we can. It’s certainly not as simple as, “Lets ramp up another….”, there’s a lot to it when you are producing something. We’ll continue to do as much as we can to help push that production.

AMN: Another one off the cuff here. It seems to a lot of people that Nintendo was almost surprised by how successful the Wii was. Was there any surprise from Nintendo on that and does that have anything to do with how many units where being produced now?

Beth Llewellyn: A lot goes into it deciding how much production do we need, how many systems do we need, and what’s going to meet in the market. You look historically, you plan, and we thought we were going down the right path. This demand is certainly exceeded our expectations, far exceeded our expectations and it continues and you try to plan for that.

AMN: (Random babble) September is a big month from Microsoft’s Xbox 360 it has a lot of games coming out like Halo 3. What kind of games does the Wii have specifically to combat games like Halo 3 that are releasing that are releasing in that September?

Beth Llewellyn: Well we are very excited about Metroid Prime 3. That will be launching the end of August so you are going to get your first chance to play Metroid on the Wii at that point. We are following up pretty quickly in November with Mario Galaxy, so that should be a huge title. Then there are certainly a lot of titles coming in between then and Smash Bros coming in December. So we are feeling very comfortable with the lineup that we have with Wii and DS also, big titles coming there. So there is a lot for gamers to do during that timeframe.

AMN: Has Nintendo considered how increasing focus on casual gamers could adversely affect third-parties that might want to create more ambitious in-depth hardcore gamers games?

Beth Llewellyn: We would welcome those games, absolutely. It was a big focus of our Press Conference yesterday that we really want to appeal with everybody and have everybody picking up and playing videogames. We want to make sure that we have the breathe of software to appeal to that variety of game player. We also talked about our goal to break down that wall between the hardcore gamer and the casual gamer. So that someone who maybe is just now playing videogames for the first time or the first time in 15 years. Yes, they love Wii Sports but now that they’ve played that they might be willing to try a Metroid because the control scheme is very intuitive or to try a Mario Galaxy. So absolutely if a third-part wants to make a very hardcore game and they are they are welcome to have it on our platform and we’d love it and gamers would love it.

AMN: I notice you keep mentioning that you want to allow new gamers or casual gamers to get into titles like Zelda and others. But what about those people who have been into gaming for a long time? You’re presenting a lot of these games that quite frankly, come off as being something that they wouldn’t be interested in. How are you going to bring hardcore gamers and introduce them into what is considered casual games. How are you going to move them into that direction?

Beth Llewellyn: (laughs) Well that’s going to be a lot of fun on the marketing side but certainly getting games like Wii Fit. We absolutely believe anybody will have fun playing Wii Fit and that’s true for someone who’s never played a game before and it’s true for you or for your readers who are very much hardcore gamers because it is something that’s fun. It’s a great thing to pickup and play. I’m sure you’ve heard that from people who’ve played Wii Sports. They may be the hardcore gamer but they probably had a lot of fun playing Wii Sports. That’s just helps us to get the messages out there and the people the opportunity to try it and that the games are worth it, that they are fun.

AMN: One thing Reggie talked a little bit about yesterday was online functionality with the Wii. What do you think of the current state of online gaming on the Nintendo Wii?

Beth Llewellyn: You know we are very serious about providing a fun and exciting online experience with the Wii.

AMN: Do you guys feel that you are currently doing that?

Beth Llewellyn: (slight pause) We are starting it and it’s going to continue to grow. As we talked about yesterday with games from EA and others as well as Mario Kart with full online the ability to race and battle against people anywhere. We certainly are embracing online gameplay and that will just continue to grow.

AMN: In terms of embracing online gameplay though a lot of the critics are saying, “Well you got friends codes”, it’s not really that friendly to be honest when I have to go find a 15 digit code of my friend and exchange it online. Are you guys at all going to listen to gamers and evolve that or are you guys stuck in your ways on making sure its friends codes so that it is safe for all gamers?

Beth Llewellyn: Well we certainly want to have a safe, easy, easily accessible environment for gameplay. That will always be important to us. Some games it will vary. We have experiences with DS where you could play with anybody on a Mario Kart. That’s going to vary depending on the game. We’ll see what happens.

AMN: When was the last critically acclaimed first-party Nintendo online title released?

Beth Llewellyn: (Pause) Certainly on the Nintendo DS we’ve had quite a few. Probably with the latest being Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. I would like to think all our games are critically acclaimed (laughter).

AMN: (Laughter)

AMN: In closing Nintendo has a huge lineup this year. You have Smash Bros and Mario coming. When will we be next hearing about these games?

Beth Llewellyn: Oh well let us get through E3. Let’s go back to the office and figure out..

AMN: We want to play Smash though.

Beth Llewellyn: Hey, don’t worry you’ll have an opportunity to play before it launches. We’ll be back. We’ll keep you posted.

AMN: Alright, well we want to thank you very much for sitting down with us today. Nintendo seems like it has a very good lineup. We are looking forward to playing them all.