Interview: Nintendo Australia's Greg Arthurton

On Friday we managed to steal Greg Arthurton, Marketing Director of Nintendo, away from his busy schedule to have a chat to us. It's not often you get someone willing to talk about the stuff that doesn't go in the mainstream media, but that's what we got from Greg. Read on as we touch on the Wii's success, game delays, region coding, mod chips, the future of the DS and all sorts of other things that you wouldn't expect from one of Nintendo's lead in in the Australian field.

Matt: Thanks for spending your time with us Greg.

Greg: Not a problem!

Matt: How are you enjoying eGames?

Greg: Yeah it's good so far, it'll be good to see how it goes over the weekend when more people come in, but so far everyone here seems to be having a good time, playing a few games.

Matt: So tell us a bit about yourself, what do you do at Nintendo?

Greg: I'm the Director of Marketing, so I look after all the marketing activities, myself and my team. Anything you see about Nintendo in Australia is to do with our department.

Matt: And the big thing on your plate at the moment?

Greg: Well it's everything, developing all the programs for all the releases we've got for all the releases coming out. We've just gone through all the activity with 'More Brain Training', Super Paper Mario, getting into Metroid and Big Brain Acadamy. It's just a matter of keeping up with all the stuff we've got going. And then we run into things like Super Mario Galaxy, so there's a lot happening. And then we've got Christmas to keep up with! So what do you do!

Matt: Now let's talk the Wii and it's run away success, because it is huge! It is the most under powered console this generation yet it is still the highest selling, what do you think that says about gamers?

Greg: It says it's not about the power in the graphics, it says that its about the different types of gaming experience that you can provide for the gamers. If you provide them something new, if you provide them something innovative, then people are actually going to play. And that's what we're finding, we're finding that people that have never played video games before can pick up the Wi and play. They can play great games like Wii Sports but if you've been a hardcore gamer for a long period of time you can pick up a game like Metroid and get a complete quality level of video game challenge but in a new way. You've got point and shoot technology with Metroid Prime and although it's not out yet we've got Super Mario Galaxy here today which again is a whole new experience in gaming. It's not always about power and graphics, it's about what you can provide the gamer.

Matt: I'm sure you're aware that some of the reaction from hardcore gamers has been 'whats Nintendo doing for me?' How do you think you guys are going at that?

Greg: With providing games for hardcore gamers? I think we've got quite a few games. I mean if you're looking at games specifically for the hardcore gamers, when you look at the life of the Wii, we've had The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii which was just a beautiful game, it was our launch game! It was also our highlight game for the start of the Wii and it's a true hardcore gamer's game. Super Paper Mario is a great game for a hardcore gamer as well, it's a real throwback to that traditional that 2D platformer kind of game, chuck it into the third dimension and it's a whole new area of discovery. And we've got Super Mario Galaxy, classic traditional Nintendo game. And that's not to mention Metroid, and it's all in our first year!/

I think hardcore gamers also enjoy games meant for the mainstream market, like Wii Sports, because they understand what a good video game is all about.

Matt: Now you know that a few gamers have been unhappy about delays in Australian release dates, along with short supply of the console itself. Do you think Nintendo is having a bit of trouble dealing with it's new found fame this generation?

Greg: With regards to the consoles, we don't believe the consoles are in short supply. We're making more consoles than we've ever made in the whole history of Nintendo, it's just that demand is really high! It's a consideration that we're on top of , but the rate that consoles are being produced is really high, and demand is really high.

When it comes to the delay in releases in the Australian market place, we understand that it's taken place and we understand that it's really frustrating for some of the gamers out there. Nintendo are doing what they can with localization, to quicken that process as much as possible. But it's good to know that not all games are released last in Australia, we do release some games before Europe and some games before America!

Matt: Now I want to talk about region coding, it's advantages, disadvantages and do you think that ultimately, no region coding would have reduced the number of modded consoles out there?

Greg: Mmm no I don't think so, I don't think region coding has anything to do with the number of modded consoles out there. Region coding is what it is and at the end of the day I think the Australian market will buy from the Australian market and I don't think that it has that much of a consideration in things.

Matt: So at the end of the day pirates are pirates?

Greg: Exactly, pirates are going to do what pirates do, whether it's getting through region coding, whether it's getting pirated games, whatever they're going to do. That group will always do that kind of activity, there's really not that much that you can do to stop them.

Matt: So at the end of the day pirate culture doesn't spread?

Greg: No we don't think so.

Matt: Now Nintendo DS, the machine that coined the term casual gaming, what are we going to see with that in the next? A refresh like the DS Lite, a firmware update or even a whole new machine?

Greg: To be perfectly honest I'm not 100% sure what's in the pipeline for the Nintendo DS. All I do know at this stage, again like we were talking about before, is that the global demand, and even so in Australia is just absolutely phenomenal! I think that it's just clicked over 800,00 total [Australian] sales in it's two and a half years in the market. nearly three years. I really don't understand why there would need to be another upgrade for Nintendo DS when it's going so well at the moment. With regard to software, we've got a lot of opportunities coming up with the DS, there's a lot of new software developed for all kinds of gamers. We're just waiting for them to come out, I'm aware of some but I can't talk about them but it's been a great year for DS software and we're expecting a similar type of year for next year.

Matt: We've just had The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Call of Duty 4, both hardcore games, and both have raised the bar of what you can do on the DS...

Greg: Yeah I think we're seeing a lot of third party publishers really embrace the DS and now have started to drag out a lot of really good content out of the DS hardware, Call of Duty 4 is a perfect example. We've also seen great games like Drawn to Life from THQ where you draw your own character and that character plays in the game. I've seen a few really good EA games, one of which was a Simpsons virtual pet type game, using Homer as the virtual pet which just had me in fits of laughter! Ubisoft also have a great new range of games coming out from their Games for Everybody range, so there's a lot of good quality content coming out.

Matt: Speaking of which, Ubisoft have said recently that they want to be as good as Nintendo, any thoughts?

Greg: Great! That's what we want, that's what Nintendo wants! They want all the third party publishers to develop as much as they can and really push the envelope when it comes to when it comes to their development and create innovative products that take advantage of DS and Wii features. So it's fantastic! They've always been a very strong partner and a very strong supporter of Nintendo right from the start of the DS and Wii so we're really happy to see those guys doing well.

Matt: And lastly, what's getting you excited?

Greg: To be perfectly honest, I'm really looking forward to the Wii Zapper. The Zapper in both Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Link's Crossbow training, I really can't wait to get a hold of. And also Super Mario Galaxy, I'm a big Super Mario fan!

We also know about a few games coming out next year, and those games are going to be fantastic.

Matt: Well Greg thanks for your time and thanks for talking to the MyMedia Games Network.

Greg: Thanks Matt.