Nintendo Europe senior vice president of marketing Jim Merrick has given yet another interview with Eurogamer in which he talks about Nintendo's brand-new Wi-Fi Connection, Revolution's retro service and launch details, as well as responding to Epic VP Mark Rein's crass Revolution comments from IGN Live.
Concerning Wi-Fi Connection, Merrick says that a massively multiplayer game is not Nintendo's style, but adds "It's certainly possible... It really depends on Mr Miyamoto and Mr Konno, and whether they see that vision." He also reaffirms Revolution's intent to use WFC, though he makes it clear the system will use it in a very different way than the Nintendo DS.
Retro gaming is also given a mention; Merrick confirms that "the usual suspects" as far as third parties have already committed to offering their classic titles as downloads. Without actually confirming the price of the downloads, he suggests Mario Bros. (probably meaning the Super variety) would cost "a couple of pounds" to download to one's Revolution console. Merrick also hints at the possibility of movies, music, demos, or even full games being offered over the service.
Merrick also talked about Revolution proper, thankfully reiterating his previous comment that he expected Revolution to be playable at E3 in 2006. Plans for a global launch within a window of "a few weeks" are being worked on, with Merrick saying he intends to improve on the 14-week window of the Nintendo DS.
Finally, Merrick ends with a response to Mark Rein that puts even ass-kicking, name-taking Reginald Fils-Aime to shame. To wit:
"Mark has a very narrow section of the business. Epic builds middleware, they're very technically savvy guys, but he doesn't have a Revolution controller, he doesn't have a dev kit, he's talking about something he knows nothing about.
"So if he'd like to get a dev kit and really dig into it, then I'd be interested to hear what he has to say."
Touch, Mr. Rein.