You recently told Kotaku that you are "troubled" by the Nintendo fanbase, by their insatiable desire for information. In your dismay, you seemed flummoxed, perplexed, dare I say... befuddled by what gamers want, and why what you offer them does not tittilate them.
Let me break it down for you.
First, though, let me give credit where credit is due.
One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles me tremendously about not only our fanbase but about the gaming community at large is that, whenever you share information, the perspective is, "Thank you, but I want more." "Thank you, but give me more." I mean, it is insatiable.
You are right, unreservedly. We are brats. It's never enough, we look always beyond what we know, to what might one day be. If only we could be happy with what we have! It is the human condition.
But it's possible, Reggie, that the reaction here is at least a little bit justified. You're talking about this year's E3, after all. You guys treat E3 differently now! Back in the day, we would expect to hear about games beyond just those releasing within the calendar year. Remember the Twilight Princess reveal? Remember Mario Galaxy? You guys have huge titles like those in the works as we speak, we all know it. When you scale back the way you talk about your games, don't be surprised when people ask "where are the games?" It's not like we're asking to know more about Smash Bros., we all know it's too early for that. But surely you have games in development that aren't just launch window titles, and we want to see them. You know that while Pikmin 3 and New Super Mario Bros U are neat, they're hardly the showcases for the Wii U that we've been waiting for, right?
Oh wait, you don't know that. And that's where you need a little help.
And so for years this community has been asking, "Where's Pikmin?" "Where's Pikmin?" "Where's Pikmin?" We give them Pikmin. And then they say, "What else?"
Pikmin is great! We love Pikmin. But did you notice how much Pikmin looked like... Pikmin? Sure we want Pikmin, but what we wanted this year more than anything was to be blown away by the Wii U. And Pikmin... didn't really do that. It looks like a high-definition Wii game. It looks great, but it doesn't look like what we were waiting to see. And hey, if you can't wow us with the graphics, wow us with something else. Wow us with some radical change to the formula, to the controls! But nope, we get the same old Pikmin, demoed by Miyamoto via the same old controls. "Look, there are Rock Pikmin!"
Pikmin does not make up for the lack of what we were looking for.
For years, this community have said, "Damnit Reggie, when you launch, you better launch with a Mario game." So we launch with a Mario game, and they say, "So what's more?"
Mario is great! We love Mario. But did you notice how much Mario looked like... Mario? This is the Wii U, Reggie. This is Nintendo's first generational jump in hardware power since the GameCube, and the Mario you're showing us has lost its sheen. Sure, NSMBU looks better than any entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series so far, but man, it had better. Those games have never looked great, and this is a new console, you have an extremely low bar to clear. The novelty of "hey it's 2D Mario" has also worn off. I am sure NSMBU will be a great game, but it does not have the wow factor a showcase E3 title, a showcase launch title, should have.
You want us to be impressed by a Mario game? Show us one overflowing with creativity and freshness, one that truly benefits from the added hardware power and control options brought by the WIi U, not just New Super Mario Bros. again, but high-def and "hey you can see it on the controller screen." Wow us like when we first saw Mario Galaxy, then you'll get the reaction you expected.
I have heard people say, "You know, you've got these fantastic franchises, beyond what you're doing in Smash Bros., isn't there a way to leverage all these franchises?" So we create Nintendo Land and they say, "Ho-hum, give me more."
This is a great opportunity to segue into what is probably the root of your confusion. To you, there are "Nintendo games," and... well, there are Nintendo games. As Nintendo fans, you think we should feel catered to when they are made. But Reggie, there is a big difference between Smash Bros. and Nintendo Land. Smash Bros. benefits from fantastic depth. It's a combo fighting/party game that accommodates gamers of varying intensities and lets them really squeeze a satisfying and long-time experience out of its mechanics. Nintendo Land is an assortment of mini-games. Maybe there's something in there, something we don't know about. But it sure isn't evident in anything we've been shown.
Just because something has a following, it doesn't mean it's "what we want." You've been famously quoted in 2008 as citing Animal Crossing: City Folk as an experience that should placate Nintendo's "core gamers." Leaving aside for the moment the fact that City Folk was a horrifyingly lazy retread of the content found in Animal Crossing: Wide World, the Animal Crossing franchise is not a franchise for "core gamers." Of Nintendo's franchises, it is probably among the least suited to the vocal Nintendo internet fanbase that vexes you so greatly.
The Nintendo fans you hear from, the ones that seem so unsatisfied, are traditional gamers. They have been playing games forever, and they are looking not only for games that are rich with content and depth, but also games that are new. Perhaps most notably, franchises that are new. "Stuff with Miis" was the last universe Nintendo's internal studios created, and that was back in 2007. Before that? Pikmin, in 2001. This is not the density we are looking for.
Let me describe for you the kind of game that people want. Picture a Zelda game, or something like Mario Galaxy, or even something like one of the first-person shooters you see on your competitor's machines. These games that are dense with content, and feature a player character journeying throughout a complicated world, maybe platforming, maybe puzzle-solving, maybe shooting stuff. We want something like that, but made by Nintendo's internal development teams (they're the reason we're Nintendo fans, did you know that?), and featuring new characters. Not Mario, not a new character in the Mario Universe, but rather a new universe entirely. Something cut from that Mario/Zelda/Metroid cloth, but new.
When we show a game like Brain Age or when we show a game like Nintendogs, what's the fan-based community reaction? "Ho-hum." Until it sells millions of copies.
You are manufacturing this "until." We ho-hummed those then, and we ho-hum them now. Sure, it's nice that they sell, we like when Nintendo games sell, because it means maybe more companies will make games on a system that sells well. But do not be mistaken: the traditional Nintendo fanbase has not decided that Nintendogs and Brain Age are suddenly hot shit. They are "new," but they are not the new we're looking for. See how when describing new franchises over the last decade, I didn't even think of them! They are not character-driven adventures, they are not what we get from Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Donkey Kong, even Kirby. We want a new name to add to that list, and we haven't gotten it.
Actually, you know what, we did get one. Kid Icarus: Uprising is exactly what we wanted (except maybe on a console instead). It doesn't really count, since Kid Icarus isn't actually NEW, but Uprising was certainly about as new as you could reasonably make it. Great new characters, huge volume of content, plays well to traditional gaming sensibilities. It sure isn't gonna sell like Wii Fit or Nintendogs, but you know those sell well in spite of your traditional fanbase, not because of them, right? That's software that reaches a mass market, and you see mass market sales. But you're in a tough spot, because the more you sell to that market, the more your dedicated fanbase feels neglected.
There's overlap, obviously. Plenty of the Nintendo faithful pick up these more mass-market titles, but it doesn't scratch that itch. The itch is unbearable!!! It is enough to make us bitch and moan, and fill your Reginald-gland with pus and bile. So try listening! You gotta be less defensive, you gotta snap less at Geoff Keighley when he says to you what we're all thinking. It's like you're snapping directly at us! We just want to play and love Nintendo games, Reggie. I know you don't understand us, you have said as much flat-out. But we are trying to tell you! Hear us, and we will be bros.