Yarnton Discusses Audience Balancing Act
by Rob Galbreath (09/05/05)
In a recent interview with Gameindustry.biz, Nintendo UK General Manager David Yarnton addressed the difficulties of balancing hardcore gaming fans and Nintendo's new target audience: non-casual players.
"You definitely couldn't say [the balance] is easy," said Yarnton, "but then life wasn't meant to be easy. It's always a challenge, and especially when you're a company like Nintendo, being innovative, and people look and say why are you doing that?'
"It's because if you go back historically, videogames basically disappeared, and Nintendo basically resurrected it. We're not saying that we're in that position now of having to ressurect the industry, but to keep its vitality and keep it growing, we need to expand it. We still can't and won't neglect our existing fans, and I think that one of the things that's been really positive news in terms of Revolution is the fact that it will be backwards compatible, going right back through the back catalogue to NES and SNES and everything else. So that's not neglecting our existing market."
Yarnton continued on the hopes of taking the market to new levels and recalled the recent Games Summit discussion comparing video games, cell phones, and DVDs. "If you look at video games, I think in the UK we're in about 30 percent of homes. If you look at DVDs, it's about 95 percent. So if we're at that 30 percent, how do we break out to 50, 60 percent of homes, and people, playing? We have to - we want to do that to try and grow the business."
The interview discussed the success of their strategies with Nintendogs, an interactive pet simulation available in both Japan and the United States with a UK release date set for October, and Electroplankton, a game released in Japan without a confirmed release date for Europe or America. For a full script of the interview, click here.