Fils-Aime Talks Wii Plans, Online Specifics

In a new interview with MTV News, Nintendo of America's president Reggie Fils-Aime has been discussing the top launch titles, plans for Wii launch, and the longer-term software line-up for Nintendo's console. Following the company's recent announcement that 600,000 Wii consoles and 454,000 copies of Zelda: Twilight Princess were sold in the first 8 days in North America, Fils-Aime also commented that Red Steel, Rayman Raving Rabbids and EA's Madden for the Wii were other top sellers for the console, as was Atlus' Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Defending Nintendo's upcoming first-party Wii line-up in North America, which has WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Wii Play and Mario Party 8 debuting by March 2007, Fils-Aime commented to MTV of any perceived post-launch 'drought': "I wasn't here for the GameCube launch, but there was a time period when there were no titles. There wasn't even titles you could or could not sink your teeth into. Wii Play and WarioWare are going to be hugely fun titles." He also noted that Super Mario Galaxy will debut some time between March and Christmas 2007. Talking to MTV, Fils-Aime also criticized some of the Wii software launch reviews, particularly for Ubisoft's Red Steel: "I think a lot of the reviews have been overly critical. Does it take you a few minutes to get used to the control scheme? Yes. Once you get used to it does it play extremely well? Absolutely. I think a lot of those reviews are overly harsh." Regarding online play, Fils-Aime was direct, if not very specific: "For the consumer who is saying, 'Gosh, when is Nintendo going to get on board with online play?' The answer is very early in 2007." Finally, the Nintendo president ended by talking about his plans for the Wii's game line-up into the future: "The piece that I am more and more involved in is really looking longer-term and making sure the full range of games are being brought to the Americas. Making sure we have core gamer games like Metroid, like Galaxy. Making sure we have our types of market-extension games not only for Wii but for DS."