DICE interviews are still coming in! This time around, Reggie gets to discuss several interesting points with MTV. For starters, he mentioned how having to package WiiSports inventory with the Wii console slows down the ability to get the system on shelves. Nonetheless, Nintendo is upping production to one million Wii units per month. With the DS Lite, units have been just as sparse in stores, maybe even moreso. Despite so many sales, Nintendo was pretty much out of stock after Christmas, and they’re doing the best they can to make sure the DS Lite is available in large numbers in time for the launch of Pokémon Diamon and Pearl this April.
One the software side, Nintendo has been criticized for a game drought in recent weeks. Nintendo themselves has released Zelda and Excite Truck at launch, WarioWare, and just recently released WiiPlay. No games are planned for March. Reggie claims the first party games are coming, but they’re strategically planning their releases, and are giving third party games some time to do well on the market without being overshadowed. Do you buy that?
While Metroid Prime 3 was promised for the Wii in early 2007, Nintendo now seems to not be afraid to push it back, supposedly to ensure the game is perfect. Reggie says they realize that Metroid has to make a statement, showing how first person can effectively be done on the Wii. On the DS, Reggie says Mother 3 in the US isn’t completely ruled out yet. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata holds the Mother series (Earthbound in the US) holds the series very dear to his heart, having worked on it during his developer days. While Reggie himself hasn’t played the game, he’s looking to see if the Mother series has potential in North America.
Lastly, some interesting tidbits. Reggie made mention that the GameCube is still being produced, but since retail prices are determined by manufacturing costs, they really can’t drop the GameCube below $99 anytime soon. On the Wii’s Virtual Console, Reggie mentioned the possibility of making old Nintendo Power content available to users, putting older games into perspective. Maybe you’ll be able to download old issues in the future!
