The MTV Multiplayer blog has posted a two-part interview with Nintendo of America Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan, discussing topics ranging from the Wii audience to the origin of the Wii jackets and Kaplan’s time at Nintendo.
“I think there continues to be a misconception that the audience has to be one very specific group,” Kaplan said in reference to comments about the specific Wii target audience. “And I think historically that’s what videogaming companies have survived on.”
“As we’ve explained that pool is only so big. That pool is really precious to us, so those are the core gamers – and that’s who we make the Metroids for and the Mario Galaxys for. We make the unique and new products, the Wii Fit and Wii Sports also for those core gamers. But the expanded audience – we want them to be really attracted to the system. So what we’ve been able to do is build an audience that is of parallel groups of people,” she added.
She also shot down suggestions about the possibility of seeing Bungie games on the Wii, now that the developer has severed itself from Microsoft. Commenting that Nintendo has its hands full at the moment, she added that Bungie would have to present an idea to Nintendo before any relationship could be considered, saying, “You know, we all love good innovative companies but we don’t have any plans on the table right now with Bungie.”
Speaking of her upcoming retirement from Nintendo, Kaplan said, “I never expected to stay at the company this long. It’s been an absolutely brilliant run. The company was in its infancy in so many different ways when I joined.”
Kaplan, who joined Nintendo in 1992 as Corporate Communications Manager, recently announced her retirement, which will be effective at the end of the year. The full text of the interview can be read in two parts: Part one – Part two.
