Nintendo’s Harrison talks about Wii hardware revision, Game Boy name, Microsoft’s admission

Wiimotes - Image 1With Nintendo‘s track record of revising its handhelds multiple times, GameDaily couldn’t help but ask Nintendo of America‘s George Harrison if they are also planning a hardware revision on the Wii. Harrison, Senior VP of Marketing, said that a new version of the Wii is possible, but something that they are not yet thinking about at the moment; the Wii still hasn’t reached its second holiday yet.

When asked whether they still have plans for the Game Boy brand Harrison said that the Game Boy Advance still survives because of the available games, but since developers are now producing more games for the DS, fewer Game Boy titles come out. (The Nintendo DS, while being a handheld, didn’t bear the Game Boy brand in its name.) He continued:

So this year in our marketing, you really won’t see much push in against Game Boy itself, so it will seek its own level. It’s hard to say whether in the future we would ever bring back the Game Boy trademark. It was a big risk for us to actually pass on it and call the new product Nintendo DS, but it was part of Mr. Iwata’s philosophy that if we’re going to make a radical difference and try to reach a new audience we have to change the name.

Names really do matter, at least for Harrison and Nintendo. He also believed that should the Nintendo DS be called “Game Boy DS”, the handheld would not have sold well, as it put off people who already decided that the Game Boy is not for them. But still, the Game Boy name is not entirely ruled out, but Nintendo may have some plans for it once there’s a good reason to use the name Game Boy again.

Check out the Full Article on Harrison’s two cents regarding Microsoft!

Wiimotes - Image 1With Nintendo‘s track record of revising its handhelds multiple times, GameDaily couldn’t help but ask Nintendo of America‘s George Harrison if they are also planning a hardware revision on the Wii. Harrison, Senior VP of Marketing, said that a new version of the Wii is possible, but something that they are not yet thinking about at the moment; the Wii still hasn’t reached its second holiday yet.

When asked whether they still have plans for the Game Boy brand Harrison said that the Game Boy Advance still survives because of the available games, but since developers are now producing more games for the DS, fewer Game Boy titles come out. (The Nintendo DS, while being a handheld, didn’t bear the Game Boy brand in its name.) He continued:

So this year in our marketing, you really won’t see much push in against Game Boy itself, so it will seek its own level. It’s hard to say whether in the future we would ever bring back the Game Boy trademark. It was a big risk for us to actually pass on it and call the new product Nintendo DS, but it was part of Mr. Iwata’s philosophy that if we’re going to make a radical difference and try to reach a new audience we have to change the name.

Names really do matter, at least for Harrison and Nintendo. He also believed that should the Nintendo DS be called “Game Boy DS”, the handheld would not have sold well, as it put off people who already decided that the Game Boy is not for them. But still, the Game Boy name is not entirely ruled out, but Nintendo may have some plans for it once there’s a good reason to use the name Game Boy again.

Harrison was also asked what he thinks about the whole Microsoft extended warranty issue. He believes that it was mainly Microsoft’s desire to get a head start that prompted them to rush, which caused the hardware problems that they’re dealing with. Harrison explained the reason behind Microsoft’s admission:

They had to finally acknowledge it because ultimately when people are replacing or getting repairs on one, two, three of their Xbox 360s, eventually other consumers and the mass market’s not going to buy into the proposition, so they had to reassure the market however they could. But it’s a stunning admission; it’s more than a billion dollars! That’s huge on a business that already looses money for Microsoft. But I don’t think they had a choice but to own up to it.

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