Denise Kaigler Interview

During E3, The Sound Defense and I got a chance to sit down and talk with Denise Kaigler, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America.  She talks about her past and about the new market Nintendo has created.

Nintendo Gal.com:  So seeing that you’ve only been with Nintendo for a pretty short time.

Denise Kaigler: Tomorrow is five months. My five month anniversary.

NG: How are you doing so far?

DK:  I am having a ball.  I mean who wouldn’t have fun working in this industry and especially at this company.  Certainly I was at a consumer products company before this is obviously a consumer products company but in a dynamic and growing industry.  Nintendo and everything about it, is a blast.  We walk around everyday as we want our consumers to do with the products we smile all the time. Cammy talked about it during the media briefing, I mean it’s hard not to have fun when you’re being told, "play the game, go out and see what it’s like, experience what we want our consumers to experience," and that’s what we do.  So it’s cool, it’s great.

NG: Is the work different than what you were doing at Reebok?

DK: The work is, they’re a lot of similarities and some differences.  I was head of global corporate communications for Reebok and then head of corporate communications in the United States for the Adidas Group, which is the parent company of Reebok.  So working with the US subsidiary for a global company, that’s exactly the format that I’m working in here at Nintendo.  That experience of working for an American based company that’s owned by a foreign parent is very helpful coming in to this, very similar.  

I was in Kyoto where I first played Wii Music and that’s what led to my being in the demo Tuesday night.  So I was with Mr. Miyamoto’s development team in Seattle and they asked me to demo the game, so I played for I don’t know, half hour, forty five minutes, rockin’ to about six different instruments and had an absolute blast.  And I don’t play music at all, don’t know how to read one musical note and I was able to pick up the game and start playing and have a lot of fun.  They said, "You know what?  You’re having so much fun and that’s exactly what we want people who don’t play music to see, you pick up and start playing." so they asked me if I’d demo it here.  To stand next to Mr. Miyamoto and demo his game?  I mean how can you, you can’t say no to that, you know?  I was pretty honored to be asked.  So that was fun.  Being able to do things like that and be a part of what Nintendo is pioneering and creating and bringing to consumers is a pretty awesome experience.

NG: It sounds like you don’t game a lot, do you play many games?

DK: I play a lot of games now, but I am very much a part of the expanded audience.  I mean I have a sixteen year old daughter, twelve year old son (soon to be thirteen) and they both are core gamers.  I’m more of a casual gamer, but my husband and were one of millions of people looking for the Wii when it first came out in November 2006.  We did get the Wii for my son for Christmas that year.  He’s got the DS and the GBA, so he’s pretty much a gamer.  Until the Wii, I didn’t play video games, that got me into the gaming world.

NG: Speaking of Nintendo, do you find it hard for the company to appeal to both types like your son and yourself at the same time?

DK: No not at all.  We’ve been able to build our momentum and we’ll drive our momentum by continuing to expand the audience.  Bringing exciting compelling experiences to the marketplace through our games that appeal to both the core and the expanded audience.  I was asked yesterday about whether we’re moving away from the core to the casual expanded audience.  The way I explained it was: Here’s the core, other reporters have told me the sweet spot for ages is around 12-25 so we can use that as sampling.  So let’s say 12-25 is the core audience, Nintendo has games for that, but what we’re doing is expanding so we’re going from 5-12 to 25-95, so all inclusive from 5-95 so we’ll continue to develop and bring to the market games that appeal to that core, but also to that expanded audience.  

What you saw during our media briefing demonstrated that commitment to expanding the gaming universe and bringing in more gamers and breaking down those barriers between veteran gamers and novice gamers.  The three first party titles that we showcased, each of those three titles does have elements of both. Animal Crossing, it’s the core gamer that made that game a franchise.  GameCube version sold 1.8 million copies then on the DS, 1.5 and now coming out on the Wii, the core gamer has been asking for the next Animal Crossing, so now Animal Crossing City Folk.  What is unique about that game in addition to the added elements such as the city, being able to put your Mii on, but having that advanced gaming experience of the Wii Speak microphone, that takes creativity and community to a whole new level and creates a whole new dimension in social gaming, being able to communicate with three other locations anywhere in the world.  Another unique aspect of City Folk because of Wii Speak is it isn’t a microphone headset, which limits your interaction one to one.  It’s the Wii Speak on top of the sensor that’s able to pick up anyone in a room so anyone you can get in a room can be heard through the Wii Speak microphone in three/four total locations around the world, so that’s endless points of communication to people.  So certainly that game, the core put that on the map.  

Wii Music, what core gamer and new casual gamer would love to be able to jam?  Create your own jam session and so what Wii Music is doing is creating a whole new genre in the music game segment of video gaming.  It’ll create new experiences and in new ways for consumers to be enriched in and engaged and you don’t have to know how to play any instruments, you don’t have to know how to read music, it isn’t just for instruments.  You pick a song and put your own unique flare on it, your own unique characteristics around the music and that’s what makes it so much fun.  You’re not told hit this or hit this otherwise you’re not going to sound good, you kind of just jam and you can literally be a one man band.  Go, record, go back, record another instrument, next thing you know you’ve got 4 or 5 instruments by yourself, creating your own band.  Or if you want to do it as a group you can have up to 4 different people, different instruments jamming at the same time.  of course as you saw at the media briefing there were 5 of us, but as Mr. Miyamoto announced, that was just special occasion so we could have the drummer.

NG: In the past Nintendo has had a "kiddy" image if you will and how Nintendo is working to change that.  Obviously with the success of the Wii and DS things are changing.  With that in mind, how are you facing that challenge, changing that around and making things even more mainstream?

DK: I’m not sure how many people would agree that image still sticks to us right now.  I mean we have a lot of data and research in that pile somewhere that shows we are appealing to a broad base of consumers.  As you mentioned, the Wii and the DS, as you saw in Reggie’s remarks that the DS pretty much has equal among males and females, it almost equals 50%.  The age range is also a little bit higher or growing, but it covers [ages] 5-95.  Our games are being experienced from ages 5-95, so we have expanded the market.  We have broadened the gaming universe.  Primarily core to many demographics and generations.

NG: So basically you’re going to keep doing what you’re doing?

DK: We’re going to continue to disrupt the market.  We’re going to continue to break down those barriers.  We’re going to continue to create games that bring in more and more gamers.  We’re going to continue to put smiles on people’s faces and have fun (Denise smiles as she says this) because that’s the most important thing about a creative experience is to make people have fun.  Isn’t that what we should be doing?

NG: Yes!

DK: That’s what we should be doing.

NG: Gaming is about having fun.

DK: If you’re not having fun, if Nintendo isn’t creating experiences that enable people to have fun we’re not doing something right.  So then why are we here where we are?

NG: The competition have different visions, are you learning anything from their business practices?

DK: Ask me the other way.

NG: Are they learning from you guys?

[laughter in the room]

DK: You know, we’re focused on our on business and continue to create those expanded experiences that expand the market.

NG: My next question came from a reader who is actually a left handed gamer.  She asked me to ask, "Why are 1st party games shipping without left handed support?  Such as Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3.  Without a left handed option, left handed gamers do not get as much enjoyment out of these games."  She was having a tough time swapping the arms and couldn’t do the moves properly and so she wanted to ask what Nintendo thought of this.

DK: I’ve never been asked that question.  We should look into that.  We’ll find out.

NG: What’s going on with the Starlight Starbright Foundation and Nintendo?

DK: The Wii Fun Center is a sponsorship that Nintendo has with the Starlight Starbright Foundation where we supply (and it’s not just Nintendo) [the Wii].  This goes into hospitals and so it’a an opportunity for kids who are ill and being treated to interact with this fun system.  It goes around, so it’s mobile, you move it from room to room and play Wii.  It’s a self-contained fun center that has a TV, VCR, and a DS.  Individuals can donate a Fun Center along with retailers.

NG: What about those who may not be able to use regular methods of game play?  I know there was GameCube setup for those who couldn’t use their arms if I remember right.

DK: We’re not creating that.  We certainly love hearing about it.  We get a lot of phone calls and e-mails and letters of senior citizens, kids, and adults, and rehabilitation centers telling us how they were able to strengthen or fix or rehabilitate their bodies, their limbs utilizing the Wii.  Wii certainly has a lot of ways for people to enjoy it and benefit from it and we love hearing those stories about how consumers are benefiting from the Wii.  So that’s one of the cool unexpected benefits of Wii.

NG: For the last question I’m going to ask what’s been on everyone’s mind.  I know they were looking into storage space for WiiWare and Virtual Console.  Are they still looking at that?

DK: We are… Have you had that happen?  Have you run out of space?

NG: Yes, I basically have to delete older stuff and make room for the newer things.

DK: And if you want to go back and get the game and delete it, have you done that?

NG: No I haven’t gone about doing that.

DK: You don’t have to buy it, you go back and delete it.  If you feel like you want to play it again you don’t have to buy it again.

NG: Well in order to download it again I’d have to remove something else.

DK: Exactly.  You’d have to do that, delete to make room for it.  So we have heard that.  And we have been asked that.  And we have nothing to announce on that here at E3.

NG: So there’s nothing being looked at whatsoever?

DK: I didn’t say that.

[A bit of laughter in the room]

DK: Just there’s nothing to announce at E3.

NG: Thanks for your time Denise!

We here at NintendoGal.com would like to extend a great thanks to Nintendo and Denise Kaigler for taking a moment of her time to sit down and talk with us.