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.