AListDaily recently sat down with Doug Bowser, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, to discuss the Japanese company’s turnaround since launching the Nintendo Switch console. Read on below for some of the topics that were discussed during the interview:
AListDaily: What role does esports or competitive gaming play for Nintendo?
Bowser: In our mind, the definition of esports is pretty broad. It can go from one end of the spectrum—which I would call underwriting sponsorships, team support, etc.—to the other end of the spectrum, which is just fun, competitive multiplayer gaming. I would say we’re really trying to promote fun, competitive multiplayer gaming. We’ve obviously had a few tournaments at E3 with ARMS, Splatoon 2 and Pokkén Tournament DX going on. And we’ve been involved in esports competitions in the past with Smash Bros. at E3 and Comic-Con. Two years ago, we had the Nintendo World Championships at E3. But that’s not to indicate that we’re planning to get into esports as many people are defining it. It’s just that we want to be able to promote some great games that we think have an ability to be fun and competitive and that you can play on the couch with your friends and family—and/or they could be introduced to other esports venues potentially down the road.
AListDaily: How does esports impact Nintendo developers as they create new titles like ARMS or Splatoon 2?
Bowser: I don’t know that we designed the games with an esports end-game in mind. It’s more that we know that players like these type of fun, competitive games, and we’re looking for different ways to design games that meet that need or desire, so you see that. To your point, in Splatoon, it’s a very different way to have a combat turf war. ARMS introduces more of a fighting mechanic, but it’s fun, it’s competitive. Then Pokkén Tournament DX has an orientation more like a Smash Bros. in terms of its gameplay style. So, it’s more that we want to create a variety of different competitive games.
AListDaily: What’s the marketing messaging for Nintendo now?
Bowser: Well, it’s about a couple of things. It’s definitely Super Mario Odyssey, which was the main focus of the floor and will be a large game for us coming out on October 27. But our booth had Splatoon 2, ARMS, Pokkén Tournament DX, Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. We had FIFA set up to show folks the different game styles for in-home or an on the go. We had a nice variety of titles we wanted to show because it’s not just about Super Mario Odyssey. But that will be a large one. We want to communicate to folks that we’ve got this steady cadence of titles, both first party and third party, coming throughout the rest of the year and beyond.
Source: AListDaily
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