A brand-new documentary series, Unlocked: The World of Video Games, Revealed, has begun to air this week, and one of the 8-part series’ episodes focuses heavily on Nintendo. [Thanks, NintendoEverything.]
In the episode, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime and executive vice president of operations Don James were featured in interviews. When asked what Nintendo’s biggest challenge to overcome is, James replied that he believes that competition is their biggest hurdle, though he is confident that the company’s franchises are their “secret weapons.”
“Competition is fierce in the gaming industry. Ever since SEGA came into it the competition has been fierce, since Sony came into it it was fierce. The competition is always probably our largest challenge. But we sort of have a secret weapon, and that’s our franchise characters which really nobody else has.”
Reggie Fils-Aime also brought up the topic of competition and, when asked what makes Nintendo such a force to be reckoned with, he noted that, while the franchises do give the company an edge over the rest, innovation is also “an important factor.”
“First, so much of the content we make is only available on our platform. You can’t get it anywhere else. So that alone makes us a very challenging competitor, because no one else can have Mario, no one else can have The Legend of Zelda. But secondly, we’re always pushing the envelope from an innovation standpoint. The Wii Remote, for example, it was something that the industry didn’t see coming.”
