Perrin-Kaplan
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Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan talks Smash Bros. Brawl delay
Though she's on her way out, Nintendo's VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan still finds some time to speak to MTV's Stephen Totilo regarding all things Nintendo. As history has repeatedly shown us, one of those things inevitably turns out to be the dreaded delay -- though perhaps it's not as dreaded when it comes to the holiday months. It seems Nintendo now joins EA and Capcom in seeing the sales sense in slippage. "And I think we're actually starting to look at the annual calendar differently," said Kaplan, justifying the February release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. "The first two quarters of the year tend to be more quiet. But now we've seen some evidence of sales in that period." Avoiding the jostling of the year-end crowd is but one benefit, with the added development time yielding a game that's "absolutely as perfect as Japan knows it can be." Kaplan, who views the Wii and DS as being a little more integrated into people's (boring) lives, concludes via basketball metaphor that timing isn't necessarily everything. "I think a really good product can be a slam dunk any time of the year." A note of caution to other publishers considering delays: Let's not get carried away now. We don't want February becoming the new November.
Kaplan says gamers were bored before Wii
Now, we've been saying for awhile now that the Wii would revolutionize the industry and it has. But, we wouldn't go so far as to say we were bored by it all pre-Wii. We loved the GameCube, we loved the GBA and we still love our DS. We loved the N64. We hardly found ourselves without games to play, that's for sure."A major insight that Nintendo had early on was that they saw that gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet," Kaplan remarked. Robert Matthews, senior director of consumer marketing for Nintendo of America backed her up, stating "Just look at the way people consume entertainment today. The idea that you would spend hours playing videogames is just not real anymore." While we'd argue that, blogging doesn't leave us with as much time for gaming as we'd like, but we think overall that there will always be a place for lengthy games, jam-packed with feature-rich content and that Nintendo's new proven focus shouldn't try to do away with those.Do you guys care to toss in your two cents?
Nintendo's Kaplan says 'Gamers were bored before Wii'
Remember those hours you stayed up playing Halo 2 merely thinking you were having a good time? Shadow of the Colossus? Smash Bros? Tetris? We hate to tell you, but you weren't enjoying yourself. That's right, you were getting bored. We're sorry to be the ones to break it to you.It was Nintendo of America's soon-to-be-former Marketing VP Perrin Kaplan who infomed us of our jaded dispositions. Speaking to Ad Age, which named Nintendo the Marketer of the Year, Kaplan said, "A major insight that Nintendo had early on was that they saw that gamers were getting bored, even though they didn't know it yet."We know the role of a marketer is to sell their product with as much hyperbole as possible, but doesn't this seem a bit short-sighted (not to mention somewhat self-deprecating, given Nintendo's prominence in gaming history)? If only Kaplan wasn't leaving, she might have filled Ken Kutaragi's shoes well. [Via Next-Gen; image from Halo Nights]
Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan leaving at year's end
No shocker here: Nintendo's Vice President of Marketing, Perrin Kaplan, will be joining George Harrison and Beth Llewelyn at the end of this year by not continuing to work for the Big N. After being employed by Nintendo for some 15 years, Kaplan has now announced that she "will be leaving the outfit at the end of the year," but noted that until that day, she will remain "focused on getting a great transition team in place and handling all of her normal responsibilities as well." As with Ms. Llewelyn, no replacement has been named just yet, but we can't imagine the firm wasting any time finding a sufficient successor.[Via GamesIndustry]
Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan reveals her exit strategy, finally
George did it. And so did Beth. Now, as forecast, it's Perrin's turn. Nintendo Vice President of Marketing Perrin Kaplan has announced her retirement from the company after 15 years of service.Kaplan did not give an explicit reason for her departure, saying only, "I finally will be leaving Nintendo at the end of the year. Until then, I am focused on getting a great transition team in place and handling all of my normal responsibilities as well." It had been speculated that the marketing exec trio -- now all officially on course to retire -- would leave Nintendo after plans to relocate the company's PR headquarters from Washington to San Francisco and New York were revealed in May. But this theory remains pure speculation. Think about it: there are plenty of other circumstances that could have prompted Kaplan's resignation ... well, actually, we can only think of one.
Perrin Kaplan joins the NoA exodus
The move has claimed another victim: after fifteen years with Nintendo, Marketing VP Perrin Kaplan is calling it quits. At least, we assume Kaplan's decision is related to the move, considering there has been a great deal of speculation that she would follow in George Harrison's footsteps, but no official reason was stated.Kaplan will stay on with NoA until the end of the year.
Rumor: Kaplan, Harrison and Llewelyn leaving Nintendo of America
Or rather, Nintendo of America is leaving them. According to Game Informer Online, which earlier this month broke news of the Redmond giant (no, not that one) relocating its sales, ad and marketing departments to either New York or San Francisco, approximately 90% of the employees in the affected areas have opted to remain stationary and accept a severance. Included in those leaving Nintendo are senior director of public relations, Beth Llewelyn, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan (pictured), and senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, George Harrison. The executive trio's time of departure is still unknown, though GI asserts that Perrin and her pals will likely stick around until after next month's Min-E3 event in Santa Monica.
Perrin Kaplan expects Wii shortages to 'last for some time'
Well, so much for "supply flowing" this April. "There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see a supply / demand situation last for some time," says Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's VP of marketing and corporate affairs. Further comments originating from a recent Game Theory Podcast basically amount to Nintendo doing the best they can against the ravenous and seemingly unstoppable Wii-wanting hordes. Perrin provides assurances that Nintendo is aware of the problem (though she doesn't directly label it as such) and politely asks fans to "to be patient and to know that we are working on this as fast as we can." While the buzz and news generated by continued scarcity (see: this article) continues to be a valuable marketing asset, truly resolving production problems almost 6 months into a console's lifetime will be greatly beneficial to both Nintendo and clamoring fans. In other words -- come on![Via Wii Fanboy, Next-Generation]
GameCube not so dead after all?
Looks like we might've used up a perfectly good eulogy on Nintendo's might-not-be-dead-yet GameCube. Nintendo of America VP Perrin Kaplan has been known to, erm, miss the mark, with some pretty notable quotes in the past (anyone remember that whole region-free debacle?), and now a Nintendo UK spokesperson has stepped in and contradicted her statement: "I can confirm that globally, Nintendo is still continuing production of GameCube hardware and GameCube software." We can't help but think that the 'Cube isn't long for this world all the same, but we're always glad to hear it has a few rounds of SSBM left in it. We're still trying to get a bit more confirmation on this, so stay tuned for updates.[Via Joystiq]
Perrin Kaplan mentions Nintendo Wii 2.0 ... already?
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the strain, ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. When asked if the Wii will have a hardware revision in an interview with GameDaily, Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs, said, "Sure, absolutely. You'll see the ways in which we do that."Although Nintendo has consistently updated their portable units with revisions, console hardware revisions, like those in the NES and SNES, were held off until the end of the console's life cycle. This Wii revision, apparently in the cards for as early as this year in Japan, is probably not welcome news to those who just purchased the $250 console at launch. Hopefully the DVD upgrade, and whatever other goodies Nintendo has in store (other than new Wii colors), will be a simple software upgrade and not make early adopters feel like they've been gypped.
CE-Oh no she didn't! Part XXVI - Nintendo's Kaplan on why no one got shot for a Wii
This one kind of came out of nowhere, but when asked by GameSpy how the PS3 launch affected the Wii launch, Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan thought it was time to lay down the smack:"Well, we didn't have anyone in line that got shot waiting for our system. So there's one sign of the different approaches between our two companies. I think that there were really two different audiences. The core gamer probably went out and tried to purchase both systems. ... I think we were just really prepared. Years of experience doing this ensured that we would have a very good launch."So there it is, Nintendo's preparedness, experience, and approach to console gaming ensured nobody got shot over the Wii last holiday season. Surely it had nothing to do with more copious console supplies, or a pricetag of half that (or less) than the PS3. Oh, and Perrin did forget to mention the personal bodyguard Nintendo assigned each and every new Wii owner late last year, that helped too.[Via Joystiq]
Take the Wii pill
Talk about a Revolution. Though difficult to see, the bottom of the poster features Iwata, Reggie, and Perrin Kaplan walking in badass black trenchcoats. If Iwata is Neo, though, where's Shiggy? And is Ken Kutaragi the "architect"? Nah. That guy couldn't make a square out of toothpicks.[Thanks, Spex!]
First-party Wii games will be region-free [update 2]
After tactfully cornering Nintendo's VP of Marketing at their NYC event, Joel Johnson from Wired News was able to extract a rather valuable tidbit of information that will likely please gamers all across the world. Perrin Kaplan casually confirmed that all first-party Wii games will be free of draconian region locks, thus allowing them to run on a Wii system purchased from Japan, Europe, America and everything in-between. The same doesn't hold true for third-party games yet, but one can only hope they follow the glorious example and do away with an annoying system that has long since been dropped in handheld platforms. If you can surmount the language barrier, feel free to gleefully bring Nintendo's next turnbased roommate adventure Pokemon dating card RPG to America, even if they won't.[Via Game|Life][Update 1: Gamesindustry.biz reports that Nintendo UK says the Wii is region-locked. This is contrary to Perrin Kaplan's statements, though her exact comments may have been misinterpreted to begin with. It's possible that Kaplan implied first-party games would specifically be region-free -- which is not the same thing as saying the console is region-free. After all, one can play region-free DVDs on a region-locked DVD player. Not that the Wii can play DVDs anymore...][Update 2: It was too good to be true.]
Who's got a Joystiq T-shirt?
Our limited-edition Joystiq T-shirts are rolling out to our biggest (and speediest) fans right now. Then there's our not as limited-edition Joystiq E3 shirts that we were giving out at the show. Did you grab enough business cards from Joystiqers on the show floor, like the Joystiq luchador did? Did you make it to the AOL booth during our short, one-hour handout? Or were you gracious enough to grant Joystiq an interview, like Peter, Perrin, Shane, and Miyamoto-san? If you're sporting a Joystiq tee, let us know what you think. Didn't get one? We'll be giving away the orange shirts on the site so keep your eyes peeled. And if you see somebody sporting one on the street, stop 'em and say hi. They're either Joystiq readers or one of us.Big thanks to Philip and Yann for the incredible designs. Seriously, we're humbled.
The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan
On the last day of E3 we got to sit down with Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Affairs. We still had a lot of questions for her to field after interviewing Miyamoto-san the day before, specifically regarding the naming of the Wii (yeah, we had to ask), what Nintendo's online strategy actually is, what they're doing with launching first party titles like Smash Bros. on the Wii, why the GameCube was suspiciously absent this year, and exactly where homebrew gaming fits into the final equation.So I guess we should get started. Thank you very much for meeting us. Everybody here has this badge that says "what's your brain age?" so I'm curious to know what your brain age is. Oh my gosh, I haven't played in a good couple of weeks. I guess down to 30 or so. Really? Yeah, I need to work on it. Our President [Satoru Iwata] is very proud that his is 20. Today is the last day, everything is pretty much behind us. How do you guys think you fared? Even better than we thought. I think we were all really excited coming in, with pretty much trying to say to people, "It's not about what you see, you have to try it," which is why our theme is "playing equals believing." I think you really have to try and take the products for a ride yourself. And that people are embracing that and lining up at record lengths and number of hours and really enjoying it -- saying it was worth the wait is fantastic. One of the things I've been hearing from a lot of people in the industry is they felt that Sony really fell flat this year, and I was curious to know what you think they could have done better. That's a hard one. I have my own personal rule: I don't hold a media briefing that's over 60 minutes. I think it's really hard to have a captive audience be engaged that long. Even in school, I could have had the most stimulating presentation from a teacher and an hour starts to get a long time. That's probably one thing I would do differently. But their product line is what their product line is and their approach is their approach, so what I would do differently is really hard for me to say because we're over here doing something really different and it feels really great. I think being innovative, at least for us, is exciting.
