Reassessing Nintendo's "no game drought" policy

Level Up reexamines Nintendo's "no game drought" commitment in the wake of rumors suggesting that both Mario and Metroid won't make their Wii debuts until late 2007 at the earliest. Columnist N'Gai Croal pulls out the history stick highlighting his recent exchange with Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime on the subject of frustrating gamers with delays. From the interview:

Reggie: "So N'Gai, how do I answer the question, 'Will there be no drought,' and 'How will we make sure that there are fantastic titles for Wii?' The answer is Zelda, Metroid and Mario. Which is a pretty darn good lineup."
N'Gai: "So are you willing to make a 'Read my lips' pledge right here?"
Reggie: "I thought I just did."
N'Gai: "All right. I'll be checking in with you when these titles actually ship."

Reggie reportedly then chuckled, mumbling what we can only image as a trailed-off "Exactly." Has Fils-Aime committed to release schedules before only to later have his hands tied with with either strategic and/or development delays? Plenty of times. The most recent Zelda: Twilight Princess quickly comes to mind. And the justification that Nintendo only releases games when they are "really good" is a bit tired. At some point Nintendo Project Management has to take responsibility for something. That is assuming they use project management.