ECTS 2002: Nintendo reflects on European console launches

At its pre-ECTS press event this morning, Nintendo of Europe reflected on the success of its GameCube and Game Boy Advance launches but claimed that the best is definitely still to come. Speakers present at the event included Frederick Dior of Data Monitor, David Gosen of Nintendo of Europe, and Charles Martinet, who has provided the voices for Mario and a number of other Nintendo characters for the past 12 years. Satura Iwata, the president of Nintendo also gave a short prerecorded video presentation at the event.

Fredrick Dior of Data Monitor was the first speaker to take to the stage--which was designed to resemble the Big Brother diary room from the popular European reality TV show--where he spoke about the games industry being worth an estimated $14 billion a year, with Europe accounting for an impressive 28 percent of that total. Dior went on to state that the games industry is expected to grow by some 15 percent by the year 2004, and that the European market share is expected to increase somewhat by experiencing a 16 percent growth for the same time period. So, financially at least, it would seem that the best is certainly yet to come for Nintendo of Europe. Before leaving the stage (or being evicted from the diary room) Dior also said that he believes the games industry is now big enough to comfortably support three different console formats.

Satura Iwata, addressing an ECTS audience for the first time since he became president of Nintendo earlier this year, revisited last year's theme of "The Nintendo Difference" by drawing attention to Nintendo's heritage, and its unquestionable expertise in the areas of innovation, gameplay, and character design. These sentiments were echoed by David Gosen, managing director of Nintendo of Europe, when he took to the stage and stated that the quality of the games available for a console is more crucial to its success than any amount of price reductions. Needless to say, Gosen also stated that Nintendo of Europe has no plans whatsoever to reduce the European price of a GameCube at this time, despite drops in console prices from both 2878594Sony and 2878599Microsoft this week.

"We've had an extremely busy and successful year. Nintendo GameCube launched in a blaze of glory and style and sold 1 million in just 11 weeks. Meanwhile Game Boy Advance continues to be seen in 4 million of the right hands across Europe," stated Gosen, who also briefly commented on the fact that Nintendo had kept every single one of its prelaunch promises to date. "And, we have only just started. Our Christmas season sees Mario show us what the combination of Nintendo GameCube and the genius of Shigeru Miyamoto can really achieve with Super Mario Sunshine , while Super Mario Sunshine proves that only Nintendo will do things that differently."

Other games that Gosen drew attention to as those that European gamers will be able to enjoy before Christmas included Super Mario Sunshine , Super Mario Sunshine , Super Mario Sunshine , Super Mario Sunshine , and Super Mario Sunshine . Mention was also made of the fact that there will be over 300 games available for the Game Boy Advance by Christmas, including Super Mario Sunshine , Super Mario Sunshine , Super Mario Sunshine , and Super Mario Sunshine .

The event concluded with a brief "22 years of Mario" video showing some of the Nintendo mascot's finest moments in games, and a special appearance by Charles Martinet who entertained attendees by talking about how he came to be the voice of Mario while effortlessly switching between the voices of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Baby Mario.

The absence of a QA session coupled with the fact that more time was spent looking back on 2002 than on looking forward made for a slightly unusual press event, but Nintendo of Europe has every right to feel pleased with itself at this point, and with Christmas just around the corner it looks like the best really is still to come for the world's oldest games company.