Nintendo Exec: "I Would Love To Have Call of Duty" On Wii U

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has spoken out to say that he would "love" to see more blockbusters come to Wii U. In an interview with re/code, Fils-Aime was asked if he thought it was a problem that some of this year's biggest multiplatform games--including Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare--are skipping over Wii U. He replied by saying he'd like to see more blockbusters on the console.

"I would answer the question in a couple ways. Third-parties are bringing multiplatform content to our platform--Watch Dogs from Ubisoft, as an example," he started off. "I would love to have Call of Duty on our platform. I would love to have any of the big blockbuster, multi-platform titles."

But at the same time, Fils-Aime said it's important that the Wii U separate itself from the Xbox One and PlayStation 4--two boxes Fils-Aime said aren't very different. "I want games that provide a differentiated consumer experience," he said. "If you look at the other two competitive platforms, fundamentally, what's the difference?"

The interviewer replied by saying Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have their own exclusives. Fils-Aime had a comeback for this, too, saying Nintendo has iconic brands such as Mario and Zelda, which you can't get on any other platform.

"But interestingly, when you look at either one, either by themselves doesn't have a lot of exclusive content," he said. "They have a lot of shared content. Look at it from the standpoint of, what don't they have? They don't have our games. They don't have Mario and Zelda. I'd much rather be where Nintendo is, with a differentiated platform, differentiated set-up experiences that we can provide uniquely to the consumer."

"I like our chances of having a differentiated console and a differentiated series of experiences" -- Reggie Fils-Aime

"Let those other guys battle it out over, you know, which visual representation of Call of Duty is most compelling," he added. "I like our chances of having a differentiated console and a differentiated series of experiences."

Speaking generally about what Nintendo needs to do to attract more third-party support to Wii U, Fils-Aime explained that Nintendo needs to grow the install base of the console. Nintendo has sold around 7.3 million Wii Us, which is below the 13.5 million PS4s sold. Fils-Aime also said that third-parties are looking for consoles to have a "robust connected environment" so publishers can sell their own add-on content. Making a case for both of these points, Fils-Aime pointed out that the Wii U install base has nearly doubled year-over-year, while in North America, "just about every" Wii U is connected to the Internet, he said.

"This business is built on a year-and-a-half or two-year planning cycles, especially for the home console space," Fils-Aime added. "Products that they're thinking about today are not going to come into the market until two years down the road. By doing a great job today in the here and now, that's what’s going to feed the pipeline of great new third-party content coming onto our platform. For us, that's the long game that we're trying to play."