A Community for Nintendo & Wii Forthcoming?

I came across a story at Forbes which interviewed Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president, AKA “The Regginator.” The story of course had comments about Nintendo’s Wii supply this Xmas, which for the first time since the console’s release in 2006, Reggie & Nintendo seem confident they’ll be able to meet demand for Wii, but probably not Wii Fit. Says Reggie: "With Wii hardware, I think we've got a good shot at meeting demand during the holidays. With 'Wii Fit,' I know we'll fall short. That's a product we have consumers lining up for each morning outside of our Nintendo World store [in New York City]."

What caught my interest in the story is the talk of community. Following stories on what the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are doing in terms of community building, it has long seemed that Nintendo is festering the opportunity to establish one for the Wii, despite the high sales of the console. It turns out, Nintendo has not necessarily been ignoring this idea of console gaming; instead, they’ve once again been holding back, doing things as they see fit. Quoth the Regginator: "Nintendo has always had a vision on community," he says. "The issue is that we define community differently than our competitors. ... Our consumers do want a sense of community, and we're going to deliver that--but in a way that is unique to Nintendo."

Of course, despite saying this, Reggie laid out no plans, nor commented on when Nintendo might elaborate. Forbes speculated next E3, but with Nintendo doing its Media Day where it revealed the DSi back in early October long after E3, who knows when we’ll see what the company has in mind? If I had to guess, this "community" will not only involve the Wii, but the Nintendo DS as well.

Max