Nintendo development exec discusses market-led vision

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz, Nintendo's head of European Developer Business, Marko Hein, has called on the videogames industry to work harder at understanding its markets.

In an interview published today, Hein discusses Nintendo's vision of a market-led development model which individually identifies and targets various niche markets and new emerging demographics, rather than simply building developer-led products.

Referring to the music industry as an example, Hein said that in that market, "they try to investigate who the target group is, what does the market want, and then try to design music for the mass market. I rarely see this in videogames. It's very much developer driven, it's not marketing driven."

"So nobody looks at the market to see which group is currently untouched, which group has a certain potential and then look at how to make a game for this market with research and investigation beforehand," he continued. "Normally a developer comes to you and says 'here's a product, take a look at it'. I'm not sure if we can go on like this in the future."

The interview goes on to cover topics including Nintendo's approach to innovation and its willingness to invest in products which may not have wide commercial appeal, but will help to grow the market for games, such as recent DS title Electroplankton.

"Sometimes you bring a product to market not only for financial reasons, but to open new doors," he commented. "What we are selling with the DS is that the gaming experience is completely different, and we've got a lot of respect for that, even from the competitors."