NEX: Cammie Dunaway Interview by Gabriel Franco

Transcribed by Jacob Mazel (click the link below to hear it)

The following is taken from a recorded interview on August 14, 2008 between Gabriel Franco and Cammie Dunaway on August 14, 2008 at the NEX event. The two had chatted the previous night and Cammie agreed to speak on official terms the following evening. Reggie Fils-Aime spoke briefly to Gabriel as well, and the information he provided is used as context in the interview with Cammie as necessary.

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VGC: Why did Nintendo decide to hold an event in Latin America?

Cammie Dunaway: The Latin America market is very important to us. We felt like it was a good opportunity for Nintendo and all of our third party publishers to be able to communicate directly with retailers and to be able to communicate with consumers through the (local) media. It was a good experience last year, so this year we decided to make it even bigger….we were very pleased with the media response last year.

VGC: What other events do you have planned for Latin America?

CD: We’ll be making an announcement soon, but I can’t reveal it just yet.

VGC: Regarding sales, how is the Latin American market doing?

CD: Extremely well. Our sales are 50% higher than last year which is number one among the global markets. (In an earlier conversation, Reggie had mentioned that Mexico was the top Latin America market for Nintendo, followed closely by Brazil.)

VGC: Which titles have had the most impact in the region?

CD: Not sure title by title. We had very successful launches of Wii Fit, Mario Kart and Smash Brothers. We have also had success with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon we continue to see titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age do well in Latin America.

(…some talk in Spanish about favorite characters in tournaments for Mario Kart and Smash Brothers. Mario seems to win the popularity content. Big surprise. Some talk about how women show up for the tournaments and the size of the tournaments.)

VGC: What is your message to people who weren’t happy with Nintendo’s E3 conference?

CD: I would say the message is we were disappointed with our performance at E3. There were titles like Wario which we think will be really fun titles that we should have show cased. We were excited that Mr. Miyamoto made the commitment that Pikmin is coming. It would have been nice if we could have said that on stage. But, we think it was a good recognition for us that we care for our core fans, and not just the new people who are now discovering Nintendo.

VGC: You told me last night that you cried (laughter) because people were making fun of you after the conference. Do you feel better now? How do you look back on the conference? What is your position on the conference (reactions)?

CD: My position as head of sales and marketing is that I’m listening to the fans. I’m championing the things they care about. I’m helping to make sure we bring great games to the market place. I’m genuine, I’m new to gaming I’m not pretending to be more than I am. I’m having a blast. I feel similar to people who are just discovering games for the first time. I think for us as an industry, its good that we’re growing. That brings more money to the industry. That makes it attractive for more people to develop more games. We have to embrace the fact that new gamers can be good for everybody. Core gamers should help new gamers to discover their passion for gaming.

VGC: Did you play any kind of games before you came to Nintendo?

CD: My husband and son are avid gamers. My husband grew up playing stuff like network Doom in the mid 1990s. When I came to work for Nintendo, we had a Wii, we had 3 or 4 DSs, a PSP, an Xbox, a PS2. We were an active gaming household, but it was only six months prior to joining Nintendo that I had ever played games at all. I started by playing Wii Sports and then by playing Big Brain Academy and Brain Age on my DS, and then I started playing a little bit of Zelda with my son, and then Pokemon. Sometimes it’s hard to jump into games like Zelda if you don’t have the experience. I had the guidebook in my hand, and my 9 year old son to help me play other times. Core gamers have a critical role in helping people like me learn how to play games…

VGC: Your house had 3-4 DSs?

CD: You absolutely need your own DS (laughter).

VGC: What can you tell us about videogame piracy in Latin America? All the platforms have a lot of pirates it seems... What do you do to prevent piracy?

CD: It’s a very serious problem for Nintendo and for the industry. We have been fighting piracy for over twenty years in Latin America. We have kind of a unified global effort within Nintendo (to fight piracy). There are several things we do to try to fight piracy. First we try and build things into our products to try to prevent counterfeits. It’s good to stop it at the source. We also work very closely with law enforcement in all countries where we do business and manufacturing to try to tackle the problem. This year in Latin America for example we’ve already confiscated about 80,000 counterfeit products. So it’s significant. You have to address it very aggressively. The third thing that we are trying to do is to do more educational efforts. It’s important that consumers understand that if they buy a counterfeit product the quality is likely to not be as good. There won’t be any service after the sales if they have any issues. But I think we have to educate people too that when they buy counterfeit products, they are really hurting the very people who create the games that they love, and hurting the industry. Products that are counterfeited also avoid taxes and duties. People may not realize that counterfeiting products can hurt them in the long run.

VGC: How many units do you think the Wii will sell in 2008 in the Americas? You have about 13m units sold so far in the Americas.

CD: In the Americas market, we’re not quite at 13m but we’re pretty close. I think we’re at 12.6m at the last NPD. (Context Note: This interview was conducted August 14, before NPD data was likely accessible to Cammie, since she was at NEX and meeting with local media well into the night. Therefore, Cammie most likely would have been citing NPD data through June for the USA and Canada, plus Nintendo’s sell through estimates for Latin America. Reggie told Gabriel in a brief chat during a photo-op that Nintendo sees 85% of ‘Americas’ sales in the USA, which fits in well with the 12.6m figure quoted here given that NPD had Wii at 10.85m or so through June in the USA . It also makes sense since Wii is in a near perpetual sell out and since figures on page 13 of the link on Nintendo's IR site say Nintendo had shipped 13.11m Wiis to the Americas through June 30, 2008 . The figures Gabriel cites from VGC are for the week ending August 2, 2008 ). We increased capacity this year to 2.4m units. I think we’ll sell every unit we can get out there. What we find in the Americas is that the product never stays on shelves for more than a few hours. So there’s a lot of demand out there. Also for products like Wii Fit, (strong) sales are opening up entirely new audiences for the Wii.

VGC: According to my site (Vgchartz) Wii is at over 30m units worldwide…

CD: NPD? Oh the Chartz. I know sometimes it is 10%, 20% different than NPD.

VGC: Well we have weekly data NPD is only through June…Wii is at 46.9% of the market right now. How do you feel about that?

CD: I feel like there is another…54% of the market we can get (laughs).

VGC: Is Nintendo planning another console?

CD: What Nintendo believes is we can never stop innovating. As soon as we launch a piece of hardware, we have a team working on what the next generation is going to be. At the point where we feel like we are out of surprises on the current generation, we’ll be ready with the next one.

VGC: I hear Wii Music is the last idea from Miyamoto for the Wii. Is that true?

CD: I had understood Miyamoto to say when he first proposed the Wii he had three core ideas. Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Music. So Wii Music is the last of that original proposition. But you know Mr. Miyamoto always has some tricks up his sleeve.

(inaudible Miyamoto praise…)

VGC: What’s it like to be a woman in your field? What advice would you tell young women who want to be like you?

CD: I would say first you have to find something you love to do. You cant be successful if you don’t enjoy every day at work. I’ve worked on Doritios, Cheetos, Yahoo, and Nintendo, these are all brands I feel really excited about. The second thing is always to try to give more than what is expected of you. Always speak up and share your ideas. Be courageous. That’s how you get the job done and make a difference.

VGC: We'd like to thank Cammie Dunaway for agreeing to this interview. We hope to have more interviews in the near future.