In a recent interview with Engadget, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, talked somewhat openly about Revolution, the DS, Nintendo as a company, and his thoughts on the competition. IGN Revolution followed up the interview by posting some new information about Revolution development kits, so we’ve included that as well.

Nintendo DS
- An eventual third iteration of the DS is not an “unreasonable assumption”, as Nintendo believes “constant innovation is critical to driving [the] industry.”
- There is no word yet on when the DS Lite will launch in North America because Nintendo wants to make sure they have enough product to launch effectively.
- Nintendo still feels the the “friend code” set up of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is the appropriate way to go as it puts complete control of who they interact with in the hands of the gamer.
 

Revolution
- Nintendo has shipped over a thousand controller development kits to developers.
- The response to the controller has been fantastic. Reggie adds that developers are embracing Nintendo’s vision of creating games.
- The competition has gone down a path that is too expensive for consumers and developers and the Revolution is the response to that.
- He still does not feel that having high-definition support will put the Revolution at a disadvantage.
- The approach Nintendo has taken with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is a good idea of what to expect from Revolution.
- We will definitely see brand new Nintendo franchises on the Revolution. Their goal is to create something that will be big as Nintendogs and that people can judge for themselves at E3.
- There will be a lot of information about Revolution at E3. It is still going to be the “coming out party” for the console.
- Revolution is still only a code name. When asked if the new name will be at E3? “Maybe.”

GameCube
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has not been pushed back again. It will launch in 2006 on the GameCube.
- Twilight Princess will be marketed as the biggest and best GameCube title ever.
- GameCube games played on Revolution will be compatible only with GameCube accessories. You will not be able to play them with the Revolution controller.
 

Game Boy Advance
- While not answered directly, it seems as if the next Game Boy will not be announced anytime soon.
- He does not believe consumers are having difficulty understanding that the DS and the Game Boy line are two different products.
- Game Boy Micro sales have been exactly where they predicted them to be and it is selling to the targeted demographic of gamers who want something high image and unique.
 

Other Stuff
- In response to companies like Sony and Microsoft saying Nintendo creates games solely for a younger demographic, Reggie says that is “categorically false”. He says the demographic of young men coming of age is shrinking and the industry can no longer rely simple on more and more men entering that age range. Nintendo feels they need to reach out to other demographcis such as women and older consumers.
- He was underwhelmed with his playtime with the Xbox 360 at last year’s E3 and other industry events. While the games looked nice, he felt the titles lacked in gameplay, but Nintendo does admire what they have done with Xbox Live and are looking at it closely.
- He has not seen the infamous Nintendo ON fan video that circulated the Internet last year.
- The interview ends with his final thoughts on the competition: “To be perfectly clear, the Microsoft and Sony strategies are based on overall corporate objectives versus what’s right for the consumer. That’s a reality. Microsoft is essentially trying to get you to put a PC in your living room because they are fundamentally a PC software company. Sony is trying to get you to put an entertainment hub that has Blu-ray technology because that’s important to their movie business and the rest of their entire electronics business.”

In closely related news, IGN Revolution has spoken with a half dozen studios about the Revolution. While the basic idea of the innovative new controller can be experienced with the barebones development hardware available to most developers, the majority of kits out there are hardly representative of the final Revolution system.

Three revisions of the development kids have been sent out. The first was literally a GameCube console with a wired Revolution controller attached. The second was the same with a few minor changes. The third, which was sent to developers about a month ago, is not too different, but shows a boost in CPU power. Big name publishers have reportedly received an almost complete development kit with near-final hardware and a wireless controller. Developers such as EA and Ubisoft will soon receive the fourth kit, which is said to deliver between 90% and 95% of the final system’s performance.

While the makeup of the Revolution is still close to the makeup of the GameCube, the Revolution will be rougly two times more powerful, according to IGN’s sources. When asked if the Revolution’s horsepower was insufficient, one annonymous developer said, “At first, we were discouraged that it would be less powerful than Xbox 360, but once we got everything working with the controller, our concerns faded.”

Every studio insider IGN questioned said they believed that the Revolution could launch under $200, and possibly as low as $150. Nintendo has only said it would sell for less than $299. Studios tell IGN Revolution that development kits sell for about $2,000, which is thousands of dollars cheaper than even a PSP kit, never mind a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 one.

Nintendo will speak at the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March.