Nintendo of Europe Senior Marketing Director Laurent Fischer has apologized for making a crack that only “geeks and otaku” would want a hard drive for the Nintendo Wii console.
Cubed3 posted a report last week about comments made by Fischer in the latest issue of the U.K. gaming magazine Edge, in which he said that only “geeks and otaku” would feel the need for a Wii hard drive. The remark caused an uproar among Nintendo fans, who felt slighted by Fischer’s dismissive attitude, as well as God of War creator David Jaffe, who wrote on his blog, “This statement, especially coming from a marketing person, reeks of one of two things.”
“A – Arrogance at a level that should make Nintendo – if this statement reflects the core of the company – very ashamed,” he continued, or, “B – A marketing person who has no real clue about games and thinks she’s (sic) being cute and coy by dissing the ‘geeks’ cause she thinks the mainstream loves them now. If this is the case, she really needs someone to sit her down and explain to her which side her fucking toast has been buttered on for years and will eventually get back to being buttered on.”
In response to the furor, Fischer issued a statement to videogaming247, in which he expressed “regret” for the ill-advised remark. “I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn’t use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offense,” he said. “I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offense and disappointment within the community.”
Geeks and otaku reportedly remain disappointed by Nintendo’s disinterest in developing a hard drive for the Wii.
