As the company seeks to capitalize on the early success of its Wii console and fend off counter-attacks from Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox 360, Nintendo will open a 55-person Silicon Valley office in late September. According to my former colleague Mike Antonucci at the San Jose Mercury News, the office will be somewhere in the Redwood City – San Carlos – Menlo Park area, which is on the Peninsula south of San Francisco.
Sony and Microsoft already have Silicon Valley offices, though little of the work in them seems to be focused on gaming.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told Nooch (that’s what we call him) that now is the ideal time to open such an office, while the wind is at Nintendo’s back. As the New York Times notes in its piece this morning, the normally reticent game maker’s outreach to game developers has been part of the reason the Wii has succeeded thus far.
The move to the Bay Area may cost Nintendo something in the talent department, however. Gaming news site Kotaku is hearing rumors that some key Nintendo marketing talent will leave Nintendo rather than make the move to expensive Silicon Valley.
If it’s true, that’s too bad. The marketing folks were helpful to Business 2.0 a couple of months ago when we ran our “Why Wii Won” story, which explained how Nintendo’s strategy paved the way for the success of the DS and the Wii.