Q: When you first launched Nintendo 64, did you foresee having more titles out? You said that by the end of the year you will have 100 titles out. Your competitors have about 400 more games out than that.

Lincoln: Yeah, I don’t think we are ever going match the number of titles that Sega and Sony have reached. And I never foresaw that we would be matching them title for title. I'm generally pleased with the number of titles we have out. I'm partically happy that some of the holes in our lineup, like the sports area, will be erased with the combination of what we're doing and the game's from third-parties like EA, Acclaim, or THQ.

Q: EA is getting together with Square to publish games in the west. Is there a chance that EA might publish Square games on N64?

Lincoln: Yeah, there is a chance. I think Larry [Probst] would love to do that. And I'm encouraging him to do it.

Q: Were you surprised by the agreement?

Lincoln: It's a very creative kind of thing, it's never been done before -- so I was surprised in that sense. But I have the highest regards for Larry Probst, at his skill as the CEO of EA. I think he is an outstanding videogame executive and I think it was a very creative move on their parts.

Q: Are you glad that Sony doesn't have the publishing rights for Final Fantasy anymore?

Lincoln: Nothing could make me happier. (Laughter)

Q: What are you going to do in the future to encourage more third-party development. I know that you're doing a number of things. Congratulations on getting StarCraft, for example. You're getting Psygnosis, you're getting Capcom. What can NOA do to encourage more third-parties?

Lincoln: There are a number of things we can -- and are in fact doing. One is a reduction in manufacturing cost. This is still cartridge. It is not CD-ROM. We will not be able to get down to the CD-ROM pricing model, but we are doing things to reduce the price of cartridges. We've reduced the price of several cartridges by over 50% in the last two years. That is very important to get support from third-party publishers. I don't think there is any question that third-party publishers have good personal relations with the people at Nintendo. They know that our word is good and that we have very efficient organization. They like to work with Nintendo, that is not an issue. The other thing we can do is that we have to continue to aggressively come up with great titles to move hardware. Because ultimately, when it is all said and done, third-party publishers gravitate to installed base first, second and third. So we have to concentrate on that. And we are concentrating on that. As long as Nintendo is vigorously supporting the platform and as long as the pricing for third-party publishers is within reason so that they can make money, they will gravitate to that installed base. I'm not disappointed by the support from third-party publishers. Many that have supported us have made a fortune. Some of the games have met or exceeded my expectations, some have not. But generally, we've got EA, we've got Acclaim, we've got Midway, we've got THQ. We have Capcom. We have Konami. There are still some that are still out there, but not many.

Q: I noticed quite a few Namco representatives at the Nintendo Press Conference. Are you currently talking with Namco about N64 titles?

Lincoln: We've always had ongoing discussions and relations with Namco.

Q: But they've only put out Famista Baseball in Japan. We want Tekken!

Lincoln: Well, you will have to be patient! (Laughter)

Q: Do you forsee any Namco games coming out on N64 in the future?

Lincoln: I certainly hope so. I don't have anything I can tell you right now.

Q: Right now, we're looking at two RPGs for N64 in the near future in the US. Zelda, an action RPG, and Quest 64 from THQ. However, there are a few more coming out in Japan, like Earthbound and Ogre Battle. Nintendo is publishing both titles in Japan -- what about the US?

Lincoln: I don't know the answer to that. It could very well be that our product acquisition and developing people are talking about it.

Q: Are you planning on dropping the price on the N64 any time soon?

Lincoln: No, we have no plans to make any changes in the N64 hardware price. But we are very well aware that this is a competitive market. If we need to, we will.

Q: Is there any particular genre that hasn't been hit very hard on the N64?

Lincoln: I think the one area that we needed to dramatically improve over our experience with SNES was sports games. I think we're making some good moves into that direction with Griffey and Kobe Bryant. There will be a lot more Griffey and Kobe Bryant games in the future. I think we are committed to our sports franchise. It will take some time to convince gamers that Nintendo Sports is a serious sports franchise, but it is indeed important to Nintendo and we will continue to focus on it. I think we have high expectations for some of these Rare games that are coming -- including games that are not being shown. They've got some great games coming that will be megahits.

Q: We are surprised that you said sports. We were expecting you to say RPGs.

Lincoln: Yeah, RPGs are important. But look at what our competitors are doing. Then you look at the TRST data. One of the reasons, as I read it, for Sony's success is that they've gotten a lot of great EA sports titles, as well as great Sony sports titles. That is what is driving their business and we have got to do a better job in the sports franchise are. So I'm more concerned about that. Maybe I'm not looking at it as a gamer, but a business man.

Q: Are you thinking about bringing Mother 3 (Earthbound) from the 64DD to cartridge

Lincoln: Well, it's a possibility. Not for this year, though.

Q: What happened with Body Harvest?

Lincoln: Body Harvest is just about done, believe it, or not.

Q: But Nintendo won't publish it. Midway is. How come you decided not to publish it? Lincoln: We looked very closely at it. It took, as you know, a long time to get this game completed. We thought it was a very good game, but we thought that given the lineup and the timing and the needs of the developer as to when they wanted to have it out, that it would make more sense for Gremlin to do it in Europe and they in turn cut a deal with Midway for the US. I think it all worked out in a way that Midway will give it a lot of support and Midway is really interested in doing -- same with Gremlin in Europe. So it was one of those things that worked out with everyone's interest satsified.

Q: You're about to launch the Pokemon franchise in the United States with the Game Boy franchise. Are there any plans to bring the N64 titles, like Pokemon Stadium, out over here?

Lincoln: At some point, we'll do that. If we are successful in establishing the Pokemon phenomenom -- and I think we will be -- all of the add-ons to Pokemon that exist in Japan will eventually find their way here.

Q: Is there anything that you feel strongly about that you would like to talk about? Perhaps those secret Rare games?

Lincoln: I'm afraid not. (Laughter)

Q: I just wish that after 15 years of trade shows, that somebody would fix the air-conditioning in the booth. (Laughter)

Lincoln: Thanks a lot for the interview.