Austin, Author at Nintendo Everything

So at the very beginning of this video I say the whole “This episode is brought to you by thing”, but you’ll notice that there are no ZombiU images. Somehow I just forgot to add them, so… we’re gonna hope I didn’t forget anything else! That’s what you get when you stay up until 7AM editing in order to get the game up on a relevant date.

Artwork courtesy of Andrew Nixon. :]

Here’s a Podcast – Episode 40!

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 0 comments

Podcast or no podcast, I will defend this game until the day I die.

Your weekly news, what we’ve played, and reader questions all make their return, but this week also featured another heated discussion on Zelda, lots of talk of Nintendo’s future amidst the lack of Madden, more elongated Mario RPG talk, and a solid discussion of Shadow of the Eternals. Enjoy!

This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin, Laura, and Jack

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Minor Book Club Goal Adjustment

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Book Club, Site updates | 0 comments

Just a quick note for those playing Super Mario RPG alongside us for the NintendoEverything Book Club: We’re only going to be getting the sixth Star this week, so if you’re struggling to try and get the seventh, you may cease! The reason for this is two-fold:

1) The sixth one takes a really long time to get.

2) The seventh is tied to the final boss, which we want to do on a separate day.

Thanks!

~Austin

Suda51 talks about working with publishers, says that the partnership with GungHo should allow sales and creativity to go hand in hand

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

“Each publisher operates a different way, has different strategic ideas, so in terms of sales, what they did, was they kept creating what they thought was good. But in terms of publishing, it was a different company’s strategic choice. So we believe that back then, when we were completely indie without a group company to be together with, we weren’t able to translate our creative directly into sales because that was the part where there was always a wall between creative and sales transition wise.”

“Now that we’re one big group together and we’ll be publishing our own titles as Grasshopper, we believe that the creative side and the sales side will have a better connection. We definitely believe that it will transfer to good sales because we will be able to choose our own strategy.”

– Suda51

I’ve gotta admit… I’m not exactly sure what Suda is saying here! It’s something relating to publishers getting in the way of creativity, and therefore sales, but it’s also sounding like he’s saying that when you work with a third-party publisher, the creativity no longer translates into sales despite still being there. Ah well. At least he says the partnership with GungHo should allow their creative vision to translate into sales for them!

Via Gamespot

NintendoEverything Reader Poll #14 – How do you feel about Shadow of the Eternals?

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features | 0 comments

It looks interesting, if anything.

This is a two question survey that requires no signing up, accounts, clicking through ads, or anything. Just answer a required question, answer a non-required question (if you want) and make your voice heard in yet another NintendoEverything reader survey poll thing! Results will be read in the form of our top ten list on the next podcast, and if you opted to answer the written question your answer could be read on the show! So don’t say anything ridiculous.

Thanks very much. As stated above the question for you guys this week is “How do you feel about Shadow of the Eternals?”

Take the survey here! (more details inside if you’re confused)

Gearbox says ‘Aliens’ lawsuit claiming false advertising is “beyond meritless”

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Wii U | 0 comments

“Attempting to wring a class action lawsuit out of a demonstration is beyond meritless. We continue to support the game, and will defend the rights of entertainers to share their works-in-progress without fear of frivolous litigation.”

– Gearbox Statement

They’re sort of obligated to say this because they’re being sued and they don’t want to lose the case, but I wonder if they have a point. They should definitely be allowed to share a work in progress… but if the work in progress looks so much better than the final product? I don’t know! Maybe, maybe not. I’m not much for legalese.

Via Gamespot

Katie Couric asks for “the positive side” of violent video games via Twitter

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

So apparently Katie Couric ran an hour-long piece about video games and how they ruin lives and make some people kill people last Monday, which upset some gamers. So Katie decided to rectify the situation by asking gamers what they think the positive aspects of violent games are… via Twitter!

Passionate gamers upset w convo whether violent video games can contribute to v behavior. Tweet the positive side of violent v games? Thanx!
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) May 3, 2013

She says she’s going to use the replies in an upcoming show, but we don’t know what the show was about. I think we all know by this point that this argument is useless to have. People who run specials about video games being a catalyst for violence but neglect to do the same for some significantly larger contributing factors aren’t people I care much to debate with!

Via Gamespot

Silicon Studio president says Bravely Default began as an action-RPG, but wasn’t fun enough

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, News | 0 comments

“In the beginning, Bravely Default was an action RPG. We switched to a traditional JRPG style by selecting commands and without action. We did a prototype that was up and running. We played it and discussed with the producer if it was fun or not, and we decided to make a traditional JRPG.”

– Silicon Studio President Takehiro Terada

I bet a lot of folks out there would be happier of the game were made to be an ARPG, but ultimately the decision lies with the developer. I do wonder if the title would end up being better in the west in particular if it weren’t a traditional turn-based battler… I know I’d be more enticed to buy it!

Via Siliconera

Neuro-technology professor says Nintendo didn’t know “what to do” with the Vitality Sensor

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 0 comments

“With regard to the Nintendo sensor, at that time we were trying to start this company that would use pulse sensors, but not just to measure pulse rate – that doesn’t tell you too much. You have to be more sophisticated than that if you want to measure things thing arousal, valance or a range of emotions using heart-rate variability. I don’t think Nintendo really knew what to do with that.”

– Neuro-technology Professor Roger Quy

I’m not entirely sure I’d agree with Quy on this one. I think he’s right that only measuring heart-rate isn’t terribly useful, but I’d imagine that many people would have also said that only measuring weight distribution wouldn’t be very useful for a fitness game, and look at well Wii Fit did! I think the real issue is that Nintendo was deciding exactly where to go with Wii and DS, the Wii U was conceptualizing at that time, and bigger fish needed to be fried. They probably just decided it wasn’t worth the effort to put out another peripheral.

Via Nintendo Life

NPD survey finds an increase in gaming overall, over half of gamers prefer buying physical media to digital

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

NPD’s yearly “Online Gaming Report” has come out today, detailing for us the many habits of those gamers who play games online, what they’re playing, how much they’re playing, and how they like to play. Here’s the breakdown:

– 72% of gamers in the U.S. play online, up 5% over last year
– Hours-played-per-week is up 9% overall, 6% for online gaming
– People are playing games more often, for longer across “virtually every type of device”
– PC is the top platform for online gaming
– Online gaming through PC is shrinking, while online gaming through mobile devices is growing
– 62% of gamers prefer buying physical games to digital
– Survey questioned 8,867 people ages 2 and older

Via Gamespot