Nintendo’s bread and butter is video games. But one investor, who attended the company’s latest investor meeting, wanted to know if the Big N has any interest in exploring other undertakings.

The answer is no. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained, “we should not spread ourselves thin by diversifying our business because, by doing so, we might lose a strong presence which we currently have in the area of entertainment.”

Iwata talks Nintendo’s network policy

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

Satoru Iwata addressed Nintendo’s network policy during the company’s investor meeting last week. This is another topic that we covered fairly heavily last week, but the official translation has now arrived. You can find it below.

Iwata discusses Nintendo Web Framework

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

One investor asked Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to explain the Nintendo Web Framework during the company’s investor meeting last week.

He did just that, responding:

Iwata: Wii Vitality Sensor launch “pending”, difficulty in timing announcements

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 0 comments

The launch of the Wii Vitality Sensor is “pending”, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said.

Nintendo has been developing the accessory for a number of years, which was first announced during its E3 2009 press conference. Unfortunately, the Wii Vitality Sensor hasn’t performed up to expectations. It may work for 90 percent of consumers, but that’s simply not good enough.

Thus, Nintendo hasn’t “been able to launch it as a commercial product because we could not get it to work as we expected and it was of narrower application than we had originally thought.” In order for it to release, Iwata said: “We would like to launch it into the market if technology advancements enable 999 of 1,000 people to use it without any problems, not only 90 out of 100 people. I actually think that it must be 1,000 of 1,000 people, but (since we use the living body signal with individual differences) it is a little bit of a stretch to make it applicable to every single person.”

Iwata’s full statements from Nintendo’s investor briefing Q&A held last week:

Miyamoto on introducing new control schemes

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

During the last hardware generation, Nintendo was known for its unique control schemes. The Wii introduced motion controls. The DS provided dual-screen gameplay.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke about the company’s approach to new control types at a recent investor briefing Q&A. His comments came in response to one attendee who expressed disappointment in how these new schemes contributed to the creation of fresh experiences.

Iwata said:

Miyamoto on lack of new Nintendo franchises

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Donkey Kong are just a few of the well-known names that we seen from Nintendo regularly. But some fans and critics have called for the company to make something new and come out with never-before-seen IPs.

In Shigeru Miyamoto’s opinion, it makes sense to rely on Nintendo’s well-regarded series. He also believes that the likes of Nintendogs, Brain Age, and Wii Fit are all new franchises because they offer original experiences. While most may not see it this way because they lack a symbolic character, Miyamoto said that these titles “are actually contributing to our sales.”

Also, it is sometimes said that Nintendo has recently had no new franchises. At E3 this year, some said that Nintendo is always showing the same series of games, but this is because we mainly featured the characters from our franchises in our exhibition booth. There were six featured areas of our franchises in our booth, including Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong, and the visitors were able to take commemorative photos with these characters. Considering that visitors will not enjoy less well-known franchises in such areas, we did it in this way, which resulted in such a criticism, I think. On the other hand, I think it is one of our advantages to have such franchises. When some young in-house developers come up with an idea of a new franchise, I say that creating a new character does not necessarily mean creating a new franchise. In my view, a new way of playing or new use of media is necessary for a “new product” and creating a character is not the first thing to do. In this sense, “nintendogs,” “Brain Age” and “Wii Fit” are all new franchises. Few people see it this way because these games have no symbolic “character” like the existence of Mario, but they are actually contributing to our sales. I would like to continue developing video games with the view of entertaining a wide variety of people including the existing video game fans. Thank you so much for your support.

Source

Iwata on decreasing importance of graphics, E3 Nintendo Direct, appealing to everyone

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata began the company’s investor briefing Q&A last week by addressing points pertaining to graphics, the E3 Nintendo Direct, and appealing to all types of gamers.

Due to how lengthy the investor’s question was, it would probably be best to share the entire thing:

I enjoyed Nintendo Direct yesterday, so I would like to “directly” ask a question to Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyamoto. I am afraid that personally the new hardware systems announced at E3 were not a big surprise. Some games certainly had breathtaking graphics, but their gameplay seemed as if they were an extension of existing games. Wii U is no exception to me. I think it is unfortunate that there have been no unique games only it could provide yet. It is true that “Off TV Play” is very convenient when we play Virtual Console games, but Wii U itself has not surprised me as much as Wii, which created a new form of entertainment that revolutionized conventional wisdom. Also, I saw the first-party software lineup for Wii U to be released until 2014, which was announced in “Nintendo Direct@E3 2013,” as continuations of existing games and found nothing in it that seemed possible only on Wii U. This is also true for third-party games. I am concerned that no one in the video game industry will be able to create anything new in the near future because developers have reached their creative limits. Nintendo is supposed to create products that can be enjoyed by many people regardless of age, gender or gaming experience, in accordance with its philosophy of “gaming population expansion.” However, most of the games in the current lineup are for those who have some interest in games. Some Japanese software developers focus on creating innovative games, but this appears to be possible only when they are small companies. Is Nintendo faced with a dilemma of attempting to improve its business performance while creating innovative games for a new consumer base?

And now for Iwata’s response:

Club Nintendo Japan hacked

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Earlier today, Nintendo announced that the Japanese Club Nintendo website has been hacked. Personal data such as names, home addresses, phone numbers, and mail addresses may have been compromised.

Nintendo started looking into the situation after a significant amount of errors were detected on Tuesday. Between June 9 and July 4, the company confirmed that 23,000 unauthorized log-ins were made with 15 million attempts.

Users will need to change their passwords through email, as all old passwords will no longer work. Nintendo is now looking to improve security on Club Nintendo Japan.

Thanks to luis santiago for the tip.

Source

Survey says the average age of a gamer in UK is 35, and they’re generally married

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 1 Comment

This data comes from a survey done by gaming social network “Pixwoo”. 2000 people who identified themselves as “gamers” were questioned, and they’re all from the UK:

– Average gamer in the UK is married
– They play, on average, for about 2.5 hours a day, five days a week
– Average age is 35
– They stay up until (on average) 10:58PM playing games
– The data stays relatively consistent from male the female gamers

– Average gamer owns two consoles, 18 games
– Takes around a month to complete each game
– Most of them argue more than twice a week with their partner about gaming (not sure if this means about games themselves or gaming habits)
– About 5% say gaming is a “constant cause” of arguments
– 15% have broken up with someone due to their love of gaming

– Average gamer has about 5 online friends
– 29% say they’ve met at least one of their online friends face-to-face
– 33% play multiplayer games locally
– 25% play online
– 20% play with their online friends consistently
– 44% will purchase an Xbox One, PS4, or gaming PC in the next 12 months
– Most popular console was Wii, followed by PS3, then Xbox 360

Via CVG

Super FX creator says the North American SNES almost shipped with it built in

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Take a break. Listen to some of the SNES’ best tunes, courtesy of the Super FX chip.

“Nintendo liked the idea of souping up their hardware – there was even talk of putting it inside the USA version of the SNES, which hadn’t been released at that point – but in the end it had to go into the cartridge to keep the initial cost of the console low. It’d have been awesome if it was as standard on every SNES, so it’s a shame that didn’t happen.”

– Super FX developer Jez San

The Super FX chip allowed for games like Star Fox and Yoshi’s Island to be conceived and executed, and having it installed inside cartridges– while it may have been more expensive for developers– certainly kept the SNES cost down far enough where Nintendo could manage to sell as many units as they did and further fund the development of such interesting gaming experiences! It definitely would have been cool to see what the SNES would have looked like if every game was able to use the chip though…

Via Nintendo Life