The Pokemon Company generated $2 billion retail sales in 2014
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
The Pokemon Company has announced its 2014 brand licensing results through License! Global. In terms of retail sales, they were able to generate $2 billion of licensed products worldwide. Along with the Pokemon video games, other elements such as the anime and trading card game are included in that amount.
An excerpt from License! Global’s report reads:
Pokémon features a wide array of offerings from video games, the Pokémon trading card game, animation and wide variety of licensed lifestyle products, making it one of the most diverse and beloved entertainment franchises in the world. Highly anticipated Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire launched in November and, with only six weeks of sales, became the best-selling set of video games in 2014, adding to the more than 270 million Pokémon video games sold to-date.
With more than 21.5 billion Pokémon TCG cards shipped globally and nearly 800 episodes currently in its animation library, Pokémon is a long-standing market leader and enjoyed an incredibly strong year at retail in 2014.
More: sales, The Pokemon Company
Imageepoch CEO’s Twitter account deleted as questions remain about his disappearance
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments
Something extremely strange is going on with Imageepoch CEO Ryoei Mikage. It was presumed that the company was shutting down, and last month, Mikage seemingly went missing. He’s been unreachable for quite some time now.
Mikage’s last message on his Twitter account was posted in October. Today, Japanese blog Hachima that his profile has since been deleted.
No one is certain of Mikage’s status or Imageepoch as a whole. But regardless, the studio’s 3DS game Stella Glow is still shipping in Japan next month and in North America later this year.
More: Imageepoch, Ryoei Mikage
Best-selling New 3DS cover plates in Japan for 2014, top-selling amiibo in December
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, New Nintendo 3DS, News | 3 Comments
The Media Create White Book 2015 has a bunch of gaming-related sales figures, and two sets of data have now been translated.
First, here’s a look at the best-selling New 3DS cover plates in Japan during 2014:
01. Yo-kai Watch: Jibanyan (Plate No. 054) – 18.274
02. Monster Hunter: Poogie (Plate No. 038) – 6.857
03. Yoshi (Plate No. 004) – 6.447
04. Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alfa Sapphire (Plate No. 040) – 5.645
05. Mario (Plate No. 001) – 5.410
06. Monster Hunter: Yian Kut-ku (Plate No. 037) – 5.088
07. Dot & Monochrome (Plate No. 007) – 4.946
08. Emboss Treatment & Mario Monogram Gray (Plate No. 005) – 4.938
09. Grain & Mario Monogram (Plate No. 024) – 4.801
10. Animal Crossing: Isabelle (Plate no. 013) – 4.198
And below are the top-selling amiibo during the month of December 2014:
01. Amiibo Link – 39.399
02. Amiibo Mario – 39.274
03. Amiibo Kirby – 35.744
04. Amiibo Pikachu – 19.375
05. Amiibo Marth – 19.246
06. Amiibo Villager – 16.199
07. Amiibo Pit – 16.096
08. Amiibo Yoshi – 15.180
09. Amiibo Captain Falcon – 13.823
10. Amiibo Samus – 13.541
More: Japan, Media Create, sales
Hulu nabs Myst drama series
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 8 Comments
Myst, a classic graphic adventure video game from 1993, is getting a new TV show. Deadline reports that Legendary Television has landed the rights to the drama series, and Hulu will apparently host it on its streaming service. The Amazing Spider-Man producer Matt Tolmach and writer Evan Daugherty are leading the way on this project.
Deadline states that the new drama series “will explore the origins of the island of Myst from the game where a man wakes up on a mystery island with absolutely no idea who he is, where is, or how he got there.” Details beyond this are unknown.
Nintendo Bragg Report: Splatoon
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U | 5 Comments
Nintendo’s latest “Bragg Report” is all about Splatoon. You can watch it in full below.
More: Splatoon
Rumor: Early speculation about Palutena amiibo being a retailer exclusive
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 4 Comments
The silver Mario and Dark Pit amiibo have now been added to Best Buy’s system. However, Palutena – who launches alongside Dark Pit in July – is nowhere to be seen. This has led to early speculation that Palutena will be an exclusive at a different retailer.
Take this news with a grain of salt for now. The situation should become clearer within the next couple of months.
More: Amiibo
HAL Laboratory working on some non-Kirby projects
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Over the past few generations, HAL Laboratory has primarily worked on Kirby games. We’ve seen a few non-Kirby titles here and there (most recently with BoxBoy!), but that character is certainly the studio’s bread and butter. Interestingly, BoxBoy! director Yasuhiro Mukae recently informed Kotaku that “several” projects are in the works that are unrelated to the character.
Mukae mentioned:
Certainly, as you say, the Kirby series is HAL Laboratory’s main development focus, but we actually have several other projects proceeding along in parallel (not that I can give details on them right now, of course). We also have a few experimental projects in the works with smaller teams, so there certainly isn’t any rule that we must be involved with Kirby projects. Like I discussed in the first question, BoxBoy got its start as an experimental project along those lines.
I was involved in the development of Kirby: Triple Deluxe, but I was also working on the BoxBoy experiment at the same time. Handling both projects simultaneously presented some big challenges, but creating a game with a new character like Qbby made me feel happier than I’ve ever felt before.
Once Kirby: Triple Deluxe development wrapped up, I was able to devote myself fully to BoxBoy. This happened right when it went from an experiment to an official development project, and full-on development began at that point. Some of the Kirby: Triple Deluxe team also joined the BoxBoy project right about then.
As I wrote earlier, our development efforts may be chiefly devoted to Kirby, but there’s no hard-and-fast rule that everything has to be related to Kirby titles. I’m getting the chance to be involved a lot more often with non-Kirby things, such as this BoxBoy project—though, again, I can’t give details quite yet.
Below are some other noteworthy tidbits shared in Kotaku’s interview:
More: BOXBOY!, HAL Laboratory, interview, Kirby, top, Yasuhiro Mukae
SEGA won’t have a booth at E3 2015
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
SEGA will not have a booth at this year’s E3, the company confirmed to Game Informer. An official statement reads:
Over the next months, SEGA of America will be focusing on the restructure and relocation to Southern California, and we have decided to not attend E3 with our own booth this year,” a representative told us via email. “With the majority of our bigger titles launching later in 2015/2016, particularly those from our AAA studios Relic Entertainment, Sports Interactive and Creative Assembly, we are concentrating our efforts for some of these major announcements after our relocation. Instead, we will be collaborating with our various business partners for this year’s E3 show.
This shouldn’t have too big of an impact on Wii U and 3DS owners. The only upcoming Nintendo games SEGA has confirmed for North America and Europe are Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (which will be out later this month) and a few 3D Classics. Still, it’s a tiny bit sad that SEGA won’t be appearing at E3!
UDON Entertainment bringing out Senran Kagura: Official Design Works
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
UDON Entertainment has announced that it will publish the Senran Kagura: Official Design Works. The art book contains illustrations from different games in the series, including the original Senran Kagura and Senran Kagura Burst.
Below is overview straight from UDON:
UDON Entertainment’s translation of SENRAN KAGURA: Official Design Works is faithful to the original Japanese book and is chock-full of illustrations of beautiful ninja girls! In addition to character designs, pinups, in-game artwork, and character profiles, the book also features an exclusive interview with the game’s creators and a detailed glossary of important SENRAN KAGURA terms – both of which are must-reads for hardcore fans of the series!
UDON will have a full page preview of Senran Kagura: Official Design Works soon. Pre-orders are up on Amazon
with roughly $14 savings.
Nintendo apologizes for amiibo shortages, will increase amount shipped to retail, out-of-stock figures will return
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 46 Comments
Nintendo of America issued an official statement about the status of amiibo over on its Facebook page just a few minutes ago.
In the lengthy message, the company apologized to fans who have been frustrated by the inability to find certain figures in stores. It was also reiterated that sales of figures exceeded Nintendo’s expectations.
As for what will be done to remedy the situation, Nintendo says that the company is “trying to meet the demands of our fans and consumers by increasing the amount of amiibo we manufacture and ship to retail.” There are already plans in place “to bring back some currently out-of-stock amiibo figures.”
Head past the break for Nintendo’s amiibo statement in full.
