Update: Universal bits – Iwata hints at Nintendo’s licensing business potentially expanding to “films and video content”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 27 Comments
Update: This is slightly related (using IP outside of games), so I’ll leave this here. Iwata also mentioned that when meeting with Universal, he was “surprised” by the company’s “extremely detailed” plans for Nintendo attractions at Universal Studios. Once the meeting finished and he returned to Japan, Iwata immediately talked things over with Miyamoto. Eventually, Universal’s attraction engineers met with “veteran Nintendo producers” multiple times on how to go about making Nintendo-themed attractions.
Nintendo has been heading into some interesting directions over the past few months. The company started to dabble with ventures that aren’t gaming-specific like figures, mobile games, and even theme park attractions thanks to a partnership with Universal. Things may not stop there.
While speaking at the Q&A portion of Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, CEO Satoru Iwata hinted at the company potentially expanding to “films and video content”. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Iwata elaborated much on this.
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Nintendo not talking about smartphone games at E3 since the event is for “dedicated gaming systems”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News | 17 Comments
Nintendo will be releasing its first mobile game this year. We don’t know what exactly is planned, but don’t expect to hear about anything at E3 2015 next month.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, speaking at the company’s latest financial briefing, confirmed that there are no plans to discuss smartphone games. That’s because they realize the event is for “dedicated gaming systems”.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time speedrun world record beaten again
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 6 Comments
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has a new speedrun world record holder. “skater82297” managed to beat the game in 17 minutes and 47 seconds while playing the game’s Japanese version. Watch the full speedrun below – just be aware that the video has some inappropriate language!
Photos of the 2015 Nintendo company handbook
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Images | 5 Comments
beforemario has uploaded a bunch of photos from the 2015 Nintendo company handbook. It gives a look into the company’s past, as well as the present. The full set of images are posted below.
Photos of the 2014 edition are located here, and the 2013 edition can be found here.
Video: A look at Club Nintendo Europe’s Majora’s Mask light
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments
“Pug Hoof Gaming” from YouTube has provided a look at the new Majora’s Mask light from Club Nintendo Europe. You can view a full unboxing of the reward below.
More: Club Nintendo, Europe
A few more Iwata comments about Nintendo and Universal’s partnership for theme park attractions
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
Finally, please let me introduce you to one of our new efforts to maximize the value of the Nintendo IP.
Nintendo and Universal Parks & Resorts, which manages the “Universal Studios” theme parks, have reached a basic agreement about deployment of theme park attractions using Nintendo IP.
Based on this agreement, the two companies will jointly create attractive experiences by using the characters and the worlds of Nintendo games that people cannot enjoy anywhere else.
We will announce the details, including the specific period, which IP and how it will be used, at which park and the scale of the attractions, at some later date. However, today I just wanted to confirm with you that this sort of endeavor to actively use Nintendo IP has been progressing.
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Iwata on Nintendo’s download sales
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments
These graphs show the download sales transitions in the recent three fiscal years. In the just-ended financial year, following on from the third quarter, the fourth-quarter download sales grew dramatically and the total download sales for the full fiscal year reached 31.3 billion yen. The digital download sales increase of about 30 percent compared to the previous fiscal year should be mainly attributable to such facts as the sales of the digital versions of both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software increasing, especially in the overseas markets.
More: sales, Satoru Iwata, top
Iwata’s full comments on amiibo sales, shortages
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
We launched a new product category – amiibo – simultaneously with “Super Smash Bros for Wii U,” and the end of the subject fiscal term marked a total shipment of approximately 10.5 million units worldwide. As we had shipped approximately 5.7 million units by the end of calendar year 2014, it is safe to say that we achieved very strong growth even in the period immediately after the year-end sales season was over. Our assessment is that people purchase additional amiibo figures without any seasonal bias, as they are relatively more affordable than video game titles.
Our consumers have been inconvenienced by stock shortages on some of the figures in our amiibo lineup. We have increased production for amiibo figures that have sold out very quickly after launch, that are indispensable to play a certain game and for which we have received strong demand from retailers and consumers. However, we are very sorry that we can?t promise at what point we will likely be able to resolve the current situation because figures such as these require a considerable amount of time to produce, store shelf space is limited and it is difficult to precisely predict the exact amount of overall demand.
On the other hand, the number of software titles compatible with amiibo is increasing and consumers’ recognition and understanding for amiibo has improved significantly compared to the launch period, so we believe that we can predict further sales growth.
This pie graph shows the most recent regional shipment breakdown of amiibo. The U.S. and Canada, shown in red in the graph, have an overwhelmingly large 66 percent share, showing a tremendous presence overall.
In addition to figure offerings in the amiibo lineup this year, we are planning to release Yarn Yoshi amiibo and card-type amiibo. The first software title that is compatible with these amiibo cards is “Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer,” which for Nintendo 3DS. Simultaneously, we will also launch the “Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer” so that not only the owners of New Nintendo 3DS, which is equipped with NFC functionality, but also the owners of the original Nintendo 3DS systems can play with amiibo. The NFC Reader/Writer enables consumers to play with amiibo on the original Nintendo 3DS systems, and we believe we can expect further growth in amiibo sales with this significant increase in the number of compatible hardware systems.
More: Amiibo, Satoru Iwata, top
Nintendo has more Wii U games to announce for this fiscal year
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 59 Comments
During Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, CEO Satoru Iwata commented on what lies ahead for Wii U in terms of software. Iwata mentioned that, at last year’s E3, games were announced that make use of the GamePad such as Mario Maker. He also stated that there are more Wii U titles for this fiscal year that haven’t been announced yet.
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amiibo shipments up to 10.5 million worldwide
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Nintendo has shipped 10.5 million amiibo figures worldwide, president Satoru Iwata has confirmed. Iwata shared the news during today’s fiscal year financial results briefing.
66 percent of amiibo sales stem from the U.S. and Canada. Europe is next with 20 percent, followed by Japan at 11 percent and Australia at 3 percent.
