General Nintendo

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 67 Comments

While this is not something directly relating to the collaboration that we have announced today, here is one thing I would like to mention to avoid any misunderstandings.

Nintendo has decided to deploy its video game business on smart devices but it is not because we have lost passion or vision for the business of dedicated video game systems. On the contrary, now that we have decided how we will make use of smart devices, we have come to hold an even stronger passion and vision for the dedicated video game system business than ever before. Nintendo has made this decision because we have concluded that the approach of making use of smart devices is a rational way for us to encourage even more people around the world to recognize the great value of the wonderful game software available on our dedicated game systems.

As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename “NX.” It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year.

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More: Satoru Iwata, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

As for which Nintendo IP will be used, we do not intend to make any exceptions. Potentially, any Nintendo IP could be used in our smart device software. On the other hand, as I just said, games on smart devices require ever-evolving services rather than just being a finished product. A combined effort will be necessary to operate them. People’s attention would only be dispersed if we simply increased the number of the titles we simultaneously released, and we could not expect to expand our business. Accordingly, we will narrow down the titles for development and operation to some extent.

Please also note that, even if we use the same IP on our dedicated video game systems and smart devices, we will not port the titles for the former to the latter just as they are. There are significant differences in the controls, strengths and weaknesses between the controllers for dedicated game systems and the touchscreens of smart devices. We have no intention at all to port existing game titles for dedicated game platforms to smart devices because if we cannot provide our consumers with the best possible play experiences, it would just ruin the value of Nintendo’s IP.
And, if I can talk a bit further about our game development plan, we will continue doing our best to develop dedicated game titles for our dedicated game hardware platforms just as we have been doing. For smart devices, even in the case where we utilize the same IP, we will create completely new game software that will perfectly match the play styles of smart devices.

As for the details of the game applications for smart devices, we will make the announcements on other occasions. I hope you will look forward to our future announcements.

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More: Satoru Iwata, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

This collaboration will create the best prospects for both DeNA and Nintendo.

Just as I explained to you today, Nintendo’s unique strength lies in its IP, which is appreciated by consumers on a global scale.

DeNA’s strength is its world-class Internet service construction and operating know-how.

Nintendo and DeNA will jointly develop and operate gaming applications for smart devices in global markets.

With this alliance, new entertainment that utilizes Nintendo’s IP will be provided globally via smart devices.

Needless to say, now that we are challenging ourselves in this new business area, we hope that hundreds of millions of people will use and enjoy these products.

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More: DeNA, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Quite a few of you must be wondering why Nintendo, which has never deviated from its cautious stance in regard to the possibility of deploying its game business on smart devices, has now changed its policy.

Please note, however, that I was not dismissing the idea of making games for smart devices per se as I stated at the January 2014 Corporate Management Policy Briefing that a development team of Nintendo would create a smart device application, and please also note that I had not ruled out the possibility of making games when we make use of these devices.

On the other hand, I really had to thoroughly consider how we would be able to grow the business by maintaining and nurturing the value of Nintendo IP and what conditions would make that happen, because the value of content can easily be deflated in the digital world and, especially on smart devices, it is not easy to maintain content value since the lifespan tends to be very short as much content is released and then replaced so quickly. We are making these announcements today because we now have Nintendo’s answer to these questions.

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More: Satoru Iwata, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

When we further analyze the situation, Nintendo’s strength lies in, or our consumers see the most value in and are willing to pay money for, Nintendo IP, such as our software and characters, and we have been creating and nurturing them together with the history of home video game entertainment.

In order to flexibly deal with the developments of the Internet and social media as well as the changes in the people’s lifestyles, we will start strategic endeavors so that Nintendo can maximize the value of our IP that we have used primarily for our own dedicated game platforms.
I announced Nintendo’s management policy of “more actively utilizing Nintendo IP” and “taking advantage of smart devices” in our Corporate Management Policy Briefing back in January 2014. The endeavors that I am explaining now are in line with these management policies.

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More: Satoru Iwata, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments

Companies to develop new game apps featuring Nintendo IP for smart devices and a new multi-device membership service

TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 7974) and DeNA Co., Ltd. (Tokyo: 2432) today entered into a business and capital alliance to develop and operate new game apps for smart devices and build a new multi-device membership service for consumers worldwide.

Leveraging the strength of Nintendo’s intellectual property (IP) and game development skills in combination with DeNA’s world-class expertise in mobile games, both companies will develop and operate new game apps based on Nintendo’s IP, including its iconic game characters, for smart devices. The alliance is intended to complement Nintendo’s dedicated video game systems business and extend Nintendo’s reach into the vast market of smart device users worldwide. Under the alliance, DeNA will also be able to strengthen its gaming business at a global scale by leveraging Nintendo’s IP. To ensure the quality of game experience that consumers expect from this alliance of Nintendo and DeNA, only new original games optimized for smart device functionality will be created, rather than porting games created specifically for the Wii U home console or the Nintendo 3DS portable system.

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More: DeNA, press release, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments

UPDATE: 

• It seems that Nintendo will be conducting business with DeNA. Nintendo buys 10% of DeNA (equates to $181 million), and DeNA buys 1.24% of Nintendo.

• Nintendo will begin to develop smartphone games with DeNA, with a multi-platform social gaming network to launch in the fall of 2015. Will be released worldwide.

• A press release by DeNA has just been released discussing the capital alliance. You can read it here

• Nintendo IP will indeed be brought over to smartphones, but these are not ports. DeNA will be handling original games based off of the IP.

• New Nintendo platform codenamed “NX”. More info next year.

• English slides of today’s business and capital alliance announcement are up now. You can find them here

Watch the conference live here:

DeNA, one of the largest mobile platforms in Japan, is set to have a joint press conference today with Nintendo at 5PM JST (about an hour and fifteen minutes from now at the time of this writing). No information has been given on this sudden conference or what this is even about. The conference will be streamed to YouTube, but no links are allowed to be made public at the moment. According to this tweet, it seems a link to the live stream won’t be made readily available until it starts. The conference is set to last about 60 minutes.

The fact that Nintendo is doing a joint conference with DeNA makes you wonder what will be discussed during this conference. Satoru Iwata has stated multiple times that they have no desire to bring their IP to mobile platforms, so it’ll be interesting to see what transpires once the conference begins. Maybe we’ll get a look at an official Miiverse app, or something related?

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More: DeNA, Japan

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 7 Comments

Nintendo of America will be hosting a virtual launch party for Mario Party 10 later this week. On March 18, fans will be able to participate through the company’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.

The party will feature “an awesome lineup of virtual activities and a chance to hang out with a very special guest you seriously won’t want to miss”, according to Nintendo of America’s Twitter account.

You can find full details about the event below – most of which seem to center around sweepstakes.

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More: Mario Party 10

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments

More: Amiibo, unboxing

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors, Wii U | 11 Comments

According a report from VideoGamer, Warner Bros. is working on a LEGO toys-to-life game that will release later this year. Traveller’s Tales is said to be making the title that will launch alongside compatible LEGO figures.

Assuming VideoGamer’s article is accurate, that means we’d be seeing three big LEGO games this year – LEGO Jurassic Park and LEGO Marvel’s Avengers being the other two. It’d also mean that Skylanders and Disney Infinity would have a new competitor.

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More: top, Traveller's Tales, Warner Bros. Interactive