Miyamoto on putting more female characters in games, possibility of having the girl rescue the guy
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Have you realized that females are being more represented in Nintendo’s games as of late? Peach is playable in a mainline Mario game. Pikmin 3 has a playable female character. Dixie is back in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Mario Kart 8 has a selection of female characters such as Peach, Daisy and Toadette. And Bayonetta 2 features a female lead.
With Kotaku having notice the rising prominence of female characters in upcoming Nintendo titles, the site had the following exchange with Shigeru Miyamoto:
Sakurai on essence of Smash Bros., Wii U/3DS customization, fighting genre, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
A few more comments from Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai have popped up through a GameSpot interview, and you can find them below.
Sakurai’s latest remarks are more general – talk about the overall Smash Bros. series, the fighting genre, and more. We do get a couple of nuggets about the Wii U/3DS games though, like customization and their speed.
Get double the coins for NSLU on Club Nintendo, chance to win Luigi pin
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
Those who download New Super Luigi U from the Wii U eShop will earn twice the amount of coins on Club Nintendo. Fill out a survey by August 1 and the points will be yours.
Nintendo will also be holding a Club Nintendo contest to promote the DLC. Download the game and complete the aforementioned survey to be entered for a chance to receive a Luigi pin – pictured above. 980 winners will be selected.
You can find more details here
Video: Nintendo’s Scibetta on Wii U third-parties, system is next-gen, biggest misconception, indies
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U | 0 comments
Joystiq conducted an interview with Charlie Scibetta, Nintendo of America’s head of corporate communications, at E3 2013 last week. Check out the video above for Scibetta’s comments on a wide array of comments.
Court of Appeals Upholds Nintendo Win in Patent Lawsuit
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Court Says Nintendo Does Not Infringe, Upholds Attorney Fee Award
REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Nintendo’s victory in a patent-infringement case brought against Nintendo by IA Labs CA, LLC. The Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court that Nintendo did not infringe IA Labs’ patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,121,982), and it upheld the lower court’s ruling that IA Labs must pay Nintendo more than $236,000 in attorneys’ fees.
“We are very pleased with the court’s decision,” said Richard Medway, Nintendo of America’s deputy general counsel. “Nintendo has a long history of developing innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others. We also vigorously defend patent lawsuits, like the IA Labs lawsuit, when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party’s patent.”
For more information about Nintendo, visit http://www.nintendo.com.
Source: Nintendo PR
Ubisoft: franchises in gestation, BG&E2 “will happen when it will be perfect”
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
One Ubisoft brand that hasn’t been mentioned much as of late is Prince of Persia. Once one of the publisher’s top series, it’s now “in gestation” just like Ubisoft’s other franchises.
According to Ubisoft’s Europe boss Alain Corre:
“All our franchises are always in gestation. We are iterating. We are thinking about what can be done. But we can’t bring all the games and all the franchises every year. We have a lot on the show floor this year already. It will happen when we feel it is ready, when the creators have brought something interesting. That’s the case for all our franchises. They’re cooking. Some are cooking longer than others, but they’re cooking.”
No talk of Ubisoft would be complete without bringing up Beyond Good & Evil 2. There isn’t any important news to share, but Corre promised that the game “will happen when it will be perfect.”
“There are some works on it. There are some iterations on it. Now, some games are taking longer to be done, depending also on the creativity the creator can bring. You see the level of quality of the games today is very high. It takes time to find the right angle and message. It’s true that the trailer we showed years ago, in the desert with the pig sneezing and flies still resonates very well. These kind of brands are part of Ubisoft’s DNA. It will happen when it will be perfect.”
Square Enix trademarks Occult Maiden, renews Star Ocean
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
In Japan, Square Enix picked up a new trademark for “Occult Maiden”. Potentially more exciting is Star Ocean, which has been renewed by the company. Siliconera points out that Square Enix usually re-registers a trademark right before using it, so maybe some sort of Star Ocean announcement is on the way.
How Pokemon characters are chosen for Smash Bros.
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Choosing Pokemon characters for Smash Bros. games can’t be an easy task at this point. Well over 600 characters exist at this point, and only a small selection can be included on the Smash Bros. roster.
Director Masahiro Sakurai explained to NowGamer that the team looks at a few things, such as popular Pokemon, Pokemon featured in the movies, and what makes them unique.
He said:
“Well first of all, we talk with the Pokemon company. What’s the hot Pokemon? What Pokemon are in the movies right now? And really do a lot of research on that front. For example, X and Y are coming out – of course, we haven’t done any market research because they’re not out yet, but we look at the animated series or movies and anything like that and again, find out which ones are going to be central to any of conversations in Pokemon going forward. But it’s not just that – going back to just what we talked about, what’s unique about them? Where do they fit in with the rest of everything else? What do they have? It’s a combination of those things.”
Miyamoto, Reggie say Nintendo isn’t playing it safe this year
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments
Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime have responded to comments from Kotaku stating that Nintendo may be playing it safe this year.
First, here’s the full exchange with Miyamoto:
Kotaku: One of my senses is that the games [you have at E3] are fun but they feel safe, like this is not a Nintendo taking risks this year. Is this a safe year for you guys?
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo: So I don’t look at this as us playing it safe, because, whenever we make a game, we’re striving to create new experiences for people. Certainly from outside the company and even internally we have a lot of staff members who are talking about, we should create new [intellectual property, as in characters or series]. To me the question really comes down to: What is new IP and, by definition, what is a new game? And I think there’s a lack of understanding about the difference between the two.
And so, from my perspective, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you should make new characters and those would be fun games,’ but creating a new character doesn’t necessarily mean the game is going to be fun. You really need to be focusing on creating a new gameplay experience that’s fun and unique.
And so even with a game like Pikmin 3 where our focus is on perfecting the Pikmin game design, we’ve really finally felt like we’ve created a new gameplay style even within the Pikmin franchise.
Nintendo open to free-to-play Animal Crossing
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Nintendo is open to exploring a free-to-play Animal Crossing game, but it doesn’t sound like there are immediate plans to pursue this route.
Animal Crossing lead designer Katsuya Eguchi told GamesBeat that finding a business model appropriate for a free-to-play entry is imperative. Additionally, they would need “to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning.”
“I think the main thing that we need to think about before even considering doing something like that is to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning. I think that’s key in deciding whether we do something like that. If I find a business model that works, however — that works for Nintendo and the end-user — then I can’t say that [free-to-play] is something we wouldn’t consider.”
Eguchi also drew a comparison to the demographic playing Animal Crossing and the audience in Japan who enjoy casual free-to-play smartphone titles.
“When you look at our main audience in Japan, they are definitely that audience that has smartphones. [They are] women in their late teens and early 20s. They are certainly playing free-to-play games on their smartphone.”
