General Nintendo

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Some troubling news dropped in for Atlus during the wee hours of the morning earlier today. Index Corporation, Atlus’ parent company, filed for bankruptcy in Japan.

Following the news, Atlus confirmed that the development and release of its current games – Dragon’s Crown, Shin Megami Tensei IV DLC, and Etrian Odyssey: The Millennium Girl – are unaffected for now.

“The PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita versions of Dragon’s Crown, both the retail and digital download versions, are set to be released on July 25 as it was originally scheduled. We apologize for worrying our users.”

“Multiplayer and save data sharing functionality for Dragon’s Crown is conducted via the PlayStation Network. Because of this, multiplayer services are guaranteed.”

“Additionally, downloadable content that’s currently in development for Shin Megami Tensei IV, as well as the retail and demo releases for Etrian Odyssey: The Millennium Girl are set to proceed for the time being.”

Meanwhile, the official Persona series PR Twitter account apologized to those concerned about the company and said, “we want you to believe that. Atlus will live forever!”

The tweet in full:

“Good evening. We’re sorry to worry everyone. We are working very hard in order to bring fun games to everyone, and we want you to believe that. Atlus will live forever!”

Source 1, Source 2

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

The third Zero Escape game is not yet in production, according to creator Kotaro Uchikoshi.

Uchikoshi told GamesRadar that he has the title’s story “developed in my head, but it hasn’t really gone into production yet.”

Uchikoshi couldn’t say when the team will begin making the new Zero Escape. However, Uchikoshi did say, “maybe in the near future we can proceed.”

The story itself I pretty much have developed in my head, but it hasn’t really gone into production yet. There’s no promises yet, but maybe in the near future we can proceed. This is all from the fact that I was invited to GDC to speak, and that we were nominated for best narrative. That sort of led to the users’ voice saying, “We want the next one,” and that is pushing it. Thanks to the users, the company has pushed forward with thinking to the next level of actual development, but there’s no promises just yet.

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Nintendo did something completely different for this year’s E3: allowing fans to sample some of its upcoming games at Best Buy locations. The outreach payed off, as the events were a huge success.

J.C. Rodrigo, senior product marketing specialist in Nintendo of America’s product development department, talked about Nintendo’s involvement at Best Buy while speaking with Polygon:

“We’ve wanted to do that for a long time. We really wanted to make sure we [brought] our experiences [to] the hands of people who want to try our stuff, as much as we could. We had lines like crazy at each particular location.”

Rodrigo also said that fans seemed to wonder why Nintendo hadn’t tried something like this before.

Not holding an E3 briefing didn’t lessen the company’s presence at the trade show. And in fact, Nintendo had more work to take care of than ever before due to its three-pronged marketing approach.

“You had the sales and marketing briefing for the people that needed to hear that information; you had the Nintendo Direct for people that really needed to know, generally, what was happening and what we’re coming out with; and then you [had] the sampling at the Best Buy [stores] that got that information out as well. So if you look at it from the content perspective and who needed to know, everyone got what they needed to know — just in different ways.”

Rodrigo also echoes similar statements made by Nintendo executives over the past few weeks:

“Software sells hardware, and focusing on the software is exactly what we’re doing.”

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Is Nintendo releasing too many Mario games? Depending on who you ask, some would say yes and others would say no.

Nintendo of America senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta is in the latter group. Speaking with Shacknews, Scibetta said that the company is “putting out the right number of Mario games based on what fans are asking for, based on what our own developers’ creative visions are.”

“We think we’re putting out the right number of Mario games based on what fans are asking for, based on what our own developers’ creative visions are. The key to that is as long as there’s innovation is occurring within the gameplay, as long as there’s new features, then marrying the characters and the IPs that people love is the right call from our standpoint.”

“If you look at something like Super Mario 3D World, the gameplay on that one that I find really cool is those transparent warp points. Usually you used to go into one and pop out the other, and that was the end of the gameplay experience. Now, there’s a whole dynamic there where you can navigate in there, try to avoid enemies, try to get a better advantage. You could theoretically make a whole new game with those kind of gameplay dynamics.”

Scibetta was also asked if Nintendo should instead focus its efforts on creating new IP rather than developing so many Mario titles. He said:

“If we didn’t put Mario on it, then it would just seem like a new IP. Because there’s those new gameplay dynamics like that, we think there’s the innovation there that will keep people interested and keep the Mario brand fresh.”

“You could call all the games that we’re making here new IP in the sense that they’re new gameplay experiences. They just happen to also have the IP that people associate with.”

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

EDGE has published its full interview with Eiji Aonuma, the producer of the Zelda series. A lot of interview snippets already found their way online over the past few weeks, but there are still some interesting things to read up on. Head past the break for Aonuma’s comments on Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

Xander Davis, a former member of Vigil and a developer on Darksiders II, made some incredibly critical comments about the Wii U last August – going as far as to call it “a $400 Xbox 360 seven years late”. Davis has since changed his tune, however.

In a new blog post, Davis discussed how Nintendo made him a believer in Wii U. Davis had lots of praise for the company’s approach to indies, stating that “Nintendo has set the bar for their support and terms to make indie development very attractive.”

At the moment, Davis and his studio Astrogun are working on the indie game CIDER. Fans have previously requested the title on Wii U. With Davis’ new interest in the system, perhaps we’ll see it on the eShop one day.

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 0 comments

The Wii got off to an incredible start around the world when it launched back in 2006 – including in the UK. It maintained momentum for quite some time, but dropped off significantly over the past few years.

Wii’s downturn in sales has paved the way for Microsoft’s system, the Xbox 360, to become the best-selling current-generation home console in the UK. GfK Chart-Track says that it’s only a matter of days before the Xbox 360 lands in the top spot.

Microsoft has sold 8.4 million systems across the UK.

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

This is rather peculiar. For some odd reason, Miiverse users aren’t able to post screenshots on communities for Square Enix’s Virtual Console titles.

The restriction only appears to be in place for Square Enix’s classic games. As far as we can tell, all other VC titles fully support the screenshot function.

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny held a presentation in Spain today, where he expressed a desire for Sony to match Nintendo’s legacy.

Cerny’s comments were made at Gamelab in Barcelona. During his presentation, Cerny mentioned how – in the future – he hopes that Sony’s “amazing” nucleus personnel will lead some to compare Sony’s impact in the industry.

Cerny referenced Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House and Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida in his speech. Much like himself, House and Yoshida were appointed to senior positions at Sony in a similar manner.

“I have a great friend who lives in Kyoto in the eastern part of Japan. He runs a developer there and he’s worked with both Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo over the years, and he says that what he respects the most about Nintendo is the incredible continuity they have in the form of a core group of individuals that has now worked together for over 30 years.”

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Index, the parent company of Atlus, has filed for civil rehabilitation proceedings as bankruptcy looms.

The financial issues impacting Index stem from its ¥24.5 billion (or $224 million) debt. Meanwhile, president Ochiai Yoshimi could be on the way out having hinted at his resignation.

Index had attempted to acquire businesses on the domestic and international levels, though these plans were unsuccessful. Compounding matters is the fact that its overseas acquisitions were not able to provide a jump in revenue to justify the purchase.

What impact could the situation have on Atlus, you ask? Either a resale or restructure could be in the company’s future – everything depends on what happens to Index.

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