OFLC rates Summer Carnival ’92 Recca
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Summer Carnival ’92 Recca originally launched for the Famicom over two decades ago. And late last year, the game hit the Japanese 3DS eShop. Could Summer Carnival ’92 Recca now be coming to the North American and European eShops, too?
The OFLC has added in an entry for Summer Carnival ’92 Recca. These kinds of ratings usually imply future western VC releases, which may be the case here.
Visit Miiverse through your browser right now
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments
Miiverse has officially launched on the PC. You can access all of the platform’s communities directly through your browser by visiting this link.
You’ll need a Nintendo Network ID in order to participate in Miiverse. For the time being, accounts can only be created on a Wii U console.
Signing in lets you access almost all functionality available on the Wii U including community posting. You can also check up on your latest notifications and keep track of your activity feed.
Details from Nintendo’s latest investor results meeting – Miiverse out today for PC, this year for 3DS
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
As is typical for the company, Nintendo is holding a meeting with investors following the release of their fiscal results yesterday.
We’ll be keeping this post updated with all of the tidbits from the latest event. In one way, I guess you can say this is a live-blog! Keep checking back for updates, which come from analyst David Gibson.
– Nintendo claims that it has increasing market share globally in markets that are in decline
– Says they need to rebuild momentum for Wii U
– One of Nintendo’s biggest priorities is to improve the 3DS in international markets with major software titles
– Nintendo claims that the press’ tone has been more positive, citing Kotaku and USA Today comments that 3DS has the best games
– Nintendo says Wii U sales will improve from July onwards with first-party titles
– Miiverse can be accessed from PC today
– Miiverse coming to 3DS this year
– 87% connection rate for 3DS
– 80% connection rate for Wii U
– 25% of Animal Crossing’s sales in Japan were digital; 2/3 purchased at retail
– Wii U will get Sucia (trains) card compatibility in Japan in the near future to make payments easier
– Nintendo open to new business models on its platforms such as FTP or cheap price
– Cloud-based games not suited for their platforms and no plans to take advantage of the tech
– Iwata is taking over direct report of overseas business so there will be more alignment and product potential will be enhanced
– Iwata is giving up some of his roles in Japan
– Nintendo sees driver of this year profit improvement from hardware cost reduction and rise in first-party mix
– Nintendo said that with US purchases larger than sales that currency benefit was limited but should increase as sales rise
– Nintendo says that Wii U momentum is already lost and now wants to release software continuously
– Also important that consumers are satisfied with the software
– Nintendo said advertising expense doesn’t rise much this year because of efficiency of using Nintendo Direct, social media, and eShop
– Last year’s advertising included brand building for Wii U, which won’t be needed this year
– Regarding software delays, this was because people had to work on hardware more than planned and min expectations rising
– Nintendo on share buyback: said it’s only benefit is to those who exit their shares into it, only short term benefit
Looks like the next Call of Duty is “Call of Duty: Ghosts”
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Podcast Stories, Rumors | 0 comments
The next Call of Duty won’t be another Modern Warfare or Black Ops, it seems. Retailer leaks have apparently revealed a completely new title called “Call of Duty: Ghosts”.
First, UK retailer Tesco Direct has posted boxarts of the supposed PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions:
There’s also a Target ad that mentions Call of Duty: Ghosts:
Activision may very well be planning a Call of Duty reveal for the near future. The company will likely have something to show on television during the NBA Playoffs.
One caveat is that there has been no mention of Ghosts for Wii U as of yet. But surely Activision will have no excuse not to bring the game to the console… unless they were extremely disappointed with Black Ops II’s sales.
Some kind of Okami announcement due next week
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
A new Okami announcement of sorts is coming next week. On Twitter, the official Japanese Okami Twitter account writes:
“Hello, this is Okami news. Sorry I’ve been kind of out of touch lately, but I have the feeling we’ll be able to drop a fresh announcement like WHAM! around the beginning of Golden Week, so please look forward to it. Right now we’re on track with preparations.”
Famitsu has a tease of its own in its latest issue which states:
“The new game to bring fans tears of happiness finally comes to life! A must-see!”
Could the two teases be connected…?
Satoru Iwata to become Nintendo of America CEO, probably laugh
Posted on 11 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 1 Comment
Amongst the sales numbers and fancy infographics, Nintendo’s recent board of directors meeting also resulted in a number of planned changes to the company’s management. Most notably, the current chairman and CEO of Nintendo of America, Tatsumi Kimishima will be promoted to General Manager of Corporate Analysis and Administration Division and General Manager of the General Affairs Division. With none of the other board members set to assume his former position, President Satoru Iwata will be taking over his roles and responsibilities.
This is all pending shareholder approval and we won’t know for sure until the company’s Annual General Meeting in June.
Nintendo on quality vs. quantity for 3DS eShop vs. App Store, unique ideas
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
No matter how much it may sell, analysts will still call gloom and doom upon the 3DS. At the end of the day, these people feel that the portable can’t compete with mobile devices.
iOS is often one platform often brought up in 3DS comparisons. Both are portable. Both offer an array of digital content. But whereas tons of games may be available on the App Store, Nintendo of America’s sales VP Scott Moffitt sees the 3DS eShop as an area of higher-quality.
“With software, as with most things, there’s a distinct difference between quantity and quality. The website 148apps.biz recently calculated that there are currently 139,000 different games actively available on the [Apple] app store. One hundred and thirty-nine thousand. Huge number. That number is way too big to wrap your head around, so I try to think about it this way. If I wanted to spend just fifteen minutes sampling each one of those games, I’d be at it non-stop for four years. That’s a ton of caffeine. Obviously there are good games available for mobile platforms. But the point is, the Nintendo 3DS has a record of quality that’s hard to challenge.”
Moffitt added: “Nowhere else in portable gaming is high quality found so frequently.”
Nintendo’s Bill Trinen on how the Zelda dev team operates
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Nintendo has a lot of Zelda content in the works currently. There’s the Link to the Past follow-up for the 3DS, a remake of The Wind Waker for Wii U, and a brand new title made from the ground-up for Nintendo’s console.
How Nintendo is approaching the development of these projects – and Zelda overall – is rather interesting. Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen discussed the process with Kotaku, commenting that “They kind of shuffle people in and out, so they’ll sort of have their core group, but then they’re bringing new people in and out, so that helps bring in fresh ideas.”
“They kind of shuffle people in and out, so they’ll sort of have their core group, but then they’re bringing new people in and out, so that helps bring in fresh ideas. Each of the different games will have their main lead director, or maybe depending on the game, they may have two…Generally the way that the Zelda team operates is they may have one or two people who carry over or take the lead, but they do a lot of kind of jumping in and out in terms of moving from handheld to console, or vice-versa.”
Fan looks to make documentary about the cultural impact of Zelda, funded via Kickstarter
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments
I must admit, the documentary looks like it takes itself a little bit too seriously for my taste, at least based on the video above. Still, I think he makes a good point: Zelda has managed to challenge and foster our imaginations more effectively than arguably any other piece of art I’ve ever consumed, and at least in my case, it’s an experience only matched by a few other games– and maybe some books or movies here and there.
Certainly something worth making a documentary about!
Nordic on continuing Darksiders, could work with Crytek USA, more
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
It has been less than 24 hours since the dust settled on THQ’s latest auction results. Nordic Games, a company that hasn’t been known for game development, picked up the rights to Darksiders, Red Faction, and more.
While speaking with Eurogamer, Nordic Games Group owner and CEO Lars Wingefors admitted that the company won’t be developing Darksiders III, but would be very much interested in working with an outside studio.
Wingefors said:
“We are not a developer. We should not create a sequel. We need to find the best creative team to look into a sequel. We will look into various options to make sequels. In the last 24 hours we have been approached by people who seem to know that product very well. However, if those discussions lead anywhere, I don’t know.”
One studio Nordic could work with is the newly-formed Crytek USA. Crytek founded the subsidiary after THQ was forced to shut down Vigil Games, the developer behind the first two Darksiders.
