Rumor: Nintendo giving away free Wii U dev kits in order to drum up long term support
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
These rumors have been floating around for a while now, but a couple of days ago everyone’s favorite Destructoid editor Jonathan Holmes tweeted that he’s heard that Nintendo is giving away Wii U dev kids, presumably to garner long-term support for the console:
Hearing more and more stories of Nintendo giving developers free Wii U dev kits. I hope devs take advantage of that. Could lead to victories
— Jonathan Holmes (@TronKnotts) April 5, 2013
Honestly, this is one of those things that more people should be doing with their companies. Taking a financial hit initially in order to get more people on board with your console or idea should keep them coming back in the future, ensuring that they don’t just make games in the short term and then abandon you altogether– which happened with the Wii!
Warren Specter talks next generation, Wii U, etc
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments
Warren Specter’s latest game was Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, and it wasn’t terribly successful either critically or commercially. The esteemed game designer has been very quiet recently, likely deciding what he wants to do with his future in the industry, but just yesterday he spoke out about various topics, the most interesting of which was his opinion on where the industry is going:
The biggest risk associated with consoles, at least to me, is that they’re frozen, hardware-wise, while mobile platforms – phones and tablets – will continue to get more and more powerful. I mean, where do you think the iPad or Kindle Fire or Surface or whatever will be in 3 years? 5 years? It’s crazy to think about. And the consoles will still be right where they were in 2013 or whenever they come to market. That’d be a little scary to me if I were a console manufacturer.”
– Warren Specter
I think he hits on a really important point: Speculation is useless. Listening to folks five or ten years ago about talk about the gaming industry, they get more or less everything wrong, and yet we consider them “experts”. Take Michael Pachter for example: That guy said it doesn’t matter if he’s wrong, and he’s said he essentially makes stuff up when he’s predicting things. It’s a silly market niche without a doubt, and I’d argue that it’s more fun to speculate for imagination’s sake than for actually being taken seriously, since… well, you can’t take speculation too seriously!
Miyamoto can see himself possibly working until he dies, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team’s Pikmin comparison
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
Over the past couple of years, there’s been a lot of talk about Shigeru Miyamoto’s retirement. Miyamoto himself has confirmed a few times before that he’s already transferred some of his duties to younger staff and has looked to prepare Nintendo for the day when he isn’t around.
When the topic of retirement came up once again while talking with Rolling Stone, Miyamoto delivered an interesting response. Miyamoto said that he’s still enjoying what he does and “this is something that I can still continue to do for a long time.” He added: “You know, possibly until I die.”
April 2013 downloadable rewards now available on Club Nintendo
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 0 comments
This month’s digital rewards on Club Nintendo have gone live. Members can choose from Super Mario 64 (Wii, 200 coins), Super Metroid (Wii, 150 coins), Kirby’s Pinball Land (3DS, 150 coins), and 3D Classics: Urban Champion (3DS, 150 coins). These items last through May 5.
Visit this page to order a downloadable game.
The Rock appearing on WWE ’14 cover
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
The Rock has been confirmed for the cover of WWE ’14. WWE EVP Stephanie McMahon announced the news through Twitter yesterday.
While this won’t be The Rock’s debut cover appearance, WWE ’14 is the first title to be published by 2K Sports. Parent company Take-Two Interactive acquired the rights to the WWE game releases back in January.
Suda51’s next game isn’t No More Heroes 3
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Initial talk regarding Suda51’s next game (the one coming after Killer is Dead) centered around it being related to No More Heroes in some fashion. Actually, some fans thought that it could be No More Heroes 3. But in an interview with Siliconera, Suda51 himself clarified that it’s a brand new IP.
So when are we going to get that No More Heroes game for the Wii U, Suda51? You promised it years ago!
Animales de la Muerte turns into overhauled mobile title
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Animales de la Muerte started out as a WiiWare game way back in 2008. Eventually, High Voltage Software decided to move the project to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. And then things went quiet. Nothing was said about the game, and most assumed that the project was dead.
It’s still alive, though! Well, in one way. The game has seen a complete overhaul and will now release on mobile devices later this month. An interesting conclusion to this five year saga, to say the least.
Evoland possible for Nintendo systems
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Evoland could make its way to Nintendo systems. The PC indie game, which is soon to be released on iOS as well, has seen interest from the Big N.
The only barriers standing in the way of possible ports concerns extra effort “from a technology and UI standpoint”. Developer Shiro Games is also hard at work on its next project, so bringing Evoland to even one system would take away resources.
According to Shiro Games CEO Sebastien Vidal:
“We have talked with Nintendo about this and it is something that we would like to do in theory. It is quite a bit of work from a technology and UI standpoint, though. On top of that, we have already started working (a bit) on our next game. The only thing I can say is that we are discussing the possibility regularly, but we don’t know if it will happen or not at this point.”
“As far as Nintendo is concerned, we have discussed the possibility to port the game and they were quite keen, but we said we would talk again after the release when we’ll have more time to decide where we’re going next. We didn’t discuss 3DS, Wii U or anything else, so it’s just early discussions.”
Criterion working on unannounced racer for 2013
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Unsurprisingly, Criterion Games is working on an “unannounced racing title” that is set to launch this year. The news comes from the LinkedIn profile of Criterion’s lead cinematic artist for marketing. It also popped up on a second CV.
New Need for Speed? Burnout? Road Rash? I’m guessing we’ll find out sometime around E3 2013.
Meanwhile, Criterion creative director Alex Ward tweeted yesterday that he had spent “another #epic day working with an #epic team on something #amazing”.
Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi is no longer Japan’s richest person, currently in 13th place
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi has $2.1 billion in the bank, but unfortunately that’s no longer enough to keep him on top of Japan’s ‘Richest People’ list. Due to Nintendo’s falling share price, Yamauchi has dropped to “only” 13th place on the list since he still owns more shares of the company than anyone else. After running the company for 55 years he’s probably wondering where things are headed, but I’m guessing he has more a say in the goings-on over at NCL HQ than a lot of folks.
