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:

“Prediction is a fool’s game. It seems likely that success will come less than usual in the pure gaming space and more in the home entertainment space. And there, the consoles are going to be up against some stiff competition. But it seems likely that the multi-purposeness (is that a word?) of the consoles will be enough of a differentiating feature to keep consoles going for a while, at least.

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!

Via Nintendo Life

Miyamoto can see himself possibly working until he dies, Mario and Luigi: Dream Team’s Pikmin comparison

Posted on 12 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 12 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 12 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.

Source, Via

Suda51’s next game isn’t No More Heroes 3

Posted on 12 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!

Source

Animales de la Muerte turns into overhauled mobile title

Posted on 12 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.

Source, Via

Evoland possible for Nintendo systems

Posted on 12 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.”

Source

Criterion working on unannounced racer for 2013

Posted on 12 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”.

Source 1, Source 2

Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi is no longer Japan’s richest person, currently in 13th place

Posted on 12 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.

Via NintendoLife

Kung Fu Rabbit details, Neko pleased with Puddle performance and talks future support

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Last week we learned that Neko Entertainment has plans to release Kung Fu Rabbit on the Wii U eShop. Details have since emerged covering the new GamePad additions/changes. You can find a summary of the latest information below and quotes from managing director Laurent Lichnewsky on a few other topics.

– Controlling the rabbit has improved
– Uses control pad rather than virtual pad on iOS
– Item unlocks rather than in-game purchases
– Collect carrots across the levels to get points and “buy” different items
– Items increase the rabbit’s skills
– GamePad’s touch elements used on the map
– Can point/touch the different “worlds” you want to play
– Can enter the Dojo, in-game shop
– Off-TV supported
– Game will be released in Europe before North America

Lichnewsky on whether Neko is pleased with Puddle’s performance on Wii U…

Yep, taking into account that Europe and US Wii U market can only grow, we’re pretty satisfied. Puddle is well placed in eShop’s sales. And we’re delighted of our relationship with NoE and NoA teams. We also have strong hopes of releasing our title on NCL eShop with a Japanese partner.

Lichnewsky on future plans for the Wii U eShop…

A bit soon to say… but beyond a new Cocoto title in [the] final phase of development for Europe retail, we have two other potential indie titles for eShop… To be continued! (winks)

Lichnewsky on whether there are plans to work with other mobile devs in bringing games to Nintendo systems…

‘Top secret!” (winks) Yes, we are studying the possibility of proposing really nice games that, in our opinion, make sense on consoles.

Source