Natsume has traditionally localized the Rune Factory releases in North America. In the past, Natsume has almost always handled the games’ publishing duties in the states.

Source: XSEED PR

European LEGO City: Undercover bundle includes Chase McCain minifigure

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

Nintendo of Europe is preparing a limited edition bundle for LEGO City: Undercover. Initial copies will come with a copy of the Wii U title and a Chase McCain minifigure.

Consumers in North America will also be able to get their hands on the item. As previously announced, those who pre-order Undercover from participating retailers will automatically receive the minifig.

In other news, Nintendo of Europe confirmed that LEGO City Undercover: The Chase begins is “coming out later in 2013”.

Source: Nintendo PR

Nintendo restructure will help avoid software lineup shortages, other benefits

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

Nintendo’s upcoming restructure is a massive undertaking. A single development department will be created from a nearly 300 combined employees. But the payoff will be worth it.

As noted by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to investors, in 2012, “we also started a project to integrate the architecture for our future platforms.” Nintendo won’t be integrating its handhelds and consoles, but it hopes to “integrate the architecture to form a common basis for software development so that we can make software assets more transferrable, and operating systems and their build-in applications more portable, regardless of form factor or performance of each platform.”

The benefits of restructuring also extend directly to gamers. Once the new division is in place, Nintendo will be able to “avoid software lineup shortages or software development delays which tend to happen just after the launch of new hardware.”

Iwata talks a bit about Wii Street U and services

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

Nintendo’s next-big thing for Wii U is Wii Street U. The upcoming app, now set for a mid-February launch, will allow users to take advantage of the GamePad to tour areas straight throughtheir living room.

President Satoru Iwata believes services such as Wii Street U “will help people widely understand the unique value of Wii U and increase the number of people who are interested in Wii U in a family and eventually lead to a bright future of this console.”

Wii Street U as well as other functionality like Miiverse and Nintendo TVii are primarily built on HTML5 and web technologies. As a result, Nintendo has “been able to deploy various services for this console with less in-house development resources in a more timely manner than our previous platforms.”

Iwata has also said that, in GDC in March, Nintendo “will show you some of our efforts to expand the range of software developers.” Talk about Wii Street U’s development environment (and “some VOD services”) can be expected.

Wii U Internet-connection rate stands at 74%

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

Much like the 3DS, Wii U is experiencing a rather high Internet-connection rate. Speaking with investors during Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, president Satoru Iwata said the ratio is up to 74 percent. Nearly three out of every four systems have already connected online.

“The Wii U is a game console you can enjoy most with the Internet connection and the current Internet-Connection ratio is 74%, which means that almost three of four consoles have been online already. This is clearly higher than the previous hardware system we released. We will continue to inform our consumers about the advantages of using the Wii U consoles online to further increase this ratio.”

Source

Iwata on third-party collaborations for Wii U, willing to actively team up with partners

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

Nintendo announced a completely unexpected title during last week’s Nintendo Direct: Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. Atlus and Nintendo are bringing the two legendary franchises together on Wii U.

During the Nintendo Direct, Satoru Iwata briefly talked about the rise of console development costs and the need to strengthen its lineup through partnerships. Iwata once again spoke about this subject during Nintendo’s financial results briefing today, stating that the company is “willing to actively cooperate with software developers to produce something new beyond the traditional licensing business.”

Iwata said:

3DS sees high connection rate, new 3DS StreetPass features coming this year

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

Never before has a portable system achieved the same kind of Internet-connection rate success as the 3DS. According to Satoru Iwata, over 80 percent of system owners in Japan and the US have ventured online. At one point in 2012, the rate was only hovering at around 60 percent.

The 3DS is also seeing success when it comes to StreetPass – well, in Japan and Europe. Gamers in Japan continue to use the social element, and Iwata says that it has started “gradually become popular in the metropolitan areas of European countries.” In order to increase StreetPass’ appeal, Nintendo will introduce new features this year.

Nintendo willing to help Japanese third-parties release 3DS games overseas

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

Western third-party support of handheld development has dropped off, according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Studios aren’t making as many portable titles as compared to the time of the DS.

That being said, Japanese companies are more involved than ever with 3DS game-making. Nintendo plans “to more actively support the Japanese software developers in distributing their key titles overseas this year.” Iwata specifically pointed to Professor Layton as a series that Nintendo has published in the west and said the that company will “increase the number of such games for the U.S. market as well as in Europe.”

Finally, Iwata expressed openness in working with third-party developers in releasing their games overseas. Maybe they’ll give Square Enix a kick in the butt when it comes to Bravely Default?

Recently, third-party software developers overseas have been inclined to focus on mega-hit titles for home consoles and have had less of their development studios develop software for handheld devices. Some developers, which make game content suitable for children, work on titles for Nintendo 3DS, but they are not as active as the time of Nintendo DS.
On the other hand, as the handheld devices occupy a large share of the video game market and software for handheld devices is important in the video game business in Japan, Japanese software developers are eagerly assigning their top teams to develop key titles for Nintendo 3DS.
We therefore plan to more actively support the Japanese software developers in distributing their key titles overseas this year.
Among those third-party titles both developed and published in Japan, there have been some games which Nintendo published in Europe, including the Professor Layton series. We will increase the number of such games for the U.S. market as well as in Europe. We are also willing to flexibly assist third-party developers in distributing their valuable games overseas.

Iwata on increasing 3DS momentum overseas, 10 key titles this year

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

Nintendo is hoping to increase the momentum of 3DS in overseas territories. In order to do so, it will release significant titles this year including Pokemon X/Y and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

While speaking with investors during Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, CEO Satoru Iwata mentioned that it “will be a good harvest time of what we have developed for these two years.” The Big N plans to “intensively and actively sell approximately 10 key titles on our own in order to change the Nintendo 3DS system from a handheld device just to play the Mario series to the one to enjoy a variety of games.”

Overseas market a “challenge” for 3DS

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

It would be safe to say that 3DS sales have stabilized in Japan. In fact, Japan is where the portable is seeing its best performance these days.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors today that the overseas market has become a “challenge” for the 3DS. Iwata believes the company must “think about the method and its possibility of making what we have done in Japan happen there.”

Iwata said:

The challenge for Nintendo 3DS exists in the overseas market, not the Japanese market. We need to think about the method and its possibility of making what we have done in Japan happen there.
Thinking back to the Nintendo DS system, it did not gain momentum in the overseas markets until its sales pace in Japan had accelerated. However, since now is a time when smart devices are widespread and overseas video game developers are less interested in developing software for handheld platforms, some may doubt if Nintendo can actually make it.
Before we released “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” in Japan last year, some said that, amid the expanding popularity of smart devices, few adult female consumers would play games on a dedicated gaming device as they did with Nintendo DS. With the big sales of this game, however, we think that it was proven that an indispensable, original title could overcome the popularity of smart devices and deflation of the value of software.

Source