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.”

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Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 1 Comment

Although the Wii U may be struggling in certain sales areas, Nintendo has no place to initiate a price cut.

A summary of Satoru Iwata’s financial results briefing has gone live, and it contains direct commentary from the president concerning the Big N’s stance on a possible reduction. Iwata noted that Nintendo has “taken a rather resolute stance in pricing it below its manufacturing cost, so we are not planning to perform a markdown.”

Nintendo will be looking to execute a couple of aspects going forward: 1) communicate the value of Wii U and 2) enhance the console’s software lineup.

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

Satoru Iwata is currently hosting an investors briefing for Nintendo’s latest financial results. As usual, analyst David Gibson has been live-tweeting from the event.

Read on below for a summary of items discussed during the meeting:

– Iwata says he feels great responsibility for not achieving forecast target
– 3DS is, in Japan, on good track with 3/5 top games from Nintendo
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf has exceeded plans
– US market has been worse with only 2 out of the top 20 titles from 3DS and no console in the territory
– US sales down 27%, compared to Japan while previously 2.5x
– “also blaming competitors were aggressively bundling titles in usa and eu”
– Germany and France 3DS sales up year-over-year
– These are the best markets for Europe
– In the US, Nintendo had 5 titles in the top 20
– France: 11/20; Germany: 10/20; Spain: 11/20
– UK was lower
– “still saying 3ds volumes accum exceeding ds ramp”
– Overseas 3DS software is not there yet to drive hardware sales, but has become leading platform in Japan
– Wii U value proposition not delivered enough to consumers
– Nintendo is selling below cost and not planning to discount further
– “set minimum 100bn op for next fy,committment from mgmt, want to eliminate loss per unit aggressively”
– To achieve this target in Japan, 3DS will gain Monster Hunter 4, Dragon Quest VII, Pokemon X/Y, and has Animal Crossing
– Overseas, Nintendo will release Fire Emblem, Brain Age, LEGO City, Animal Crossing by mid-year
– 10 more titles coming from Nintendo
– All of these games will be available digitally on 3DS
– More Japanese 3DS games for third-parties will be released overseas like Professor Layton
– Digital space has proven important for sales
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf sales account for 1/4 of sales
– Nintendo wants to do more third-party collaborations
– Not just licencing; Nintendo wants to collaborate with developers
– Wii U connectivity rate is 74%
– Nintendo wants to enhance pad usage
– Google Street View delayed to mid-February for Japan
– Iwata says it’s an example of what they want to do with the GamePad in living room
– Called “WiiStreetU”
– Can tour places from living room
– Adjusts to orientation of GamePad as you pan around
– Handheld and console R&D is now together
– Plan is that software can work across each other with potential for mid-long term
– Wii U will have more software to come out from mid-year onwards in particular
– Miyamoto: changing my gaming style with Wii U
– Miyamoto – saying developers have not put much uniqueness in games as yet
– Iwata: Wii U is part of my life
– Iwata says not every single game can become cloud offered and believes hardware won’t become obsolete
– Need to think of something new and unexpected in games
– Miyamoto: smartphone games are now so functional, users become satisfied
– Nintendo’s mission is to offer more and hence users buy their systems
– Miyamoto: for consoles, he thinks the TV can be more useful in people’s lives; this is Wii U’s mission
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf has been more successful with more women/girls compared to the DS game; 2/3 women buyers
– 3DS female mix was 25% in week 1, but that hit 50% when Animal Crossing launched and continues at high levels since the game released
– Iwata: need to think of better way to communicate asymetrical gameplay
– Miyamoto: don’t think all games should incorporate asymetrical gameplay
– Miyamoto: Miyamoto thinks besides HD there is no better way to play with 2 screens
– Iwata: said up until middle of last year was difficult to develop for Wii U for Nintendo and 3rd party, improve over time, we have overcome it
– “processor is memory optimised,cpu/gpu becoming less important, competitors doing the same”
– Iwata: digital sales key for growth, but won’t replace packaged releases
– Achieved 11bn sales in 9 months
– Wii U NFC “can be used for games with figures/cards working with game, making preparations in that direction ,say by end of yr”
– ” nfc is similar to felica in jp so studying to use nfc for e-money, no change to dividend policy or return to shareholders”
– Iwata: it is my mission to improve and make our platforms solid and hence achieve 100bn op, wiiu after summer will have more games to drive

Source

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

With only one month remaining in January, previously announced services for Wii U – namely TiVo, Netflix, and Google Maps – had little chance of making it out this month despite Nintendo saying otherwise.

Officially, Nintendo has now declared a more vague “early 2013” release for both TiVo and Netflix. Regarding Google Maps, support for the app is now scheduled for the “first quarter of 2013.”

Source

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

Update: Added in the full quote after the break.

Nintendo and EA’s relationship has gone strangely sour following the Big N’s E3 2011 press conference. EA CEO John Riccitiello stepped out on stage and proudly spoke about his company’s excitement over the console. Since then, though, the publisher’s interest in Wii U has declined and its output has been nothing less than disappointing.

We’ve seen a couple of sports titles. We’ve also seen a late Mass Effect 3 port and late Need for Speed: Most Wanted port, the latter of which is finally coming out in March.

During EA’s financial results call today, one investor mentioned the company’s non-aggressive pursuit of Wii U and wondered what this means for consumer adoption of next-gen consoles in the future. Riccitiello, who happened to deliver a response, noted that it isn’t wise to ever count Nintendo out and praised the game-maker’s IP. However, he went on to say: “What we describe as ‘Gen 4’ is yet to come.” Does this not mean that EA – well, Riccitiello at least – feels that the Wii U isn’t next-gen?

Below is Riccitiello’s paraphrased response, as transcribed by NeoGAF’s iMax:

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

There’s a double dose of encouraging Wii U-related news coming from Havok today.

First off, the company’s Vision Engine is now available for the platform. With its release, the full product suite of Havok technology has made its way to Wii U. Along with access to the free binary downloads of Havok Physics and Animation, developers are able to purchase a source license for any product they desire. Available tools include the aforementioned Havok Vision Engine, Havok Physics, Havok Animation, Havok Behavior, Havok Destruction, Havok AI, Havok Cloth, and Havok Script.

Vice president of sales and marketing Brian Waddle commented:

“We have shared a long-term partnership with Nintendo and are pleased to offer licensing of our entire product suite for Wii U developers worldwide. With several great Havok-powered launch titles recently released, we are pleased to see Wii U developers pushing the hardware with Havok’s tech. We look forward to seeing Havok Vision Engine power some great high-fidelity games on the new platform.”

Source

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

RSI– also known as “repetitive strain injury”– is a painful muscle/joint/bone/something condition that can be brought on by extensive and strenuous use of a particular muscle in the human body. The latest victim of this relatively common condition is Smash Bros. director and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakura, who says many years of programming and testing has left his hands in pain too often to do excessive work:

“Using a mouse, keyboard or gamepad make my arm tired, so I can’t use them in a continual manner. The only device I can use for an extended period of time is a joystick. It’s posing problems when I’m test-playing something in progress.”

“I figure that if I cut down on writing emails and other things, try not to type in so much data myself, and start giving more verbal directions, that’ll reduce the amount of keyboard-oriented work I have to do. But if I’m going to be supervising other people’s work, there’s no way to cut down the amount of mouse usage I need to perform. I’m trying to work it with my left hand in order to give the right one some rest, but that definitely cuts down on my work efficiency…”

So what’s a prolific game designer to do!? Sakurai says he’s going to try using a trackball mouse instead of a traditional one. Best of luck to him! I hope it helps him regain the efficiency he desires.

Via Polygon

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Everyone’s favorite (and only!) No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacturer has been purchased by Ragnorak Online publisher “Gungho Online Entertainment”, but how this affects Suda51 and his team’s development process remains to be seen. Word on the street is that the developer will be operating as normal, and has teamed up purely to give them more resources to realize their vision.

“By joining GungHo Online Entertainment, we are aligning ourselves with a strong, established publishing force that will support our vision to further create inspired new games that appeal players across the world. The Grasshopper team and I have many new ideas to share with our fans as we move forward so this union with GOE will help us realize our future plans.” – Grasshopper Manufacturer Founder Goichi Suda

Via Eurogamer

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in News, Podcast Stories, Rumors, Wii U | 0 comments

Update: Nope. From the Activision forums:

“We are aware that some of the menu listings from the [Xbox] 360’s Revolution DLC drop are showing up in the game. This is … just a versioning problem that we are working to address.”

Like I posted about last night, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 got a brand new patch last night that supposedly brought a handful of things up to speed with the PS360 versions of the game. The reality ended up being that it broke more than it fixed, but that’s for Treyarch to deal with as time goes forward. The most interesting part of this isn’t that things broke or didn’t break: It’s that we may have seen our first glimmer of hope for the “Revolution” DLC coming to Wii U in quite some time.

When the patch was applied, players quickly noticed that leaderboards now included the DLC-only “Diner Turned” mode, and there were even a few players listed on it despite it not having come out for anything other than Xbox 360 thus far. There was also a calling card added based off of the “Peacekeeper” SMG, which is a gun only available for those that have purchased the DLC.

Wii U community manager A_Trey_U was quick to rectify the situation, however, saying it was just an accident:

“Holy things that shouldn’t have happened, Batman! This is indeed a bug, and sadly something that will likely be going away this evening.

This is by no means a confirmation of DLC. Just something that got brought over when we brought over the rest of the fixes from the other platforms. Leave it to our community to find it in the first two minutes.”

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens! Treyarch is usually under incredibly strict rules about what they can and can’t talk about during the Xbox 360’s exclusivity period with DLC, so if we hear anything it’ll likely be after February 28th when the DLC comes to PS3 and PC.

Call of Duty Community via FPS General

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

Nintendo has published the English translation of Brain Age: Concentration Training (known in Europe as Dr Kawashima’s Devilish Brain Training). Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Dr. Kawashima talk about the new 3DS game and more in a six page discussion. Access the discussion here.