Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Podcast Stories | 23 Comments

Update (7/9): Information about the promotion can be found here.

Nintendo will soon be offering a fantastic deal on the 3DS eShop. A notice on the digital store indicates that users who purchase Fire Emblem: Awakening or (and?) Shin Megami Tensei IV will receive a $30 credit.

3DS owners are advised to check out the game page for each title for more information. But at present, no further details are available. Shin Megami Tensei IV will be out next week, so Nintendo should be providing an official update about the offer soon enough.

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 11 Comments

GamesIndustry recently caught up with three major third-party publishers to discuss Wii U. Ubisoft, Activision, and EA shared a few thoughts about the console while speaking with the outlet.

One of the more troubling items to emerge from the discussion concerns ZombiU. The game wasn’t even close to being profitable, according to Ubisoft. The company therefore has no plans or interest in making a sequel currently. ZombiU’s poor performance was also one of the reasons why Rayman Legends turned into a multiplatform title.

You can find commentary from the three publishers below.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

This week’s European Nintendo Downloads are as follows:

Wii U download

Star Wars Pinball – €9.99 / £7.99

3DS VC

Donkey Kong – €0.30 (£0.30) until 13/8/13, 23:59 CEST – will be €4.99 (£3.49)

3DS video

Shaun the Sheep (Episode 1-5) – €2.99 / £2.69
Shaun the Sheep (Episode 6-10) – €2.99 / £2.69
Shaun the Sheep (Episode 1-15) – €6.99 / £6.29

3DS retail

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros. – €39.99 / £34.99

3DS download

Murder on the Titanic – €14.99 / £14.99
Kokuga – €14.99 / £13.49
My Farm 3D – €7.99 / £6.99

eShop sales

Metroid – €4.99 (£3.49) – Special Offer until 25/7/13, 23:59 CEST: 50% off regular price and available for only €2.49 (£1.74) if you already bought Kid Icarus on Nintendo eShop on your Wii U.
Kid Icarus – €4.99 (£3.49) Special Offer until 25/7/13, 23:59 CEST: 50% off regular price and available for only €2.49 (£1.74) if you already bought Metroid on Nintendo eShop on your Wii U.
Football Up 3D – €4.89 (£4.19) until 25/7/13, 23:59 CEST – will be €6.99 (£5.99)

DSiWare

Lost Treasures of Alexandria – €4.99 / £4.49 / 500 points

Source: Nintendo PR

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 3 Comments

In a new interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed Metroid, the possibility of returning to the Super Mario Galaxy series and making a single-player-only Mario title, mobile games, and more. You can find some excerpts after the break. You can find the full interview over at Game Informer.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 0 comments

The launch of the Wii Vitality Sensor is “pending”, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said.

Nintendo has been developing the accessory for a number of years, which was first announced during its E3 2009 press conference. Unfortunately, the Wii Vitality Sensor hasn’t performed up to expectations. It may work for 90 percent of consumers, but that’s simply not good enough.

Thus, Nintendo hasn’t “been able to launch it as a commercial product because we could not get it to work as we expected and it was of narrower application than we had originally thought.” In order for it to release, Iwata said: “We would like to launch it into the market if technology advancements enable 999 of 1,000 people to use it without any problems, not only 90 out of 100 people. I actually think that it must be 1,000 of 1,000 people, but (since we use the living body signal with individual differences) it is a little bit of a stretch to make it applicable to every single person.”

Iwata’s full statements from Nintendo’s investor briefing Q&A held last week:

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Donkey Kong are just a few of the well-known names that we seen from Nintendo regularly. But some fans and critics have called for the company to make something new and come out with never-before-seen IPs.

In Shigeru Miyamoto’s opinion, it makes sense to rely on Nintendo’s well-regarded series. He also believes that the likes of Nintendogs, Brain Age, and Wii Fit are all new franchises because they offer original experiences. While most may not see it this way because they lack a symbolic character, Miyamoto said that these titles “are actually contributing to our sales.”

Also, it is sometimes said that Nintendo has recently had no new franchises. At E3 this year, some said that Nintendo is always showing the same series of games, but this is because we mainly featured the characters from our franchises in our exhibition booth. There were six featured areas of our franchises in our booth, including Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong, and the visitors were able to take commemorative photos with these characters. Considering that visitors will not enjoy less well-known franchises in such areas, we did it in this way, which resulted in such a criticism, I think. On the other hand, I think it is one of our advantages to have such franchises. When some young in-house developers come up with an idea of a new franchise, I say that creating a new character does not necessarily mean creating a new franchise. In my view, a new way of playing or new use of media is necessary for a “new product” and creating a character is not the first thing to do. In this sense, “nintendogs,” “Brain Age” and “Wii Fit” are all new franchises. Few people see it this way because these games have no symbolic “character” like the existence of Mario, but they are actually contributing to our sales. I would like to continue developing video games with the view of entertaining a wide variety of people including the existing video game fans. Thank you so much for your support.

Source

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 1 Comment

In a series of tweets, The Wonderful 101 director Hideki Kamiya expressed some concerns about the lack of attention surrounding The Wonderful 101.

Kamiya noted how magazine coverage appears to be light, and stores have shied away from promoting the Wii U exclusive because they’re unclear as to what it is. On the whole, he feels that ads are minimal and awareness is lacking.

From the perspective of development, Kamiya estimates than manpower and resources are around 1.5 times greater than what was spent on the first Bayonetta. Kamiya also appeared to make a comparison to Okami – “no one really gets the game, so there isn’t a lot of hype”.

Source

Posted on 10 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 1 Comment

This data comes from a survey done by gaming social network “Pixwoo”. 2000 people who identified themselves as “gamers” were questioned, and they’re all from the UK:

– Average gamer in the UK is married
– They play, on average, for about 2.5 hours a day, five days a week
– Average age is 35
– They stay up until (on average) 10:58PM playing games
– The data stays relatively consistent from male the female gamers

– Average gamer owns two consoles, 18 games
– Takes around a month to complete each game
– Most of them argue more than twice a week with their partner about gaming (not sure if this means about games themselves or gaming habits)
– About 5% say gaming is a “constant cause” of arguments
– 15% have broken up with someone due to their love of gaming

– Average gamer has about 5 online friends
– 29% say they’ve met at least one of their online friends face-to-face
– 33% play multiplayer games locally
– 25% play online
– 20% play with their online friends consistently
– 44% will purchase an Xbox One, PS4, or gaming PC in the next 12 months
– Most popular console was Wii, followed by PS3, then Xbox 360

Via CVG

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

This week’s North American Nintendo Downloads are as follows:

Wii U VC

Pilotwings – $7.99

3DS VC

Sonic Drift 2 – $3.99
Vampire Master of Darkness – $4.99
G-LOC Air Battle – $3.99

3DS download

Deer Hunting King – $4.99
Fishdom H20: Hidden Odyssey – $4.99

3DS demo

Crazy Construction – demo

eShop sales

Mighty Switch Force! – $3.99 until 9 a.m. PT on July 11
Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition – $6.67 until 9 a.m. PT on July 11
Order Up!! – $4.99 starting at 9 a.m. PT on July 8 until 9 a.m. PT on July 22.
Planet Crashers – $4.99 starting at 9 a.m. PT on July 8 until 9 a.m. PT on July 22

Source: Nintendo PR

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 7 Comments

For some of its systems, Nintendo decided against implementing a region lock. But now we’re in an era in which all of the Big N’s hardware make use of the functionality. Both the 3DS and Wii U do not allow games to be played outside of their original regions.

Why has Nintendo decided to adopt such an uncompromising stance? According to a statement from Nintendo of America, region locks allow for parental controls and “ensure compliance with regional standards and rating systems.” And no: Nintendo’s region locks aren’t going anywhere.

“Nintendo has no plans to remove region locking from our systems. By taking this approach, Nintendo is able to include parental controls and ensure compliance with regional standards and rating systems.”

Source