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

Retirement is a topic that often comes up during interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto these days. One day, Miyamoto is going to have to step away from Nintendo.

That day hasn’t arrived just yet. While Miyamoto is prepping Nintendo for the day that he does retire, the “volume” of his work hasn’t changed one bit.

Below are Miyamoto’s thoughts about retirement in full:

“This year I’m past 60; I’m going to be turning 61 this year. So for me to not be thinking about retirement would be strange. But in fact, the number of projects I’m involved in–and the volume of my work–hasn’t changed at all.”

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

Let’s face it: sales of the Wii U simply aren’t up to snuff. There are likely two reasons for that – a lack of games and a high price point.

Ubisoft’s executive director for EMEA territories Alain Corre told EDGE that while the company is “optimistic” about the console, it “always” likes to see systems at a low price point – perhaps hinting that Ubisoft would be interested in seeing Nintendo make a move in this area.

“Always. We always want the hardware to be at a low price because we want as many fans as possible to afford to buy our games, so that’s for sure. We think that Wii U will find its public at some point. Some were expecting sales to be quicker but we are optimistic. I think Nintendo has said that the Wii U sales in general were below expectations originally and the software tie-in ratio is also stable, so I think that when less machines sell, less games sell.”

According to Corre, Ubisoft saw a “productive” Wii U launch. He spoke about how the publisher tends to throw a lot of support towards new consoles when they first hit the market:

“It’s part of the Ubsoft DNA to be first on new technology and to innovate – and also release some games that have created some good momentum that we can use for the future. If we globalise all that we did and consider all of that then what we did on Wii U for launch was productive.”

Source

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

The first two months of 2013 have been underwhelming in terms of new retail releases for Wii U. That’s about to change this month. Need for Speed: Most Wanted U and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate are both slated for the console. There’s also a little game called LEGO City: Undercover on the way.

It’s been a fairly long wait for LEGO City. After all, it was one of the first games announced for Wii U. But the wait may be worth it – executive producer Loz Doyle believes his project will be Wii U’s best title. Doyle also thinks that LEGO City could move consoles.

“I hope other developers don’t mind me saying this, but this is the best game on the Wii U at the moment. I think the game is eagerly awaiting by many people and I’m sure that it will sell consoles for Nintendo. I also think it’s got real long term appeal, I don’t see it getting old for the life of the Wii U so I hope it will be a huge success.”

Doyle also discussed how LEGO City couldn’t be accomplished on another console:

“I can’t imagine the game working on any other system. We’d always wanted to do a Lego City game, and we’d always wanted to work with Nintendo. The Lego and Nintendo brands are a very natural fit, I think anyone would agree. When we were first shown an early version of the Wii U, we knew they Lego City Undercover was the perfect match for the console. The available RAM on board meant we could create the city we wanted to, and the GamePad just opened up so many gameplay opportunities. We had to reign in the design team because they were coming up with so many uses for it.”

Source

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 2 Comments

Wake up everyone, it’s time for science!

So today Nintendo released a small Wii U firmware update, and since then I’ve seen a few outlets claim that it “seems” like the update has sped things up on their consoles. Unfortunately, “seeming” isn’t good enough for me, and since I hadn’t taken it upon myself to update my console yet, I decided to test some load times both before and after the update to see how they compared. A few things to note: Firstly, the update auto-triggered (without giving me the option to opt out) halfway through my testing so I couldn’t get as many readings as I wanted in the “before” category. Secondly, I eliminated two results that were clearly technical outliers (a 35 second post-update “Miiverse” load and a 39 second pre-update “Settings” load) because that’s how statistics work.

Here’s what I found:

Startup

What: Time from hitting the power button to when users are selectable.
Pre-Update: 19.6s
Post-Update: 25.4s, 25.6s, 25.2s
Conclusion: Hard to say since the update auto-triggered before I could test more than one pre-update startup time. It would seem that things have gotten worse though.

Miiverse

What: Time from hitting the Miiverse icon to when things become selectable within Miiverse.
Pre-Update: 14.5s, 24.1s, 21.7s
Post-Update: 13.7s, 11.7s, 11.4s
Conclusion: While still not perfect, there is a noticeable improvement in the loading times of Miiverse after the update.

eShop

What: Time from hitting the eShop icon to when things become selectable within the eShop.
Pre-Update: 21.7s, 23.5s, 35.5s, 37.9s, 19.0s
Post-Update: 22.6s, 17.5s, 16.0s, 16.0s, 21.8s
Conclusion: Overall, a noticeable improvement. It’s much more consistent than the load times pre-update.

Settings

What: Time from hitting the “Settings” app icon to when things become selectable within “Settings”
Pre-Update: 18.1s, 20.8s, 24.1s
Post-Update: 16.6s, 16.0s, 16.0s
Conclusion: Again, a noticeable improvement. Nothing mindblowing, but an appreciated speed-up. And significantly more consistent.

Returning to the Home Menu

What: Time from hitting “Close” in “Settings” to when things were selectable on the Home Menu.
Pre-Update: 23.3s, 24.0s
Post-Update: 23.4s, 23.4s, 22.9s
Conclusion: No appreciable change.

Make of this data what you please! It’s hardly 100% science-proof, but it’s about as good as I’ve seen so far.

~Austin

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

LEGO City: Undercover has received its first review. Game Informer handed out an 8.5 / 10 score in its April 2013 issue.

Reviewer Jeff Cork was impressed with Undercover’s storyline, GamePad usage – except for the instances in which players must rotate the controller for 360-degree scanning – and hub elements. Cork wrote that developer TT Fusion “has absolutely nailed the best part of sandbox games.”

However, Cork felt that the game could have done a better job with its world so that players could be more motivated to participate in additional missions. Other than citizens involved with Undercover’s critical path, you won’t come across strangers on the streets in need of help.

Cork wrapped up by noting that LEGO City: Undercover “isn’t perfect, but I can’t think of another Wii U game that I’d recommend more. … It’s the most interesting and highly polished game in TT Games’ large repertoire, and it fills an important game gap.”

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

Some folks are saying that the latest Wii U update has improved upon load times. Would anyone else say that’s true?

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

It’s unknown how reactionary this particular story should be as details are somewhat fuzzy, but here’s what’s known so far:

Jamie Keen worked at Ubisoft Montreal during the development of Far Cry 3, where he acted as lead game designer. This week, some of the gaming press took a look at his LinkedIn profile, and discovered that it lists him leaving Ubisoft Montreal in February 2012 to join up with EA and work on their upcoming Need for Speed title– many months before he finished work on Far Cry 3. Some are suggesting this is a typo, and it means to read “February 2013”. If it does, it means that he left during the development of Watch Dogs, on which he was also said to be lead designer.

If it isn’t a typo and he did leave in 2012, it means he was never lead designer on Watch Dogs and he didn’t finish work on Far Cry 3, which seems unlikely. Why he left the company in the first place is unknown, but we’ll keep you posted if this goes anywhere!

Via VideoGamer

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

The Wii U has been out for a few months now, but there is still one element of the console that remains untapped: NFC. No Nintendo or third-party games have yet to take advantage of the functionality.

When asked about Nintendo’s plans for Wii U’s NFC, Shigeru Miyamoto said:

“With NFC, that’s a feature that everyone that owns a Wii U can take advantage of. So that’s what we’re putting our priorities right now. We’re hoping that in the near future we’ll be able to show you something that will take advantage of the NFC on Wii U and people will be able to enjoy that.”

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

Capcom has announced that it will be releasing Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the North American 3DS eShop later this week. The game will be available digitally on March 7 for $19.99.

A European release for the eShop hasn’t been confirmed, though is likely planned for the near future.

Source

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

If you want to go digital with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Capcom will have you covered. The company has reconfirmed that Wii U and 3DS owners will be able to download the game at launch.

On Wii U, Ultimate is a 6.07GB download. The digital 3DS version is 1.74GB.

Source 1, Source 2