Switch

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 130 Comments

Update: Square Enix’s official press release says that when it comes to Dragon Quest XI, the company is “considering launching on Nintendo’s in development NX platform”. Dragon Quest X isn’t mentioned in the statement, though the same probably holds true for Dragon Quest X. It’s likely that both games will be formally confirmed when NX is revealed next year.

NX hasn’t been officially revealed by Nintendo yet, but the system already has a pair of game announcements. Square Enix confirmed during the “Dragon Quest New Title Presentation” today that both Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI are coming to the system.

We’re assuming that NX is a console, which means that Nintendo fans would be able to play both versions of Dragon Quest XI. Here’s a look at the PlayStation 4 version in action:

Square Enix hopes to have Dragon Quest XI ready to launch within the series’ 30th anniversary. Officially, that’s in May of next year.

Source

More: Dragon Quest X, Dragon Quest XI, Japan, Square Enix, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U | 27 Comments

Nintendo is not sharing any specifics about its next system – tentatively known as NX – until next year. There’s a reason for this.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, speaking at the company’s latest shareholders meeting, explained that revealing details early “could also give other companies the opportunity to come up with counterplans or implement the ideas that they find interesting.”

Iwata also touched on plans for Wii U and 3DS following NX’s launch. Even when the new system hits the market, we can apparently expect continued release for the two platforms.

Below are Iwata’s comments in full:

As I mentioned earlier, I cannot speak about the details of NX today. If I mention every detail of what we are newly thinking, it could be persuasive but it could also give other companies the opportunity to come up with counterplans or implement the ideas that they find interesting. There may also be the possibility that it will spoil the sense of surprise for consumers. Of course these factors are all against the interest of the entire company and they would ultimately harm the interest of our shareholders, so we appreciate your understanding in this respect.

Regarding your concern about what will happen to Wii U or what will happen to Nintendo 3DS, NX is a new platform, so the installed base will have to be built up from zero. When NX is launched, there already will be a certain volume of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U hardware widely existing in the market, so from a software business perspective, it would be highly inefficient to stop releasing titles for Nintendo 3DS or Wii U right after the launch of NX. Therefore, while we are preparing NX for the future, we are discussing within our internal development teams as well as with the second-party developers we co-develop software with and also with third-party software publishers about how to continue creating software for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. So, I believe that your point of concern should not happen immediately. As for Wii U, we will continue to make efforts, as it is a priority within the company to think about how we can satisfy the consumers who purchased this system to the maximum extent possible.

More: Satoru Iwata

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U | 12 Comments

During Nintendo’s latest shareholders meeting, one attendee brought up the slow launches of both Wii U and 3DS. This same person expressed concerns about NX meeting a similar fate.

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, addressed this by stating:

The situation for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U is in line with what you mentioned. For Wii U in particular, it cannot be said that it had a successful launch. As for Nintendo 3DS, in Japan there was a temporary slowdown but we managed to make a recovery by offering a number of initiatives collectively. On the other hand, Wii U has not been able to recover at this point in time. Because of this, the size of the installed base compared to the Nintendo DS or Wii eras appears not to be as solid and this is reflected in the company’s profitability. But taking a look back, it was not the case that Nintendo DS sold with huge momentum from the beginning. When it first started to lose momentum, we offered a number of titles from a new genre, such as “nintendogs” or “Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day,” and these titles were widely accepted even by those who had never played video games in the past. This sequence of events led to a very large business. The platform business can sometimes be referred to as a “momentum business.” Thus, it is ideal to have a jump start and drive momentum. Looking back at some of Nintendo’s past platforms, this ideal launch has been achieved 100 percent by perhaps only Wii. Even the Nintendo DS launch had areas in which we could have done better. I cannot disagree with your indication that Wii U is experiencing the most unfavorable situation.

Since the word “NX” has been mentioned, please let me elaborate. When Nintendo announced the collaboration with DeNA on March 17 of this year, I mentioned that Nintendo is currently developing a new dedicated video game system codenamed “NX.” The reason I mentioned this was, at that time, there were more than a certain number of people that thought that Nintendo would give up on the dedicated game system business and concentrate on smart device application development, or that Nintendo should take that path. In addition, such tone could be seen frequently through the media. I felt it was necessary to communicate that Nintendo is not pessimistic about the future of the dedicated game system business but rather more and more eager to continue it. On the other hand, details on the new platform essentially should come later. This is because the entertainment business has an aspect where there is value in surprising consumers. It is not convincing enough to the consumer if we describe how the magic works before actually showing it to them and then expecting them to be surprised or delighted. Having the element of surprise or doing the unexpected is the premise for introducing new ideas and having them welcomed with surprise. That is why I have been repeatedly saying that the next news on NX will not be announced during 2015 but will be announced in 2016. Nevertheless, since NX has news value, when I am interviewed on various occasions, I am asked about it almost every time. I will not share details on NX today but with regard to the launch of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U not necessarily having progressed well and not acquiring sufficient support from software publishers, we intend to offer NX through a Nintendo-like solution. Thank you for understanding that we are making various considerations and preparations in order to avoid what happened with the previous generations.

On a different note, I believe the standard for software publishers in selecting what hardware to provide their games for is the installed base after all. The larger the installed base or the more it is believed that the installed base will largely expand, there is an aspect that more software publishers are likely to join in. On the other hand, Nintendo is collaborating with various software publishers. At E3, which was held in the U.S. and is the largest trade show in the video game industry, we received many proposals for joint initiatives. In addition, Japanese software publishers have close relationships with our licensing department on a regular basis. As for collaborations with software publishers or their games, please consider that there are various ongoing projects below the surface.

Source

More: Satoru Iwata, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, Mobile, News, Switch, Wii U | 11 Comments

A new interview with Reggie Fils-Aime was added to Forbes’ website today. Reggie discussed several topics, including Nintendo’s E3 showing, hardware, Wii U sales, Skylanders, amiibo, and mobile.

Those who are interested in reading up on what Reggie had to say can head past the break for the Q&A breakdown. You’ll find Forbes’ original piece with a few additional comments here as well.

Read More

More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Switch | 85 Comments

A report coming from Fortune claims that Nintendo “just started talking” about the NX with third-parties at E3 2015. The site goes on to say that the reception “was positive” based on what was heard from insiders.

Here’s the relevant excerpt:

The problem for Nintendo is the NX’s launch is at least a year away—likely more, as the company reportedly just started talking about it with third party partners at this year’s E3. (The reception, say insiders, was positive.)

Even assuming Fortune’s report is accurate, don’t expect to hear about NX anytime soon. Nintendo has said that the system will not be unveiled until next year.

Source

More: E3 2015

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 104 Comments

Shigeru Miyamoto previously discussed why the Wii U struggles in an interview with NPR. Speaking with Fortune, he once again touched on this topic and pointed to the fact that “people never really understood the concept behind Wii U and what we were trying to do.”

He said:

“I feel like people never really understood the concept behind Wii U and what we were trying to do. I think the assumption is we were trying to create a game machine and a tablet and really what we were trying to do was create a game system that gave you tablet-like functionality for controlling that system and give you two screens that would allow different people in the living room to play in different ways. Unfortunately, because tablets, at the time, were adding more and more functionality and becoming more and more prominent, this system and this approach didn’t mesh well with the period in which we released it.”

Miyamoto also shared some regret about how the console won’t live up to its potential, in which he stated: “I still feel it was a very novel approach—and a very interesting idea.”

Read More

More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, Shinya Takahashi, top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, New Nintendo 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U | 128 Comments

Update: All over! You can find the information rounded up below.

Nintendo’s 75th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is currently progress. We’ll be posting everything that was shared during the event below, courtesy of translations from Cheesemeister.

Intro

– New 3DS selling well, but the old 3DS did not, so HW sales were 8.73m. SW selling well. Pokemon, Smash numbers.
– Mario Kart 8 at 5.11m, Smash Wii U at 3.65m. Wii U HW 2.88m.
– Entertainment has value, centering on dedicated platforms. Providing premium experiences only available on such. Making more SW.
– Xenoblade for New 3DS released. Rhythm Heaven, FE: if released. Supporting 1st-party and strong 3rd-party SW.
– On Wii U, Splatoon, Yoshi’s Woolly World, and Super Mario Maker are being released.
– Card-based and yarn amiibo are being released. The NFC dongle for old 3DS and 2DS being released. Looking to increase demand.
– Supporting amiibo on Smash 3DS with the NFC dongle.
– About DeNA, starting smart device apps this year. Smart devices different from dedicated consoles, so even w/ same IP, adapting play styles to suit smart devices will maximize value and drive the expansion of the gaming population.
– Continuing with film adaptations and character merchandising to increase mind-share of IPs. Ex: Universal agreement. More later.
– Making a marketing appeal for the IPs through experiences only possible at theme parks.
– Making progress with QOL. (No details given.)
– 1st measure: distribution of dividends.
– 2nd measure: selection of board members.

Read More

More: top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Switch | 30 Comments

Building off rumors concerning Nintendo and Amazon’s relationship comes additional speculation about NX. Here’s the latest:

– When Nintendo announced their mobile games, Amazon was very interested in having the games also be on the Amazon App store.
– Nintendo games will be on the Amazon store on day one, or shortly after Play Store and App Store.
– Amazon is asking Nintendo what they need to do to have Amazon App Store games play on Nintendo consoles
– Amazon got the impression that Nintendo is thinking about emulating Android games.
– Nintendo will not create an Android system, but instead will emulate Android games. It’s not something that’s confirmed, but just an interpretation of the conversations.

All of today’s rumors stem from reports made by Revogamers. Those who missed the original post can read up on it here.

Source

More: top

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 37 Comments

The Financial Post has posted a few more comments from Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s vice president of sales and marketing. Moffitt mainly commented on how the Wii U has plenty of quality games, and how NX shows the company’s commitment to dedicated gaming hardware.

Here’s a quick roundup of what was shared:

On how Wii U still has a lot to offer…

“Our job and our goal is through our first-party games, to build the installed base up so that it makes it easy for third-party publisher to bring their third-party content to our systems.”

Read More

More: interview, Scott Moffitt

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 44 Comments

Polygon has a few more quotes up from its interview with Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America. Much of the talk focused on new consoles and Reggie’s take on digital vs. physical games.

For those that are interested, continue on below for the breakdown of Reggie’s remarks. Be sure to check out Polygon’s original article here as well.

On how Nintendo is in front of the curve in terms of when a company might next release a next-gen console, and how the company takes big chances while innovating in video games…

“So, bad news for you, I’ve got nothing to share specifically about NX.

“One element of your premise is that Nintendo as a company has a history of being innovative and driving innovation. You look at the DS with the incorporation of the touch screen. You look at what we did with Wii. We’re constantly trying to innovate. So to frame it as ‘Here’s a company with a history of innovating. I’d love for them to innovate more.’ We accept that and that is part of our DNA.

“The other thing I would say is that, we see in our existing business, and we anticipate looking into the future, how this gaming industry is going to continue to evolve. And absolutely, our challenge is to think about what that future looks like and create a business model, technology approach and consumer messaging approach that brings it all together to a successful platform and a successful platform launch. We’re constantly thinking about that.”

Read More

More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top