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

Miiverse has officially launched on the PC. You can access all of the platform’s communities directly through your browser by visiting this link.

You’ll need a Nintendo Network ID in order to participate in Miiverse. For the time being, accounts can only be created on a Wii U console.

Signing in lets you access almost all functionality available on the Wii U including community posting. You can also check up on your latest notifications and keep track of your activity feed.

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

As is typical for the company, Nintendo is holding a meeting with investors following the release of their fiscal results yesterday.

We’ll be keeping this post updated with all of the tidbits from the latest event. In one way, I guess you can say this is a live-blog! Keep checking back for updates, which come from analyst David Gibson.

– Nintendo claims that it has increasing market share globally in markets that are in decline
– Says they need to rebuild momentum for Wii U
– One of Nintendo’s biggest priorities is to improve the 3DS in international markets with major software titles
– Nintendo claims that the press’ tone has been more positive, citing Kotaku and USA Today comments that 3DS has the best games
– Nintendo says Wii U sales will improve from July onwards with first-party titles
– Miiverse can be accessed from PC today
– Miiverse coming to 3DS this year
– 87% connection rate for 3DS
– 80% connection rate for Wii U
– 25% of Animal Crossing’s sales in Japan were digital; 2/3 purchased at retail
– Wii U will get Sucia (trains) card compatibility in Japan in the near future to make payments easier
– Nintendo open to new business models on its platforms such as FTP or cheap price
– Cloud-based games not suited for their platforms and no plans to take advantage of the tech
– Iwata is taking over direct report of overseas business so there will be more alignment and product potential will be enhanced
– Iwata is giving up some of his roles in Japan
– Nintendo sees driver of this year profit improvement from hardware cost reduction and rise in first-party mix
– Nintendo said that with US purchases larger than sales that currency benefit was limited but should increase as sales rise
– Nintendo says that Wii U momentum is already lost and now wants to release software continuously
– Also important that consumers are satisfied with the software
– Nintendo said advertising expense doesn’t rise much this year because of efficiency of using Nintendo Direct, social media, and eShop
– Last year’s advertising included brand building for Wii U, which won’t be needed this year
– Regarding software delays, this was because people had to work on hardware more than planned and min expectations rising
– Nintendo on share buyback: said it’s only benefit is to those who exit their shares into it, only short term benefit

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

Another item included in Nintendo’s financial report materials is an updated release schedule.

There aren’t any huge megatons, but The Wonderful 101 and Wii Fit U have slightly more-specific release windows. Both titles are coming out for the Wii U this summer in North America, Europe, and Japan. Monolith Soft’s new game appears to have been officially confirmed for the west as well, with a vague “TBA” release date listed.

Look for the full release schedule above.

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

Included in Nintendo’s latest financial report is an updated listing of its million seller titles. New entries include Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Super Mario Galaxy.

The full listing is as follows (worldwide numbers):

Nintendo DS

Pokemon Black/White 2 – 7.81 million
New Super Mario Bros. – 30.38 million

Nintendo 3DS

New Super Mario Bros. 2 – 6.42 million
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 3.86 million
Mario Kart 7 – 8.08 million
Super Mario 3D Land – 8.29 million
Paper Mario: Sticker Star – 1.97 million
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon – 1.22 million
Mario Tennis Open – 1.11 million

Wii

Wii Sports – 81.99 million
Mario Party 9 – 2.87 million
Mario Kart Wii – 34.26 million
Wii Sports Resort – 31.89 million
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 27.88 million
Super Mario Galaxy – 11.72 million

Wii U

Nintendo Land – 2.60 million
New Super Mario Bros. U – 2.15 million

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

Disney Infinity is, of course, a Disney product. But with the company’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, that means Star Wars could technically be included in the upcoming video games.

Disney’s Bill Roper isn’t ready to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon just yet. While Disney’s new ownership of the property is exciting and brings new possibilities, “we’re really just focused on launching this platform quickly.”

“That was definitely exciting when that [news of the acquisition] came down from within the company. We love the potential for Infinity – we always joke, well, ‘the possibilities are infinite’. For us, we’re really just focused on launching this platform quickly. We’ve got incredible IPs, and we’re showing the strength of what we’re building with the way we’ve approached the creative, where everything in the game world is toys, so we can have a Jack Sparrow next to Sulley [from Monsters] and it makes sense.”

Source

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

This week’s GameStop ad has gone live. Highlights include Assassin’s Creed III for $29.99.

The full lineup of deals can be found in the circular below:

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

Nintendo hasn’t said much about the new 3D Mario action game and Mario Kart title for Wii U. Both were mentioned briefly during a Nintendo Direct a few months ago, but other than that… nada!

Despite the silence, could these two anticipated titles be coming to market this year? An inclusion in Nintendo’s financial results announcement seems to point in this direction.

“Based on the strong lineup of upcoming software titles for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, Nintendo expects to return to Operating Income profitability by the end of the current fiscal year. During the next several months, Nintendo expects to launch new titles in the Mario Kart (Wii U), Super Mario Bros. (Wii U), Wii Fit (Wii U), Pikmin (Wii U), The Legend of Zelda (Wii U and Nintendo 3DS), Mario & Luigi (Nintendo 3DS) and Pokémon (Nintendo 3DS) franchises. These games, along with titles from Nintendo’s third-party publishing partners, will help drive hardware momentum and introduce new audiences to the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS platforms.”

The new Mario and Mario Kart games will be playable at this year’s E3, so they must be fairly far along in development. It’d be pretty crazy to see both of them in the same year, though.

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

The latest Japanese hardware sales from Media Create are as follows:

3DS LL – 57,089
3DS – 18,833
Vita – 15,011
PS3 – 13,915
Wii U – 8,798
PSP – 7,816
Wii – 1,379
Xbox 360 – 515

For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week:

3DS LL – 28,139
3DS – 18,584
Vita – 14,112
PS3 – 14,039
Wii U – 9,984
PSP – 7,566
Wii – 1,383
Xbox 360 – 492

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

The Wii U is struggling in the marketplace right now. In order to improve the situation, Nintendo is planning on releasing more software for the system.

That makes sense, right? When you have quality software and games that people care about, that should lead to some increase in hardware sales.

Nintendo noted in its latest financial report that it will be launching “key Nintendo titles from the second half of this year through next year in order to regain momentum for the platform.” The company will also look to “improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software” through Miiverse. Finally, improving hardware profitability is another goal, which will lead to reduced costs.

For the “Wii U” system, launched in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, there were some delays in software development that resulted in intervals between new software title releases at the early stage of this year. Taking this into consideration, for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, we plan to concentrate on proactively releasing key Nintendo titles from the second half of this year through next year in order to regain momentum for the platform. Nintendo strives to improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software to as many people as possible through our new network service called “Miiverse,” which offers an environment where people can empathize with others and share their gaming experiences. We also strive to reduce costs to improve hardware profitability.

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

Paradox Interactive is working on Magicka – Wizards of the Square Tablet for Android and iOS devices. Unfortunately, the company has no plans to bring the game to either of Nintendo’s platforms at this time.

When asked if Paradox has any interest in bringing Magicka – Wizards of the Square Tablet to the Wii U or 3DS, the studio responded:

“At this point there are no plans to bring the game to those platforms.”

Well, you can’t have them all!

Source