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

Update: Just noticed another tweet coming from GameTrailers editor-in-chief Shane Satterfield. Yesterday, he wrote on Twitter “that friend codes are gone for Wii U.” So, which is it? The only thing I can gather is that the Friend Codes usage will be very different for Wii U if they’re there at all. Let the confusion commence!

Some slightly disappointing news has made it out of a Nintendo analyst meeting at E3 2012 today.

The company briefly touched on the Wii U’s online functionality in addition to other topics. Nintendo previously announced an account system for the system, but hadn’t ruled out Friend Codes.

Today, Nintendo has confirmed that Friend Codes haven’t been completely eliminated and will be returning in some form. Details about its implementation haven’t been discussed, though making friends will apparently be easier.

Other tidbits from the event include:

– 3DS software units have outsold the equivalent of DS software in the same period
– 3DS has reached 70% Internet connection rate
– An average of 5 items have been purchased by online 3DS users
– Wii U home screen includes a recommendation engine built-in, showing users which titles they might be interested in
– Wii U: can access store and communications on smartphones so that you can buy and download content to the console by the time you get home
– “Current share price cannot be sustained, by delivering and communicating hope to rectify, no consideration to go private”
– Nintendo not actively looking into free-to-play games
– No plans for Mario free-to-play game
– Nintendo believes in selling product for value created
– Nintendo won’t compete with Microsoft or others for exclusive franchise support; they want to take advantage of the 190 million Wiimote/45 million Balance Board install base
– No built-in hard drive for Wii U, but USB connections let users use variety of external options like a cheap hard drive
– Nintendo open to pre-installed software for Wii U in some markets
– On Xbox SmartGlass: what they offer is a small facet of what Wii U can do; they clearly see value to follow only 1 year after Wii U
– Nintendo has placed particular focus on Wii U’s latency to ensure a seamless experience; Nintendo thinks Sony/Microsoft will still have an issue (possibly with similar products)
– “This cycle can improve profits driven by digital, miiverse is designed to improve tie ratio, wiiu think will have higher active use rate”
– When asked about Apple TV, Nintendo said that they believe what Wii U offers is the only one of its kind with a second screen integrated seamlessly to the television

Source

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

At a breakfast event this morning, EA revealed that the company is working on a number of sports projects for Wii U. These titles obviously have not been announced.

The issue is that we don’t know which games will be coming to the platform, and it doesn’t sound like any of them will be ready for the Wii U’s launch. That’s disappointing given the fact that Madden was made available alongside Wii, and even the 3DS. Madden, while nothing like a Mario or Zelda, could have made the system’s debut more well-rounded.

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

For a number of years, the Wii was displayed vertically. In fact, all units of the console included a special stand so that the system could be propped up correctly.

The situation is different with Wii U. It’s always been shown at a horizontal position. You may be interested to learn that the console can’t actually stand up vertically without falling over.

As for why this is the case, Shigeru Miyamoto explained to Kotaku:

“”I guess we could make a stand. I think maybe it was because we didn’t want people to think it was a Wii.”

When prodded further, Miyamoto said:

“It kind of goes back to our idea of the Wii U itself which is: ‘What is the role of the physical hardware?’ And in this particular case we felt that the physical hardware is something that’s becoming something that is less and less important from an identity perspective for a game machine.

“So, for example, with even something like Kinect you can have your hardware put away and out of sight and you can wave at the TV and maybe the game will come on or something.

“Similarly with Wii U, when we [considered the question] ‘What is the face of Wii U going to be?’, for us the face of Wii U really isn’t the console box itself. It’s the controller; it’s the Wii U GamePad. So just like a set top box is non-descript and tucked away, our feeling was that the Wii U hardware was something that could be tucked away and out of sight.

“The Wii U GamePad is really the face of the system, whereas, with the Wii system, we had really designed it so that that system itself really stood out when you looked at it.”

In the end I suppose this isn’t too big of a deal, but it’s worth mentioning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strength in Numbers

Earth is under attack from an invasion of enormous aliens, and the only thing that can protect the planet is a group of unlikely, yet mighty, heroes with special abilities. Unfortunately, the aliens are too powerful for the heroes to fight individually. They must join forces and work together to defeat their common enemy. These uniquely different heroes can morph into powerful weapons to crush the invaders or turn into objects like a giant fist or bridge to interact with and traverse the environments.

FEATURES:

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