Wii U

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is fully supportive of Wii U. In an interview with The Guardian, Kotick noted that it was difficult to support Nintendo’s current console because of “the expectations that our gamers have.” However, he’s pleased that Wii U is on par with its competition. Kotick also said that “it’s now more possible to do deep rich multiplayer games”, although Activision is in need of more details regarding the console’s online functionality.

“There will always be a need for specialised hardware to satisfy the needs of gamers. With the Wii U … from a development perspective, having a Nintendo device that is on parity with the other hardware from a graphics perspective was really necessary. For the kinds of games we create, it was becoming very difficult for us to support the Wii with the expectations that our gamers have. I think that the user-interface itself is very clever – there will be a lot of innovation to come from having the second screen. It’s also critically important that you can use the existing physical interfaces with the new device because those are really compelling. Nintendo has always done a very good job of thinking about the user experience and this is no exception. …Well, without telling you our title plans, it’s now more possible to do deep rich multiplayer games – we need more clarity from Nintendo on the online capabilities, but we’ve had development systems for a while now and we’re very enthusiastic about it.”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Features, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

Yes, Nintendo’s initial response about possibly bringing Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower to North America was lame. It was short and uninformative. Although they promised an update in the near future, it was not at all worth the wait.

This response, too, is useless and basically confirms what most Nintendo fans have feared: Nintendo of America is not bringing any of these desired titles stateside. Looks like Operation Rainfall is going to have a long, tough battle ahead of them…

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments

According to a Famitsu poll, readers were most pleased with Nintendo’s showing at E3 2011. Additionally, fans voted The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as the most anticipated title from the event. Satoru Iwata took home the award for the person who had the greatest impact at E3.

Although gamers were pleased with Nintendo, one analyst was not. SMBC Nikko Securities analyst Eiji Maeda shared the following comments with Famitsu:

“Nintendo’s stock price plummeted after the Wii U announcement, partly because of 3DS sales falling below expectations. I also think that while the E3 presentation explained the device well, the mainstream press just described it as a ‘tablet controller’ and didn’t make a great effort to push the value of it. It was a lot easier for people to get the impression that Sony was trying hard with the PS Vita, especially on the price.”

Maeda also commented on the show overall:

“I think it was the most interesting E3 in several years. The hardware conferences had a lot of impact, as did the sheer number of third-party titles. The popularity of Capcom’s booth was also something that caught my eye. While they didn’t get the flashy displays of the console titles, there were a lot of private showings held for smartphone and social games, and a great deal of companies are putting a remarkable amount of resources into those markets.”

Game-shop owner Hisako Akitani also provided some commentary, discussing how she was disappointed by the lack of Japanese games at E3:

“Activision and the other Western third parties put on a good show, but my impression was that Japanese publishers weren’t putting in much effort. I’d like to think that they were saving their ‘A’ game for the Tokyo Game Show, but it was still disappointing.”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

Isn’t it refreshing to hear positive comments from third-parties about Wii U? EA in particular has been very supportive of the console, even showing up at Nintendo’s E3 2011 briefing to discuss the possibilities of producing Battlefield and other titles for the console. EA’s Frank Gibeau was once again asked about Wii U and you can hear about what he told GamesIndustry below.

Q: John Riccitiello was on stage at Nintendo’s E3 conference earlier this month, the first time he’s been on stage with the company before. EA is obviously betting big on the Wii U.
Frank Gibeau: We were really blown away by the unique innovation that Nintendo brings with the Wii U controller on a high performance machine. The ability to do HD graphics and access game experiences in a completely novel way and a way that’s never been seen before, it really struck our fancy. We were excited by what Nintendo presented to us, we thought about it and it fits well with what we’re trying to do with our franchises like FIFA and Madden and Battlefield. There’s great horsepower there, great innovation and Nintendo’s got fantastic branding. We’re platform agnostic as a company so if we find something we believe will have success commercially and critically, and has a business model that works for us, we’re in.

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

In Japan earlier today, Nintendo hosted a meeting for shareholders. Satoru Iwata answered a slew of questions about Wii U at the event, among other topics. For the important information from Iwata, read on below.

– Nintendo is releasing text book software through DS, has been well received, but many are against bringing game systems into classrooms
– Brain Age changed some minds about the above
– Earnings for board members dropped as did the lowered company earnings
– Iwata was the only person to make over 100 million yen (137 million yen)
– Six directors topped the 100 million yen mark
– Iwata’s earnings dropped 50 million yen from last year
– Wii U received great reactions from those in L.A.
– Iwata said a majority of overseas media offered congratulations to him
– Reaction for Wii U differed greatly between those who covered the product at the show and those who just covered it online
– Nintendo needs to consider how to convey the value of the product
– Nintendo hoping that low software output for Wii U launch won’t be an issue, unlike the 3DS’ situation
– Is Nintendo’s HD development ability okay? Iwata: Regarding Zelda HD, Japanese developers said that it could not be replicated on other machines. It was made in a relatively short period, so Iwata feels that HD development will not be a problem.
– Iwata said Wii wasn’t accepted by the core since they didn’t want to abandon their preferred control approach and it didn’t offer HD
– Wii didn’t have HD since HD const performance at the time was low
– Wii U makes it easier to use conventional controls
– Wii U controller not as big/heavy as it looks
– 3DS can technically be used as a Wii U controller
– You can’t go online if you use 3DS as a Wii U controller (unclear if this is for Wii U or 3DS)
– Iwata explained that if you connect Wii U and 3DS, then players have to purchase both systems

Thanks to Thomas N for the tip!

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

A total of twelve gaming industry members have provided commentary about the Wii U to Eurogamer. We’ve heard from a few of these people before such as Frank Gibeau and Danny Bilson, though others have weighed in as well including Blue Castle Games’ Jason Leigh, Capcom’s Hiroyuki Kobayashi, and Greg Zeschuk from BioWare.

Frank Gibeau, president, EA Games:

We’re big supporters of it. There’s a lot of advances in processing and GPUs and also what’s happening on the interface level and online, and we’re very pleased Nintendo has come out with a machine that can do HD.

The controller is awesome. It’s fantastic. I loved the golf ball on the ground. That was a great visual. Like Miyamoto said, it’ll open up new ways to play games we haven’t even discovered yet. We have to spend time with the hardware and start to bring designs over to see what works, how it works and what you can do.

You saw with Madden football, obviously there are lots of cool new things you can do, and with FIFA [it could control] the way you call plays. We are looking at the Battlefield experience to Wii U. Nothing specific to announce, but we’ve already started looking at how we’re going to do that and what the features will be.

I believe it is [capable of reproducing PS3 and Xbox 360 visuals]. It certainly has the high-definition resolution. But it looks like it’s definitely competitive. And it’ll do some very unique things.

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

This information comes from Asssassin’s Creed: Revelations developer Brent Ashe…

“That hardware [Wii U] is interesting because, now it’s going to be in HD and wrapping that in with their control scheme – I’m curious to see where that goes.”

Just as a sidenote, Ubisoft Quebec is working on Assassin’s Creed Wii U. Ubisoft Montreal has been the main studio behind the franchise (and I assume that’s where Ashe comes from), though I do believe Quebec has chipped in a bit. From what I understand, Quebec is handling their first, true Assassin’s Creed on their own, so it should be interesting to see how the game turns out.

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

Early on in the 3DS’ lifecycle, Capcom announced two brand new Resident Evil games for the handheld. Now that Nintendo has introduced another piece of hardware, might the company consider bringing the franchise to Wii U as well?

While nothing has been announced, both Resident Evil: Raccoon City producer Masachika Kawata and designer Kenji Matsuura expressed quite a bit of interest in the console when speaking to CVG. Kawata went as far as to say that he would love to work on a Resident Evil game for Wii U.

“Whether or not we actually will develop a Resident Evil title for Wii U, we’ll put that aside as obviously I don’t know yet. But for me personally, I’d love to do just that. It’s a very, very interesting piece of hardware. Whenever I see new game machines and their new possibilities get into my head, the ideas just start flowing. I’d absolutely love to make a Resident Evil on it. I really love the idea of being able to play the game even if my wife or my kids come and steal the TV. That’s great, brilliant.”

“As a game designer, when I see Wii U, my first thoughts are: ‘Oh wow, I could do this or that, or what would happen if I try to make a game like X,Y or Z.’ My motivation instantly goes through the roof and I want to try a lot of interesting new things. Nothing’s been decided specifically for Resident Evil but it certainly would be interesting.”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

Nintendo’s Katsuya Eguchi won’t comment on how the Wii U stacks up the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Instead, he’s more focused on what makes Wii U original.

In an interview with EGM, Katsuya told the magazine that he hopes fans consider Wii U to be a completely different console. Additionally, he believes that it’s most important to be unique – that’s where the controller comes in.

“Rather than compare specs with Microsoft and Sony, I’d like for people to view this as a different type of machine altogether. For me personally, what’s most important is what makes Wii U original, and that’s the controller.”

Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments

This information comes from Aliens: Colonial Marines producer Brian Burleson…

“We didn’t get the hardware for the Wii U until a couple of months ago, and we’ve been working on it since. The software, it’s pretty easy to work on, so that makes things a lot easier. When you already have something working, especially on the Unreal Engine, it’s a pretty basic, straightforward port at that point. Unreal makes it easier to do that, for sure. It’s too early too early to talk about the specifics on that [Wii U functionality], because we’ve just got things working. We’ll talk more about what that’s going to be and what’s going on in the future. But the goal is always to make it… for all the platforms to be the same. It really sucks to have a game be nerfed on one platform, or missing a feature on one platform. So the goal is always to make we’re fully-featured, and that everything is the same experience. It [the game] runs on the console, and you can do some really cool stuff with it. We’ll talk more about that in the future, but just think about the possibilities.”

A common compliment we’ve been hearing from developers is that it’s been easy working with the Wii U hardware. Here’s hoping that even more companies will be open to trying out the Wii U if teams can get content running without much trouble.

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