Wii U

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

A couple of Nintendo franchises were represented on Wii U at E3 last week. New Super Mario Bros. Mii was available to play in prototype form while Zelda was on display in full HD glory. Metroid, however, was absent, aside from a few nods in Battle Mii.

But just because Samus wasn’t in action at the show doesn’t mean that she won’t be starring in an adventure on Wii U. Nintendo’s Katsuya Eguchi seems quite confident that the franchise will show up on the console.

Eguchi told Kotaku:

“I can’t give you any details now, but I’m sure there will be a new Metroid release making use of the new controller, not just to control Samus and her ship but also to give the player a new source of information. Maybe the player is looking at the screen but has the information that they need to defeat the enemy in their hands.”

It’s kind of strange to hear Eguchi talking about Metroid since he hasn’t really been involved with the series. If Yoshio Sakamoto was at E3, perhaps he would have provided more insight!

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

This information comes from Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter…

“They were particularly unclear about whether the console would support more than one of their tablet-like controllers; Mr. Miyamoto said no, but Reggie said yes (to me in a meeting), Obviously, they intend to ship the console with only one of these controllers, so it is unlikely that anyone will develop games that require two, but they were not clear whether the capability exists.”

In the end, I have a feeling the Wii U will use at least two controllers. Anything beyond that is probably a stretch due to how much it’ll cost. I personally do most of my multiplayer gaming with two controllers anyway, so I’d be fine with just two Wii U controllers. Also remember that numerous Wiimotes can be used as well!

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

Satoru Iwata has admitted two significant faults with the Wii. First, he acknowledged that the console wasn’t able to meet the needs of hardcore gamers. And, second, Iwata noted that Nintendo wasn’t able to provide an experience that consumers could view on an HD television.

This was in response to a comment posed to the Nintendo president that the Wii U appears to be appealing more to hardcore gamer and first-person shooters. He explained that, this time around, the Wii U is HD ready and that it should be “be as powerful as any other console”. Also noteworthy, Iwata said that third-party publishers have been open to advancing the shooter genre thanks to the new controller.

Iwata’s full response:

In the case of the original Wii, our intent was to extend the gaming population, but of course we needed to think about how we were going to motivate non-gamers to play with video games, so we came up with Wii Sports and Wii Fit, as well as how the Wii system was designed.

For example, in the case of our products, approximately 50 percent of our users are a female audience, the other platforms are around 30 percent.

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

This information comes from Ubisoft’s Michel Ancel, who was asked if believes Wii U is a next-generation machine…

“Not really. I think Wii U is next-gen in terms of interface. I think people are going to copy it, because you’ve got this mix between tablet, touch screen and big screen – big screen and little screen – there are a lot of possibilities. I don’t know if Sony will do it, or Microsoft – but yes, I think it’s a possibility. But I think the main thing is to have this – offering new ways to play is very interesting.”

As you can see above, Ancel didn’t exactly explain why he doesn’t view Wii U as a next-gen console. He seems to believe that the interface is, but not the console as a whole? I wonder why…

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment

It looks like Tomonobu Itagaki is much more interested in bringing Devil’s Third to Wii U than originally thought. Speaking with Impress Watch, Itagaki said that the team is actively looking into releasing the title for Nintendo’s upcoming console and is excited about the possibility.

Interestingly, Itagaki tried out the Wii U for the first time at E3 last week. He believes that the console was made with Japan in mind as Japanese homes are small and don’t often contain numerous televisions. According to Itagaki, Japan has moved into a more portable mindset due to this. He told Impress Watch that streaming feature is Nintendo’s way of tackling low console sales in Japan. He added, “I believe it is a good idea.”

Devil’s Third is set for release in early 2013.

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

This information comes from Nintendo’s UK marketing manager Rob Lowe…

“It’s absolutely fundamental to the success of Wii U to have better third party support than we’ve had in the past for our previous consoles. I think Mr Iwata totally recognises that. That’s why we had a Ubisoft round table session [during E3], that’s why John Ricitiello was on stage at our conference. And even at a local level we’re doing everything we can to support third parties much more than we have done in the past. It goes all the way through the company, from Nintendo Japan, to Nintendo Europe, to Nintendo UK. It’s very different for us to act like that because traditionally we would invest our time and money more into first party. We have a sightly different business model to Microsoft and Sony, who will obviously invest more money or marketing support in third party titles. It’s almost the opposite for us but I think we realise now we have to invest in a much bigger way in third party partners because there are certain types of games that we’re just not specialists at. If we want to create a console that will appeal across boundaries to all different types of gamers we’re going to need their support more than ever before. We’re hoping we’ll get a lot of exclusives as well because of the unique way the console is made. It is much easier for third parties to move their products across from Xbox 360 and PS3 to Wii U. However, the way that the controller has to make you think and make the developers think will hopefully mean that titles that are ported over will hopefully have individual features that aren’t on the other systems.”

You have to like how Nintendo is getting involved with third-parties so far. They’re publishing LEGO City Stories, had EA speak at their E3 conference, and had a roundtable at the show with Ubisoft. And there are also some amazing experiences on the way from outside companies. Having said that, I wonder how long third-parties will stick around if they start seeing poor sales for the hardcore titles they’re pushing out on the Wii U.

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

Nintendo of America PR director Mark Franklin on whether developers are required to use the screen transfer feature in every game…

“We’re not making any prerequisites to any of the developers to say ‘you have to do this, you have to do that.’ What we’re showing at this year’s show is just the possibilities. That’s just an example. Certainly, that’s a possibility.

Franklin on how easy it is for developers to implement the screen transfer feature…

“I’m not going to get into the technical side, but it’s certainly up to the developers to make that choices. We’ve shown what’s possible and now it’s up to the developers to come up with content.”

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment

This information comes from Animal Crossing director/producer Katsuya Eguchi, who was asked a Wii U game can be used if you’ve stepped away from the television…

“The thought is you’ll be playing in the same room that the base console is in.”

There has been a bit of conflicting comments about how far the range of the Wii U controller will stretch. I think we should just treat the controller and console as a unit that won’t stray too far from the television. You might be able to take the controller to a few rooms nearby, but don’t expect a far range…

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Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment

It’s great to hear Suda51 talk about No More Heroes 3 once more. It feels like it was ages ago when he said that he would make the next game in the series for Nintendo’s next console!

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

This information comes from Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli…

“Crytek’s support for Wii U is definitely going to happen. We aren’t showing it but we are pretty much running it already.”

The more third-party support, the better! Crytek’s engine and technology should certainly be capable of running smoothly on Wii U since the console can definitely match the power of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I wonder how open they’ll be to bringing concrete games to the Wii U…

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