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Wii U

Shigeru Miyamoto has spoken to Kotaku about Amiibo’s origins.

Miyamoto wanted to have reading and saving data functionality available without an accessory since the GBA days. That, he says, was the main reason why NFC was built in for Wii U.

As far as Amiibo figures are concerned, Miyamoto stated that Nintendo felt characters would be “the most appealing form factor for a physical object that has this functionality”.

“If you think back it’s very similar to what we did with the eReader, the card readers that existed for the Game Boy Advance. I had been wanting to have not as an optional accessory but as a built in piece of functionality the ability to have this interaction of reading and saving data with a physical object for quite some time. And that was why we made the decision to include it with Wii U to begin with. And since the launch of Wii U we’ve been thinking of what’s the most appealing form factor for a physical object that has this functionality that people would see it and just want to own it and ultimately we decided that it was the characters themselves.”

On another interesting note, Nintendo had long wanted “to have a series of these toys that worked not just with this one game but with multiple games.”

Source

Interviews continue to pour out of E3, with the latest one coming from Kotaku. The publication spoke with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime about Wii U sales, third-parties, and Nintendo’s commitment to the console.

Check out Reggie’s comments below and Kotaku’s full piece here.

Nintendo of America senior director of communications Charlie Scibetta has commented further on the situation surrounding third-parties and Wii U.

Scibetta told Ars Technica:

“We want the same thing that the third parties want, which is to grow the installed base. We’re confident that if we can do that by driving the installed base through first-party software, like Mario Kart 8, like Super Smash Bros., then the third-party developers will follow because then they’ll see there’s a large enough installed base that it’s worth their investment to bring their games to our platform. So it’s our job to grow that installed base to make it more attractive for them to come to our platform.”

“Sure, everybody would like to have games earlier, but the good thing about Nintendo is that product quality is really important to us, so we would never ship it early just to help our bottom line or our financials for the holiday season. It’s much more important for us to protect the brand, the goodwill we’ve built up with fans over the years.”

“The good thing about Nintendo is we’ve been dedicated to gaming for over 30 years now, and it’s not like we do anything else. It’s not like we’re going to go away from what we do and try something different. We’re in for the long haul in gaming.”

A couple of prominent publishers have weighed in regarding their support for Wii U as well.

First up, Ubisoft:

“We think that by releasing good games from fan favorite brands, like Mario Kart, Nintendo is taking steps to increase the Wii U’s adoption. We have games coming out for the Wii U this year, including Just Dance 2015 and Watch Dogs. For any other games we announced at E3, it’s too soon to say.”

An EA spokesperson also said the following:

“So far, we haven’t announced any new titles for the Wii U, but that doesn’t preclude us from doing so in the future.”

Source

Nintendo of America executive VP of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt recently spoke with GamesIndustry about several topics. Moffitt mentioned that the Wii U is at a “tipping point” and could improve with high-profile releases, stated that there are no plans to keep the GamePad separate from the Wii U hardware bundle, and more.

Head past the break for Moffitt’s responses. You can find GamesIndustry’s full article here.

In this week’s issue of Famitsu, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS director Masahiro Sakurai wrote another column and discussed the addition of Miis to the game. You’ll find what he shared inside the magazine below.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime shared a few more words about Amiibo while speaking with Polygon at E3 2014 last week. Head past the break for his comments.

Pac-Man is the star of today’s screenshot, as Sakurai explains the first of his moves:

Pac-Man’s standard special move, Bonus Fruit. As you charge this move, the bonuses will change, and all of them have different characteristics and movement patterns when thrown. The bonuses cycle in the same order as in the original game, and the charge-up period doubles once you cycle beyond the orange.


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