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Wii U

Just a couple of months ago, Sony was forced to deal with a significant intrusion on the PlayStation Network. The network was shut off for many weeks before services gradually returned. But despite the attack on PSN, Nintendo’s future plans for online gaming will not be affected.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime reiterated to the Wall Street Journal that the company plans on offering a “flexible” and “robust” online system for the Wii U and will be working with third-parties to bring their interests to the platform.

Regarding the PSN intrusion specifically, Fils-Aime said that they will not change their approach as a result of Sony’s security breach. Nintendo will continue to stress testing and monitoring while still trying to offer a robust experience.

“It hasn’t [changed our approach] in that from a Nintendo perspective, we greatly value the trust that consumers give us in sharing their personal information. We hold that very dear. We constantly test ourselves, we are always looking to make sure that the information is safe. The experience by our competitors really just highlights that we have to be ever vigilant. And we have to be constantly thinking about how do we make our systems as robust as possible from a security standpoint… We don’t see it as a tradeoff. We will continue to push the envelope in terms of features, but what we’ll also do is invest heavily in testing ourselves, monitoring ourselves, making sure that our systems are secure as possible.”


This information comes from Sega Europe MD of development Gary Dunn…

“It’s still a little early. There’s another generation of prototype hardware coming out in June or July that’s going to give us more information.”

Dunn also noted that he “better not say” how old SEGA’s current Wii U hardware is. What does the company think of the console right now? SEGA’s “very early doors” reaction to Wii U is that “we’re finding it to be quite powerful”. However, Dunn isn’t sure how Wii U compares to the PS3/360, explaining that “It’s too early to call. It’s different.” But it is encouraging that Dunn said that the Wii U will be “a good platform to develop for”.

Dunn on developing for Wii U:

“We’ve certainly found it easier to get prototypes up and running on next-gen definition visuals, so we’re quite pleased with it. Given the fact that one of our graphics engineers ported something across very quickly I would say the answer to [having easily understandable architecture] has got to be yes.”

Dunn repeated that bringing Aliens: Colonial Marines to Wii U is the company’s “intent”, so it sounds like it’s not 100% confirmed that we’ll eventually see the title on Nintendo’s console. It is very likely, however.

Dunn on bringing PS3/360 games to Wii U as well…

“We would certainly consider Wii U in the mix, but every single game is green lit on an individual platform by platform consideration. No, no we wouldn’t [do that] (release a standard, basic port). Clearly the new control mechanic allows some asymmetrical gameplay which we’re quite excited about – to leverage that when we’re looking to put any game on that system.”

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During E3 week, GameSpot Australia sat down with Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi to discuss Super Mario 3D. Koizumi commented on a number of topics, including hint systems, fan input, mobile games, and even the Wii U briefly. Read on below for all of the details.

Yoshiaki Koizumi on Super Mario 3D playing a lot with perspective/3D…

“The effect of things coming from the background to the foreground was definitely something we wanted to use specifically because we could present it in 3D. When you’re presenting someone with a fictional world, and you’re trying to help him grasp how to move objects around inside of it, it was always very difficult, particularly on 2D displays, to show something coming from the background toward you. But now, we’ve gotten away from that taboo in development, and we now feel like we can use that effect more easily.

“As for other effects, we’re thinking of how objects will move in a 3D game and how they will move within a 3D display. We’re thinking about several of them, but I’m afraid I can’t reveal anything at this time.”


This information comes from Shigeru Miyamoto…

“Based on my background as an industrial designer and Nintendo and my background in creating entertainment, I’ve always wanted to make greater use of color in our hardware. If you look back on things like the Famicom and the original Super Nintendo, they were a lot more colorful from a hardware perspective. What we found over the years when we included a lot of different colors in our hardware is people would kind of point to that and use it to paint us as more kid-oriented. So really what we looked at is what are some ways from a design perspective that can make the system appeal to all ages. One of the ways that we found to best do that is to minimize the use of color. In that process we asked if we’re going to do that, what’s the best way to go? We found that rather than going all black – all white seems to have a broader appeal to people.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t care about the color of home consoles. I’m fine with black or white… I don’t think I’d be interested in anything other than that. The color of my handhelds are a bit more important, but in recent years I’ve still gone either black or white, depending on what’s available.

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This information comes from Satoru Iwata…

“There’s a cost issue. Technically, it is possible for the Wii U to support multiple Wii U Controllers. We’re not planning on asking our customers to buy multiple Wii U Controllers.”

I’m starting to really wonder how much these controllers could cost. Obviously they’re expensive based on all of the parts inside… but how much?

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This information comes from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot…

“We will announce one game that we want to launch day one that is a new type of game, which should be interesting. It is still very important, just because you can test a market and also see through the eyes of the first consumers. They are the people that actually have the word of mouth factor. The trendsetters. It doesn’t increase [costs] very much because the advantage is in being close to the other machines, you can do the game for all the formats at the same time. [Ubisoft is evaluating the Wii U for] both new content and a third location [for existing franchises].”

This information comes from EA Games label president Frank Gibeau…

“It served us well on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Getting in early is partly about being a successful transition company and figuring out where the hardware is going to go. With the Wii U it’s important for us to get there on day one so we can get in and build as big an audience as possible. We’ve been doing this for 25 years and trying to pick platforms and more often than not we get it right. I hope we have this one right. That’s the gamble.”

This information comes from Sega West president Mike Hayes…

“At some point we were the biggest, certainly top three third-party publisher on Wii, so for us it was a great platform… we’ve got absolutely no qualms about [Wii U]. I just think we’re all a bit premature in being a bit glass half full on 3DS. Everyone was clamouring ‘oh please bring it out in March, you must bring it out’ and then it’s like you get to June and it’s all ‘sales aren’t very good…’ Well, they haven’t got the software yet… That controller is absolutely brilliant and we have to think of innovative ways to use it. We’re doing high definition Sonics, we’re doing obviously Aliens: Colonial Marines, so you can bring them across, and that’s relatively low cost, which is good news. Then you spend your money on how do you use that controller effectively to make it unique and differentiate it.”

This information comes from Karl Slatoff, chief operating officer at Take-Two…

“For us it’s really about understanding what the hardware capabilities are and understand how it’s going to fit into what our goals are from a franchise creation perspective. Really understanding what that platform can deliver and developing for that platform. So that’s our philosophy, not just with the new Nintendo console but across the board. Whether we’re looking at the 3DS or the PlayStation Vita or any of the new formats that are coming out. We can’t look at them all the same way. We’re not just going to port over.”

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This information comes from Satoru Iwata…

To start, I’ll have to say that I don’t have any materials with me today that can illustrate precisely what our online environment will be like, but I can speak generally about the direction that we are moving in.

I think, in general, the online environment is changing quite rapidly.

So, what I have come to feel lately is that the idea of saying, “we are going to create this style of online structure and that we would like you, the developers, to fit into the online structure that we are creating” is perhaps already out-of-date.


This information comes from Satoru Iwata, who speak at a E3 Expo Analyst Q & A Session last week…

“What I can say is that we are also thinking, as you imagined, that with one console you would get one of the new controllers as a complete set.

As I am sure you can imagine, the cost of the new controller will exceed the cost of a standard controller up until now.

Regardless of the technical question as to whether or not we could do that (use two of the new controllers), for the time being, we will focus on what we can do with a single new controller with the system.

In the future, we may look at what other opportunities there are for gameplay and, how having two of those controllers might create fun or interesting new styles of play, but of course in doing that, it would require a consumer to purchase an additional controller. Therefore, we would need to carefully consider how we could create such an experience and, potentially, how we could ensure that there would be enough value within that experience for the consumer to accept that cost and make that purchase.”

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