Ubisoft has decided against holding a press conference at this year’s Gamescom. However, the company will still be very much at the expo with plenty of games on display. Attendees can probably expect titles such as Rayman Legends, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and Assassin’s Creed IV to be playable.
EarthBound is Now Available; Enhancements to Nintendo Zone Announced
Nintendo Direct Mini Reveals Wii U and Nintendo 3DS Updates
REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– At long last, Super NES classic EarthBound is now available as a Virtual Console game in the Nintendo eShop for Wii U for $9.99. Nintendo announced its availability during today’s Nintendo Direct Mini video. Nintendo also revealed that Nintendo Zone locations will be getting StreetPass enhancements to let players connect with one another, and reminded people about this weekend’s Pikmin 3 demo program at select GameStop and EB Games stores.
“Not only do Wii U owners have a big lineup of great games on the way like Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101, but they also have access to Virtual Console classics like EarthBound,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “If you haven’t already, this is a great time to jump into the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U experience.”
To view the Nintendo Direct Mini in its entirety, visit http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct.
Information in today’s Nintendo Direct Mini included:
The Rayman Legends development team found great joy in working with Wii U. Michel Ancel recently told gamereactor.es that “the main excitement that we had for that particular game was working on the Wii U, working with Nintendo.” And so when the higher-ups at Ubisoft decided to delay the game for additional versions, an opportunity was taken to add even more content.
Ancel said:
When the Wii U version was finished could have said ‘stop the Wii U version and only develop content for Xbox 360 and PS3. But the message was ‘we will continue to Wii U, adding content to Wii U’, and the main excitement that we had for that particular game was working on the Wii U, working with Nintendo. Work with development kits, discovering the Wii U… so we went with that positive energy to the end.
Also also commented on the Wii U in general and spoke about how the system’s messaging isn’t easy for everyone to pick up on:
The thing with the Wii U is that is not easy for the mass market to understand what’s cool inside of it.
I see it at home, when people say ‘look, we have that console, it has a touch screen (which looks like a big smartphone or a tablet)’ … and people don’t directly connect all these things as a system and see the fun… it takes time… That is the risk when you innovate: perhaps people are not as fast as you.
Today’s North American Nintendo Download report has been conspicuously missing in action. There could be one major reason for its delay: EarthBound appears to be coming to the Wii U eShop today as a Virtual Console download.
An official page on Nintendo’s website lists today’s release date as well as a $9.99 price point. It’s a bit more than other SNES titles, but most will probably say that it’s worth it.
Intelligent Systems has picked up the Japanese trademarks “Fire Emblem” and “Emblem”, sparking speculation that the filings are related to a new entry in the long-running franchise.
The two names were filed on June 24. Today, both were successfully registered.
It’s worth noting that the two trademarks aren’t for a renewal. None of Nintendo/Intelligent Systems’ older items will be expiring in the near future.
