Third-party support for Wii U was one topic discussed by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata during the company’s latest investor briefing Q&A.
Iwata noted that even though some overseas developers may not be creating titles for Wii U, “other big publishers have made all of their main titles available for the platform.”
In order to regain third-party support, Iwata reiterated the need to improve Wii U momentum with first-party releases. Second, Nintendo would like to see a third-party title break out on the console. Although there were quite a few third-party games to choose from at the Wii U launch, “most of them were converted from other platforms and therefore could not enjoy brisk sales. As a result, some software developers have become pessimistic about Wii U.”
Iwata also restated something that we’ve been hearing over the past month or so. Regarding third-parties, Iwata said there are “more key titles to be announced by them”.
A series of new games hit the StreetPass Mii Plaza – in Europe and Japan – as downloadable content last month. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently said that these new mini-games came out because the company felt 3DS users would be itching for new content inside the app.
Iwata also drew comparisons to Wii Play: Motion. Much like that title, the StreetPass Mii Plaza games were created by individual developers. Also, had the model been in place and digital distribution saw a rise in popularity, Wii Play: Motion could have been considered as a DLC-type package.
Iwata additionally confirmed a fairly impressive stat: sales of the new StreetPass Mii Plaza games have already exceeded 200,000 digital copies.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata tackled a question regarding Virtual Boy games on the 3DS during the company’s most-recent investor meeting Q&A. This is something that we posted about last week, but we now have the official translation.
Iwata’s statement reads:
I cannot talk about any unannounced products on occasions like this, but Virtual Boy is a game console Nintendo launched in the past that allows players to experience a 3D world in black and red only by just looking into it. It was not a commercial success, but some say that it was an attractive and extremely unique product by the standards at that time. I believe your comment is that we should take advantage of our software assets from Virtual Boy and I would like to take note of that advice for the future.
During the last hardware generation, Nintendo was known for its unique control schemes. The Wii introduced motion controls. The DS provided dual-screen gameplay.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke about the company’s approach to new control types at a recent investor briefing Q&A. His comments came in response to one attendee who expressed disappointment in how these new schemes contributed to the creation of fresh experiences.
Iwata said:
At the Japan Expo in France earlier today, Level-5 announced the European release date for Inazuma Eleven 3: Lightning Bolt/Bomb Blast. Both games will be available on September 27.
Mr Hino from LEVEL-5 confirmed today at #JapanExpo that #Inazuma Eleven 3: Lightning Bolt & Bomb Blast are coming to Europe on 27/9!
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) July 5, 2013
Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Donkey Kong are just a few of the well-known names that we seen from Nintendo regularly. But some fans and critics have called for the company to make something new and come out with never-before-seen IPs.
In Shigeru Miyamoto’s opinion, it makes sense to rely on Nintendo’s well-regarded series. He also believes that the likes of Nintendogs, Brain Age, and Wii Fit are all new franchises because they offer original experiences. While most may not see it this way because they lack a symbolic character, Miyamoto said that these titles “are actually contributing to our sales.”
Also, it is sometimes said that Nintendo has recently had no new franchises. At E3 this year, some said that Nintendo is always showing the same series of games, but this is because we mainly featured the characters from our franchises in our exhibition booth. There were six featured areas of our franchises in our booth, including Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong, and the visitors were able to take commemorative photos with these characters. Considering that visitors will not enjoy less well-known franchises in such areas, we did it in this way, which resulted in such a criticism, I think. On the other hand, I think it is one of our advantages to have such franchises. When some young in-house developers come up with an idea of a new franchise, I say that creating a new character does not necessarily mean creating a new franchise. In my view, a new way of playing or new use of media is necessary for a “new product” and creating a character is not the first thing to do. In this sense, “nintendogs,” “Brain Age” and “Wii Fit” are all new franchises. Few people see it this way because these games have no symbolic “character” like the existence of Mario, but they are actually contributing to our sales. I would like to continue developing video games with the view of entertaining a wide variety of people including the existing video game fans. Thank you so much for your support.
The Wii U is Nintendo’s first attempt at HD development. As such, the transition to making these types of games hasn’t been smooth.
Shigeru Miyamoto said during a recent investor Q&A that the switch to Wii U development – HD visuals and all – “requires about twice the human resources than before.” Nintendo “may have underestimated the scale of this change and as a result”, which caused games to remain in development longer than expected. Miyamoto now feels that Nintendo is just about past some of these initial difficulties, however.
When it comes to the scale of software development, Wii U with HD graphics requires about twice the human resources than before. Please allow me to explain that we may have underestimated the scale of this change and as a result, the overall software development took more time than originally anticipated just as we tried to polish the software at the completion phase of development. However, we are almost out of this phase, and we are also trying to create something unique utilizing an easier development approach called “Nintendo Web Framework.”
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata began the company’s investor briefing Q&A last week by addressing points pertaining to graphics, the E3 Nintendo Direct, and appealing to all types of gamers.
Due to how lengthy the investor’s question was, it would probably be best to share the entire thing:
I enjoyed Nintendo Direct yesterday, so I would like to “directly” ask a question to Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyamoto. I am afraid that personally the new hardware systems announced at E3 were not a big surprise. Some games certainly had breathtaking graphics, but their gameplay seemed as if they were an extension of existing games. Wii U is no exception to me. I think it is unfortunate that there have been no unique games only it could provide yet. It is true that “Off TV Play” is very convenient when we play Virtual Console games, but Wii U itself has not surprised me as much as Wii, which created a new form of entertainment that revolutionized conventional wisdom. Also, I saw the first-party software lineup for Wii U to be released until 2014, which was announced in “Nintendo Direct@E3 2013,” as continuations of existing games and found nothing in it that seemed possible only on Wii U. This is also true for third-party games. I am concerned that no one in the video game industry will be able to create anything new in the near future because developers have reached their creative limits. Nintendo is supposed to create products that can be enjoyed by many people regardless of age, gender or gaming experience, in accordance with its philosophy of “gaming population expansion.” However, most of the games in the current lineup are for those who have some interest in games. Some Japanese software developers focus on creating innovative games, but this appears to be possible only when they are small companies. Is Nintendo faced with a dilemma of attempting to improve its business performance while creating innovative games for a new consumer base?
And now for Iwata’s response:
Humid Games has cancelled its Kickstarter for Project Sweat. Without any sort of notice or campaign update, it’s unclear as to why the plug was pulled. However, it may have something to do with the small amount of backers.
Project Sweat could have landed on the Wii U eShop if the Kickstarter reached a stretch goal of £45,000. At the time of its cancellation, only £1,290 was raised.
