Some retailers have Fire Emblem: Awakening in stock today, which is technically the game’s release date. Others, however, may not have stock available until later in the week.
A few retailers have indicated that Awakening is seeing shipping issues/delays/errors. Nintendo’s response to the situation is that sellers “receive their shipments on different days” due to “the variables of shipping”:
“Nintendo makes every effort to make sure its games and systems are available at retail stores nationwide on launch day. Sometimes, because of the variables of shipping, different retailers receive their shipments on different days. Fire Emblem Awakening can be purchased right now from the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS.”
This week’s video additions to the 3DS eShop are as follows:
Nintendo Show 3D: January 31, 2013
Witch’s Cat Video
Ice Climber Video
99Moves Video
Source: 3DS eShop
Almost all of THQ’s major studios and IPs were purchased during an auction last month. But Vigil Games and Darksiders? They were left behind.
Crytek chief executive officer Cevat Yerli in Germany said that his company was “surprised” by the lack of bids for Vigil.
“We were surprised when nobody bid on Vigil. We would have liked to have bid, but there were too many unknowns.”
Thankfully, Crytek, in a way, stepped in by forming a new USA studio. While it’s technically not Vigil Games, many former staffers have joined the new division including former general manager and co-owner David Adams.
Yerli spoke highly of Adams in an interview with GamesBeat:
“But when nobody bid [on Vigil], I thought that maybe we could reconsider bidding. But eventually we decided not to because the projects [the developer was working on] weren’t strategically fit for us, but I really liked David [when I talked to him] on the phone. He made a very good impression on me as someone who really cared, someone who is really passionate about what he does, and someone who is passionate about the team he works with.”
A report surfaced from China Daily last month suggesting that China could finally be ending its 12-year ban on game consoles. But when one investor brought up this topic during Nintendo’s financial results briefing, president Satoru Iwata indicated that the company doesn’t believe the “situation has actually changed drastically.”
Having said that, Iwata would be open to the opportunities present in China. If Nintendo were to receive official information about a change to the situation, Nintendo “will make an announcement from inside China.”
“Regarding China, we certainly saw some articles the other day. On the other hand, we do not think that the situation has actually changed drastically. Of course, if a drastic change is made, there will be some opportunities for us. We have been preparing for that, but we have not obtained any confirmation of the recent media reports. In the future, if we receive any official confirmation in this regard, the company will make an announcement from inside China. At this point in time, please just understand that there will be some options we may be able to take if the situation has actually changed.”
Satoru Iwata spoke a bit about the Wii U’s NFC feature during the Q&A session of Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing. Iwata noted that there are two ways of taking advantage of the technology.
First, NFC can be used for video games. It’s possible to make cards and figurines, and have either item be implemented with the NFC tech. Another aspect brought up by Iwata is “IC cards which can read and write data in order to record users’ scores and it is possible for Wii U games to connect with them.” Nintendo is “in talks with several software developers regarding such possibilities” and hopes to show “some output” this year.
Read on below for Iwata’s full comments regarding Wii U NFC, including talk about Japan e-money known as “FeliCa”:
“First of all, there are two main directions when it comes to the use of NFC. One is to use it for video games. For example, we can create cards and figurines with NFC and design our video games to work in conjunction with them. Also, an increasing number of arcade games are utilizing IC cards which can read and write data in order to record users’ scores and it is possible for Wii U games to connect with them. We are in talks with several software developers regarding such possibilities. We are making preparations and, by the end of this year, we will probably be able to show you some output, tell you about some more concrete examples of the possibilities or even let you try out some tangible examples. The other direction is e-money. In Japan e-money called FeliCa is widely used, and FeliCa is included in NFC. Technically, it is possible to settle an account by waving an e-money card over the Wii U GamePad. We are conducting research into this right now as one of this technology’s future possibilities. We will make an announcement when we are ready to discuss a more detailed plan. Since we have made a certain investment in order to install NFC, we will make efforts to at least receive a return on our investment.”
Nintendo has seen great success with digital releases thus far. In Japan, almost 800,00 copies of Animal Crossing: New Leaf were sold through the 3DS eShop.
Now, even though Nintendo is experiencing positive growth in the digital space, the company has no plans to ditch packaged games. Iwata did, however, acknowledge that there are issues at retail during the company’s latest financial results briefing.
Iwata noted that there are difficulties in forecasting sales. In the end, retailers are typically left with a surplus of stock “which ends up being sold at a huge discount or, in contrast, software shortages could cause lost sales opportunities for retailers.” This unfortunately leads to hesitation on the part of retailers since they are “less willing to accept the inventory risk.”
This shows the digital download sales transitions. For the current fiscal year, we have just finished the third quarter, but the digital sales have already reached 11.1 billion yen so far, and it is certain that in this fiscal year we will see our largest digital download sales. Another peak in digital sales you can see around the center of this graph is when Wii was widespread and Nintendo DSi had just been launched. In spite of the fact that the current installed base of Nintendo 3DS is still much smaller than how popular Wii was back then, we are already seeing the growth in digital download sales mainly for Nintendo 3DS, which, I believe, is an encouraging trend. I have no intention of simply replacing the packaged business with the digital download one, but it is also true that there are several issues with the current packaged software distribution business. For example, before launching a software title, no one can precisely forecast how many units of software will sell in the market. Everyone develops and launches a software title with the hope to make it a smash hit, but when it comes to the actual sales in the market, even the most seasoned marketers cannot forecast the figures accurately. As a result, retailers are often left with surplus stock, which ends up being sold at a huge discount or, in contrast, software shortages could cause lost sales opportunities for retailers. With these kinds of issues becoming increasingly challenging, retailers are less willing to accept the inventory risk. In this situation, even when a developer has created software with high potential to become a smash hit, it is likely to fall short of its real sales potential. Or, even though a quality software title can successfully attract the interest of potential fans, making and shipping just a little more than the actual demand can lead to a big discount in the marketplace and, thus, destroy the game’s brand. We have seen repeated cases of these. When I discussed with Shinji Hatano (Senior Managing Director, General Manager of Marketing Division) the company’s endeavors with the POSA card to expand our digital download sales outlets to retail shops, he stressed that it would provide distributors with a huge opportunity to solve the existing issues. A fairly large volume of “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” for Nintendo 3DS was sold in the form of a POSA card, which is activated only when it goes through POS registers at retailers and therefore the retailers do not have to shoulder the physical inventory risk. The growing sales of the POSA version of this game must have helped retailers see the business opportunity for video games with such a business structure. We therefore expect that our publishers may be interested in selling POSA cards for some titles they are publishing as download-only titles and that they will want to make more games available in POSA card format. Although convenience stores have limited shelf space to spare for a number of video game POSA cards, retailers with more shelf space might expand the areas designated to the video game POSA cards. They might even educate their customers who are not familiar with digital download software. We can expect to see a number of new possibilities. We expect our digital distribution to increase in importance and become an important revenue source.
One of the Wii U’s prominent features is its ability to offer asymmetric gameplay. A player can experience one thing on the television while another may be involved with something completely different on the GamePad. Asymmetric gameplay is certainly an important aspect for Wii U, but according to Shigeru Miyamoto, it won’t be shoehorned into every title.
Pikmin 3 is one such upcoming project that won’t offer asymmetric gameplay. Miyamoto believes that it’s biggest draw is “the high-definition graphics. You can even see Pikmin’s gestures with the graphics.”
Players will be able to view a full map on the GamePad while the TV displays the main visuals. On the other hand, it’s also possible to play off-TV.
