During Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, an investor told president Satoru Iwata that he believes Animal Crossing: Wild World “was not so well appreciated” in the west in terms of sales. This isn’t so, Iwata said.
Wild World sold at least five million copies overseas. This may not seem like a huge figure compared to Japan’s success, “but there are already some core fans of the Animal Crossing series overseas too.”
Iwata explained:
You mentioned that the reception of “Animal Crossing: Wild World” was not so good overseas. The sales of this game have reached no less than five million copies overseas. There are few companies whose result of selling more than five million copies of a product is considered not up to scratch. It is true that the sales figure overseas, meaning in the U.S. and Europe, is relatively small compared to the fact that the number of sales has surpassed five million copies only in Japan, but there are already some core fans of the Animal Crossing series overseas too. When we announced “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” through our Japanese Nintendo Direct presentation, many consumers worldwide viewed it on the Internet and we received a lot of requests from overseas consumers who wanted to play it as soon as possible. We would like to first promote the attractions of this game to such a core fan base.
Nintendo will soon be unifying its console and handheld divisions into one entity. By doing so, the company “would like to integrate software development methods, operating systems, and built-in software and software assets for each platform so that we can use them across different machines.”
Satoru Iwata also teased an interesting scenario during Nintendo’s financial results briefing last week. He said: “if we manage to integrate our platforms successfully, we may in fact be able to make more platforms.”
We posted a paraphrased version of Satoru Iwata’s comments on cloud gaming, but I thought it’d be worthwhile to post the full (and official) translation. You can find his remarks below.
The term “cloud gaming” is one of the words we have lately heard so often, but I would like people to understand that there are certain things that cloud gaming cannot achieve. A cloud is an attempt to process information online on a server, as opposed to doing so on individual machines in the hands of the users. What this implies is, since the time to transmit data over an Internet connection is never negligible, there is always some latency before you receive the result of your input. Of course, there are types of games on which delays have no effect. In such instances, it may perhaps make sense to have an input means as well as the ability to display images at hand and let all the information be processed on a server. On the other hand, for some highly interactive games, action games in particular, the time required to reflect the push of a button on the screen is critical and the frame rate (the number of times a screen can be updated in a given second) determines the fluidity of the movements. This means that there are some types of games that can be put on the Internet and others that cannot. By the laws of physics, it always takes some time to transmit data, and given the current level of Internet technology, there is bound to be some latency during the processes of a server receiving data, producing images instantly and sending them back. There are many things that cloud gaming cannot do by design, but this fact has not been communicated well to the public, and I find it strange that many people claim that cloud gaming is the future.
The latest Wii U/3DS-specific UK software sales are as follows:
Wii U
1. New Super Mario Bros. U – Nintendo
2. Nintendo Land – Nintendo
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed – SEGA
4. ZombiU – Ubisoft
5. Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft
6. Rabbids Land – Ubisoft
7. Sports Connection – Ubisoft
8. Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth – Ubisoft
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision Blizzard
10. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 – Ubisoft
3DS
1. Paper Mario: Sticker Star – Nintendo
2. New Super Mario Bros. 2 – Nintendo
3. Mario Kart 7 – Nintendo
4. Super Mario 3D Land – Nintendo
5. Angry Birds Trilogy – Activision Blizzard
6. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Nintendo
7. Sonic Generations – SEGA
8. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games – SEGA
9. Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion – Disney Interactive
10. Virtue’s Last Reward – Rising Star Games
Source: Chart-Track
Japanese publication Dengeki published a new interview with Dragon Quest series producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto and ArtePiazza’s Shintaro Mashima. In it, the two discuss how his ArtePiazza and Square Enix tackled the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII.
Read on below to find out what the two had to say:
– Fujimoto always wanted to remake Dragon Quest VII for a handheld
– Dragon Quest VII was originally made right before the digital era
– All development documents were written on paper
– Dragon Quest VII had an insane amount of documents used for development
– All old documents are kept from the previous series
– Dragon Quest VII has its own section because the game has so much
– The Dragon Quest VII 3DS team had to brace the face that they’d be going through each file
– There couldn’t be a much longer wait for a remake of VII since it has already been almost 10 years since the game’s first release
– Waiting any longer could be too late
– When ArtePiazza and Square Enix met up, they would haul about 40 books of documents, consisting of the scenario texts alone
– Almost a year was needed to copy everything from paper to stored data on PC
– While this was taking place, Square Enix and ArtePiazza thought of new remake ideas
– A lot of planning was involved on how to give it a new presentation while keeping the same Dragon Quest feeling to it
– The team was focusing on how to best utilize the 3DS graphics and its features
– Fujimoto actually sat down and played through the PlayStation version of Dragon Quest VII with Yuji Hori, the creator of the Dragon Quest series
– Hori noticed that the game was difficult with its various problem solving aspects and puzzles
– When they made the original version, the idea was to make a “riddle solving adventure” game
– Hori pointed out the change of era during their recent play
– Fujimoto: “Solving some of the puzzles felt very exhilarating at times. Whenever you got stuck in the game, the frustration would build up.”
– With that in mind, they’ve decided to add features such as the stone shard radars
– Overall tempo improved and smoother gameplay
– From the starting point of Estard Island to the number of puzzles and overall difficulty, they’ve revised many things for the upcoming 3DS version
– First fight will be introduced earlier so players can enjoy their adventure while participating in heated battles from start to end
– Originally took around an hour until the first fight
– Leveling pace increased to match other Dragon Quests
– The addition of the visual encounters was meant for that purpose, allowing players to have the choice to fight whenever they want
– The team wants to make it easier to play rather than easier overall
– Better tempo stems from allowing players to have more decision making instead of forcing them to fight or solve puzzles
– Tough enemies will still be tough
– Useful spells including Evac will be available at earlier levels in the game
– Evac: escape from a dungeon
– Exclusive costumes added that visually correspond to each class
– Prior to that, the characters always looked the same regardless of any class changing
– Dragon Quest has been known for having an in game menu window, rather than screen
– For Dragon Quest VII on 3DS, they’ve made it an even better experience to provide smoother game play
– Camera work improved
– Players have two different angles to play from
– Can adjust this at any time
Capcom’s latest financial results are in, and the company is taking pride in the sales of its first Wii U game. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, a launch game in Japan, was “a smash hit”.
The 3DS version of Ultimate had also been re-released under a new “Best Price!” label. According to Capcom, it has “enjoyed steady growth.”
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate launches simultaneously in North America on March 19 and on March 22 in Europe.
Update: Bumped to the front page. Nintendo has also confirmed Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 for release this week.
This week’s European Nintendo Downloads are as follows:
Wii U Download (technically retail)
Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 – €59.99 / £49.99
3DS Download
Real Heroes: Firefighter 3D – €9.99 / £8.99
3DS retail
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed – €39.99 / £29.99
3DS demo
Fractured Soul – free
3DS Virtual Console
Mega Man 2 – €4.99 / £4.49
3DS video
The Beet Party: Jurassic Fridge – €0.99 / £0.89
Wii Virtual Console
Sengoku 2 – 900 Wii Points
Source: Nintendo PR
These are technically our first Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed screenshots that haven’t been incredibly compressed. Now we just need some direct-feed footage!
