With only one month remaining in January, previously announced services for Wii U – namely TiVo, Netflix, and Google Maps – had little chance of making it out this month despite Nintendo saying otherwise.
Officially, Nintendo has now declared a more vague “early 2013” release for both TiVo and Netflix. Regarding Google Maps, support for the app is now scheduled for the “first quarter of 2013.”
Update: Added in the full quote after the break.
Nintendo and EA’s relationship has gone strangely sour following the Big N’s E3 2011 press conference. EA CEO John Riccitiello stepped out on stage and proudly spoke about his company’s excitement over the console. Since then, though, the publisher’s interest in Wii U has declined and its output has been nothing less than disappointing.
We’ve seen a couple of sports titles. We’ve also seen a late Mass Effect 3 port and late Need for Speed: Most Wanted port, the latter of which is finally coming out in March.
During EA’s financial results call today, one investor mentioned the company’s non-aggressive pursuit of Wii U and wondered what this means for consumer adoption of next-gen consoles in the future. Riccitiello, who happened to deliver a response, noted that it isn’t wise to ever count Nintendo out and praised the game-maker’s IP. However, he went on to say: “What we describe as ‘Gen 4’ is yet to come.” Does this not mean that EA – well, Riccitiello at least – feels that the Wii U isn’t next-gen?
Below is Riccitiello’s paraphrased response, as transcribed by NeoGAF’s iMax:
Miiverse won’t be seeing some of its bigger changes (like dedicated communities) until later this year. Today, however, it seems that Nintendo did implement a few, small modifications:
– Better implementation of the favorite communities
– Better button access with easy clicks to the Nintendo eShop, settings, new posts and popular ones
– ”Other communities” is added, through this grayed out at the moment
– Finally, all the emoticons are directly displayed while posting a message
This week’s Japanese eShop update is as follows:
Nintendo 3DS
Downloadable titles
Culdept (retail title) – 4,800 yen
Nintendogs + Cats (retail title, all three versions) – 4,800 yen each
Fire Emblem: Kakusei (retail title, Fire Emblem: Awakening) – 4,800 yen
Calcio Bit (retail title) – 4,800 yen
Super Pokémon Scramble (retail title) – 4,800 yen
Tantei Jing?ji Sabur?: Fukush? no Rondo (retail game, coming 01/31) – 4,200 yen
@Simple DL Series Vol. 7 The Uwaki Kareshi – Totsugeki! Uwaki Genba – 300 yen
Peakvox Myu Myu Train – 500 yen
Virtual Console
Madura no Tsubasa (Famicom, The Wing of Madoola) – 500 yen
Puyo Puyo (Game Gear) – 300 yen
Wii U
Downloadable Titles
Shin Hokuto Mus? (Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2, retail title) – 7,100 yen
Video Content
Chari Hashi DX video
BlayzBlue video
Simple Series: Cheating Boyfriend! Assault! Crime Scene! video
Myu Myu Train videos
There’s a double dose of encouraging Wii U-related news coming from Havok today.
First off, the company’s Vision Engine is now available for the platform. With its release, the full product suite of Havok technology has made its way to Wii U. Along with access to the free binary downloads of Havok Physics and Animation, developers are able to purchase a source license for any product they desire. Available tools include the aforementioned Havok Vision Engine, Havok Physics, Havok Animation, Havok Behavior, Havok Destruction, Havok AI, Havok Cloth, and Havok Script.
Vice president of sales and marketing Brian Waddle commented:
“We have shared a long-term partnership with Nintendo and are pleased to offer licensing of our entire product suite for Wii U developers worldwide. With several great Havok-powered launch titles recently released, we are pleased to see Wii U developers pushing the hardware with Havok’s tech. We look forward to seeing Havok Vision Engine power some great high-fidelity games on the new platform.”
Famitsu has returned with yet another teaser this week that may potentially break the hopes and dreams of gamers. In its latest issue, the magazine says it will, at long last, have news about a popular title. Further information was not provided.
Along with the teaser, Famitsu promised to share rankings of the most-anticipated 2013 games as voted on by readers.
See you next week, Famitsu!
Masahiro Sakurai dealing with bad RSI, says he should use his hands less
RSI– also known as “repetitive strain injury”– is a painful muscle/joint/bone/something condition that can be brought on by extensive and strenuous use of a particular muscle in the human body. The latest victim of this relatively common condition is Smash Bros. director and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakura, who says many years of programming and testing has left his hands in pain too often to do excessive work:
“Using a mouse, keyboard or gamepad make my arm tired, so I can’t use them in a continual manner. The only device I can use for an extended period of time is a joystick. It’s posing problems when I’m test-playing something in progress.”
“I figure that if I cut down on writing emails and other things, try not to type in so much data myself, and start giving more verbal directions, that’ll reduce the amount of keyboard-oriented work I have to do. But if I’m going to be supervising other people’s work, there’s no way to cut down the amount of mouse usage I need to perform. I’m trying to work it with my left hand in order to give the right one some rest, but that definitely cuts down on my work efficiency…”
So what’s a prolific game designer to do!? Sakurai says he’s going to try using a trackball mouse instead of a traditional one. Best of luck to him! I hope it helps him regain the efficiency he desires.
