In a new nine-minute video, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata discussed Animal Crossing: New Leaf shipments and shortages, as well as a special ROM card the game uses.
New Leaf has been seeing widespread sell-outs across Japan. While it’s been fairly successful on the eShop, it has sold tremendously at retail. Shops haven’t been able to keep up with demand.
Read on below for an update on Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s production. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Nintendo will be able to alleviate the shipment situation anytime soon.
– Iwata apologies for New Leaf shortages
– The game saves more items and swapped villages, houses with a special type of ROM card with SLC-NAND to store such big save data
– NAND is flash memory, as used in SD cards, USB key drives, SSDs
– SLC-NAND is durable and has large area for volume
– MLC-NAND sacrifices durability for greater data density
– Supplies for SLC-NAND, controller chip were within estimates
– Sales greatly exceeded estimates
– Replenishing supplies will take several months, won’t be resolved soon
– Nintendo is adjusting production volume allocation between Animal Crossing and other SLC-NAND games, but not giving AC a production monopoly
– Iwata reminds consumers that the game can be downloaded on the eShop
– There are download cards at retail which may sell out, but there will be plentiful resupplies for year-end
– It’s possible to buy download codes online
– Limited-time downloadable presents and Seven-Eleven-exclusive presents will be redistributed at a later date
Irem’s entire slate of 3DS games has consisted of pachislot games. To the surprise of no one, the company is churning out yet another one of these for the portable.
Pachipara 3D Deluxe: Sea Story arrives in Japan in February 2013. It has a story mode in which players find themselves on a solitary island. That’s all we really know, for the most part!
Nintendo Power has finally come to an end. Subscribers should soon be receiving the magazine’s December issue, which is its last.
It seems that Nintendo Power decided to go in an old-school direction with the final cover. Take a look:
Does that look familiar to any of you? It should! Nintendo Power is paying tribute to its very first cover from 1988:
3DS beats out lifetime sales of GameCube, closing in on N64 and SNES
Nintendo launched the 3DS worldwide in Q1 2011. That’s less than two years ago. Even though the portable hasn’t been around too long, it’s managed to make some impressive strides on the market.
First, the 3DS has already surpassed lifetime sales of the GameCube. It’s also reached two-thirds of the N64’s total sales, and almost half of the SNES’ sales.
Not bad, Nintendo.
The third digital release from Guild01 will be Crimson Shroud. Earlier today, Level-5 confirmed a December 13 release in both North America and Europe. It will cost $4.99 / £4.99 when it launches.
Source: Level-5 PR
“[It’s] specifically for Canada only”, said Nintendo of Europe’s James Honeywell, “We have no plans to launch it in the UK. Our focus here is all about Wii U.”
I still find it REALLY weird that they would put out a Wii Mini at all, much less one only in Canada. But that’s Nintendo for you, I guess…
Peter Molyneux has all of the respect in the world for Nintendo, but he isn’t sold on the company’s newest console. Speaking with GamesIndustry, the Fable creator said Wii U is “good, but it’s not great.”
Molyneux feels that the two screen approach is “slightly confusing as a consumer.” He also seemed a bit down on the technology powering the system.
“I think the Wii U is good, but I don’t feel it’s great. I’ve played the experience, I’ve played Nintendo Land, I’ve played ZombiU, and they’re good. I find holding the device in my hand–looking up at the screen and looking down at the device–slightly confusing as a consumer. It’s good, but it’s not great. And we really need these new pieces of hardware to be great in today’s world, because the competition is not just consoles anymore. The competition is everything, all the technology. When you’re holding a Kindle Fire or an iPad in your hand, it’s just amazing technology. It really is. It’s expensive, but it’s amazing technology. And people like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft need to match that. They need to match that in my mind, and exceed it. And I’m not sure the Wii U really did that.”
Molyneux may have his doubts when it comes to Wii U, but again, he has high praise for Nintendo in general.
“I’ve got unvelievable respect for Nintendo. They created our industry in a very real sense. I can remember everybody in the industry laughing and giggling about how stupid the Wii was, what a stupid name it was, and who would want motion control. And then it went on to sell what, 60, 70 million copies? It got people who never considered computer games to play them.”
Molyneux did make sure to point out his interest in Wii U’s asymmetric gameplay and attraction of its indie games. Because of the Wii’s huge success, Molyneux thinks it’s possible that his expectations could have been set too high. And in the end, Molyneux has “enduring faith” in Nintendo.
Many of you probably know at this point that when making a Nintendo Network ID, the account must consist of at least six characters. It also can’t exceed sixteen characters.
But there’s another limitation in place that you may (or may not) be aware of – the Nintendo Network ID you create can’t have the word “Nintendo” in it. We have no idea why this is so, but it is what it is!
