Satoru Iwata is currently hosting an investors briefing for Nintendo’s latest financial results. As usual, analyst David Gibson has been live-tweeting from the event.
Read on below for a summary of items discussed during the meeting:
– Iwata says he feels great responsibility for not achieving forecast target
– 3DS is, in Japan, on good track with 3/5 top games from Nintendo
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf has exceeded plans
– US market has been worse with only 2 out of the top 20 titles from 3DS and no console in the territory
– US sales down 27%, compared to Japan while previously 2.5x
– “also blaming competitors were aggressively bundling titles in usa and eu”
– Germany and France 3DS sales up year-over-year
– These are the best markets for Europe
– In the US, Nintendo had 5 titles in the top 20
– France: 11/20; Germany: 10/20; Spain: 11/20
– UK was lower
– “still saying 3ds volumes accum exceeding ds ramp”
– Overseas 3DS software is not there yet to drive hardware sales, but has become leading platform in Japan
– Wii U value proposition not delivered enough to consumers
– Nintendo is selling below cost and not planning to discount further
– “set minimum 100bn op for next fy,committment from mgmt, want to eliminate loss per unit aggressively”
– To achieve this target in Japan, 3DS will gain Monster Hunter 4, Dragon Quest VII, Pokemon X/Y, and has Animal Crossing
– Overseas, Nintendo will release Fire Emblem, Brain Age, LEGO City, Animal Crossing by mid-year
– 10 more titles coming from Nintendo
– All of these games will be available digitally on 3DS
– More Japanese 3DS games for third-parties will be released overseas like Professor Layton
– Digital space has proven important for sales
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf sales account for 1/4 of sales
– Nintendo wants to do more third-party collaborations
– Not just licencing; Nintendo wants to collaborate with developers
– Wii U connectivity rate is 74%
– Nintendo wants to enhance pad usage
– Google Street View delayed to mid-February for Japan
– Iwata says it’s an example of what they want to do with the GamePad in living room
– Called “WiiStreetU”
– Can tour places from living room
– Adjusts to orientation of GamePad as you pan around
– Handheld and console R&D is now together
– Plan is that software can work across each other with potential for mid-long term
– Wii U will have more software to come out from mid-year onwards in particular
– Miyamoto: changing my gaming style with Wii U
– Miyamoto – saying developers have not put much uniqueness in games as yet
– Iwata: Wii U is part of my life
– Iwata says not every single game can become cloud offered and believes hardware won’t become obsolete
– Need to think of something new and unexpected in games
– Miyamoto: smartphone games are now so functional, users become satisfied
– Nintendo’s mission is to offer more and hence users buy their systems
– Miyamoto: for consoles, he thinks the TV can be more useful in people’s lives; this is Wii U’s mission
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf has been more successful with more women/girls compared to the DS game; 2/3 women buyers
– 3DS female mix was 25% in week 1, but that hit 50% when Animal Crossing launched and continues at high levels since the game released
– Iwata: need to think of better way to communicate asymetrical gameplay
– Miyamoto: don’t think all games should incorporate asymetrical gameplay
– Miyamoto: Miyamoto thinks besides HD there is no better way to play with 2 screens
– Iwata: said up until middle of last year was difficult to develop for Wii U for Nintendo and 3rd party, improve over time, we have overcome it
– “processor is memory optimised,cpu/gpu becoming less important, competitors doing the same”
– Iwata: digital sales key for growth, but won’t replace packaged releases
– Achieved 11bn sales in 9 months
– Wii U NFC “can be used for games with figures/cards working with game, making preparations in that direction ,say by end of yr”
– ” nfc is similar to felica in jp so studying to use nfc for e-money, no change to dividend policy or return to shareholders”
– Iwata: it is my mission to improve and make our platforms solid and hence achieve 100bn op, wiiu after summer will have more games to drive
Remember Tomodachi Collection 3DS? It was announced in August of last year, but dropped off the radar following the initial reveal. The game is still in development, according to an updated release schedule from Nintendo, and it’s still on track to launch this spring.
There are other interesting inclusions in the schedule. Nintendo lists the new Monolith Wii U game for Japan, but not North America and Europe. That’s rather strange. I have a feeling that Nintendo won’t be stingy with its localization like it was with Xenoblade, but the non-inclusion is peculiar.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf is coming to North America “early” this year. Europe is getting the game between April and June. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD is reconfirmed for release in all three major territories (North America, Europe, and Japan) this fall.
Take a look at the full release schedule above.
Included in Nintendo’s latest financial report is an updated listing of its million seller titles. New entries include Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
The full listing is as follows (worldwide numbers):
DS
Pokemon Black/White 2 – 7.63 million
New Super Mario Bros. – 30.18 million
3DS
New Super Mario Bros. 2 – 5.96 million
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 2.73 million
Mario Kart 7 – 7.73 million
Super Mario 3D Land – 8.0 million
Paper Mario: Sticker Star – 1.83 million
Mario Tennis Open – 1.07 million
Wii
Wii Sports – 81.64 million
Mario Party 9 – 2.73 million
Mario Kart Wii – 34.01 million
Wii Sports Resort – 31.54 million
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 27.61 million
Wii U
Nintendo Land – 2.23 million
New Super Mario Bros. U – 2.01 million
Ubisoft’s Osiris was officially outed last night. But bad news for those looking forward to the new IP from the maker of Assassin’s Creed: it’s no longer in the works.
A Ubisoft representative confirmed that it pulled the plug on the project:
“The content in question was from a Ubisoft project that is no longer moving forward.”
Ubisoft didn’t clarify when it shelved Osiris, nor did it say how long its Montreal studio was working on the title.
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.”
