2011 hardware totals for Japan are now available. The figures are based on Enterbrain data collected between December 27, 2010 and December 25, 2011.
3DS – 4,135,739
PSP – 1,960,177
PlayStation 3 – 1,467,261
Wii – 937,451
Nintendo DS – 711,204
PlayStation Vita – 402,794
Xbox 360 – 114,075
Shigeru Miyamoto is working on Pikmin 3, Luigi’s Mansion 2, and a third mystery project. ZoomIn says that it is “an undisclosed, original title.”
Could this be the game that Miyamoto hopes to unveil this year?
Fans have started to translate the many, many pages of Hyrule Historia. There are two specific, noteworthy excerpts at the end of the book.
First, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma commented on the completion of Skyward Sword’s development and how Nintendo is receiving feedback from players. They’ll be using this as “energy for the next voyage.”
Aonuma then stated that “to tell the truth, we’ve already set sail in a new voyage.” He could be referring to the new Zelda project that is in development for the 3DS.
“The long sailing time of creating Skyward Sword, a game to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series, has just come to an end. The voices of those who’ve played it from around the world reach us. We hear their admiration comments, and their criticism too. All those voices become energy for the next voyage. Well, to tell the truth, we’ve already set sail in a new voyage.”
Aonuma also reminded fans that Nintendo will always be more concerned with creating engaging gameplay for Zelda titles rather than focusing on the story elements.
“Chapter 2, ‘The Full History of Hyrule,’ arranges the series in chronological order so it’s easier to understand, but from the very beginning, Zelda games have been developed with the top priority of focusing on the game mechanics rather than the story. For example, in Ocarina of Time, the first installment of the series I was involved in, the main theme was how to create a game with pleasant controls in a 3D world. Or in the DS game, Phantom Hourglass, the focus was having comfortable stylus controls. Finally, in the most recent game, Skyward Sword, we focused on an easy way to swing the sword using the Wii motion plus.”
Level-5 hopes to ship four games for the 3DS in 2012. The company is preparing Fantasy Life, Girls’ RPG: Cinderella Life, Time Travelers, and Guild 01 before the end of the year.
Girls’ RPG: Cinderella Life comes out in Japan on March 8. Level-5 hasn’t announced launch dates for the rest of the titles as of yet. They’ll likely spread out the releases over the next twelve months.
Everybody’s favorite analyst Michael Pachter has weighed in on third-party support for Wii. Pachter believes that Nintendo will have a tough time wooing such developers/publishers, partially due to the console’s controller. He feels that “they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers.”
Pachter’s full response:
“Nintendo has to simply stop living in the past in 2012. They had a great deal of success since 1985 by making proprietary hardware and supporting it with proprietary software. They attracted third party support based upon the large installed base they generated for their hardware. They appear to me to be confident that ‘if they build it, third parties will support it’, but I don’t think that is the case for Wii U.
“By trying to be ‘different’ with the tablet controller, they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers. Nintendo made the device sufficiently different that they are all but assured of limited third party launch support, which ultimately will lead to modest hardware sales.
“They should stop relying upon the strategy that got them here, as it appears to no longer be working. I think their resolution should be to look outside of Nintendo for leadership in the areas of digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming.”
Zoom.in has published a new video interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, and it contains some juicy tidbits. He discusses the retirement situation (yet again), how he’s jealous about video game characters being able to outlive us, his lack of interest in making photo-realistic games, and the pressure he faces due to expectations.
Cambridge, Mass. – January 6th, 2011 – Harmonix today announced that Hall & Oates will makes its debut on the Rock Band™ Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Wii™.
Rock Band provides the deepest and best selection of artists, songs and albums through the Rock Band music platform, which features more than 900 artists and more than 3,000* tracks via disc and download purchase (complete list of tracks atwww.rockband.com/songs). Rock Band’s gigantic music library dwarfs that of any other rhythm video game on the market. More than 100 million songs have been sold through the Rock Band Music Store since its launch on Nov. 20, 2007.
Rock Band DLC Additions for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 system and Wii™
Nintendo of America has posted the English version of the first Super Mario 3D Land tips/tricks video. It’s essentially the same clip as the Japanese video, but it’s certainly worth watching it again!
Ikari no Yousai 2 will be released in Japan on January 11 for 400 yen.
