Last year, Solatorobo appeared at the Japan Expo in France. We later learned that Nintendo of Europe was localizing the game for numerous territories. A new rumor claims that Pandora’s Tower will be seeing similar treatment. However, we won’t be able to confirm the speculation until the event is over.
The conversation below is indeed real! It’s somewhat unexpected and quite different from what we generally see at these shareholders meetings. Yeah, it’s strange. Without further ado…
Investor: “I’m concerned about the falling stock price. I own stock, but I don’t own a single Nintendo product. I believe games are a waste of time. By the way, the reason I own Nintendo stock is because the name is nice, it’s in Kyoto and it was listed in the year of my birth.”
Iwata: “There are people in this world who don’t feel that games are a waste of time, so Nintendo continues to exist. We’d like to eliminate the thinking that playing games by yourself is negative, or when there’s a crime you immediately tie it into games. We’d like to raise the social importance of games. We’re working to expand the gaming population, yourself included.”
Investor: “During the Tohoku earthquake disaster, I believe people in the evacuation centers were lacking in exercise. Why didn’t you bring Wii Fit to them? Why didn’t you show off to the media that you’re doing more for the victims?”
The pamphlet above claims that Tales of the Abyss 3DS will be available in Europe on November 10. Is that true? Namco Bandai hasn’t said anything officially, so who knows! Last we heard, NGamer said that the title would launch in Spring 2012…
The low-quality footage of the video is intentional, as is the lack of sound. That’s the only footage we have of the game for now! Look for an official trailer soon.
Journalists, other industry insiders, and even retailers have tried to spread the word about Operation Rainfall. Even though Nintendo of America dealt a major blow to the campaign last night by saying that they don’t have any plans to localize Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower in North America, Michael Pachter has lent a small bit of support towards Operation Rainfall’s plans.
The Wedbush Securities analyst tweeted just a few hours ago:
“@OpRainfall a grass roots movement to convince Nintendo to localize games like Xenoblade. Interesting, if Reggie is reading this, I agree …I agree that Nintendo should localize Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower for the American market @oprainfall”
The 3DS is Nintendo’s primary focus at the moment. Even so, they’re still pumping out updates for the system’s younger brother, the DSi. The update quietly went live yesterday. Nintendo’s official site states the firmware 1.4.3U “provides behind-the-scenes improvements to system performance.” Something tells me that the update is also related to piracy prevention!
This information comes from Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines…
“Our motto has always been: We want to make our games available to the widest audience possible on whatever platforms that will support the game. So to whatever extent new consoles fit with the kind of games we are making and support them technologically, we would certainly do that. The Wii wasn’t even an option – we would have to make wholesale changes to the games we were making on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC to make them work on Wii. I honestly know nothing about the tech specs of the new platforms (Wii U and Vita) and whether or not they are a good fit for what we are making with say Rage and Skyrim and Prey 2. If they are a good fit for the kind of games we are making then absolutely, we would look to put them out for those. But beyond that I can’t get into specifics.”
A comment comment from developers/publishers we’ve been hearing lately is that Wii U can provide experiences that the Wii could not. Also, they’ve been saying that the increase in technical specifications make it easier to work on a Nintendo platform. I am wondering just how much more powerful Wii U is compared to the PS3/360 though, since that’s something more industry members have been avoiding lately.
