HD graphics was a huge topic discussed during Nintendo’s Q&A session of the company’s latest financial briefing. We’ve posted the pertinent quotes below.

“I believe that we should take the most appropriate balance. We are not too much concerned about if the technology itself is the state-of-the-art or rather old-fashioned. If we can find out the most appropriate medium, between SD and HD, and flexibly move around them depending on the game’s contents, it will be good, I think.” – Genyo Takeda, General Manager, Integrated Research & Development Division

“As long as my way of making games are concerned, all I am concerned about technologies is, we probably cannot swim against the tide. The customers’ tastes will become more and more refined. Even today, many customers who have seen HD once say they cannot go back to SD. On the other hand, quite a few of us are accepting 5.1 channel even though they are not true 5.1 channel or embracing HD even though they are not true HD…So, if we try to intensify that portion, if we are simply intensifying what is actually SD to look like HD with the hardware support, it can be understood rather easily. So, development costs associated with HD graphics will have to further increase.” – Shigeru Miyamoto

“…Regarding the question of SD or HD, it must depend on each software. For example, we have to ask ourselves if HD is really necessary to develop Wii Fit. Won’t HD be better for the games like Pikmin? The developers should choose the most appropriate graphical format depending on the software they make. To Nintendo, our theme is how we can prepare the SDK library to cater to the needs of the developers, with which the developers can more easily develop their games. In fact, Nintendo has been working with such mission.” – Shigeru Miyamoto

“Next, let me talk a bit from an engineer’s viewpoint…I hate to tell this as Mr. Takeda is sitting next to me today, but in the days of Nintendo64, we were not able to make the program run properly without us making a lot of extra and seemingly unnecessary efforts. However, Nintendo GameCube and Wii are made so that programmers do not have to beat our brains out or making many extra works, so I feel that the programming has become fairly easy. Mr. Takeda himself has learned from Nintendo64 and has been specifically focusing on how possibly the hardware people can make the platform which gives the least amount of hardship to software engineers. I would like to believe that he will keep this spirit for any future products.” – Satoru Iwata

“Each company and each developer must have its own opinion about how they develop games as well as how they conduct their businesses. Some companies have internally consistent opinions, and some others have different opinions among the developers and engineers as to HD or more sophisticated graphics. When a company believes in the need of advanced graphics in order to differentiate itself from the others, which is commonplace, the development cost naturally increases…It can easily be understood that making profits is becoming harder and harder….As I explained by comparing the memory sizes of a NES game and Blue-ray as an example, the development costs are increasing for the third parties. Recognizing the circumstance, our position is to cooperate wherever appropriate in order to realize the most desirable results.” – Shinji Hatano, General Manager, Marketing Division

This quote comes from Shigeru Miyamoto at the Q&A session of Nintendo’s latest financial briefing. We posted this information a few days ago, but now it’s clearer and complete.

“…On developing the recent Zelda for DS, I found out that one of Zelda’s core appeals is its uniqueness. Of course we are preparing gorgeous graphics for the sake of users’ anticipation for a grand role-playing adventure. But what I believe is very important is the realistic, actual feeling players have experienced themselves; the feeling to have really been on an adventure, to have explored the unknown terrains, to have solved the puzzle through trial and errors, to have themselves grown through various experiences! In that sense, a personal sense of creativity is becoming important among us. We have assembled one of the most creative team for the recent Zelda for DS, and we want to be as creative as possible for upcoming Wii Zelda.

1. [PS3] Bayonetta – 135,000 / NEW
2. [DS] Final Fantasy Gaiden: Four Warriors of Light – 115,000 / NEW
3. [PS3] Tekken 6 – 103,000 / NEW
4. [PSP] Persona 3 Portable – 94,000 / NEW
5. [DS] Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver – 87,000 / 2,844,000
6. [WII] Wii Fit Plus – 81,000 / 780,000
7. [360] Bayonetta – 64,000 / NEW
8. [DS] Tomodachi Collection – 53,000 / 1,519,000
9. [DS] Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryakusha – Fire / Blizzard – 41,000 / 527,000
10. [WII] Super Robot Taisen Neo – 26,000 / NEW

This information comes from Capcom’s Senior Manager of Community, Seth Killian, who was responding over at Capcom-Unity to someone who said that the company favors Nintendo consoles:

“IMO, Capcom is the third-party publisher with the BEST cross-platform support out there. Fans of any particular console will always want something for the other consoles, and I understand that, but since all the consoles are successful in today’s market, we’re actively supporting them all (the love is pretty evenly spread even to handhelds).

While I know it’s easy to do the ‘you did that game on console X and not on my console Y!!!’, we really are trying and I think we’re much better at it than the other publishers, so please look at the question in terms of overall industry context rather than just in terms of specific games.”

It’s hard for me to complain about Capcom’s Nintendo support now that we know Okamiden is in development for the DS. There are also a number of other DS and Wii titles to look forward to including Monster Hunter 3, Ghost Trick, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. With that said, I’ll admit that there have been a few flops here and there (Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop comes to mind).

Well, this is quite a surprise! According to the USK, Germany’s equivalent of the ESRB, the Phoenix Wright series is coming to the Wii in some capacity. Unfortunately, the USK rating did not specify if this will be a WiiWare or retail release. The news hasn’t been officially confirmed by Capcom yet, but I don’t see how this classification could be incorrect. And remember, Capcom’s Christian Svensson said a few months ago that the series could “technically” land on Nintendo’s console.

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Even though Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition (that’s a mouthful, isn’t it?) releases in just six days, only a handful of official screenshots have been released. No trailers, no videos, pretty much nothing in general. For now, gamers will be forced to make a purchasing decision based on a few previews written during GDC and pre-alpha screenshots. However, someone took a picture of the Reflex Edition box – particularly the back – which shows a few new screens. They are blurry, but this is what people have had to resort to in order to get a better idea about the game! You can check out the images below.

Source 1, Source 2

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