A few new games out came out this week on the Wii U and 3DS eShops. If you’re interested in checking out what’s new in screenshot form, take a look at the gallery below.
This week’s episode of Nintendo Minute has gone live. In today’s video, Kit and Krysta have some fun with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in a LAN party. Watch the full episode below.
Reggie: 3DS announcements at E3 and beyond, support into 2018, acknowledges Virtual Console interest
Nintendo has once again reaffirmed its commitment to 3DS. If last night’s reveal of the New 2DS XL wasn’t enough, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime promises that more game announcements are in the pipeline – including some for E3.
Reggie told IGN:
“We will certainly be announcing new titles for the 3DS platform, and we’ll do that continuously. Some things that will be announced at E3. There will be some that we announce after E3. For us, E3 is an important event but it’s not the one defining moment. Obviously with Nintendo Direct, we’ve created means to speak directly to our consumer base. We want to provide news and information when we believe it’s most relevant.”
NBA Playgrounds received a May 9 release date in Europe earlier this week. Unsurprisingly, North America will have it on the same day. That’s according to a listing on Nintendo’s website.
Here’s an overview from the page:
“Classic NBA arcade action is back! Take your ‘A’ game to the playground and beat the best in high-flying 2-on-2 basketball action. Practice your skills, play with up to three others on your Nintendo Switch and use your talents to posterize your opponents with acrobatic jams and ridiculous displays of skill. Collect your favorite players from a massive roster of current and retired NBA superstars from every team. Travel to playgrounds across the globe to compete against the very best with your massive arsenal of dunks and moves. Use your fine-tuned skills to take on the master of the playground himself – Allen Iverson.”
NBA Playgrounds will set you back $19.99.
The NES Classic Edition was tough to find ever since it launched towards the end of last year. Nintendo didn’t help the situation by announcing its discontinuation. In light of that, The Verge asked Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime about how Nintendo determines how many units of a product to make.
He said:
“We create a plan, we build our programs against that plan. But based on what we see in the marketplace we make adjustments, and we go from there.”
Regarding Switch, Reggie confirmed that Nintendo did indeed increase production following the early response.
In North America, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is available on your platform of choice. The game can be bought and played on Switch, Wii U, or 3DS.
In Europe, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is taking a bit longer than expected on Wii U and 3DS. Yacht Club Games now says it’s planned for May.
The studio wrote on its website:
“Despite our best effort and brightest optimism, we have found a few unexpected issues which are holding up different versions at the final submission step. We’re doing everything we can to have these resolved as soon as possible, but since this last step involves other teams, we are not able to provide an exact release date. We really can hear back on almost any day. We’re sorry for this delay, but hope to have you playing the latest version soon!”
Target is promoting Switch and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe once again with a new commercial. Have a look at the brief advert below.
The last official sales figure for the NES Classic Edition was 1.5 million worldwide at the start of February. In an interview with TIME, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed that this number has increased to 2.3 million.
Reggie also spoke about the response to the NES Classic Edition and how production was initially increased following demand:
“We had originally planned for this to be a product for last holiday. We just didn’t anticipate how incredible the response would be. Once we saw that response, we added shipments and extended the product for as long as we could to meet more of that consumer demand.”
GameStop is once again talking up Switch’s strong start and sales.
While speaking with Forbes, senior director of merchandising Eric Bright said Nintendo’s new platform is exceeding expectations. Lining up with what has been seen so far, it’s selling out in hours rather than days. Bright added that high Switch sales are likely to continue “for quite some time.”
Bright’s full words:
“It’s exceeding our expectations. We knew it would be a high demand product, but our Switch allocations are selling out not in days, but in hours…the demand is so high that consumers have to react quickly to be able to get their hands on them. Right now we’re not seeing sales going down at all, and I would expect that to continue for quite some time.”
