This week’s Famitsu review scores are as follows:
Sangokushi 13 with Power Up Kit (PS4/PSV) – 9/8/9/9
Diabolic Lovers Lost Eden (PSV) – 8/8/8/9
Kamaitachi no Yoru Rinne Saisei (PSV) – 8/8/8/8
Mercenary Kings (PS4) – 8/7/7/8
Moon Hunters (PS4) – 7/8/8/7
Teslapunk (Wii U) – 7/6/7/7
Emily Wants to Play (PS4) – 7/7/6/6
Nidhogg (PS4/PSV) – 7/7/6/7
We picked out some highlights from Nintendo’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing / financial results briefing earlier today. If you’d like to read the full English transcript, that’s now available. You can check it out for yourself here.
At the Q&A session at Nintendo’s latest Corporate Management Policy Briefing, one of the questions was about Nintendo’s internal development structure, the development team that handles the smart device games and Nintendo’s hiring process. The question was answered by company president Tatsumi Kimishima, Shigeru Miyamoto (Director, Creative Fellow) and Genyo Takeda (Director, Technology Fellow).
Q: I would like to hear more about the current and future direction of your development structure, which is widely considered to be your greatest competitive strength. Do you plan to maintain the current scale for the mid- to long-term, or will you expand it? How will you expand the smart-device team within the larger development structure? My assumption is that there are currently fewer than 100 people on this team, do you think that is sufficient? Also, what sort of employees are needed to help Nintendo grow and evolve in the future, and how do you plan to develop these employees?
A: Kimishima:
Our overall development staff has increased over the past year, but that does not mean it will necessarily continue to increase. In the entertainment industry, it is very common to take the approach of hiring employees who already have experience and technical knowledge in needed areas, in addition to developing new technology and ideas within the company. Going forward, we would like to increase the number of employees who already have some technical ability and who have fun ideas that can inspire new game experiences. These are the kind of people we see as necessary in our field of development. For smart devices, we have been developing using one of our most important IPs, Mario, so instead of using a team that had no prior experience with Mario, we had developers who worked on past Mario games join the development of Super Mario Run. The scale of the team we currently have working on apps is not as large as you
surmise. In the future, while we will plan the course of development, we may not necessarily allocate exclusively internal development resources. We would like to continue cooperating with external partners who understand Nintendo well when the situation calls for it.
Head past the break for Miyamoto’s and Takeda’s take on the subject:
At the Q&A session at Nintendo’s recent Corporate Management Policy Briefing, president Tatsumi Kimishima was asked about his eventual successor as president of Nintendo.
Q: Mr. Kimishima, what do you feel is your goal as a manager in considering your successor? What sort of person do you think would be appropriate to lead the company in the future?
A: I believe that my personal role is to consider how to create an internal structure that will allow Nintendo to continue to release entertaining products in the future. When I took on the President position, it was still too early to reveal the full details of Nintendo
Switch, our smart-device business and our efforts to use Nintendo?s IP. I have been working with both Fellows since then to make sure that these business ventures could get off to a successful start.
At the Q&A session at Nintendo’s latest Corporate Management Policy Briefing, one of the questions was about whether or not the Switch and the 3DS can coexist and the Switch’s role as a portable device. The question was answered by company president Tatsumi Kimishima and Shinya Takahashi (Director, Managing Executive Officer, General Manager of Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning and Development Division).
Q: How do you plan to make it so that Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch will coexist in the marketplace? And, if the users start recognizing Nintendo Switch as a portable gaming device and using it as such, will it make sense for the company to release a next-generation portable game device?
A: Kimishima:
As for your question on the Nintendo 3DS, we believe it can coexist with Nintendo Switch for the time being. Nintendo 3DS is a different system from Nintendo Switch in terms of its shape, weight, price and the types and number of available software titles. From this perspective, I believe parents will opt to choose Nintendo 3DS as their children?s first video game system. So we recognize that Nintendo 3DS as a portable game device meets different needs and fits different markets than Nintendo Switch, and we will keep this recognition in mind as we consider the future of our dedicated portable video game business.
Nintendo has just published a translated transcript of the Q&A session at their latest Corporate Management Policy Briefing.
The following question is about Nintendo’s third party relations regarding the Switch, how Nintendo’s own internal development teams are handling it and Nintendo partnering up with NVIDIA. The question was answered by Shinya Takashi (Director, Managing Executive Officer, General Manager of Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning and Development Division), Shigeru Miyamoto (Director, Creative Fellow) and Genyo Takeda (Director, Technology Fellow).
Q: I believe that inadequate third-party support for the platform (and the lack of compatible software as a result) was the big issue for Wii U. Mr. Takeda just mentioned that Nintendo Switch is a high-performance system. From that viewpoint, I would like to know how third-party publishers are viewing Nintendo Switch. Also, how are Nintendo?s internal developers appreciating Nintendo Switch and what kind of development direction are they taking in creating software for it? Also, what has technically been done for the system in order to realize the high performance of GeForce while managing the power consumption?
Square Enix has released the first proper gameplay trailer for Minna de Waiwai! Spelunker on Nintendo Switch, giving us a good look at the game in action:
Minna de Waiwai! Spelunker will be released on Japan on April 20th; a Western release date has not yet been announced.
Pokemon Shuffle’s weekly update is here, and it is getting into the Valentine’s Day mood with an enamored Pikachu and many winking Pokemon. The Pikachu (Enamored) stage will run until February 21. The stage can only be played once a day, but the chance of catching Pikachu increase each day.
There is also a rotation that will change daily that will run on every weekday through next week. It features Winking varieties of Pokemon, starting with Audino today, then Togetic on Wednesday, Carbink on Thursday, Swirlix on Friday, and finally Slurpuff on Monday.
Finally, Wigglytuff (Winking), Togekiss (Winking), and Shaymin all have stages that run until February 21.
Konami is finally making a new Bomberman game in Super Bomberman R, slated for Switch. On Reddit, the company actually took the time to explain the meaning behind “R” in the title.
Konami said:
“R is a throw back feel for the Devs. to when games could simply have a letter and allow that letter to carry many meanings. It symbolized Returns & Reborn because this game is such a homage to SNES and SB3. But it also mean Rangers, to represent the diverse and colorful group of Bomberman characters who patrol the galaxy.”
Super Bomberman R will be out for Switch’s launch on March 3.
Nintendo is hosting a new global retweet event for Fire Emblem Heroes. Players have been tasked with collectively retweeting a particular message 10,000 times across the company’s North American and European Twitter pages plus the official Japanese Twitter account. The reward? 10,000 Hero Feathers.
All #FEHeroes players will receive 10,000 Hero Feathers if we reach 10,000 global RTs! Ends 6:59PM PT 2/7 (cc @FE_Heroes_JP @NintendoEurope) pic.twitter.com/2XgcyeVlBA
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 7, 2017
As of this moment, the Japanese Fire Emblem Heroes page already has over 10,000 retweets. It will took a few minutes to reach in the end.
