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.
LEGO Dimensions is adding the new LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack this week. To promote the upcoming release, Warner Bros. has prepared videos for Robin and Batgirl, both of which are below.
The latest firmware update for 3DS is now available. Nintendo just issued version 11.3.0-36.
In line with the past several updates, this one is also small in nature. Nintendo’s lone notice about it is as follows: “Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience”.
You’ll need to grab today’s update in order to access the 3DS eShop.
About 25 minutes of footage from the Wii U version of Plantera is now available to watch on YouTube. You can check it out below.
A heart-moving feature on a Zelda fan with a terminal heart condition who got the chance to play Breath of the Wild early is available to read on Waypoint. We’ve collected some quotes from the article and written up a quick synopsis to go with it. If you want to read the entire thing, check out the full article here.
Last July, Gabe Marcelo wasn’t sure he could attend PAX Prime. This wouldn’t normally be a big deal, but the 26-year-old’s lifelong heart condition had taken a turn for a worse, and he’d been stuck in the hospital for a while. The problem: PAX might be his one shot to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the newest game in his favorite series, before he died.
“Being home bound for the most part,” said his mother, Anita Marcelo, “these dates were really important. They were his calendar, just as birthdays and holidays were.”
He found the strength to attend PAX. Though the plan was to only show up for a single day, due to his condition, Gabe managed to surprise everyone. His family helped him around in a wheelchair all four days. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn’t bring Breath of the Wild to PAX, prompting Gabe to ask his mother if she’d ask Nintendo for a chance to play the game early.
