Mighty No. 9 has been given a release date – a final one, we hope. It was announced today that the game will be available on June 21 in North America/Asia and June 24 in other territories.
Of course, this date only applies to the Wii U version. The 3DS version will follow at a later date.
Here’s the full message from Keiji Inafune:
To all of our backers and fans of Mighty No. 9,
Firstly, I would like to say again how sincerely sorry we are for how long we have kept all of our fans waiting. We are finally able to deliver some long awaited news regarding Mighty No. 9. We have now confirmed the following release dates for Mighty No. 9: June 21st 2016 (North America & Asia) and June 24th 2016 (World Wide). We understand that as a result of the various delays we have disappointed and let down our fans, but we are happy to finally be able to deliver the game to everyone who brought us this far.
With the game having “gone gold” we are in the last final stages of being able to deliver it into your hands, be that via your favorite retail outlet, or via digital channels.
If you’ve played a Kirby game before, you might be aware that the developers sneak in a special room for the developer – HAL Laboratory. Kirby: Planet Robobot is no different, and also features a similar area. You can see what it looks like in the video below. It’s nothing too special, but it’s a nice little nod to HAL!
Reptilian Rebellion is due out on the European Wii U eShop this Thursday. Check out a trailer for the game below.
The previously-announced WordsUp! Academy has been given a release date. CoderChild relayed news on Twitter yesterday confirming a May 12 release date. There’s no word on pricing, but it’ll probably cost just a few dollars.
Here’s a trailer for the game:
Spike Chunsoft updated the Zero Time Dilemma website today with some screenshots from the game based on Famitsu’s coverage. Find today’s images in the gallery below.
We posted a breakdown of Famitsu’s Zero Time Dilemma article this past weekend. If you missed it, you can find it here.
Miitomo may have only just launched about a month ago, but the app has managed to secure 10 million users since then. Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said during the company’s investors briefing last week that this shows “it has achieved the level we had planned.”
Going forward with Nintendo’s mobile apps, Kimishima noted that they’ll be looking to quickly act upon feedback received to make them better. This is something that will be happening with Miitomo, and by doing so, the amount of daily active users can increase.
Here’s the full question/answer from an investor and Kimishima about mobile:
I’m sure that there were many things with Miitomo that Nintendo expected, as well as many that were unexpected, that provided learning experiences. I would like to hear as much as possible about what was learned from the experience. Nintendo’s value comes from its strong IP, and using that IP comes with the risk that if the IP is not successful, its value will decrease. In that sense, Miitomo and future titles need to get results in the smart device application market. It may still be too early to generalize, but I would like to know how the response to Miitomo has been in comparison with your expectations.
I believe that Miitomo reaching 10 million unique users in the short time since its release shows that it has achieved the level we had planned. At the same time, this system lets us hear the consumers’ opinions. I believe this business requires us to continue to update to respond to these opinions in various ways, so we knew from the beginning that we would not be able to satisfy everyone right away. We believe that it is important to continue to revitalize the applications by quickly implementing feedback from consumers. Only one month has passed since distribution began. Our goals are to act on the feedback we received during this period quickly and increase the amount of consumers who are playing daily.
Last week, we posted a number of comments from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima from the company’s investors briefing mainly pertaining to NX. This included questions/answers about the price, the need to have a steady stream of games, and more.
Nintendo has now put up a translation of the investor briefing Q&A. You can find a roundup of the official comments below.
For the fiscal year ending March 2017, projected sales of Wii U hardware is set quite low, due in part to the timing of the launch of NX (development code name for the new-concept dedicated video game system currently under development). During this planning stage, what was the thinking about the effect on the Nintendo 3DS system?
By setting the projected sales of Wii U hardware for the fiscal year to 800,000 units, we do not see that there would be any negative effect on the Nintendo 3DS business. We have major titles for Nintendo 3DS for the fiscal year ending March 2017, as I mentioned in the presentation, and there is a solid lineup of titles. That should greatly contribute to the sale of both the hardware and the software. The positive aspect of lowering the projected sales of Wii U hardware to 800,000 units is that it allows us to focus on the Nintendo 3DS system.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima was asked about Nintendo’s commitment to mobile at the Big N’s latest investors briefing last week. Kimishima reiterated that the company would like “to grow smart device gaming as one of the pillars of Nintendo’s revenue stream.” Additionally, Shigeru Miyamoto is also involved as “he is having specific talks with developers of games for smart devices on what would be desirable overall.”
The full question and answer is as follows:
I would like to reconfirm how serious your company is about your initiative on games for smart devices. How much management resources are you intending to shift over to this business in the future? The company has extremely able, world-class creators, and I think they could create hits in games for smart devices. In that sense, I think the best scenario would be to have the legendary Mr. Miyamoto take up the challenge of games for smart devices, and have him create something that would make people think, “This is truly Nintendo’s smart device game.” Mr. Kimishima, what do you think about that?
If people are “not sure about how serious we are” about smart devices, it means that information issued from our company is not accurately conveyed, and I have to reflect on that. As we have reiterated, we want to grow smart device gaming as one of the pillars of Nintendo’s revenue stream. As for shifting managerial resources in that direction, we have very capable developers who are working on development of games for smart devices, as you already know. Of course, Mr. Miyamoto, our Creative Fellow, is also supporting the business for smart devices from a company-wide perspective. To explain the level of engagement of Mr. Miyamoto, he is having specific talks with developers of games for smart devices on what would be desirable overall. In that sense, what you see from the outside may be markedly different from what we see on the inside. As I have said, we want this to be one of the pillars of our business. Our level of engagement has not lessened, so I hope you will understand that.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima was hesitant to share stats pertaining to Miitomo during the company’s investors briefing last week. However, he did reveal that the app had “a slightly higher ratio of women at the beginning,” and noted that the revenue impact “is negligible for the fiscal year ended 2016” since it’s just starting out. He expects that in-app revenue is in line with expectations.
Kimishima went on to talk about in-app purchases on mobile as well as Nintendo Accounts (plus My Nintendo). You can read up on his full comments below.
I heard that there are over 10 million Miitomo users worldwide. I would like to know the attributes of those users, the number of DAUs (daily active users), as well as how much Miitomo is contributing to earnings. Have there already been positive effects on existing business from its connection with the Nintendo Account system? For applications to be released in the future, are you going to increase the game element and seek to increase revenue from in-app purchases?
The over 10 million users are very balanced in terms of gender. There was a slightly higher ratio of women at the beginning. We will not be releasing statistical data such as DAU numbers. As you are well aware, all kinds of ranking information exists for smart device applications, so I will refer you to those. If you look at them and estimate the in-app purchase revenue, I think it will not be too far off from reality.
The revenue impact of Miitomo is negligible for the fiscal year ended 2016, as we have only just started. The Miitomo download numbers are growing right now, so I think the in-app purchase revenue is also growing more or less as expected.
