Niantic, developer of the mobile game Pokemon Go, has opened up an office in Japan. This will be the company’s first subsidiary overall.

The office was created on December 3 in Tokyo’s Minato ward. It’ll be used to develop top-level real-world games as well as a platform using AR and mapping. Industry insider Dr. Serkan Toto also offers up the following speculation:

“Generally speaking, Japanese gaming companies (I mean Nintendo in this specific case) love going vertical by becoming platforms if any opportunity to do so opens up: so it might very well be that Pokemon is not the only Nintendo mobile game that will make use of AR and GPS going forward.”

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During the Nindies@Night event a few months back, amiibo support was announced for the indie game Hive Jump. Developer Graphite Lab has since shared a little bit of additional information about what we should expect from the functionality.

In a recent interview, it was stated that you can use amiibo to unlock “custom challenges and unique treasures”. It’s a work-in-progress though, so Graphite Lab can’t share any other information just yet.

Here’s the full quote:

“Let me start by saying we would LOVE to have Samus in the game, but I don’t know if that is on the table. There are a lot of very good reasons why a cameo might not make sense for our game right now. We are planning on including custom challenges and unique treasures which could only be unlocked with amiibo. This feature is still in development so we’re not at a point where we can share more just yet.”

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In North America (and presumably Europe), Mojang is publishing Minecraft: Wii U Edition. But that’s not the case in Japan. Microsoft, the new owner of the IP, is publishing the game directly over there. Kind of makes for an interesting situation!

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This Friday, Devil’s Third will finally be released in North America. Take a look at the launch trailer below.

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Thanks to Amazon Japan, the boxart for Shin Megami Tensei IV Final is now available. You can get a look at it above.

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Polarium Advance is another game hitting the European Wii U Virtual Console on December 10. We have the trailer below.

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Minecraft: Wii U Edition was announced as a Wii U eShop title earlier today, but it will also be sold in stores down the road. Mojang’s Kristoffer Jelbring confirmed the news on Twitter while responding to a fan question. A release date for the physical version has not been determined, as Jelbring said it will be offered “at a later date.”

Here’s the relevant tweet:

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Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is currently on sale over on Amazon. The title shipped at $60, but you can grab it for $50 ($10 less). Put in an order here.

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Nintendo of Europe has posted another gameplay video from FAST Racing Neo showing Kamagori City. You can watch it below.

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Following today’s announcement, several screenshots have been released showing Minecraft: Wii U Edition. Check them out below.

More: 4J Studios, Minecraft: Wii U Edition, Mojang