With PlatinumGames celebrating its tenth anniversary, Japanese magazine Famitsu has a big feature about the studio in its latest issue, including an interview with several staff members. It focuses more on the developer as a whole rather than specific games. There are some interesting Nintendo-related bits from the discussion though.
Hideki Kamiya has only made two games in the last ten years at Platinum. Of course, those are Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. Kamiya created the original Bayonetta with the following prerequisites: make an original game with hardware you’re touching for the first time with no library, no resources, and no game engine. He wanted to have it published in three years.
Last month, we found out that The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 would be coming to Wii U. Amazon UK listed the game for release on March 22. We knew it would be heading to North America as well thanks an ESRB rating – we just didn’t know when.
GameFly is now one of the first retailers to have officially listed the Wii U version of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 in North America. Assuming it’s accurate (and right now we have no reason to believe otherwise), we’ll be seeing the title in North America on March 22 as well.
Dreii made its debut on PC and mobile platforms earlier this week. It’s still targeted for consoles, with a Wii U launch taking place “soon” according to designer Christian Etter. For now, check out the latest trailer below.
Super Bike Rider: Gather! Super Beast Hunter was showcased during a Niconico live stream a couple of days ago. We captured pretty much all of the relevant footage from the event, which you can watch below.
In Famitsu last week, Niantic went more in-depth with the origins of Pokemon GO. The magazine caught up with Setsuto Murai, representative president of Niantic Japan and Kento Suga, marketing manager of Niantic Japan.
As has been mentioned before, you could say that the concept was born after Google teamed up with The Pokemon Company for an April Fools event back in 2014. Murai and Suga touch on this, and then explain how things carried on from there.
Head past the break for our full translation.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima took on a number of investor questions during Nintendo’s financial results briefing a few days ago. One of the more interesting responses came about towards the end of the event. Most of what the question asked is over my head and there will be an official translation in a few days, but it was essentially about the next financial period, and how Wii U and 3DS factors into that.
Kimishima starts off by reiterating a key point from his presentation: the spread amount of 3DS systems is 20 million units domestically, and 54 million units worldwide. This means Nintendo’s handheld had a big chance to obtain profits from software as well. As for what lies ahead in the next period, Kimishima said development on software continues, including large-scale titles that can’t be announced just yet. He believes that the 3DS will remain a big pillar in the next period.
Let’s Talk #39: What are you playing? – February 2016
A new month is here! We entered February just a few days ago. So that means we want to know what you’ve been playing. Have you started up something entirely new for the month? Or maybe you’re continuing something you started a little while back? Whatever the case, let us know in the comments below!
Highlights from last week’s topic: What do you want to see out of NX?
Update: Samus from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is also in the works.
Figure news continues to pour out of Wonder Festival. Max Factory is producing Figma for Link based on his appearance in Twilight Princess HD as well as Samus from Metroid: Other M. You can find images for these two in the gallery below along with Link from Skyward Sword, which was previously announced.
It was last week that we first heard about a new Pokemon figure featuring Red. Today at Wonder Festival, the first piece of art is on display – see above. Red won’t be alone, as it looks like Pikachu is included.
