Nintendo commented on how it intends to maximize the value of its IP during its latest financial results briefing. Here’s what was shared by CEO Tatsumi Kimishima:
“As you know, Nintendo’s basic strategy has consistently been “expansion of the gaming population.” A variety of popular characters, including Mario and Link, appear in Nintendo’s video games and these characters are the source of Nintendo’s IP value. By increasing the number of people who have access to this Nintendo IP or video game characters, music and world view, and by increasing the value of Nintendo IP, we aim to further expand the gaming population.
More specifically, we will provide people with new applications on their smart devices by utilizing our Nintendo IP. We are also planning to offer new attractions at theme parks by using Nintendo IP. Further, by using Nintendo IP in a variety of other ways, such as licensing and commercializing this IP for visual content and merchandizing products, we are planning to maximize the value of Nintendo IP, which has traditionally been used mainly for our dedicated video game systems. Needless to say, there is no change to the fact that dedicated game systems remain at the core of Nintendo experiences.”
In the past, Nintendo has teamed up with third-parties to bring 3DS games to the west. Yo-kai Watch, which hits North America next week, is actually one example of this.
Nintendo will continue the trend of assisting partners in releasing 3DS titles overseas. Check out this excerpt from the company’s latest financial results briefing:
“This slide shows the Nintendo 3DS titles that have either been released in each region in October 2015 or have already been announced and are awaiting release. As you can see, a number of titles are to be released soon, and more unannounced titles that are not on this slide are currently under development. In the Japanese market, the motivation of software developers to create Nintendo 3DS software has remained high, and we will continue to assist Japanese software developers in bringing hit titles to overseas markets.”?
As part of its latest financial results briefing materials, Nintendo posted a slide showing the cumulative sales rankings of amiibo. We’re able to see what’s popular in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Check out the full rankings above.
Nintendo also revealed that most shipments came from the Americas:
This is a graph that shows the latest ratio of shipments by region for figure-type amiibo. The blue colored area represents the Americas. In the US, the so-called “Toys to Life” category, in which games work together with figures, are well recognized and people are familiar with this way of having fun. This is why during the previous fiscal year the percentage of shipments for the Americas was 66 percent, which represented a significant portion of total amiibo shipments. The Americas market still holds more than half of the total sales but you can tell from the graph that regions other than the US, where “Toys to Life” products had a late release, are gradually expanding. For your information, the majority of sales for “Other Regions” are from Australia. In addition to Australia, we started to ship to Asia from this financial period.
Update: Okay. I lied. Couldn’t resist posting the amiibo sales rankings, excerpt about 3DS localizations, and IP plans.!
Nintendo has now shared a full English transcript of its latest financial results briefing. Access it here. I won’t be posting any additional snippets since we’ve pretty much covered everything major in various posts over the past couple of hours. However, you can read up on a little bit of additional information concerning Wii U and 3DS sales at the link.
Nintendo introduced its first mobile app, Miitomo, during a financial results briefing earlier today. For the full overview from today’s presentation, read on below.
The main character of Miitomo is you. First, you create your own Mii.
The Mii asks you a variety of questions and communicates your answers with your Friends’ Mii.
The people you will be able to communicate with are limited to your friends whom you have registered as Friends. We are designing this communication application to enable Friends to share information comfortably and securely.
In this way, instead of the users proactively sending their own messages, Miitomo has a unique characteristic that can be called “friendly communication starters” as your Mii will automatically dispatch the answers you gave to certain questions to your friends.
These “friendly communication starters” have an advantage that even the people who are less willing to send messages can easily participate. Another unique characteristic of Miitomo is that you may be able to find out unknown aspects about your friends or unexpected commonalities you share with your friend because Miitomo may pick up the topics that you usually do not discuss but would be willing to answer if asked.
What we would like to realize is, through such communication, you will be able to deepen friendly relationships and have more people with whom you can play games.
Both My Nintendo and Miitomo will be available in March 2016.
For reference, more than 200 million Mii characters have been created on our platforms, which means that many people around the world understand the appeal of Mii.
Nintendo shared first details about Nintendo Account (its new term for accounts) and My Nintendo (new membership service) during its financial results briefing today. Here’s a breakdown of everything we know:
– Ease of creation/use of Nintendo Accounts being emphasized
– Register with NNID, Facebook, Twitter, Google, e-mail
– Purchase software downloads on the site, see purchases, play info, and game-related messages
– Nintendo will send notices and gifts
– Ex: Animal Crossing character called Isabel may send some information or a present to those who are playing with that game, Mario Kart players may receive a notice about add-on content and we may also send a message that enables the recipient to purchase some software at an attractive price point on his or her birthday
– Games purchased can be automatically downloaded to your system
– Receive points by using and playing games or purchasing them
– This applies to both console and mobile
– Use points on digital goods (maybe DLC), original goods, and coupons
– Use your account in conjunction with the theme park, as well as theaters and stores
– Make friends with those who enjoy playing games together by establishing “Friend” relationships
– Friend relationship can be established only between two people who know each other and have consented to the relationship
– This Friend relationship can be used for software for dedicated game systems and smart device applications
– Nintendo Accounts will provide cloud storage of character and save data
– Will provide membership service benefits in other real-life facilities such as theme parks, movie theaters and retail outlets
– My Nintendo will work as a bridge between dedicated game systems and smart devices
– My Nintendo out in March
Nintendo will be “far more aggressive” with its various IPs, according to legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.
Miyamoto shared those words during the company’s financial results briefing today. Seemingly in response to the topic of NX – Nintendo’s next system – Miyamoto said:
“We are going to be far more aggressive in using our IP, and not just stop with licensing, as in the past. The first example is Amiibo. We want our IP to better reach more children, and smart devices is just one vehicle.”
The image above comes from a slide Nintendo shared during its latest financial results briefing. As you can see, it depicts new art of Link. It actually looks pretty similar to what we saw as part of Nintendo’s new marketing material a few weeks back. And of course, it’s sparking further speculation about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD.
It didn’t seem like we’d be hearing about Nintendo’s first mobile game after news dropped that it had been delayed to March 2016, but information was revealed after all. Here’s what we know thus far about “Miitomo” courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:
The new smartphone game will be “Miitomo”. It will be free to play, with attractive add-ons that people can pay for, Mr. Kimishima says. Others will be pay-to-download, he says.
Looks like Miis go ahead and communicate with other Miis without your knowledge. This will help people who are hesitant to talk about themselves to communicate with others, and reveal a side of your friends you never knew, Mr. Kimishima says.
In the new Miitomo game, users will design their own avatars, or “Miis,” to communicate with other users. Executive Shinya Takahashi says that Nintendo will find ways to encourage people who are hesitant to talk to share things about themselves.
Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto says DeNA will help operate the smartphone games, while Nintendo will focus on ways to guide users to its hardware.
The five smartphone apps won’t soon comprise half of sales, Mr. Kimishima says. Nintendo’s goal is to use smart devices to increase the value of its IP, which will help sales of both software and hardware, he says.
On the reason for the delay of the smartphone app, Mr. Kimishima says, is the need for more lead time to fully promote and explain Miitomo. The company is busy promoting other titles in the pipeline right now, he says. It will start promoting Miitomo after the year-end holiday season. Says this will have little impact on earnings.
Curious about how the DeNA and Nintendo partnership is going. Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto says DeNA will focus on operation of the games. Which suggests game design is all Nintendo.
On second thought, not clear whether Miitomo should be called a game. It looks more like a communications app with Mii avatars that can be ported to games on Nintendo hardware.
Update: We ended up receiving first details about Miitomo shortly after this post. Information here.
Nintendo and DeNA first announced plans to collaborate on mobile titles in March. We were expecting to hear about their debut title today, but that unfortunately did not materialize.
Nintendo did touch on its mobile plans during its financial results briefing today. However, president Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that the launch of these games has been delayed to March 2016 as opposed to the end of this year. The Wall Street Journal reports that “Nintendo eyes global launch, depending on the game.”
