Nintendo Everything

Nintendo has been hard at work on creating certain titles that can only be realized with the Wii U GamePad. We’ll start seeing some of the company’s efforts at this year’s E3, according to president Satoru Iwata.

Iwata told investors the following during a briefing held earlier today:

At the Corporate Management Policy Briefing this January, I explained that the company would prioritize making and proposing Wii U software titles that can only be made possible with the Wii U GamePad. We are planning to disclose our progress on this at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angeles in June.

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata shared a few words about the planned web app for Mario Kart 8 during the company’s investor briefing earlier today. Read on below for his comments.

To enjoy these features even when you are not playing this game on the console, we are planning to offer a web service called “Mario Kart TV” (temp.), which also enables users to watch videos in a screen layout suitable for systems such as smart devices and computers, around the same time as the release of “Mario Kart 8.”

This is the layout for a smartphone. This web service will enable more people to easily watch Nintendo’s official videos, view rankings, watch videos that their friends have shared and videos of tournaments in which they have participated.

As I mentioned at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in January, our policy is to establish consumer relationships based on accounts named Nintendo Network IDs, which are abbreviated as NNIDs. This “Mario Kart TV” (temp.) web service is available even for players without NNIDs, but by logging into the service with an NNID, they will be able to easily find their rankings, videos that their friends have shared, videos of tournaments in which they have participated, and it will be convenient to access this service through smart devices even when they are not at home.
We will work on providing this type of service so that players can enjoy video games more and be in contact with them even when they are not in front of a video game system.

We now have direct quotes from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata regarding the company’s NFP plans. You can find all of his comments below.

To establish new and growing areas through the active utilization of character IP, it is important for Nintendo to take risks ourselves and come up with interesting ways to use our character IP.
In other words, other than using character IP in Nintendo’s video game software, we need to start a new business that will someday become one of our core activities.

As Nintendo’s first step

We have decided to release character figurines with built-in NFC functionality that are compatible with video games starting from this year-end sales season.

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It’s that time again! Nintendo is once again hosting an investor briefing in Japan having reported its latest financial results just a few hours ago.

We’ll be keeping track of any news that comes through below, courtesy of analyst David Gibson. Expect updates in this post for the next hour or so.

Updates below:

– Iwata saying 3DS hit 43 million
– Helping is next Pokemon, Tomodachi Life in June internationally
– 3DS third-party titles to come include Monster Hunter 4G and Youkai Watch 2 in Japan
– Wii U: want to regain momentum with 2 signature titles in Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros.
– System update in June will speed up start up by 20 seconds
– First smart device app will be available by end of fiscal year
– This is called Mario Kart TV and will enable sharing of game movie and rankings
– In June, Japanese users will be able to use SUICA transport cards for payments on Wii U through NFC
– On IP licensing: nothing to announce today, but Nintendo is looking at a joint agreement
– Limited profit, so Nintendo is looking at non-games usage for licensing
– Will launch figurine business called NFP – NFC featured platform
– Nintendo showed Mario figure across many games being used including saves
– NFP game and figures will be shown at E3
– 3DS will also get IR NFP reader so figures can be used across Wii U and 3DS
– Wii U target of 3.6 million units will need more manufactured than in current inventory
– Nintendo not experiencing a loss from hardware anymore
– More Wii U games at E3
– NFP has been in development since last year
– Nintendo would rather make not just make a figurine, but something that does more
– Nintendo hopes to show related games in development at E3 for the NFC tech
– Iwata saying that for this fiscal year (through 3/15), the goal is to increase profits
– 3/16 fiscal year: not grow dramatically
– 3/17 fiscal year: develop pillar for growth with growth
– Iwata: we are preparing for next generation hardware as always, when will it release? Difficult to declare
– Iwata: not hopeless or at a loss in coming up with something new, but until existing users are satisfied, we cannot release next hardware
– Iwata: for Quality of Life, don’t think too narrowly of Nintendo, we can make fun, healthy services… we know how to get people hooked
– Iwata: developers will move into new building in Kyoto around E3; currently teams are separate so will share more
– Iwata: have established Business Development department with outputs like NFP, entering into new markets, use smart phone platforms etc
– Iwata: for emerging markets, $30-60 game prices are difficult. Need something new, but won’t be this fiscal year, studying China changes
– Iwata: the Wii U forecast of 3.6 million don’t think it is peak, wanted to be more conservative this year

And that’s it!

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Nintendo has issued its latest release schedule for both Wii U and 3DS (as well as products that shipped in the last fiscal year).

I can’t say there are any massive surprises, but we do seem to have confirmation that Yarn Yoshi and Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem are still in development. Also, Hyrule Warriors is classified as first-party in North America and Europe, but third-party in Japan. Lastly, “X” is due out worldwide – North America, Europe, and Japan – this year.

The Nintendo World store Twitter account is teasing some sort of exclusive news pertaining to Mario Kart 8. This announcement, whatever it may be, will “flip your world upside down”. Hmm…

Here’s the relevant tweet:

What might this be about?

Thanks to Brandon for the tip.

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