Level-5 CEO on current state of the Yo-kai Watch series, wants to bring back older players
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 30 Comments
This week, Nikkei published a new interview with Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino. It included talk pertaining to topics such as The Snack World and Inazuma Eleven, but also the state of the Yo-kai Watch franchise.
Nikkei pointed out that Yo-kai Watch 3 has sold over two million sales across three entries – Sushi, Tempura, and Sukiyaki. Hino noted that he can’t deny it has fallen much compared to the times of Yo-kai Watch 2, which launched in Japan three years ago. Sales of related products are also accompanying it – think toys, etc.
More: Akihiro Hino, interview, top, Yo-kai Watch
Capcom COO’s Switch comments fully clarified and translated
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 28 Comments
Japanese publication Toyo Keizai recently spoke with Capcom COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto. Switch was one topic that came up during the discussion, and it’s actually something that we already covered a couple of days ago.
Since there has been some confusion about what was actually said, we decided to translate Tsujimoto’s full comments. Our understanding is he does not actually state explicitly that Ultra Street Fighter II will directly influence Capcom’s support for Switch, including how it sells.
In any case, on with the translation:
More: Capcom, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, interview
Switch will allow for “a completely different Fire Emblem,” will breathe life into characters “like never before”
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 72 Comments
Tying in with the launch of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, French site Jeuxvideo spoke with three of the game’s developers. They are as follows:
– Masahiro Higuchi (Intelligent Systems), producer on Fire Emblem Echoes, Heroes and Fates
– Hitoshi Yamagami (Nintendo), producer on Fire Emblem Echoes, Fates and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
– Kenta Nakanishi (Nintendo), director on Fire Emblem Echoes
One portion of the interview touched on how Fire Emblem never ended up on Wii U, and the series has had a focus on 3DS over the past few years. Yamagami explained that the series has a “long history of home console games,” and it’s not primarily considered a handheld franchise. Nakanishi chimed in by saying Fire Emblem Switch will allow for something “completely different” while “breathing life into our characters like never before.”
Here’s the full excerpt:
More: Fire Emblem, Hitoshi Yamagami, interview, Kenta Nakanishi, top
Nefarious dev working through “technical hurdles” on Wii U
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment
We heard earlier this year that Nefarious could move from Wii U to Switch. The Wii U version still appears to be happening, based on comments from creator Josh Hano.
Hano confirmed to 4colorrebellion that the team hasn’t ceased its work on Nintendo’s older console. Right now, the team is trying to solve some “technical hurdles,” but it is running “on a basic level” at least.
Hano said:
“We haven’t stopped working on it! We are experiencing some technical hurdles, but we did manage to get it playing on a basic level. We still have a lot of things we need to do to make it work, but our initial once-over was very promising.”
More: indie, interview, Josh Hano, Nefarious, StarBlade Games
Former SEGA exec says games could be big sellers on Wii no matter the quality, Mario & Sonic gave the company a boost
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 25 Comments
Jurgen Post has been the COO and president of SEGA Europe since 2012. The company as a whole was in a pretty fragile state back then. After having success with Mario & Sonic and Wii, SEGA saw that sales of the series and Nintendo’s console in general were slowing down, prompting a change.
Post spoke about the situation with GamesIndustry:
“The business model that we had wasn’t working anymore. We were starting to make sizeable losses, so we had to change. In the past, you could be successful by being a bit opportunistic. The Wii platform, ten years ago, was so successful and anything you launched on it was selling. Even with some lesser qualitative stuff, you were able to be successful. But that was all changing and you could only sell quality products. We had Mario & Sonic back in those days, and that game was selling so much that a number of other titles could afford to underperform. But when the sales of Mario & Sonic, and the Wii in general, began to slow down, it became very visible that we had to change.”
SEGA ended up going through a whole slew of changes. The company focused on PC, “being consumer-first, and digital-first,” and made sure that its various studios took on more responsibility.
This was actually Post’s final interview at SEGA. He’s leaving the company to take on a new challenge elsewhere. If you’d like to read the full interview, hit up the source link below.
Cat Quest devs on decision to port the game to Switch
Posted on 6 years ago by Andrew in News, Switch eShop | 0 comments
Gaming Trends recently had a interview with Desmond Wong, the CEO of The Gentlebros talking about their upcoming game called Cat Quest. A couple of the questions in the interview talked about the pros and cons of this game of bringing this game over to the Switch.
Below are some of the Switch related questions from the interview:
More: Cat Quest, Desmond Wong, interview, The GentleBros
Inti Creates trying for physical Azure Striker Gunvolt for Switch in the west, talks Mighty Gunvolt Burst
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Switch eShop | 8 Comments
Inti Creates made two announcements last week. The first is that the Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack is coming to Switch, while Mighty Gunvolt Burst is in the works for both Switch and 3DS.
USgamer spoke with Inti Creates CEO Takuya Aizu following the news. For Azure Striker Gunvolt, Aizu spoke about how the Striker Pack came to be on Switch and confirmed that they’re trying to release a physical version in the west. Aizu also confirmed that Mighty Gunvolt Burst will be adding more characters and spoke about how Mighty No. 9 isn’t a direct influence on the game.
Read up on these comments from Aizu below. You can find USgamer’s full piece here.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia director on the name, wants to remake Binding Blade the most
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 38 Comments
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, takes on a completely new name. In an interview with The Verge, director Kenta Nakanishi explained the change.
Nakanishi told the site:
“Because it wasn’t released outside of Japan, and gaiden means side story, people would think ‘What is the side story for?’ So we thought we’d come up with a new title.”
Nakanishi also commented on the Fire Emblem game he would remake if he had to choose. His selection? Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, a Japan-exclusive GBA title. Nakanishi said that Roy’s story “has never been told, so it would be great if we could release a remake of his story.”
Zero Escape director “would love” to have a game on Switch
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 12 Comments
Kotaro Uchikoshi is best known for the Zero Escape franchise. Across three different games, he acted as series director.
Uchikoshi could choose to support Nintendo’s newest platform in the future. When asked about Switch, he said the following:
“I think it’s a very interesting piece of hardware. If the opportunity presents itself, I’d love to put out something on the Switch.”
Uchikoshi is in the very early stages of a new game tenatively known as Project Psync. It remains to be seen if it will end up on a Nintendo platform.
More: interview, Kotaro Uchikoshi
Fire Emblem Echoes devs on going forward with the remake, considered adding newer elements from the series
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 24 Comments
In a new interview with Polygon, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia director Kenta Nakanishi spoke about the newly released remake.
Nakanishi told the site that Intelligent Systems wanted “to integrate things that we couldn’t do with Fire Emblem Fates on the 3DS platform.” That caused the team to look back on the past. Fire Emblem Gaiden was a game that resonated with Intelligent Systems and Nakanishi in particular since his father – who died when he was a child – had passed the game on to him.
