Moffitt on Metroid Prime: FF reception, amiibo supply, Nintendo shortages, Humble Nindie Bundle, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 4 Comments
GamesIndustry published its own interview with Nintendo of America executive VP of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt. Metroid Prime: Federation Force, amiibo, shortages in general, and the Humble Nindie Bundle (not ruling out its own bundle) were among the topics discussed.
You can read up on what Moffitt had to say in this latest interview below. Be sure to check out GamesIndustry’s original article here as well.
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Nintendo is “definitely looking at” the possibility of an early access program
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
Damon Baker, who heads up Nintendo of America’s third-party relations and indie development, has told Polygon that the company is “certainly exploring options and capabilities” regarding an early access program.
He said:
“We don’t have anything to announce, but I can say that we’re certainly exploring options and capabilities. So anything is possible. I guess the important part of it is we’re very conscious of it and definitely looking at it.”
In terms of the benefits of what an early access program would program, Baker noted that it could act as a beta program of sorts.
“Working out some of the kinks, the server loads or what matching those expectations so that it’s a prime experience when it does, when the full version actually launches. So there could be some benefits there, but I think it’s a very sensitive topic, because you wouldn’t ever want to ask for money for something that doesn’t become fully-realized.”
Lastly, Baker also commented on the Nindies@Home initiative that was held during E3 week.
“We had to change policies over this, guidelines. I mean we basically created almost an early access-type of situation because some of this content isn’t even coming out until towards the end of the year. So to be able to give such early visibility to some of the developers and these builds, there was a lot of work that went into it.”
More: Damon Baker, interview, top
Reggie again talks VR, eSports, Nintendo World Championships
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has once again weighed in on topics such as virtual reality, eSports, and the Nintendo World Championships. Below you’ll be able to get a look at his latest comments from an interview with Fortune.
“We have a long and deep history with VR with Virtual Boy, and we also have a history with augmented reality because there’s AR in Nintendo 3DS. We know the tech and we know how the tech has evolved. For Nintendo, we always go beyond the tech to make sure that the experiences we do are fun and they’re social, and I think those are the two key opportunities today on the VR/AR space. Are they both fun and social? I don’t think that’s there yet. So we’re going to continue to stay close to the technology. We’re going to continue to do our own internal experiments, but we don’t believe it’s ready for prime time yet.”
“We saw success last year with the Smash Bros. Invitational, and Smash Bros. has always been a game in the eSports community. What we’re really gratified to see is that the community has now embraced Super Smash Bros. for Wii U because it has the speed and customization they like. We’re also seeing them embrace Mario Kart 8, as well as Splatoon, in a competitive environment. We’ve always been close to the eSports space and will continue to be.”
“We’re fortunate that we’ve got the range of content to pull it off in the here and now, and we’re really gratified to see the reactions. All of that is going to go into the mix as we think about proper opportunities, future E3s as well as potentially taking the idea outside of E3. So it’s something we’re going to be looking at really hard.”
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Miyamoto develops Nintendo’s devs by having them work on a bunch of different things
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Nintendo’s Yugo Hayashi is the director of Star Fox Zero. Prior to this, he was involved with level design on Zelda: Twilight Princess and directed Wii Fit.
Having developers work on a variety of different projects is part of an intentional plan from Shigeru Miyamoto. In an interview with Kotaku, he explained:
Miyamoto: In terms of trying to develop a developer I always try to get them to do lots and lots of different things. Mr. Aonuma is kind of always working on Zelda but for most other people I like to try to get them to try lots of different things. So someone who worked on the art direction for Zelda would then go on to Wii Fit U. That’s kind of how I like to do things. And now Mr. Hayashi is working with me pretty much every day.
Hayashi and Miyamoto went on to discuss something a bit random. Hayashi actually mentioned that he feels that him being the closest to Miyamoto in terms of seating helped him land the job for Star Fox Zero.
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, top, Yugo Hayashi
Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi believes Miyamoto could extend his creativity beyond games
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment
Shigeru Miyamoto has been responsible for some of Nintendo’s biggest gaming franchises. Without Miyamoto, the likes of Mario and Zelda wouldn’t exist today.
Nintendo games will always be the most important element for Miyamoto, but the company’s Shinya Takahashi feels that his creativity could be extended into other areas. Speaking with USA Today, Takahashi stated:
“For me, because it’s Mr. Miyamoto, I want him to continue making things as long as he wants to continue making things. I really think that Mr. Miyamoto will continue to be creative — and not just in the area of video games.”
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, Shinya Takahashi, top
Nintendo on why some of its games have voice chat while others don’t
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 12 Comments
Nintendo doesn’t have much of a clear policy when it comes to voice chat. Some of its games support the feature, whereas others simply don’t.
Nintendo’s Julie Gagnon offered some insight into the company’s approach to voice chat while speaking with Nintendo Enthusiast last week. She responded by explaining that, in the end, developers make the decision so that they can “appeal to the maximum number of players.”
Below is Gagnon’s full response, in which Splatoon was specifically mentioned:
“The thing with Splatoon is that the game is so visual and we really feel that the people in the game do not need voice chat in order to communicate with each other because we have ‘oh, stay here’ or ‘come here’ icons. We have many ways to communicate in the game. Plus, with the gamepad and the view, you can easily see if one of the members of your team is in trouble, or if there is a part of the map that you need to cover. So, this is something that we made a decision on so that the game can appeal to the maximum number of players. So, ultimately, the developers need to decide, depending on the features and the game itself, whether voice chat is included.”
More: interview, Julie Gagnon
Nintendo’s Moffitt talks 3DS, lack of standard New 3DS in North America
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS, News | 18 Comments
iDigitalTimes has some comments from Nintendo of America’s Scott Moffitt specifically about the 3DS. Moffitt addressed the 3DS’ success and lineup, why older models remain in the market, and commented on the lack of the standard New 3DS version in North America. Read on below to get a look at what was shared.
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Reggie on Yo-Kai Watch, amiibo supply/exclusives/pre-orders, toys-to-life partnerships, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 14 Comments
IGN has posted its full interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. When the two sides met at E3 2015 last week, Reggie discussed things like Yo-Kai Watch, amiibo, toys-to-life partnerships, and the Digital Event.
We have a number of excerpts from the interview below. You can read the full talk on IGN here.
More: Amiibo, interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, top
Nintendo on the annualization of franchises
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments
At E3 2015 last week, Nintendo’s Julie Gagnon commented on the annualization of franchises.
Ultimately, the choice lies within the hands of Nintendo’s developers. The company isn’t for or against bringing out new entries in franchises each year – it’s really a matter of what sort of titles the different teams are interested in making.
Here’s a look at Gagnon’s comments in full:
“It really depends on what the developer has in mind for the franchises. Sometimes you have Zelda sequels and what we have today with Zelda: Triforce Heroes is completely different and not in the timeline of Zelda. So, it really depends on what the developer has in mind and what they propose. So, I think it’s more a coincidence that we have all these great franchises that people like for each year. This isn’t necessarily something we will see for all the years in the future.”
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Reggie: Nintendo’s mobile games can offer “a positive experience”, drive people back to core systems
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News | 7 Comments
Back in 2010, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime made some comments about mobile gaming in which he told Polygon that, on these devices, people don’t seem to stick to a single title.
Here’s what he said at the time:
“Clearly, it doesn’t look like their platform is a viable profit platform for game development because so many of the games are free versus paid downloads. If our games represent a range between snacks of entertainment and full meals depending on the type of game, (Apple’s) aren’t even a mouthful, in terms of the gaming experience you get.”
Polygon spoke with Reggie at E3 2015 last week and said that Nintendo hasn’t changed its opinion on the nature of gaming on smart devices. He also believes that mobile gaming can offer “a positive experience” while driving people back to the Big N’s core systems.
“We’re going to do it in a partnership with DeNA. DeNA has technical knowledge that we’re leveraging. They have a rapid iteration process to drive improvement in the content that we’re going to leverage, but Nintendo is going to create the content. We’ve announced that Mr. Kono, from Mario Kart fame, is going to be our lead developer on this. And so from that standpoint things haven’t changed. It’s our IP, we’re going to leverage it and we do believe done properly it’s going to drive a positive experience with the IP and drive people back to our core video system business whether it’s handheld or console.”
