Nintendo’s initial mobile games will be in different genres
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 16 Comments
We know that Nintendo is working with DeNA on games for mobile. We’ve also known for a few months now that the first game is coming this year, with four additional titles arriving by the end of March 2017.
DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako has now indicated that the initial games will be in different genres. Asako told Pocket Gamer:
“I understand some people like RPGs, casual games. That’s why we decided to work together to create five games, hitting on different genre-utilizing IPs. We want to make sure out of those five IP that we can end up attracting hundreds of millions of people.”
Asako called its collaboration with Nintendo “the most crucial partnership” in DeNA’s history. He also says that it’s a challenge since “people are expecting a lot”.
More: interview, Shintaro Asako
GungHo on working with Nintendo, Nintendo making mobile games, Japanese console market
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 0 comments
Last month, Gamasutra spoke with GungHo Online Entertainment president and CEO Kazuki Morishita at E3 2015. We have a few excerpts below.
After the break, you can read up on what Morishita said about working with Nintendo on Puzzle & Dragons, the company making mobile titles (not much on this front), and the Japanese console market. The full interview is located here.
Reggie Fils-Aime interview with Kevin Pereira, discusses NX, Metroid, the future and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Videos, Wii U | 29 Comments
The Attack!’s Kevin Pereira, who also hosted the Nintendo World Championships this year at E3, recently sat down with Reggie Fils-Aime to discuss Nintendo’s time at E3, fan backlash towards Metroid: Federation Force, a brief discussion of NX, 2015’s gaming line-up, and tons more. Check out the interview below!
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime
Zero Escape 3 – more philosophical, answers questions from Virtue’s Last Reward, importance of fans
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News | 5 Comments
Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi shared a few more details about the series’ third entry while speaking with IGN.
Uchikoshi started out by saying that moral elements “will be the main theme” for this new project.
“Your way of thinking, values, virtues will be intensely [shaken] during this game, This game is even more philosophical than the past volumes. Of course it’ll be entertaining too!”
Uchikoshi confirmed that Zero Escape 3 will answer all remaining questions from Virtue’s Last Reward. He added that “as a story [Zero Escape] will definitely end at Volume 3.”
“I intend to answer every mystery left during VLR and the mysteries in ZE3 would be solved as well. This game will not end in a cliffhanger. However please take it as one break…if there are still fans requesting, I can not deny that there will not be new incidents arriving either.”
Finally, Uchikoshi talked about how the fan responses led to 999 becoming a trilogy.
“I wasn’t thinking of doing a continuation during 999. However thanks to fans world wide giving the game a high praise it grew into a series. I am very thankful for this. Especially for Volume 2 and 3, my intentions were them being paired as a set so I really wanted to make Volume 3 happen.”
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida comments on the SNES PlayStation
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Videos | 5 Comments
With someone claiming to have come into possession of a rare SNES PlayStation prototype, Engadget asked Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida to comment on the system. You can listen to what he had to say in the video below.
More: interview, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony
SEGA focusing on quality, wants to regain fans’ trust
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 128 Comments
This week’s issue of Famitsu contains an interview with SEGA CEO and president Haruki Satomi.
At one point during the discussion, Satomi mentioned that the company has “learned a lot from Atlus”, which SEGA acquired in 2013. He also spoke about how SEGA is really pushing the idea of quality.
Satomi stated:
“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”
“I’ve been talking to the employees about how we should start putting serious consideration into quality from this point on. Especially in North America and Europe, where it’s always been more of a focus on schedules, I believe that if we can’t maintain quality, it would be better to not release anything at all.”
“We did our best to build a relationship of mutual trust with older fans of Sega, but looking back, there’ve been some titles that have partially betrayed that [trust] in the past 10 years.”
“Since we’re seriously considering quality, I can’t make that promise for the time being, but I believe we will announce something for home console at Tokyo Game Show.”
Famitsu ends its talk with Satomi by asking what fans can look forward to in the future.
“SEGA in the ‘90s was known for its ‘brand, but after that, we’ve lost trust, and we were left with nothing but ‘reputation. For this reason, we’d like to win back the customers’ trust, and become a ‘brand,’ once again.”
More: Atlus, Haruki Satomi, interview, SEGA
Why Square Enix has been hesitant to localize the recent Dragon Quest games, using Heroes to gauge interest
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 22 Comments
Square Enix is finally bringing a new Dragon Quest game to the west in Dragon Quest Heroes for the PlayStation 4. But Nintendo fans are probably more interested in the likes of Dragon Quest X, Dragon Quest VII, and the upcoming Dragon Quest VIII.
In an interview with Polygon, Dragon Quest series executive producer Yuu Miyake noted that Square Enix wants to release the different games overseas. But they’re “very text-heavy, so the time and the cost it takes to localize these and do it well is quite something.”
As fans continue to speak up, Square Enix will be more keen on pursuing localizations of past Dragon Quest entries. The company seems to be using Dragon Quest Heroes – a game picked for the west since it’s an action experience with fully-voiced characters and a higher potential for strong sales – as a means to determine how much interest there is for the series in North America.
Miyake said:
“We want to get them out here. We really do! The Dragon Quest games are very text-heavy, so the time and the cost it takes to localize these and do it well is quite something. Business-wise, we have to think quite hard whether we’ll make that money back from localizing to North America. It’s always been a difficult decision. But the more you tell us, the louder the voices, the more likely we are to do it.”
“We’re really using this (Dragon Quest Heroes) as a kind of opening up of the market. We can gauge whether the American people might want to go back after Heroes and see some of the other Dragon Quest games. Hopefully we could use that as leverage to get those out over here.”
Despite what Miyake stated, it appears that Square Enix already has plans to bring over some of the latest Dragon Quest games to North America and Europe – at least, that’s what’s been indicated by series creator Yuji Horii. Horii said at the Japan Expo this past weekend that he wants to release Dragon Quest VII and VIII for 3DS in France. Square Enix wouldn’t just localize these titles for the French market, so they would include other languages as well – like English.
More: Dragon Quest, interview, Square Enix, Yuu Miyake
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director wants to focus more on story for his next title
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 23 Comments
In a guidebook for Xenoblade Chronicles X, fans left various feedback about the Wii U RPG. Players noted that they wanted a more passionate/rich story, the UI was a little difficult to use, and the battle system had a bit too much going in.
Xenoblade Chronicles X executive director responded to all of the feedback, and thanked fans for everything they had to say. He also said he agrees with most of what was mentioned.
Other feedback left by fans:
– Letters are too small
– Inviting other party members was tedious
– It would be cool to be able to go into out-space
– Fans more lively online features in Monolith Soft’s next title
Takahashi concluded his thoughts with the following:
“Being several years behind others in the development of an HD title and taking into account Monolith Soft’s company size, there are just some thing that we could not achieve, which couldn’t be helped, but in order to move on towards the next step, there was no avoiding this. And that is the truth.”
Elliot Quest’s Wii U sales have been “much bigger than on Steam”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 8 Comments
Elliot Quest creator Luis Zuno appears to be pleased with the game’s sales performance on Wii U. Although specific numbers weren’t shared, Zuno told 4 color rebellion that sales coming from Nintendo’s console have been “much bigger than on Steam.”
Zuno also mentioned that bringing Elliot Quest to consoles was no easy feat. That’s why he’s thankful for PlayEveryWare’s efforts in porting the title to Wii U.
“…putting the game on the console has been a long journey and a lot of work and I definitely couldn’t have got there on my own, which is why I’m thankful for the help from PlayEveryWare to get there.
Elliot Quest launched for Wii U on March 19. The European release took place about a month later.
More: Elliot Quest, indie, interview, Luis Zuno, PlayEveryWare
Splatoon devs on the level cap, Inkling customization, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 38 Comments
The developers of Splatoon had a whole lot to say about the Wii U title while speaking with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream this month. Last week, we shared translated comments from directors Yusuke Amano and Tsubasa Sakaguchi as well as producer Hisashi Nogami in which they discussed the map rotation, content updates, and more.
We have a few more final translations to tackle this week. The three Splatoon developers commented on the game’s level cap, Inkling customization, and a couple of other things.
In one section of the interview, Nintendo Dream mentions how many players are at the max level of 20, and asks if this will be raised in the future. Sakaguchi and Nogami were not-committal, but seemed surprised that so many people had already reached the maximum:
Sakaguchi: Er… That is also under investigation currently… We originally expected level 20 to require a nice amount of time to play.
Nogami: [The leveling up has been] so fast that it makes me worry about players’ daily life…
