DeNA: Partnership with Nintendo could “change the market”, Big N has best IPs
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 8 Comments
DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako has shared a few more words about the company’s partnership with Nintendo.
“I think this is potentially an opportunity for us to completely change the market. Nintendo has by far the best gaming IP,” Asako told PocketGamer. Asako added that “DeNA’s expertise is definitely backend.”
Nintendo will be handling the bulk of its mobile game development, but DeNA is pitching in on the technical end. DeNA will also be responsible for Nintendo’s new membership service, which opens this fall.
More: DeNA, interview, Shintaro Asako
Uchikoshi has high aspirations for Zero Escape, wants the series to appeal to mainstream gamers
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News | 10 Comments
Zero Escape director Kotaro Uchikoshi has high hopes for the series. Speaking with Gamaustra, he mentioned how he wants it to reach the same sort of success as TV dramas like Lost and 24.
Uchikoshi also said that wouldn’t be satisfied with Zero Escape only being a cult hit, and he’d like for the franchise to “appeal to mainstream gamers.”
Uchikoshi’s comments in full:
“Compared to other media, I feel like fans support us feverishly. It’s very humbling and I appreciate it very much. The full impact is just beginning to hit me.”
“… if you look at TV dramas such as Lost, 24, and Prison Break, those are considered to be very successful. You have to be that big to consider yourself to be successful. I know you might laugh, thinking, ‘Wow, you’re comparing yourself to a different scale,’ but with my development staff, [publisher] Aksys’ help, and our fans’ continued support, I feel like it’s a possibility to reach that level.”
“Rather than being ‘a cult hit that only core players know,’ we are constantly thinking how we can appeal to mainstream gamers. Therefore, if we want to make our project even bigger, we need to work on it.”
Nintendo on the new Animal Crossing spin-offs, related amiibo, series’ future, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 12 Comments
USgamer has put up its interview with Aya Kyogoku, the head of the Animal Crossing series. Kyogoku explained Nintendo’s approach with Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival, discussed the new Animal Crossing amiibo in general, commented on the series’ future, and more.
We’ve rounded up a number of Kyogoku’s remarks below. Head on over to USgamer for the full interview.
Further details on how Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem came to be
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 2 Comments
Nintendo producer Hitoshi Yamagami, who is working on Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, further explained how the project came to be in this week’s issue of Famitsu.
According to Yamagami, things began back in 2009. As he explained:
“Our initial contact with Atlus was back in 2009 when we developed the game Itsumo Purikura ? Kuradeko Puremium. Afterwards, Ando said ‘I want to make a game that mixes Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei,’ so I went to Atlus with the proposal.”
Atlus responded by saying “Let us think about it”, which essentially meant no. Nintendo was later told, “We’re too busy and can’t do it right now.”
Although Yamagami was disappointed that Atlus turned down his proposal, he did feel like a partnership could be made a reality one day.
“I was really bummed about it, but it wasn’t as though they had straight out said no, so I told Ando, ‘I’m sure we’ll cross paths with them again some time.’”
Yamagami ended up receiving an email over a year later from Atlus’ Naoto Hiraoka, who asked if talks were still open. It didn’t take long for Nintendo and Atlus to be in communication once again.
Atlus producer Shinjiro Takada told Famitsu that, during the original proposal, the team was busy with Devil Survivor 2. Takada always thought of Fire Emblem as a rival title that he looked at as a goal. Takada mentioned: “That Nintendo wanted to collaborate with us with such a big title was a huge honor and I really wanted to do it.”
No DLC for FAST Racing Neo, soundtrack coming, Shin’en wants “a futuristic racer on a new handheld”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 47 Comments
The folks over at We Are Just Gamers published an interview with Manfred Linzner from Shin’en. Much of the talk focuses on FAST Racing Neo.
At one point, Linzner was asked if there are any plans to release DLC for its upcoming Wii U racer. This is ruled out quickly, with Linzner stating: “We want to release all content we created at launch of the game.”
Linzner also commented on FAST Racing Neo’s music, and confirmed that there are plans to bring out a soundtrack “at a later date.”
“For the music in FRN we tried a fresh style. We wanted something that could sound like from an 2015 Arcade Game. We really love how the music developed for the game. We plan to release the soundtrack at a later date.”
FAST Racing Neo will only be on Wii U. However, it sounds like Shin’en has at least some interest in seeing “a futuristic racer on a new handheld”.
“We currently have no plans to bring FRN to another system. However, i think a futuristic racer on a new handheld would be great.”
More: FAST Racing Neo, indie, interview, Manfred Linzner, Shin'en
Pokken Tournament – aimed at both kids and adults, game could head west, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
The latest episode of the Japanese program Imagine-Nation features Pokken Tournament. The Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara and Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada were interviewed as part of the show.
Ishihara and Harada touched on a number of topics, ranging from who the game is aimed at to the possibility of a western release. Head past the break for their comments.
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.”
