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Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are undoubtedly Nintendo’s biggest games of the year. Sometime after their release, Nintendo could be inclined to share sales figures directly. But early reports indicate that both will be lighting the sales charts on fire.

Speaking with The Verge, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the pre-sale trends for Pokemon and Smash Bros. “are tracking to the best we’ve ever seen on Nintendo Switch.” He added, “The consumer engagement through all of our digital activity has been exceptionally strong.”

As Nintendo heads into the busy sales season that are the holidays, Kotaku caught up with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Reggie spoke about why people should be interested in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the goal of of selling 20 million Switch systems this year, and reflected on Switch in 2018.

One interesting commented popped up when Reggie mentioned that he would liked to have seen Smash Bros. launch earlier in the year. Why? Because an early December launch is “challenging” business-wise and retailer-wise.

Nippon Ichi has made it known a few times in the past just how well Disgaea 5 Complete did on Switch. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the game was sitting at 200,000 copies sold in the west alone.

In last month’s issue of EDGE, Nippon Ichi president Sohei Niikawa reiterated Disgaea 5 Complete’s success on Switch, stating that “it sold incredibly well both in Japan and abroad.” Niikawa also spoke about Nintendo’s strong support of the company having visited their offices to teach the developers about Switch. Right now he believes it’s an “ideal piece of hardware” since the dual console and portable nature makes it appealing to both the west and Japan.

Enter the Gungeon

At PAX Aus 2018 a couple of weeks ago, Eric managed to catch up with Dave Crooks from Dodge Roll. Crooks had plenty to say about Enter the Gungeon, but also the studio’s next game.

Crooks told us that a “pseudo sequel to Gungeon” could come next “in the sense that it would be like of a similar tone and a similar art style and such”. Also, while Enter the Gungeon didn’t have multiplayer, this is a possibility for the upcoming project since the team is currently building the proper tools for it this time around.

At BlizzCon last weekend, Eurogamer spoke with Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan. One of the questions asked concerened the possibility of bringing the game to Switch. While there still isn’t really any news either way, Kaplan did say the team is “very open-minded”.

Here’s the full exchange:

Shigeru Miyamoto

Earlier today, we heard Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri speaking about the challenges of making a Mario movie. He actually had a bit more to say about the project, including Shigeru Miyamoto’s role.

As we know, Miyamoto is acting as a producer. Meledandri says that Illumination is “keeping him front and center in the creation of this film.”

It was nearly a year ago that Nintendo announced an animated Mario movie. Illumination, the company behind the Despicable Me franchise, will be leading the way on its creation. While some may have concerns about how it will turn out, we at least know that Shigeru Miyamoto will be co-producing.

In an interview with Variety, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri spoke about the upcoming film. He believes the main issue with the panned Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993 is that the original creators weren’t involved – which won’t be the case this time around.

Dark Souls: Remastered

Virtuos has ported a couple of games to Switch. The company handled the Switch version of L.A. Noire last year and most recently was behind Dark Souls: Remastered. That won’t be all, as more games are on the way.

Speaking with Nintendo Life, Virtuos’ Lukas Codr teased that the developer “will definitely have some exciting high-profile Switch games coming out very soon.” He said:

Bethesda’s Pete Hines had quite a few interesting things to say about Switch during a panel at PAX Aus 2018 last week. We already heard Hines mentioning that the company is considering the console for its games in almost every case, but he actually had much more to say about Nintendo’s platform.

Hines first spoke about Switch support in general and why the publisher has been putting as many games as it has on the platform thus far. The big takeaway is that the primary reason for the lack of Bethesda support on Nintendo platforms in the past was simply due to tech specs. For Switch, what the system is capable matched up fairly well with what Bethesda is doing and the developers have allowed for these games to happen.

Octopath Traveler

A recent issue of Nintendo Dream features an informative and lengthy interview with Octopath Traveler’s main producers from Square Enix, known as the “Asano Team”. The discussion focuses on art direction and learning more about the eight main characters (who were originally going to be a team of up to twelve!) with behind-the-scenes information on changes to characters’ designs, names, and personalities. We also have a brand new look at initial prototypes for the visual style, talk about a scrapped HD Rumble idea, and much more.

Check out our exclusive translation below to learn first-hand how Octopath Traveler started out based on Final Fantasy VI and Romancing SaGa 3, and how the team pioneered a new “HD-2D” art style to create a JRPG that feels nostalgic, yet brand new, all at once.


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