Former Sony Computer Entertainment America boss praises Nintendo, didn’t anticipate Wii being so successful
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 14 Comments
It’s easy to forget that Nintendo wasn’t in the best position following the GameCube. It wasn’t one of the company’s better-performing systems, so all eyes were on the big N to see what they’d come up with next.
Nintendo promised a revolution with the Wii, and that’s arguably what we got. That turned out to be its best-selling console, and one of its best-selling gaming platforms as a whole. With the initial hysteria surrounding Wii, it was incredibly tough to find for a long time. Nintendo was also successful with its mission of connecting with casual gamers.
In retrospect, not many could have anticipated the Wii’s success. Former Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton “certainly didn’t.”
More: interview, Jack Tretton, Sony, top
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida very excited about Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 16 Comments
Plenty of people are looking forward to Zelda: Breath of the Wild… including Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida. During a PlayStation live stream yesterday, Yoshida mentioned the adventure game as one he’s very excited about.
Yoshida said:
“I just played Zelda! The new Zelda game. You know, open world, and hunting. And I had a bizarre feel, this feels like Horizon. This is a epic, huge game. I can not wait to play Zelda again when it comes out.”
NES designer on Nintendo and Sony’s failed partnership, emphasis on design, indie comparison
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 12 Comments
Back in the day, Nintendo and Sony once attempted to work with each other. The SNES PlayStation prototype is evidence of that. Had the two sides collaborated, Sony would have come out with its own SNES-CD peripheral for the console.
NES designer Masayuki Uemura, in an interview with Gamasutra, spoke about Nintendo and Sony’s failed partnership during a NES celebration at The Strong Museum of Play’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games. Whereas companies like Sony began to focus on graphics and the technological side of gaming at the time, Nintendo still pushed for innovation with design.
Uemura said:
“You might know that we tried to collaborate with Sony once. We knew what Sony was thinking and what kinds of things they were trying to develop. During this time when Sony and other companies started launching products, people started realizing how difficult it is to create a game with great mechanics. Since the time of Game & Watch, Nintendo was doing their best to create game design mechanics that fully utilize the limited technological specifications. What happened was when they started launching those products with high quality graphic design they started emphasizing the graphics processing power – in other words, it wasn’t just the game mechanics they had to focus on but they also had to focus on graphic expression and sound design, not just game design. That’s how the market got saturated with all these kinds of products.
“By contrast, Nintendo was always trying to push the limitations of new types of play. That was a difference between Nintendo product lines and the others. With the maturity of the game industry…it was time to start thinking about redefining the importance of mechanics and design. So for a couple decades the game publishers and hardware manufacturers were focusing on graphics processing power and sound effects and so forth and not focusing much on innovating in game design and mechanics.”
More: interview, Masayuki Uemura, Sony, top
SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida says Wii U is his favorite non-Sony console
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 56 Comments
Shuhei Yoshida, president of SCE Worldwide Studios, has never backed away from talking about the Wii U. In 2013 for instance, he spoke highly of Super Mario 3D World and had praise for the console in general.
Yoshida actually said during a session at EGX 2015 today that the Wii U is his favorite non-Sony console. His reasoning? Because he plays a bunch of Wii U games with his daughters.
More: Shuhei Yoshida, Sony
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida comments on the SNES PlayStation
Posted on 8 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
Someone found a prototype SNES PlayStation / CD-ROM drive
Posted on 8 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
As you might know, in the early 90s Sony worked together with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM drive add-on for the Super Nintendo – however, this device never made it to store shelves as Nintendo made a similar deal with Phillips behind Sony’s back. Nintendo and Sony went their separate ways with Sony creating their own consoles, a rivalry that defined the video game business for over 2 decades now.
Yesterday, someone on the r/gaming subreddit (currently inaccessible) posted of an SNES-CD prototype – notable because reportedly only about 200 of those were ever created. Check out the images in our gallery below – quite strange to see both the Sony and PlayStation trademarks on an SNES controller, right?
It is currently not known what is on the cartridge shown in the picture, or if the prototype still works.
More: SNES, SNES CD-ROM, Sony
Update: More emails – Sony was pursuing a Smash Bros. movie
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 35 Comments
Update 2: Bumped to the top. Another email has been found. Arad said in one message that Keiko Erikawa, one of the founders of Koei Tecmo, was “instrumental to the Mario deal” – likely because of her relationship with Nintendo.
Update: We’ve posted a couple of other email exchanges below. It sounds like Sony was interested in Nintendo’s full stable of IPs!
You may remember that, last year, there was talk about Sony securing the rights to a Mario movie. That news came about due to a leak within Sony – specifically emails between top executives within the company and producer Avi Arad.
As it turns out, Sony wasn’t just interested in Mario. WikiLeaks has now obtained emails which reveal that the company was very much interested in creating a Smash Bros. movie as well. It seems that Arad would have been involved with this film, too.
Just like the Mario movie, specific details are not available at this time. There’s a good chance that both projects will never happen!
More: Sony, Super Smash Bros., top
Sony wants to bring some of the Wii audience over to PS4
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii | 151 Comments
With the PlayStation 4, Sony is looking to bring in some of the consumers who previously purchased Wii.
That tidbit comes from Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House, who was speaking with Eurogamer. He told the site:
“Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously. Whether it’s based on this is a really good all-round entertainment device for a family in addition to having great games, our consumer data suggests some of those people are already coming in now and that’s what’s contributing to the really great sales we’ve had.”
More: Andrew House, Sony
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida has been banned from Miiverse a couple of times
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments
Sony’s lovable executive Shuhei Yoshida has been banned from Miiverse. And this has actually happened not once, but twice.
Yoshida told Engadget that his bans came about for including his Twitter account in his Miiverse profile and for subtly promoting PlayStation.
He said:
“The first time was because I had my Twitter account in my profile and that’s against the rules,” he says. “The second time is because I wrote, ‘I love PS.’ You’re not supposed to promote a commercial product in MiiVerse, so they correctly interpreted ‘PS’ as ‘PlayStation,'” he says with a laugh.
More: Miiverse, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony
Sony: 3DS “shows that playing on a dedicated handheld device has not gone”
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 27 Comments
Last year, 3DS was the best-selling games console in the UK. MCV decided to ask PlayStation UK MD Fergal Gara if he believes this bodes well for Sony’s handheld device, the PlayStation Vita.
Gara said:
Well that just shows that playing on a dedicated handheld device has not gone, as many will try to suggest. We want to have a healthy share of that handheld market. But we are playing fairly differently to Nintendo 3DS, when you think that is a dedicated handheld device with a very strong showing amongst kids. Vita is positioned differently. Yes it appeals to kids but also to committed gamers and as a companion device for PlayStation 4. 3DS shows that the sector is still there and that Nintendo is doing very well in it, so there is a market to harness.
