Japan: Switch sells over 300,000 units in first week
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 100 Comments
Update (3/7): Famitsu now has an article up on its actual website. Between March 3 and March 5, Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold 193,060 units at retail with a 58 percent attach rate. Also, Famitsu’s website reports a figure of 330,637, so we’ll be using that one instead of the previously-reported 313,700.
Original (3/6): Data from Famitsu reveals that first week sales of Switch came in at 313,700 units in Japan. To compare, other notable console launches include the Wii at 371,900 units, Wii U at 308,600 units, and PlayStation 4 at 322,100 units.
By first week, that should mean Switch’s first three days on the market. Famitsu’s next reporting period is between February 27 and March 5, and Switch came out on March 3 – so that would account for sales from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Earlier today, it was reported that Switch doubled up on Wii U in the UK by selling 80,000 units in its opening weekend. No numbers are out for North America, but the system had a record-breaking launch for Nintendo.
Switch in America: best 2-day sales in Nintendo history, Zelda best-selling standalone launch game
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 82 Comments
The New York Times recently had the opportunity to interview Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. We’ll be seeing the publication’s full discussion soon, but reporter Nick Wingfield shared some information about Switch’s sales early.
Switch’s first 2-day sales in the Americas – meaning Friday and Saturday – were the best for any system in Nintendo history. The next closest was Wii, which launched during the holiday period.
We’re also hearing that Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now the best-selling standalone launch title (meaning not a bundled game) in Nintendo history. The game managed to beat out Super Mario for N64.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild director on how the game initially came together, Miyamoto climbing trees in the prototype
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 6 Comments
The concept for Zelda: Breath of the Wild began with Shigeru Miyamoto and series producer Eiji Aonuma asking what would players would be able to do in the new game. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who became the project’s director, responded by saying you could do everything.
Fujibayashi told Kotaku:
“But I had to sell it to them. How we’re going to make this happen. And I felt like the best way to convey this idea to them was to show them that you could climb walls.”
Work on Breath of the Wild began with a prototype. The team created a starting area with a small field and trees, along with rupees hidden throughout. Fujibayashi describes how Miyamoto played the demo:
Away: Journey to the Unexpected debut teaser trailer
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 4 Comments
The first teaser trailer is online for Away: Journey to the Unexpected. While no specific platforms are listed, we know that it’s bound for Switch thanks to the Nindies infographic sent out last week.
Here’s the video:
Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a Japanese-inspired, first-person game. The Next Penelope (also coming to Switch) creator Aurelien Regard is working on the project. More information should be shared tomorrow.
Another look into the left Joy-Con connectivity issues, could be hardware-related
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 39 Comments
Much has been made of syncing issues with Switch’s Joy-Con controllers, particularly with the left one. Spawn Wave looked into the situation with a pair of new videos.
Opening the left Joy-Con circuitry shows that the antennae used for Bluetooth is actually built into the board. Meanwhile, the right controller has an external wired antennae. Interference could be involved with the left Joy-Con resulting in connectivity problems.
Spawn Wave explains the situation towards the end of the first video below. In the second one, a wire is added inside to boost the Bluetooth signal, and the results are very successful.
More: top
Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s map is based on Kyoto
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 0 comments
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s huge map is based on Kyoto, Japan. That’s according to director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who revealed the information while speaking with The Verge.
Fujibayashi told the site:
“When I first started looking at this game, I had Link in an empty game field and I would just walk around and try to map out and get a feel for the distance and where landmarks should be. What helped me with this was my hometown, Kyoto. I took a map of Kyoto and overlaid it on the game world, and I tried to imagine going to places that I know in Kyoto. I’d think ‘It takes this much time to get from point A to point B, so how does that translate to the game?’ And that’s how we started mapping out the world in Breath of the Wild.”
Fujibayashi added that using Kyoto as a base was helpful during development since developers were familiar with the region:
Zelda: Breath of the Wild director on cutting Wii U touch features
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 77 Comments
Before the Switch version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game was planned to have some touch features on the Wii U GamePad. Ultimately, those ideas were scrapped. The GamePad simply tells players that they can tap on the controller to enable off-TV play.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently chatted with IGN about the decision to cut the game’s touch features on Wii U. Once Switch was brought in and tests were done, Nintendo “noticed looking back and forth between the GamePad and the screen actually took a little something away from this type of Zelda game.”
Fujibayashi’s full comments are below.
Niantic CEO on Pokemon GO – 2017 update plans, Legendary Pokemon, cheating, missing features
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 38 Comments
This week, Wired’s German division conducted an interview with Niantic CEO John Hanke. Hanke was able to answer some important questions about plans for Pokemon GO in 2017 and more.
First, Hanke was asked about what fans can expect from Pokemon GO’s second big update this year. He confirms that “playing together and gym battles” will be primarily addressed.
“There are a couple of areas that need to be improved – one of them being playing together and gym battles. We released those in an incomplete state. We knew from Ingress that cooperation and planning can be a lot of fun. When people have a common goal, then that’s a strong incentive to meet up with friends or even with people you don’t know.”
“The gameplay in gym battles is very limited. They just don’t work as well as we wish they would. We will overhaul this aspect of the game to ensure more teamwork and to give people a bigger incentive to receive the rewards from gym battles.”
More: interview, John Hanke, Niantic, Pokemon GO, top
Switch had “one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 50 Comments
How Switch will do in the long run remains to be seen. That being said, early indications from GameStop point to the system having a successful launch.
Eric Bright, the retailer’s senior director of merchandising, shared a few comments about Switch’s performance on launch day. According to Bright, Switch saw “one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years.” He also noted how many stores “were packed with customers”, with some fans lining up early to nab a Switch for themselves.
Bright said:
“Stores across the country last night were packed with customers who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the brand new Nintendo Switch. We even had customers lining up as early as yesterday morning so that they could be one of the lucky ones to score one of the additional units for our walk-in customers. This is one of the strongest and most successful gaming console launches for GameStop in the last several years. For those fans who are still looking for the Nintendo Switch, don’t worry–we’re getting more. And, we’re pretty sure that there are a lot of gaming fans who pulled all-nighters last night playing their new Switch, and who also called in sick to work today with ‘game-fluenza’ just to stay home and play even more.”
Yacht Club on finding out about Switch, says it’s an “incredibly easy system to develop for”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 3 Comments
Yacht Club Games is at Switch’s launch with Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment. But how’d the studio find out about the new console anyway?
In a recent interview, lead programmer and studio co-founder David D’Angelo said:
“Nintendo first came to us. They said, ‘We have something coming. No we can’t tell you what it is, but if you have something around this time then that would be great.’ They do a pretty good job of keeping us in the loop in case our projects line up.”
D’Angelo also mentioned that “Switch is light years ahead of the Wii U. It’s an incredibly easy system to develop for, even compared to other consoles.”
With Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games had it running “within a week”. In D’Angelo’s experience, developing for Switch is very close to the PlayStation 4. “I’ve been very impressed with how put together it is,” he said.
