[Developer Musings] The journey into the unknown: indies offer insight into Nintendo’s potential mobile strategies
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Developer Musings | 4 Comments
Nintendo’s entry into the mobile market through its partnership with DeNA is a natural fit, but moving forward it does beg a lot of questions. When you combine Nintendo’s notoriety for doing things their own way with the unforgiving nature of the mobile market outside of the already flooded free-to-play space, its not as simple as making a Mario endless runner and calling it a day. Nintendo has an interesting set of challenges put forward to them, as the kind of investment they make in this space could have some unprecedented consequences for their own handheld platform.
We reached out to developers Springloaded Software, Joost van Dongen, Rawkins Games, and Yazar Media Group for their take on the best way for Nintendo to get some of the mobile limelight and use it as a way to get more consumers back where they really want them – on their own systems. How can the two spaces co-exist without diminishing what’s already there with the 3DS? Is it possible for the mobile titles to exist as both good standalone products as well as a good entry point for Nintendo systems? Will Nintendo finally have to follow the trend rather than setting it when it comes to working on a platform that’s not their own? Having existed in both the traditional console and mobile spaces themselves, our guests this week offer some insight into some of the possibilities Nintendo has going forward.
[Let’s Talk] Do you care about amiibo?
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Let's Talk | 49 Comments
Let’s Talk #7: Do you care about amiibo?
Yesterday, Nintendo confirmed that over 10 million amiibo have been shipped worldwide. That’s a big number. A large majority of figures have made their way to the U.S. and Canada – a whopping 66 percent. Europe is second with 20 percent.
amiibo only just debuted last year, but we’ve already seen some extensive plans from Nintendo. A whole bunch of Smash Bros. figures have been released, with more on the way. Splatoon amiibo are due out this month, followed soon by Yoshi plushies. Animal Crossing amiibo cards are coming this fall.
While amiibo sales have been strong, not all has gone well. Many figures are tough to find in stores at the moment, and scalpers are taking advantage of that situation. There are many instances in which retailers open pre-orders only to sell out of stock within a matter of minutes.
All of that said, do you care about amiibo? Did you once care, but stopped after figures became difficult to find? Were you never interested in amiibo at all? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
So. Here’s my situation. When Nintendo initially announced amiibo, I didn’t care about the figures too much. I wanted Link, but that was about it.
… But I couldn’t help myself. I ended up ordering a few more amiibo from wave one after they launched, and once I started hearing that certain figures were becoming harder to find, I got caught up in the craze. I eventually told myself that I’d pick up every figure from the Smash Bros. line and likely stop there.
Well, now I don’t really have a game plan! I ended up purchasing Toad from the Super Mario Bros. line, and I secured the gold Mario as well. Something tells me that I won’t be able to resist the Yoshi plushie either. I suppose you can say that Nintendo has me hooked! I’m not even entirely sure why I’m collecting amiibo – figures and the like have never appealed to me much in the past. The stock situation has definitely been frustrating, yet I still have interest in amiibo – for now anyway!
Highlights from last week’s topic: Which character do you want to see in Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS?
There were lots of fantastic comments and choices about last week’s topic, so it was really tough choosing a few highlights. Thanks for your participation – the discussion was great!
ronin4life
Isaac from Golden Sun. Nintendo’s GBA RPG has no reps whatsoever in Smash, even though Isaac was an assist in Brawl.
LordDisco
I still think the Mushroom Kingdom could be represented more amusingly. Waluigi, Daisy, and Toad would all be great additions to Smash Bros, in my opinion.
Waluigi would be hilarious. If they keep him the way he’s been developed over the years, he’ll be wildly interesting and much funnier than the toilet-humored Wario. Waluigi’s moveset can just be a crazy combination of his weird obsessions, and as long as he does the “suck it” gesture from Mario Strikers, he will become my favorite Smash character. hahaha.
Daisy is great too, because she’s basically a sassy and unprofessional princess. He’s basically the opposite of Peach personality-wise, and giving her her own Smash character can open up new possibilities for her as a character in general. She can be kind of a cheating character, which lots of funny moves, like pimp-slapping, headbutting, and throwing turnips like baseballs. I would love for her to be better represented than a simple skin for Peach.
Lastly, Toad would be awesome! His skins could be like Bowser Jr, where each skin is a different Toad, like Toadette, Captain Toad, and Toadsworth. He could be exceptionally small, too, like how Servebot was like in Marvel VS Capcom. And if Nintendo wanted to be really funny, they could just intentionally make Toad the weakest character by a long shot (Again, like Servebot) so people can brag heavily to their friends if they happen to win matches as Toad.
I would love for any one of these characters to be added in, and it’s not like it would be too difficult for Nintendo to pull off, honestly.
AquaBat
King K. Rool, of course!
link2metroid
I’d like to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Their moveset would be brilliant and they’d fit in well. Who here is old enough to remember TMNT: Tournament Fighters for the SNES? I thought that was a brilliant game. And more recently, TMNT: Smash Up, while not as good as Smash Bros. it too was a decent game. The different colours could be the different characters though having 4 characters could be a lot of work even though they’d have a lot of common moves. The only thing is deciding which style would be best. I prefer some of the older versions going back to their image rather than some of the more modern looks.
Mirai Akemi
The one I really, really want is Simon Belmont. I think he’s the one missing legend from the NES era. There’s other iconic characters form back then, but he’s the biggest one. There’s so much potential for his moves, a stage and definitely music. A very close second is Bomberman, also a gaming icon and a classic, and he also has potential, though not as much as Simon.
Realistically speaking though, and with Konami being, well, Konami, my most wanted character that actually has a chance is Isaac. I half expected him to be there from the start and still have faith that Sakurai removed him as an assist because he knew that even if they couldn’t work on every character they wanted for the release, DLC could still happen and he saw potential in him.
Pokemon devs on Mega Evolutions – criteria, Slowbro over Slowking more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
This month’s issue of Nintendo Dream has a lengthy interview with some of the folks responsible for the Pokemon games. The magazine chatted with Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire director Shigeru Ohmori, Ken Sugimori (art director), Shigeki Morimoto (battle director), Kazumasa Iwao (game designer).
Some of the most interesting comments came about when the interview focused on the topic of Mega Evolutions. Nintendo Dream asked about things like criteria for Mega Evolutions, why Slowbro was chosen to go through the process rather than Slowking, and more.
Head past the break for our full translation of Nintendo Dream’s Pokemon Mega Evolution discussion.
Update: Universal bits – Iwata hints at Nintendo’s licensing business potentially expanding to “films and video content”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 27 Comments
Update: This is slightly related (using IP outside of games), so I’ll leave this here. Iwata also mentioned that when meeting with Universal, he was “surprised” by the company’s “extremely detailed” plans for Nintendo attractions at Universal Studios. Once the meeting finished and he returned to Japan, Iwata immediately talked things over with Miyamoto. Eventually, Universal’s attraction engineers met with “veteran Nintendo producers” multiple times on how to go about making Nintendo-themed attractions.
Nintendo has been heading into some interesting directions over the past few months. The company started to dabble with ventures that aren’t gaming-specific like figures, mobile games, and even theme park attractions thanks to a partnership with Universal. Things may not stop there.
While speaking at the Q&A portion of Nintendo’s latest financial results briefing, CEO Satoru Iwata hinted at the company potentially expanding to “films and video content”. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Iwata elaborated much on this.
More: top
Nintendo not talking about smartphone games at E3 since the event is for “dedicated gaming systems”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News | 17 Comments
Nintendo will be releasing its first mobile game this year. We don’t know what exactly is planned, but don’t expect to hear about anything at E3 2015 next month.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, speaking at the company’s latest financial briefing, confirmed that there are no plans to discuss smartphone games. That’s because they realize the event is for “dedicated gaming systems”.
Nintendo thinking about what steps need to be taken to make NX region-free
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U | 67 Comments
Update: Fairly accurate translation is below.
Removing region-locking from current game machines presents various issues, so we don’t consider that to be very realistic. However, regarding NX, given the customer feedback and proposals from the market, while nothing has been decided yet, we’re currently investigating internally what problems there would be in realizing it. You can think of that as the current situation. I understand your desire, so I’d like to look at it optimistically going forward.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed the topic of region locking during the Q&A portion of the company’s latest financial results briefing.
Iwata stated that Nintendo is thinking internally about what steps need to be taken to make NX region-free. Additionally, the Big N is aware that people want a region free system, and he is “thinking positively” about region free. A decision has not been made internally about whether or not NX will be region-free.
Iwata was also quick to point out that doing away with region-locking for current hardware is “unrealistic”.
More: top
Xenoblade X beats original game with first week sales, sells through 70% of initial shipment
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 15 Comments
The latest data from Media Create reveals that Xenoblade Chronicles X sold 85,586 copies in its first week in Japan. While it didn’t set the charts on fire, the game did quite well all things considered.
When the original Xenoblade came out on Wii, it sold 83,000 copies in its first week. You may recall that Nintendo was working with a much, much higher install base with that console at the time. It’s also worth noting that the recently-released New 3DS version sold 56,923 copies in its first week.
Separately from Media Create’s report, Dengeki indicates that Xenoblade Chronicles X sold through 70 percent of its initial shipment.
More: Japan, Monolith Soft, sales, top, Xenoblade Chronicles X
Come take our new survey!
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Site updates | 9 Comments
Giving this one final bump to the top. I’ll be closing the survey soon so that I can closely look over what you guys had to say!
Bumping this to the top. Thank you so much to those who completed the survey thus far. The feedback/comments/responses are very much appreciated and will hopefully allow us to improve! We received a ton more than I was expecting. I’ll be going through them all in the days and weeks ahead!
Surveys are not something that we’ve dealt with too much in the past. I’m changing that now! I have a fairly short survey that I would really, really appreciate if you could take a moment to fill out.
Take the survey here
There are several questions in there, but most are basically in the form of multiple choice/quick selections. Also, you can feel free to skip any question. I’m just looking for genuine responses! I can’t stress how important this survey is, and your feedback will help shape Nintendo Everything’s future. Thank you in advance!
Splatoon Global Testfire – round one now live
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 46 Comments
Splatoon Global Testfire is now open for business. This first round will last from 8 PM PT to 9 PM PT (11 PM ET to 12 AM ET).
Two more rounds of Splatoon Global Testfire will be going live over the next 12 hours or so. We’ll publish reminders as they begin.
3.4 million copies of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate shipped worldwide, Capcom hopes to ship 2.5 million units of Monster Hunter Stories by March 31, 2016
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 6 Comments
Capcom has shared a bit more on its latest financial results.
The most notable piece of Nintendo news is that, as of March 31, 2015, the company has shipped 3.4 million copies of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate worldwide. As previously mentioned, 1 million of the game’s shipments came from the west. Capcom originally projected a shipment of 3.9 million units, though they weren’t too far off.
Capcom’s new “title related to Monster Hunter” for 3DS, which is almost certainly Monster Hunter Stories, has a projection shipment now as well. Capcom is looking to have 2.5 million copies of the game out in the market by March 31, 2016.
