Nintendo

I'm gonna agree with Kit and say that SMB3 was more influential. Who cares if Yoshi was added in SMW? SMB3 is still used as inspiration in the New games.

7.29 Million Wii U Consoles Have Been Sold Worldwide Since Launch In 2012

During Nintendo’s Quarter Two Earnings Report the company revealed that 7.29 million Wii U consoles have been sold worldwide since the console launched in 2012. However, with the recent Xbox One price cut it’s thought that Microsoft’s latest console will soon overtake the Wii U. Microsoft announced that the Xbox One sold 5 million units back in August. Sony has revealed that its PlayStation 4 has sold 10 million units worldwide.

Source: My Nintendo News

Satoru Iwata returns to regular work duties after leave of absence

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata had to take a leave of absence this summer due to a medical condition. In a medical checkup earlier this year, it was discovered that he had a tumor on his bile duct.

During his absence Iwata had the tumor removed and has now recovered well enough to resume his regular work duties.

In his first press appearance since his leave he commented to reporters – while giving the latest Nintendo financial results – Iwata said that he has lost weight but feels healthier.

Source: Nintendo Everything

Iwata Believes Smash Bros. is Why Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Have Such High Pre-Orders

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has an interesting theory to explain this trend, and it involves another popular franchise: Super Smash Bros. "Please let me show you an interesting hypothesis explaining the reason for such strong pre-orders: Those who have enjoyed the “Super Smash Bros.” series and those who were impressed with “Pokémon Ruby” and “Pokémon Sapphire” as the first “Pokémon” title are of the same generation and overlap substantially with each other. We call it the “Hypothesis of the same-generation of “Super Smash Bros.” and “Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire.Those who were elementary school students when “Super Smash Bros. Melee,” and “Pokémon Ruby” and “Pokémon Sapphire” were released have grown up and they are now 18 to 25 years old. Our research in each part of the world commonly indicates that consumers between the age of 18 and 25 represent a large percentage of those who purchased “Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS” in the release period. It is approximately 30 percent in Japan, which is twice the overall average of Nintendo 3DS software, and has even reached 50 percent in the U.S. and Europe. This great momentum for the game in the initial stage was supported by this generation.Thanks to 'Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS,' consumers of this generation pay more attention to Nintendo 3DS and are likely to remember enjoying 'Pokémon Ruby' and 'Pokémon Sapphire.' We think this is why the pre-orders for 'Pokémon Omega Ruby' and 'Pokémon Alpha Sapphire' have been strong. They are now old enough to pay for their own expenses. They can afford to buy Nintendo 3DS to enjoy both 'Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS' and 'Pokémon Omega Ruby' and 'Pokémon Alpha Sapphire' if they choose, and they might encourage their friends to play it with them too. We therefore see it important to stimulate their latent demand in the year-end sales season. Taking into account both the trend of pre-orders and the same-generation hypothesis, we anticipate that 'Pokémon Omega Ruby' and 'Pokémon Alpha Sapphire' to be released next month will have more sales potential than just another remade game in the industry." — Satoru Iwata

Source: Gamnesia

Iwata Explains Why 3DS Sales Declined While Wii U Sales Rose

As Mr. Tatsumi Kimishima has just explained in the financial figure outline, the balance of revenue and expenses improved in the second quarter. While operating income was close to break-even during the low sales season of this six-month period with few key title releases, it moved back into the black in the three-month period of the second quarter.

As a general trend, for Nintendo 3DS during this six-month period, there were few key titles which had a meaningful impact on the market compared to the same period of the previous year. As a result, sales units of the Nintendo 3DS hardware and software declined. On the other hand, for Wii U, the release of “Mario Kart 8” in May and announcements at E3 in June contributed to improving people’s expectations for the Wii U platform. As such, the Wii U hardware and software are selling more than the level of the previous year. Even though the balance of revenue and expenses improved, total net sales decreased in comparison with the previous year.

The main cause for the decrease in sales for the first half of the term is that the sales of Nintendo 3DS in Japan have temporarily been slow moving and declined compared to the last term. In 2012 and 2013, we maintained a very high level of sales in the domestic market for Nintendo 3DS throughout the year. As you can see from the software sales in the first half of each of the past three years, we have kept our software business at a certain size regardless of the release timing of big titles, but the hardware sales have had less momentum this year.

The sales from the launch of New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL on October 11 are not reflected in these graphs. These products have made a good start, which I will elaborate on later. We anticipate that we will get out of the temporary lull of the domestic Nintendo 3DS market and catch up in the latter half with penetration of the new hardware. — Satoru Iwata

Source: Gamnesia

Amiibo News: Limited Figures, Walmart Displays and Possible Bowser Sighting

“Firstly, amiibo figures are offered at an affordable price range when compared to packaged video game software. Even people who may not be able to purchase software frequently may be able to afford to purchase character figures one by one. This could spark interest in the game or contribute to maintaining use rates of our video game platforms.

The amiibo figure lineup for “Super Smash Bros.” will continue to be released even after this year-end sales season, and we hope that this will help to update store shelves. As store shelf space is limited, some amiibo will remain stocked on the shelves as staple choices while some will be limited-time offers which will cede their positions to new ones once they are sold out.

With these offerings, I believe the Nintendo characters lined up on shelves, which usually only contain standard-sized boxes, will have an outstanding presence, and this means a lot to us.

Even though amiibo will be compatible only with Wii U at the launch, we are proactively making progress on Nintendo 3DS compatibility. As the New Nintendo 3DS handheld contains an NFC reader/writer, it will be able to support amiibo after a software update. The Nintendo 3DS platform will also be able to do the same via an external NFC reader/writer, which is scheduled to be launched in 2015. With these offerings, we will increase the amiibo compatible software lineup for Nintendo 3DS.

amiibo is a new category of products for us that creates a new kind of value by being supported by multiple titles. We hope that by making amiibo figures compatible with multiple titles, consumers will be happy to carry the figures with them and will be eager to try them with new software.”

Source: TheHDRoom

Miyamoto on dev time, spin-off games for major franchises, plenty of Wii U games next year

Nintendo commented on a variety of topics during the Q&A portion of its financial results briefing earlier this week. One of these points was development time.

We all know that the Wii U suffered from a lack of games at launch. Thankfully, in the future, this is something that Nintendo should be able to avoid.

Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Nintendo “already completed the step of learning new development techniques,” meaning there should be fewer “less developmental delays stemming from learning new hardware.”

Also part of Nintendo’s plans are to create spin-off titles based on major franchises. These project swill be made “on a smaller scale”. Miyamoto said that the company is “preparing to expand on our characters while also increasing the number of software we output and allowing our customers to have their next experiences in certain franchises without waiting three years.”

Finally, Miyamoto mentioned that Nintendo is working with third-party companies more regularly to make games – think asset creation, cut-scenes, etc. The Big N started to work with some of these developers for the first time this year. “We are in the process of creating a system where we are actively seeking outside assistance to help us create an abundance of major titles,” Miyamoto said.

If you’re interested in checking out Miyamoto’s full comments, head past the break.

On development time, we have already completed the step of learning new development techniques. So, we should experience less developmental delays stemming from learning new hardware. From now on, it becomes a matter of if we can use our experience efficiently and one part of our plan to do so is to use ‘spin off games’, which allow us to use our major title franchises, but create on a smaller scale and we are working hard on making these sort of derived products. In this way, we are preparing to expand on our characters while also increasing the number of software we output and allowing our customers to have their next experiences in certain franchises without waiting three years.

We are also working more and more with many different 3rd party companies to produce our titles [note: this seems to refer to outsourcing stuff like asset creation, cut-scenes, etc] and from this year we have begun to work with some software developers for the very first time. We are in the process of creating a system where we are actively seeking outside assistance to help us create an abundance of major titles. I feel that next year’s Wii U titles are plentiful. We will continue working hard.

Source: Nintendo Everything

Nintendo is Unifying Their Four Development Teams Under One Roof

Nintendo is focusing more and more on being a unified creative force going forward. Previously the development of handheld games was largely handled separately from console game development, but Nintendo started the process of merging them together about a year go. The next big step comes in June of next year when all four of Nintendo's research and development teams will move into the same building, forming the Integrated Research & Development Division. Here, all of Nintendo's creative minds well be able to interact with each other on a regular basis to create more unique and fun content.

I think I should explain what we have been doing about our internal organization in response to our core management policy. For one thing, as previously announced, we have integrated our hardware development divisions and established the “Integrated Research & Development Division.” Until this change took place, we used to develop our handheld video game devices and home video game consoles in separate divisions. Of course, we did not simply merge two divisions into one. We know that we need to change how we manage this new division as well as how we create and manage new projects, and we are currently making progress on this.

Also, the new R&D Development Center was built earlier this year, and our developers will move to their new offices in mid-June, after E3. After settling in, the developers who are now working at different buildings will be able to work together in the same building. As a result, our development of hardware and software can be done in a more unified fashion with individual developers being able to communicate directly with others more closely, and the different R&D teams that are currently working in separate rooms can work as one team in the same room. Of course, even now, our hardware development teams and software development teams work closely with each other, but because they belong to different departments under our current organizational structure, they are not necessarily able to visit others’ rooms freely. In the Development Center, we will create a space where developers from the four different R&D divisions can get together with others. This is another concrete example of what we are doing in order to establish an environment where unique and fun hardware-software integrated entertainment can be developed more smoothly. — Satoru Iwata

This unification of Nintendo's teams, along with the newly formed Nintendo Garage, should help lead to a better development atmosphere for Nintendo. This will also likely be key in Nintendo's goal to transition into a more account-based gaming platform, rather than a console-based one.

Source: Gamnesia

Nintendo working on amiibo cards, smaller/cheaper figures

Thus far, Nintendo has only shown figurines in relation to amiibo. But the company apparently has other plans for the brand with additional products.

During the Q&A for Nintendo’s financial results briefing last week, there was talk about the different amiibo projects the company is working on for 2015 and the advantage of allowing them to be used in multiple games as well as the speediness of their read/write speeds.

It was later mentioned that Nintendo is planning non-figure based amiibo such as cards. While speaking about this, the Game Boy Advance e-Reader cards were referenced. Shigeru Miyamoto additionally discussed a card game in which you can play simply by swiping cards and then using them to record your play history. Miyamoto teased, “But I can’t talk about that specifically yet, however card games posses the potential to have a new structure with amiibo.”

Nintendo also has plans to create figures that are smaller and cheaper than the Smash Bros. ones. There does seem to be the possibility of using these kinds of figures in something such as Animal Crossing.

Finally, Miyamoto stated that he’s pushing teams to come up with non-standard uses of the Wii U’s NFC reader. Nintendo hopes to show some of their results in this area next year.

Source: Nintendo Everything

Pokémon Trading Card Game U and Animal Crossing U confirmed!

Nintendo - Miiverse Holiday Wishlist

http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct/11-05-2014/
Nintendo Direct announced! Hopefully it'll announce the New 3DS!

Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) - Watch a new #NintendoDirectNA on 11/5 at 2 p.m. PT for updates about upcoming games for #3DS and #WiiU. http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct