There’s been a lot of speculation over the last 24 hours based on the information that came out of Nintendo’s Investor meeting. People, myself included, are looking for hints about anything Wii U related. Satoru Iwata did say, as we reported yesterday, that there will be no official announcement of the release window or pricing for Wii U at E3. Many of the quotes from Nintendo representatives over the past few weeks have hinted at a late year release for their next home console. This additional quote from the meeting hints even further that a mid-late November release seems likely.
“I believe that you are most interested in the details of the Wii U. Since the Wii U will be launched in Japan, the U.S., Europe and Australia in the year-end sales season… as we did for previous platforms that were launched in the year-end sales season, we will announce the launch date and price in each market sometime after E3.”
The evidence continues to mount. The year-end sales season generally refers to the Thanksgiving holiday, at least here in North America. Does this quote seem to support a Thanksgiving release for the Wii U? Could it be earlier than that or maybe even be pushed into December? We won’t find out at E3, but it’s fun to speculate.
There was a surprising reaction to Wii U when it was revealed at E3 a few weeks ago. Many people, including developers, were excited by the possibilities. Critics were initially unsure whether the controller was a new Wii peripheral, a new console or something else entirely. Stockholders were less enthused as for two days straight Nintendo’s stock prices fell more than they had in many months. Nintendo would later say that they botched the reveal and could have made it easier for everyone to understand, but they also said that they’re no strangers to this type of reaction.
During a recent investor’s conference Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that the reaction to the Wii U was not unlike what happened with both the DS and the Wii. When talking about the reaction to Nintendo’s dual screened handheld he said reactions were like:
“It seems like Nintendo is saying they will have two screens on a handheld console! Are they all right?” and “What are they going to do with this way out stuff?”
I can say that I was less than impressed by the Nintendo DS when I first laid eyes on it. I was very much a fan of the Game Boy family and what it had represented for so long. I also know that as time went on Nintendo proved that the system was a wonderful step forward and developers really figured out how best to handle the system.
He then went on to talk about the reaction to the Wii when it was revealed to the public. According to the Nintendo executive people were saying thiings like:
“The remote can be used for new gameplay, but what else can you make with this?” or “Is this going to sell in the home console market at all?”
When addressing the share holders about Nintendo future, the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS he said that he felt many investor’s were attending the meeting to tell Nintendo to “do something”. He urged those members in attendance that people who have had hands on experiences with the Wii U were very positive and that the new system will sell even better than the Wii.
During Nintendo’s E3 press conference this year Mr. Iwata talked about a game that was going to be cross compatible in some way for the 3DS and the Wii U. That game was Super Smash Bros. and it sort of got the fans buzzing about what we would see and how the features would be implemented. Apparently, we’re going to have to wait some time before that comes to fruition and Nintendo may have announced a game that hasn’t even been put into development.
According to Masahiro Sakurai, who was the Executive Producer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the game has not begun development yet. The following comment comes from Edge when he was asked about the game:
“We’ve got no plans whatsoever. We’ve got two new games out in the open when there’s no extra time to work with them at all. It makes me cringe, and I’m not sure it’s the smartest thing to make gamers wait for several years, but the early announcement was made chiefly in order to attract new team members.”
So Nintendo is showing off a game at the E3 press conference that doesn’t even exist, outside of some speculation on what the title COULD bring when it gets released. I’m not quite sure what to think about this one. Obviously, Nintendo wants to make this a flagship game that would bridge the handheld and the console worlds, potentially even allowing for cross platform play. A similar thing happened with Brawl, but this game could still be as much as three years away, assuming that they haven’t even begun pre-production on it.
Is this a smart move on Nintendo’s part? I have a feeling that announcing a game so far out, and having members of what would be the development team saying it doesn’t exist could hinder the overall good feeling that people would have for the game. Sakurai has said in the past he doesn’t want to do a Smash Bros. game that’s just a roster update, but the fans want more from Nintendo’s fighting franchise. What do you think? Should Nintendo be talking about games that don’t even exist to demonstrate a new platform? Are you excited about the possibilities that a cross platform Smash Bros. could bring?
Many times, when you go to a store to make a video game purchase one of the factors that you weigh when making your decisions is the price of a game. Sometimes you might feel that the content of a game isn’t worth the price that the publisher is asking for. That can ultimately be harmful to developers, publishers and the game franchise itself. How many times have we seen a good franchise doomed to die because it didn’t sell well enough to warrant a sequel? How many times could that fate have been avoided by simply launching the game at a different price point.
This has been one of those issues that has plagued both game makers and game buyers for years. Most titles, it seems, are obligated to come out at a certain price point. Right now the standard default price for games on the high definition consoles is $60, while the default price for most Wii games is $50. Publishers of games for the Xbox 360 and PS3 both justify that additional cost by saying how much more expensive it is to create games for those systems compared to the Wii. Sometimes software comes packaged as, what we like to call, budget software that will sell for around $10 less than the standard price. This is also usually accompanied by the belief, sometimes false belief, that those games aren’t as good as their higher priced cousins.
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Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has been no stranger to GDC. He’s been a keynote speaker at the event a few times in recent years. Back in 2005 he made some announcements about the Wii and what would power that system. In 2006 he made a speech about disrupting development and bringing gaming to the masses. Last year was the announcement of a new Zelda game.
It’s just been announced that he will also keynote this years event, which happens to be the 25th anniversary of the event. The keynote will be titled “Video Games Turn 25: A Historical Perspective and Vision for the Future.” You can bet he’s going to be taking that time to talk about the 3DS and how developing games for that system will change that way people look at the industry.
The Game Developers Conference will be held from February 28th to March 4th.
Nintendo’s said that the next home console is still a ways off. Recently Mr. Iwata said it could be three years or eight years from now. Whenever it comes you can rest assured that you’ll have your mind blown. During recent discussions Mr. Iwata said it would have to be more than just an HD console and that you need to be surprised. Metroid Co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto has even more to say on the topic:
“At Nintendo we always have the obligation to surprise users with a new game console,” Sakamoto told website 3D Juegos in a recent interview. “We have never done what others have. We prefer to create something new that catches attention, and I think this will continue this time as well. Surely the new Nintendo machine will leave you all with your mouth open.”
So, we know that Nintendo doesn’t do things halfway. The next system will leave you as surprised as you were when you finally got your hands on the Wii and chances are it will do something to innovate, yet again. We don’t know when that next system will come. We know it will come and according to the higher ups at Nintendo, we’ll like it when it does.
Nintendo just announced the 3DS and everyone’s speculating on things it can and can’t do. We won’t know exactly what the system is capable of for a while now, but during an interview with Forbes an interesting tidbit of info came from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
“Technologically speaking, a variety of different things are possible with the 3DS, for example, 3-D video chat.”
That’s an amazing revelation for a handheld and one I would love to see implemented into the Wii Speak Channel. It wouldn’t be a feature everyone could use, but some people have gone out and bought things like Ubisoft’s camera for the fitness games. I can imagine all the fun people will have with something like that, but also how potentially scary a company like Nintendo could think technology like that could be. It’s kind of an interesting statement coming from family concious Nintendo, but one that is potentially exciting.
Source: Forbes
No one would argue that Nintendo’s online efforts have been hit or miss throughout the life of the Wii and the DS. Games like Super Smash Brosh Brawl, which had huge online potential ended up falling flat because of it, but games like Mario Kart Wii thrived with a very well designed online experience.
During a meeting with investors during E3 Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said:
“And I can say that we are not currently satisfied with the online efforts that we have made so far, and we are working at ways to improve those. On the other hand, I do not think that online functionality is something that we should be devoting resources to for every single product.”
Nintendo even knows their online experience leaves many people feeling shafted, but it’s not enough of a part of their strategy to deal with it across the system. I don’t know if this bodes well for the future, but it’s one thing Nintendo really needs to address moving forward. The other two consoles and even PC’s all have some form of centralized online experience. Nintendo really needs to capitalize on all the good will they formed with their E3 press conference and address their online infrastructure going forward for Wii and more importantly for whatever follows after.
Source: Kotaku
That’s right. After a couple years of denying that they were worried about Apple in the gaming space Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says that Apple is the “enemy of the future” in the portable gaming space. He also said that Nintendo succeeded in changing the gaming demographic forever, but that the high school girls and 30 year old men they previously converted would now rather have an iPod in their pocket than a DS.
The 3DS was supposed to be Nintendo’s big surprise for E3 this year, but circumstances forced them to reveal the device earlier. It is still planned to be on hand at E3 and that members of the press will be able to demo the device there. All of this comes on the heels of Nintendo revealing that profit and sales totals for the most recent fiscal year were down.
So what do you folks think? Should Nintendo be worried about Apple as competition in the portable space? Sony tried to tackle that market, but has ultimately failed to topple Nintendo’s dominance.
According to Mr. Iwata that was technology that was available for the GameCube.
To tell you the truth, GameCube is secretly designed to load graphical circuits which display graphics for right and left eyes respectively, for a future possibility of realizing 3D gaming experience. So actually we have had interest on this technology, but I have some doubt about everyone needing glasses to play. – Satoru Iwata
That’s a very interesting revelation and another insight into Nintendo’s mindset when developing consoles. The technology was there, but they chose not to support it because they didn’t feel that 3D technology was something that people would be interested in. It would be interesting to find out if the Wii has the same capabilities. I feel much the same way that he did in that having to wear a pair of glasses really hampers the technology especially considering how many people wear some form of corrective eye wear, which can hamper the experience of viewing entertainment in 3D.
Source: Nintendo’s Japanese Website
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