Information Update // Noticias Nuevas - Nintendo 3DS & PSVita

Information Update - Nintendo 3DS


1.- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confessed that Nintendo has learned “bitter lessons” from the Nintendo 3DS launch, but claims that he’s confident that the company is doing all in its power to make sure the Wii U launch is nothing short of a tremendous success.

More After The Break...

“The company is aiming to firmly complete the development of the entire [Wii U] system and prepare sufficient software so that the Wii U will be at its best at the time of the launch. Needless to say, we have learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS.”

Nintendo has revealed that the Nintendo 3DS will finally be profitable for the company in the first half of its next fiscal year, which begins on April 1st. Nintendo is currently losing money on every Nintendo 3DS sold since the price cut, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has assured investors that this situation will change starting from the next fiscal year.

“I would like to begin with the product profitability of the Nintendo 3DS hardware, which has affected our profit the most for the current fiscal year.”
“Let me first inform you that, in the first half of the next fiscal term, we are now anticipating to get out of the situation that we sell the hardware below cost.”

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors early this morning that gamers are now ready for new video games consoles. Iwata pointed to declining sales of all the major home consoles as the reason that consumers are looking towards brand new formats.

“However, not just the Wii, but the overall performance of home consoles in December was lower than the previous year, and I think that the market is now waiting for a new proposal for home consoles.”


2.- Super Mario 3D Land is the very first Nintendo 3DS title to sell over five million units according to Nintendo. The company announced that Super Mario 3D Land has sold 5.03 million copies globally since the title launched in November of last year. Mario Kart 7 has also sold a fair number of units with 4.54 million units sold to date around the world.

TheLegend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D has sold 2.49 million copies worldwide.

Nintendo has reconfirmed that Animal Crossing 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Paper Mario 3Dare all heading to the Nintendo 3DS this year in Japan. The company wouldn’t announce specific dates for these eagerly awaited titles other than they’re scheduled for a 2012 release. We should hear about Western release dates at this years E3 event in June.


3.- Nintendo has announced that the Wii was the best-selling video games console in Europe during December, beating off fierce competition from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In the United States the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console throughout the year, and Sony’s PlayStation 3 remained the best-selling console in Japan.




Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has clarified that Nintendo has no intention of publishing unfinished games just to make some extra money from paid downloadable content. We already know that the Nintendo Network will support paid DLC.

“Nintendo, as a software maker, does not plan to [run a business] where our consumers cannot know in advance which [product] will appear as the result of their payment,” Iwata said. “As a software maker, Nintendo believes that its packaged software should be sold to our consumers in a form so that the consumers will know in advance that they can enjoy playing the software they purchased just as it is.”

Nintendo has announced that the Wii U controller will feature Near Field Communication, or NFC for short, which according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata will allow the Wii U to do the following:

“By installing this functionality, it will become possible to create cards and figurines that can electronically read and write data via noncontact NFC and to expand the new play format in the video game world.”

 

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata also revealed that the Wii U will get personal user accounts similar to those seen on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This should mean that digital purchases will be linked to user accounts, rather than the actual console.

“Also for the Wii U, we are planning to introduce a personal account system compatible with Nintendo Network. With this, for example, the ease of using a video game system when the hardware is shared by multiple family members, which has been a challenge we needed to tackle, shall be improved, and we will also be able to construct and offer the system by combining a variety of different services and content.”

4.- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has discussed the possibility of Nintendo bringing full downloadable retail games to both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS via the Nintendo Network. Iwata wouldn’t say when the company would start doing this, but claims that the company now has the full ability to do so. Iwata told investors that Nintendo would need to speak to retailers first.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told investors that the company is hard at work developing a brand new side-scrolling Mario title for the Nintendo 3DS. Iwata claims that the game is a “key title” for the Nintendo 3DS and will be released in the next fiscal year – at some point after March 2012 and before April 2013.

 

“[it’s a totally new side-scrolling action Super Mario in 2D”.


- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata

Mesut over at Nintendomination has rather kindly uploaded the first twenty five minutes of Resident Evil: Revelations for the Nintendo 3DS in English. I’ve successfully managed to refrain from watching the footage myself as I’m expecting to get a copy through soon (Nintendo UK are late sending out review copies). Resident Evil: Revelations is officially released tomorrow in Europe and is coming out February 7th in North America.


According to Japanese tabloid Spa! a student was previously busted by a teacher for taking some rather opportunistic upskirt photos of Japanese school girls. When the teacher confiscated the student’s Nintendo DSi he was apparently shocked to see how many female students he had snapped, and was even more shocked to see the student’s penis.

“I discovered a young man using the DS camera to peep on girls at school,” said a 43-year-old male teacher. The teacher apparently confiscated the male student’s DS (the original quote said “DS” and not “DSi”). “Saved on the DS, there were upskirt photos as well as photos of the student’s own penis. The entire staff was sickened by what we found.”

Satoru Iwata, when speaking at a recent investor meeting has shared that Nintendo is "considering the future possibility of digital distribution of packaged software" for both for the 3DS and the Wii U. This is a fancy way of saying that you may be able to purchase full retail games via the consoles instead of going to retail store.

In regards to the 3DS, they "already have the necessary infrastructure" to do this, and will do the same for the Wii U before it launches, but the decision to launch it:




...must be made by taking into consideration such factors as the relationship with the wholesalers and retailers, and the best way to be embraced by consumers


So, it might not launch with the Wii U unless Nintendo can figure out the details. But it's still great that this seems like it'll happening at some point in the next year or so.

5.- We reported that Resident Evil: Revelations would retail for $50 in North America because it uses a 4GB cartridge (compared to the usual 2GB cartridge), but Capcom has announced that they’re lowering the price of the game to $40.

Nintendo has released lots of screenshots from Kid Icarus: Uprising that show many different aspects of the game. You can click here to see all of them (there’s over 500 screenshots) or you can check after the break for a small selection.

There is five minutes of footage from Mutant Mudds:

UFO Interactive Games has announced that Zombie Slayer Diox is coming to the 3DS via the eShop. The game is a side-scrolling rhythm game set to be released in early 2012. You can find a trailer after the break that’ll help you understand more about the game.

Kingdom Hearts 3D is set to be released in Japan on March 29th and, in addition to the stand-alone game, and the special 3DS design, there is also a 10th Anniversary Box which Square Enix has revealed to include:

• Kingdom Hearts 3D
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
• Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
• 12 piece card set showing the history of the series
• Protective cover for the Nintendo 3DS

All of this will retail for 15,000 Yen, which is roughly equivalent to $193.


Satoru Iwata shared the above chart in an investor meeting, also mentioning that:

…at the end of last year which reported that the total unit sales of the Nintendo 3DS reached four million faster than the Nintendo DS or the Wii. However, at that time, this pace was not the fastest in Japan’s video game history, since it was slower than that of the Game Boy Advance. But, the Nintendo 3DS did not lose its momentum even after the new year, and two weeks ago it broke the record of the fastest sales pace.

And I’m assuming we can stop saying the 3DS is doomed. It seems to be doing quite well.

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Mister Gaga