There aren't many gamers who don't harbor fond memories associated with the Nintendo 64's classic adventure (and to many, the greatest installment in the Hylian franchise), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In addition to its beloved story and incredible visuals, it was a groundbreaking third-person adventure through an intricately detailed fantasy world -- but would we (and Game Rankings) still hold the triforce-hunting adventure in such high regard if we had experienced Hyrule directly through the point-eared protagonist's eyes?
In a recent discussion between Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and revolutionary game developer (and Time's most influential person of 2008) Shigeru Miyamoto, it was outed that Shiggy secretly possesses a penchant for first-person shooters (notably, Rare's seminal N64 shooter Goldeneye), and that he'd considered creating Ocarina of Time using an Oblivion-esque first-person perspective. We're not quite sure how this would have affected the title -- but we're certainly terrified of the prospect of witnessing Darunia's sexy dance of seduction first-hand.
Update: Oops! We've realized we covered this before, but think of it this way -- now you're two times more aware of these firm, firm prices as the other denizens of the internet.
While this fact isn't exactly surprising considering the systems' sales success at their current costs, Iwata's reason for the set-in-stone price is rather intriguing -- should either system undergo a cheapening, he explained, it would upset those who bought the console at its former price. Yes, we're sure it has nothing to do with the near completion of Miyamoto's personal, Scrooge McDuck-style gold coin swimming pool.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told analysts today the company has no plans to cut the price of the Wii or DS this year. What, you're surprised? Reuters reports he stated the company's earnings projection didn't take a price cut into account and the continued demand for the company's products don't require one.
With demand outstripping supply on the Wii -- particularly in the North American market -- it's really no shock that Nintendo doesn't need a price cut on its hardware to keep stockholders happy. Nintendo expects to make $5.14 billion in fiscal year '09, which analysts believe is the company being conservative.
In a new edition of the contrived Iwata Asks, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and product development guy, Kenichiro Ashida, sit down with president Satoru Iwata to talk about the Wii Wheel shipping with Mario Kart Wii.
Ashida regales that in early 2007 the product development team got the first build of Mario Kart Wii and started messing around with developing a steering wheel. Some 30 prototypes laters the team had a design that was about the size of a real go-kart steering wheel and added a B button to the underside of the wheel for a child's fingers to reach. Mario Kart Wii drives into stores April 27... coincidentally, two days before that other driving game.
In the latest edition of "Iwata Asks," a series of articles in which Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata interviews colleagues about their recent work, Shigeru Miyamoto finds himself discussing the origins of Wii Fit. Much like Pikmin and Nintendogs before it, the popular balancercise board has its roots in Miyamoto's everyday life. After a hectic work schedule heaped pressure and extra pounds onto the renowned designer's body, he swapped smoking for swimming and steadily grew more conscious of his body and his weight.
Next came a special diet which required frequent measurement and recording of body weight. "Personally, I quite enjoy doing things that become habitual, as if it was daily routine work," explains Miyamoto. "I put the scale and graph paper in the bathroom, and after continuing the pattern for a month, it became like a ritual before getting into the bath. I wasn't able to relax without doing it!" Transforming the habitual measurement into something fun was the next step, one that preceded months of prototyping and "upending the tea table" -- a reference to Miyamoto's tendency to make last-minute decisions and cause a panic right before a deadline.
Famitsu has published (via 1UP) the first part of its reader's choice awards looking back at the year in Japanese gaming. A number of gamers and retailers were given a questionnaire by the magazine, and this week's issue debuted the initial results.
The major winner is Nintendo, who topped the developer lists for both gamers and stores, the hardware lists (DS for retailers, the Wii for gamers), industry figures (Miyamoto), and even won the category for what kanji character represents 2007 best? (Readers picked "Nin," the first character of Nintendo's Japanese name.)
Capcom (thanks in no small part to the Monster Hunter series), Sony and Level 5 (Professor Layton) also placed high on the lists, and Mistwalker founder Hironobu Sakaguchi tied with Miyamoto on the stores' list of which industry figure put in the best showing. Conspicuously absent from the list? Microsoft. Okay, we're not that surprised.
Nintendo's corporate Wii site has an "interview" between Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto, meaning it's not exactly the most authentic conversation you'll read this decade. There is, however, something interesting about Miyamoto's ideas on co-op in Super Mario Galaxy.
Now, if you read it on the American Wii site the headline is "Cooperative Game Play, a Secular Challenge," while on the British site it's "The Old Issue of Two-Player Play." Either way, Miyamoto explains that Galaxy was originally going to have more cooperative elements (like the second person might have controlled jumping, for instance), but a player would only end up getting in the other's way. By having the second player collecting things on screen and being able to point at objects, Miyamoto envisions parents being able to play with their children and the generations assisting each other in the experience. Considering Mario has always been a solo experience (or a player-at-bat concept), it'll be nice to have a friend or significant other be able to do something other than watch. It's a subtle co-op design choice, but one we can see other games picking up if it works.
It's such a "duh" statement, but when the president of Nintendo says the Wii isn't getting a price cut it does qualify as something to report. Speaking with the Associated Press, Nintendo pres. Satoru Iwata says, "Y'all beeatchs crazy? We ain't droppin' da price! Come up in my house askin' dumb question like dat? I oughta cap you." Fine, fine, he didn't actually say that. He really said, "We're absolutely not considering a price cut."
This echoes statements made yesterday by Nintendo senior managing director Yoshihiro Mori, who said that (surprise!) there is no price cut planned. This was following Nintendo's adjustment of their fiscal forecast where they said profits would be higher than expected. From the consumer perspective, the Xbox 360 Arcade at $280 hopes to put a dent into Nintendo's business, possibly prompting an eventual drop in the Wii's $250 price in '08 -- but first, the Wii needs to stop selling out the moment it comes back in stock.
Of the things you were wondering about today, the size of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's waistline was probably not high on your list. Now, imagine if you had to worry about getting killed by Metroids and piloting a starship. Pretty much falls off the list all together, doesn't it?
But did that stop Iwata from calling and leaving that exact information on Samus' answering machine? Of course it didn't. According to Go Nintendo's translation, he says "Hello, this is Iwata from Nintendo. You may not know from an outsiders point of view, but being a director is really hard! When things are really busy and stressful we (us directors) may look tired and sick, then people may feel sorry for us! But in my case, it's the opposite, I get fatter and fatter, so then people don't think I'm stressed at all!"
That's great, boss. Can we get back to saving the world now?
In an interview with Reuters, Iwata spoke of the unprecedented success of the PlayStation 2, adding "if we can make our bid to expand the gaming population a continued success, we could exceed that."
When it comes to the recent fire sale of the PlayStation 3, Iwata doesn't seem terribly concerned, noting that the overlap between the customers Sony is targeting against those of Nintendo is quite small. However, Reuters claims that Sony's "price drop" was a move to better compete with Nintendo. If that's the case, we anxiously await their bathroom scale peripheral.
It's no secret that the Nintendo DS and Wii have been printing money for the company, while Microsoft's Xbox profits and PS3's traction haven't kept pace. Sales continue to rise at Nintendo along with the stock price. Today Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said they're developing 45 games for the Wii and 79 new DS titles. Now, before anybody gets excited, the key word there is "developing," not "producing." The next batch of games according to Iwata will be introduced this "summer." There is no word yet when Nintendo will release their Q3 games list or what's on it.
Iwata, in probably the boldest statement, said that Nintendo plans to sell 14 million Wii during this fiscal year, that's three times the number sold in the last five months. Guess they really are planning to ramp up production. The Wii hardware drought better end soon if Nintendo expects to make their ambitious mark.
Still not content with forecasting massive already profits, Nintendo has raised its sales forecast a fourth time for the fiscal year that ended March 31. Total sales are now said to be ¥966 billion (US $8.1 billion), up from the previous estimation of ¥900 billion (US $7.5 billion). Nintendo said they also expected their profit to beat expectations, which they set at a record ¥185 billion operating profit and ¥120 billion (just over US $1 billion) net profit.
Actual figures will be announced April 26. In the meantime, Nintendo will be busy constructing a life size version of Super Mario World with a twelve-foot naked, chocolate Miyamoto effigy in the middle of the world. Don't worry, we hear mint leaves will cover up his naughty bits.
Six years ago, before the GameCube's launch, Nintendo had filed for a patent on a "messaging service for video game systems with buddy list that displays game being played," and on Tuesday they were granted the patent. The details involve a fully-fledged IM system featuring buddy icons, in-game messaging (via text or voice chat), and web-based storage of the user profile (i.e. Nintendo's servers). All the details can be viewed within the patent's claims.
You can see the similarities between Nintendo's patent and Microsoft's Xbox Live service, but there are two things you should take from this patent:
It does not mean Microsoft copied Nintendo. While Nintendo filed this patent before the Xbox was even launched, chances are Microsoft also filed a patent just as long ago, if not longer.
It does not guarantee these services will be included in the Wii. While Nintendo now has patent protection on such services, given the company the option to incorporate all these features into Wii Connect24, that does not guarantee Nintendo's willingness to implement every aspect of the patent into its service, although it is likely we will see a very similar (if not exact) system implemented by the time the Wii launches.
Nintendo, we can now confirm, has the ability to launch a fully-fledged online service on par with Microsoft, providing almost the exact same features (fully-fledged messaging, downloadable content). To what extent will Nintendo beef up the Wii's online component?
I
saw this guy hanging outside the line for Satoru Iwata's keynote this afternoon and I'm just guessing that The
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Sega Genesis and Turbo-Grafx 16 games weren't the bombs this Nintendo
University alum was thinking about. He was probably waiting for something of the Nintendo GO or, better yet, the Nintendo ON
variety.
