According to a Wired report, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto is stepping down from his current position at Nintendo. He plans on staying at the company, albeit in more of an advisory role. Miyamoto wants to focus on smaller projects, rather than big-budget productions that require multiple years of development time.
“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” explained Miyamoto. more »
Joining Best Buy, retailer Target wants to push lots of Nintendo 3DS hardware this holiday season, offering up a $50 gift card with the purchase of any standalone 3DS unit. The deal goes into effect tomorrow through the 10th across all US stores, according to an ad flyer posted on its site. more »
Nintendo 3DS momentum is strong, with sales on the verge of eclipsing the 3 million unit mark according to Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata. At the current rate, the milestone will be hit two weeks faster than its predecessor, the DS.
Additionally, Nikkei reports (translated by Andriasang) that Mario Kart 7 has sold an upwards of 420,000 units in Japan — nearly double that of the DS iteration. It would seem that bustling 3DS sales, combined with key software launches have pushed Nintendo back onto the road to profitability, despite posting a financial loss earlier this year. Iwata expects the firm to make a recovery financially in the next fiscal term.
Alright here’s one that strikes the funny bone. In the wake of last week’s announcement that the fiscal year ending in March 2012 will see the company post it’s first annual loss since 1981 Mr. Iwata has gone on to clarify, among other things, some of the company’s strategies in dealing with the 3DS this holiday season during a Q&A session.
Here is the interesting tidbit:
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After 6 months since stating that 3DS sales are off to a smooth start and roughly 3 months since the handheld received an early price cut Nintendo now has to admit it has a very real problem. The company has forecast its first annual loss since it began reporting finances in 1981. Specifically, Nintendo expects to suffer a loss of ¥20 billion ($264 million) for the year ending March 2012. It seems the Wii 2 could be make or break for the company which was once leaps ahead of Sony and Microsoft.
Looks like one of Nintendo’s big announcements at its upcoming 3DS conference – or at least one of them, will involve the unveiling of a control expansion pack. It’s a bulky attachment that straps onto the 3DS’ rear, adding a second analog nub and extra triggers in the form of an L2, R1, and R2 button.
A photo of the peripheral was shown in the latest issue of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu (picture above), alongside a feature on Monster Hunter 3DS. It’s not clear if the device was designed specifically for MH, or if other titles will take advantage of it. We’d side towards the latter, though.
Nintendo is prepping significant product announcements for its 3DS Conference in Japan this year. While it’s anyone’s guess as to what will be shown, the briefing will be held on September 13 and we now have another nugget of information to go along with that. According to Nintendo’s official website, it will be accompanied by a live stream, which will no doubt raise the hype meter for some.
It’ll be broadcast 12:00 PM Japan time through UStream and NicoNico video.
As a token of appreciation to early 3DS adopters, Nintendo announced last month that it would gift rewards in the form of free NES and Game Boy Advance titles. Originally slated to go live on September 1, the first batch of rewards are now up for download a day early, at least in North America.
Those in the 3DS Ambassador program can now download NES classics Metroid, Wrecking Crew, NES Open Tournament Gold, Zelda II, Yoshi, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber and The Legend of Zelda. To access the goods, simply log on the eShop and navigate to settings. The 10 titles are available under My Downloads.
Nintendo will host a pre-Tokyo Game Show event on September 13 in Japan to focus on 3DS, according to a WSJ report. Speculation suggests Nintendo may debut a 3DS redesign at the event, along with several big software announcements.
Share value in the company rose 8.4 percent over the past three weeks. It was during the same time last year that Nintendo unveiled 3DS.
Officially, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said the company has “no plans” for a redesign.
The recent 3DS price drop has definitely spurred interest in the handheld over in Nintendo’s native region. Radio Nikkei is reporting that sales through the second week of August (8-14) hit 207K. That figure tops the number of units sold during the week following launch.
As the price drop went into effect August 11 in Japan, that accounts for three days of sales at the marked down price. It’ll be interesting to see if sales climb even further given a full week to settle.
