Posts tagged with "nintendo"

Miitomo Is a Strong Start for Nintendo’s Mobile Strategy→

Nadia Oxford, writing for US Gamer, shares some first impressions of Miitomo, Nintendo’s first iOS app that went live in Japan yesterday:

One of Tomodachi Life’s most appealing features made it into Miitomo, too: Outfit collection. Like its inspiration, Miitomo has tons of outfits and accessories for sale, and stock changes daily. You can also play a Pachinko-style game to win super-exclusive outfits. Which, by the way, is how I wound up blowing all my coins. I was trying to score a black cat ensemble. If Nintendo ever does get around to releasing Nintendo-themed costumes for the app’s Miis, I’m definitely going to live my life in perpetual Miitomo poverty.

Speaking of coins, there’s understandably been a lot of worry about how Nintendo will monetize Miitomo. From my angle, Miitomo is fair about in-app purchases. I was happy to see there’s no secondary “hard currency,” a staple of free-to-play games. Hard currency usually needs to be bought with real-world cash (though some games occasionally throw you a bone – or a diamond or gem, as the case may be), and often needs to be on-hand in order to acquire the game’s coolest accessories.

It sounds like Nintendo has thought this through – there are push notifications to keep you engaged a few minutes every day, there’s My Nintendo integration to unlock rewards, and you can even redeem DS games on the 3DS eShop by playing Miitomo on iOS. I still don’t know if this will catch on outside of Japan, but I’m curious to check it out.

See also: Jeff Benjamin’s video overview.

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Nintendo’s Second Mobile Game to Feature “Familiar” Character→

Nintendo didn’t only announce details for Miitomo and My Nintendo this week. Here’s Takashi Mochizuki, reporting for The Wall Street Journal:

Videogame giant on Tuesday posted a sharp drop in quarterly net profit, but it stoked the hopes of fans by promising that its second smartphone game would feature one of the company’s best-known characters.

And:

“The second game won’t be another communication app, and we plan to adopt one of our characters that fans are very familiar with,” Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima said.

Mario is the obvious choice (as is Pikachu, also given this year’s 20th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise), but I’ve long argued that WarioWare mini-games would be great candidates for multitouch gameplay and, possibly, In-App Purchases. Still, Nintendo has plenty of options to choose from.

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Nintendo Outlines Launch Plans for ‘My Nintendo’ Service and Miitomo iOS App

Following a first announcement in October last year, Nintendo has revealed its launch plans for their first iOS app, Miitomo:

Starting Feb. 17, people will be able to pre-register for Miitomo by signing up for the new Nintendo Account service using their existing email, social media accounts or current Nintendo Network IDs. People who pre-register will be among the first to be notified about the availability of Miitomo when it launches in March. Nintendo will offer a special Miitomo bonus to anyone who signs up for a Nintendo Account between Feb. 17 and launch.

Previously teased as a communication service inspired by the company’s Mii avatars and 3DS game Tomodachi Life, here’s how the company describes Miitomo today:

Miitomo is a social experience that uses Nintendo’s Mii characters, which first debuted on the Wii console, to engage friends in a lighthearted and welcoming environment.

Miitomo will be available on both the iPhone and iPad, and it’ll be based on the new Nintendo Account service announced last year. Miitomo will first be released in Japan in mid-March and in 15 other countries by the end of March.

In addition, Miitomo users with a Nintendo Account will be able to take advantage of the new My Nintendo service, which promises to be more than the old Club Nintendo rewards program with a deeper integration with “Nintendo products and services”. As detailed in an investor call earlier this week, My Nintendo will enable users to earn platinum points by interacting with Nintendo mobile apps and opening the eShop on a Nintendo console, while gold points will be collected by purchasing downloadable software for 3DS and Wii U. Points can be exchanged for digital content (platinum) or discount codes for eShop titles (gold).

Nintendo has offered further details on how the point system will work in an English version of their investor slides:

In the case of the previous Club Nintendo, we offered points, or “coins,” as a result of our members’ purchasing and registering our products. For My Nintendo, the points are gained by members not only as the result of their digital purchases but also as the result of their activities, such as playing games and apps, and interacting with information from Nintendo.

The company notes that, after opening Nintendo Account registrations last December, they have already started providing Japanese users with access to some My Nintendo services. These include personalized game recommendations, which “are crafted for each of them based on their profile, purchase records and play records”.

Details on Miitomo are still scarce despite today’s announcements – it sounds like users will be able to chat and ask questions, but I’m curious to know if Nintendo is planning to add any gameplay/collectible elements to the app as well. According to Nintendo, more information about Nintendo Account, My Nintendo, and Miitomo will be released “in the coming weeks”.

Nintendo Announces First Free-to-Play Mobile Title ‘Miitomo’, New ‘My Nintendo’ Cloud Service

At an investor meeting, Nintendo announced today that their first smartphone app will be called ‘Miitomo’ in the Japanese market, and it’ll be a free-to-play title with a focus on communication for the company’s Mii avatars. Miitomo will launch in March 2016; first screenshots are available at Nintendo’s Japanese website.

From a statement sent by Nintendo to Vooks:

Miitomo, Nintendo’s first smart device title, is a free-to-start communication application that helps friends share fun personal facts and interests. Consumers create and use their own Mii characters to engage friends in a welcoming social environment, answering questions and sharing information to discover more about each other and what they have in common. Miitomo is designed to appeal to a wide range of global smart device users and introduce them to uniquely Nintendo experiences beginning with Miitomo and carried through future applications.

From The Wall Street Journal’s live blog:

The new smartphone game will be “Miitomo”. It will be free to play, with attractive add-ons that people can pay for, Mr. Kimishima says. Other smartphone games will be pay-to-download, he says.

Looks like Miis go ahead and communicate with other Miis without your knowledge. This will help people who are hesitant to talk about themselves to communicate with others, and reveal a side of your friends you never knew, Mr. Kimishima says.

Based on information shared by the company today, Miitomo appears to be a riff on Nintendo’s Tomodachi Life, a 3DS game focused on Mii communication and collectible items.

In addition to Miitomo, Nintendo has also revealed a new ‘My Nintendo’ membership service, which will allow users to register a profile and store information about their characters and game data in the cloud, transferring it across mobile devices and dedicated consoles. My Nintendo (also called ‘Nintendo Account’ by the company today) will be compatible with popular signup services such as Facebook and Google accounts, and it’ll offer the ability to view game purchases, game information, and game-related messages on the web. Friend lists will be supported by My Nintendo, and they will work on both console and mobile platforms.

My Nintendo will also be a replacement for the discontinued Club Nintendo program to earn digital and physical rewards for buying Nintendo games. Unlike the old Club Nintendo, My Nintendo will offer points for buying and playing Nintendo games on consoles and mobile debices. Customers will be able to use points for physical goods, game coupons, and DLCs.

At this point, it’s not clear on which mobile platforms Miitomo will be released, but it’s fair to assume Nintendo will launch the title on iOS next year. Nintendo has once again confirmed they’re aiming to release a total of five mobile titles by March 2017, created in collaboration with DeNA.

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Nintendo’s LINE Stickers→

Andrew Webster on Nintendo’s latest mobile product:

Most recently, the North American Line store was updated with stickers from Nintendo’s beloved life sim Animal Crossing, no doubt to help promote the new 3DS game Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. I spent the necessary $2 to acquire them immediately; I didn’t realize how much I needed an animated sticker of rock star dog KK Slider playing a guitar until I had it. In Japan, Nintendo recently released a second sticker pack, this one based on the wonderful new Wii U shooter Splatoon, and I absolutely cannot wait until Nintendo releases them in the English-speaking world. (Because they definitely will, right?)

I had no idea Nintendo offered LINE stickers.

I like how Nintendo is trying different mobile approaches before launching their full game initiative with DeNA. You have to wonder if amiibo (a lucrative segment for Nintendo) will ever get its own iPhone app.

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Virtual: He Put the Fun in Video Games→

This week Federico and Myke discuss the passing of Satoru Iwata, his legacy, and what this could mean for Nintendo. They go on to talk about Angry Birds 2, YouTube Gaming, and the hunt for Myke’s identical Twin.

In this special episode of Virtual, we focus on Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata and his extraordinary legacy. Iwata was a personal hero of mine, and I hope we did okay. I’m sure we’ll have more to say about him over the next few years.

You can listen here.

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Nintendo, One Year Later→

Lukas Mathis, checking back after a year on the idea that Nintendo should drop consoles and make games for iOS:

Now, one year later, Nintendo just announced that it made a quarterly profit of 24.2 billion yen (about 224 million US$). Ars Technica notes that this is mainly due to strong sales of its first-party titles, mostly on the 3DS. However, even the Wii U is starting to show sustainable game sales numbers. So far, Mario Kart 8 sold roughly 3 million copies on the Wii U, and it continues to sell well. At 60 US$ a piece, it’s not clear to me that Nintendo could make the same amount of money selling games for iOS. Even a platform that’s doing poorly, like the Wii U, might be a better option if you can sell games for 60 bucks a piece, and reach a 50% attach rate.

As I argued last year in Nintendo Vs. Apple Pundits, Nintendo consoles exist to support the company’s crown jewels – first-party games. The kind of experiences that Nintendo is able to craft on the 3DS and Wii U wouldn’t simply be possible on iOS (from both technical and economic perspectives).

As Mathis notes, the rest of the console industry isn’t doing too bad after a year either, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 reporting higher sales numbers than the previous generation.

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Google Turns Google Maps App Into Pokémon Catcher for April Fools’ Day

For this year’s April Fools’ Day, Google has decided to turn its Google Maps app for iOS and Android into a Pokémon experience by letting users catch 150 Pokémon to become Pokémon Masters and complete a Pokédex inside the app. The feature, called Pokémon Challenge and announced in a promo video that shows augmented reality functionalities and virtual monsters captured using a phone’s camera, is actually based on Pokémon characters laid on top of Google Maps’ traditional view.

Dozens of wild Pokémon have taken up residence on streets, amidst forests and atop mountains throughout Google Maps.

To catch ‘em all, grab your Poké Ball and the newest version of Google Maps for iPhone or Android. Then tap the search bar, “press start,” and begin your quest.

Once enabled, the Pokémon Challenge will turn the app into a an experience aimed at exploring maps to find Nintendo’s monsters scattered across the globe. The locations of Pokémon aren’t documented anywhere yet, and the app will keep track of a user’s progress in catching Pokémon with a built-in Pokédex that displays additional details for each creature.

Google’s April Fools’ joke goes as far as having a Pokémon Lab available at the CERN in Geneva (and others at Google Japan and Mountain View) and Poké balls (the tools used to catch monsters in Nintendo’s franchise) laid on top of maps in the location where a Pokémon was previously caught.

Google isn’t new to April Fools’ jokes, but this year the company hasn’t simply released a fake announcement or promo video – rather, the Pokémon Challenge is a full mini-game available inside the Maps app for iOS and Android with information about Pokémon and sharing features for players.

The Pokémon Challenge is available in Google Maps for iOS, and it doesn’t require an app update from the App Store.

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Nintendo Doesn’t Need to Make Games for Mobile→

Kris Naudus of GDGT writes about Nintendo, how it won’t cede control, and backs up Nintendo’s motivations with some history, including a brief deal with Philips of all companies.

Nintendo won’t make the switch to iOS because it means ceding control to a company that doesn’t make gaming its #1 priority. And that’s important to the people there – Nintendo is a culture. And they will go to great lengths to preserve that culture; for example, where most companies flush with cash would go on a spending and acquisition spree, Nintendo doesn’t.

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