General Nintendo sales/business discussion topic (previously: The Wii U Thread)

[Conando]

Yeah, it never came to the Wii VC. It's not a matter of the expansion pak either, because they got Majora's Mask running perfectly.

[Komodin]

Well, there's the whole issue with Rare, right?

[Soniman]

If that's the case then they shouldn't have been able to but DKC1 and 2 and 3 on VC but they did.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Soniman

[Conando]

No, it's not a Rare issue. Nintendo owns the Donkey Kong Country series, Donkey Kong Land series, and Donkey Kong 64. Rare lost their rights on it as soon as it left for Microsoft.

[Thigolf]

They probably need to remove the astronaut game but are too lazy to do so.

 

And the Wii U VC line up really is disappointing. I just hope they won't release more games as slowly as on the 3ds.

[Cortez]

Nintendo really need to lose the 'Mario will save us' attitude they have, what a horribly disappointing line up.

[Candescence]

No, it's not a Rare issue. Nintendo owns the Donkey Kong Country series, Donkey Kong Land series, and Donkey Kong 64. Rare lost their rights on it as soon as it left for Microsoft.

Uh, actually? It's definitely a Rare issue in DK64's case. DK64 has Jetpac playable (which is goddamn required to even beat the game, I might add, Rare definately did go completely overboard with the collectibles in that game, good grief), which is a Rare IP and owned by MS. Edited April 24, 2013 by Shirou Emiya

[Autosaver]

You know, NiGHTS 3D doesn't sound that bad. Probably would work well due to how it's designed.

[Blue Blood]

Uh, actually? It's definitely a Rare issue in DK64's case. DK64 has Jetpac playable (which is goddamn required to even beat the game, I might add, Rare definately did go completely overboard with the collectibles in that game, good grief), which is a Rare IP and owned by MS.

 

One way or another, they could very easily remove or change Jetpac for something else. Say Donkey Kong, maybe? It wouldn't be the biggest deal in the world, and I'm sure stranger things have happened.

[Candescence]

One way or another, they could very easily remove or change Jetpac for something else. Say Donkey Kong, maybe? It wouldn't be the biggest deal in the world, and I'm sure stranger things have happened.

Well, that would rule out a straight emulation, that's for sure. I mean, come on, removing or replacing Jetpac would require getting access to the source code, if Nintendo still have it, and getting a bunch of people together to actually modify the game. By that point, you might as well just port the damn thing over to the Wii U as a HD rerelease.

 

Oh, and Donkey Kong is already playable as a mini-game in DK64, and you have to complete it twice with one life each to access the final boss, along with Jetpac (which, I might add, requires a whole bunch of other collectables to even access). When I said Rare went massively overboard with DK64's collectibles, I wasn't kidding. It was kind of the reason why I bloody well gave up on that game right before the final boss years ago (back when I wasn't good at the DK arcade game, mind you).

Edited April 24, 2013 by Shirou Emiya

[Cortez]

Just replace it with something else then? Changing a playable NES game in an N64 game isn't exactly a massive game changer and certainly won't be the most groundbreaking of tasks.

Also, unlike SEGA I doubt Nintendo is incompetent enough to just 'lose' the source code of any of their games.

[Blue Blood]

I've never actually play DK64 far enough in to know that Jetpac and Donkey Kong were playable. But still, emulation is very much possible just by modifying the original game. It happened numerous times with games like OoT and Waverace. They were texture changes, but the theory is the same. Jetpac is a ZX Spectrum game, and wouldn't be at all difficult to get rid regardless of if it's emulated or completely built up from scratch within DK64.

 

If Nintendo wanted to release to DK64 on VC, Jetpac certainly wouldn't stop them.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Blue Blood

[Candescence]

Well, it was developed by Rare, not Nintendo themselves, obviously, but that's besides the point. It's not just a simple texture change like they did with Wave Race 64, and I'm fairly sure I remember the Donkey Kong game being the arcade version, not the NES port, but still.

 

Though I wouldn't be surprised if Camelot decided to do the porting job and do a HD rerelease, the studio's president actually said he's interested in making a sequel to that game. In this case, if you're going to have to replace/remove an entire mini-game that's outright mandatory for finishing a game, you might as well go all the way.

 

Mind you, we've seen better-looking releases of certain NES games on the 3DS (Excite Bike, Kid Icarus, etc.), so Nintendo is hardly adverse to that sort of thing.

Edited April 24, 2013 by Shirou Emiya

[Detective Shadzter]

Iwata takes over Nintendo of America CEO role
His body is Reggie.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-24-iwata-takes-over-nintendo-of-america-ceo-role

[Carbo]

Japan's Wii U VC launch line-up is substantially better. Not shocked.

Iwata takes over Nintendo of America CEO role

His body is Reggie.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-24-iwata-takes-over-nintendo-of-america-ceo-role

This is either the best possible news or the worst.

[Blue Blood]

Japan's Wii U VC launch line-up is substantially better. Not shocked.

 

What is the Japanese lineup?

 

EDIT: Found a list. It was apparently on the last ND:

 

1. Ice Climber

2. Excitebike

3. Xevious

4. River City Ransom

5. Balloon Fight

6. Spelunker

7. Kirby's Adventure

8. Super Mario World

9. Mario's Super Picross

10. F-Zero

11. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu

12. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts

13. EarthBound

Edited April 24, 2013 by Blue Blood

[Detective Shadzter]

Nintendo expects to launch Mario Kart Wii U, Mario Bros Wii U and more 'during the next several months' to drive hardware momentum
Zelda, Pokemon and Mario to boost Wii U and 3DS sales
http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/48944/nintendo-expects-to-launch-mario-kart-wii-u-mario-bros-wii-u-and-more-during-the-next-several-months-to-drive-hardware-momentum/

 

If they do get those games out in the next several months, I'll bite. 

[Conando]

They've been in the works for a while, so I wouldn't be surprised if they launched within the year. Mario Kart is a consumer and fan favorite, so it would definitely help. Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land were what kickstarted the 3DS.

[Candescence]

Considering MK7 and Super Mario 3D Land were great games, I'm expecting something great from the next installments on the Wii U. I expect Mario Wii U to look goddamn amazing in particular.

[Blue Blood]

Considering MK7 and Super Mario 3D Land were great games, I'm expecting something great from the next installments on the Wii U. I expect Mario Wii U to look goddamn amazing in particular.

 

MK7 was fantastic, albeit notably rushed with the lack of basic modes. 3DL I still think was pretty meh though. I hope that whatever new Mario might be coming to the U is more along the lines of 64 and Sunshine than 3DL. Galaxy is sort of an inbetween than would be cool too (just with some more open environments).

[SuperLink]

Don't get me wrong I love Galaxy and Galaxy 2 to bits, the latter is one of my favourite games.

 

But to keep 3D Mario fresh and new like it always has been, I really hope they go back to its explorable roots and we get a game more like Mario 64. I can dream huh? All those glorious secrets make me weak in the knees.

 

EDIT: Also I'm very confused about the Nintendo CEO stuff. I hope it's not giving Iwata too much work..! He's my favourite person at Nintendo so I'm still worried about him leaving.

Edited April 24, 2013 by SuperLink

[Carbo]

On the topic of DK64, Rare has outright confirmed that the publishing rights is owned by Nintendo, which ought to go equal for all the SNES DKC titles. It's similar to how Microsoft own a lot of publishing rights on XBLA games which mean they are the only ones allowed to publish a game on a console while the IP is owned by someone else.

The only real reason I can assume why DKC was removed from the Virtual Console is quite possibly thanks to fear of Microsoft renewing the Killer Instinct trademark, and the DKC games have a deal of references to the franchise. With that said it was a hasty decision which I'm confident in that Nintendo have more reigns over as it were.

 

Don't get me wrong I love Galaxy and Galaxy 2 to bits, the latter is one of my favourite games.

 

But to keep 3D Mario fresh and new like it always has been, I really hope they go back to its explorable roots and we get a game more like Mario 64. I can dream huh? All those glorious secrets make me weak in the knees.

 

EDIT: Also I'm very confused about the Nintendo CEO stuff. I hope it's not giving Iwata too much work..! He's my favourite person at Nintendo so I'm still worried about him leaving.

Iwata won't leave for at least another year, and unless he's kicked out after another bad year (which might be possible depending on how lenient the shareholders are after the operating loss and net income was overall worse than Bloomberg predicted, as well as below Nintendo's expectations) he's probably taking over the NOA CEO position temporarily to unify their entire business and expand relations. The former CEO, Kimishima, did a lot of fucking nothing, so him being moved to NCL to become a pencil pusher is for the best.

[SuperLink]

Iwata won't leave for at least another year, and unless he's kicked out after another bad year (which might be possible depending on how lenient the shareholders are after the operating loss and net income was overall worse than Bloomberg predicted, and below Nintendo's expectations) he's probably taking over the NOA CEO position temporarily to unify their entire business and expand relations. The former CEO, Kimishima, did a lot of fucking nothing, so him being moved to NCL to become a pencil pusher is for the best.

When you put it that way, I'm assuming this is at least partly to do with the fact that Nintendo claimed to have strong relationships with western third parties, a lot of which fell through?

 

Iwata is clearly very eager to strengthen relationships with third parties, so maybe we'll actually get some movement in that area now.

[PSI Wind]

EDIT: I just read from people that this might not change much when it comes to NoA. Shit.

Edited April 24, 2013 by PSI Aqua

[Patticus]

RE: Iwata
This was long overdue, to be honest. When you look at the PS4, you can see that despite Sony being a Japanese company, it's a globally contributed-towards project with a worldwide market in mind. Nintendo's business culture, on the other hand, seems to be quite insular by comparison; very much geared towards its Japanese audience. Hopefully this change will mean better third party relationships and vast improvements to its online infrastructure moving forward. Or it could simply be Iwata wanting an excuse to go to Reggie's house more often.