Nintendo Has Quite A Bit Of Maintenance Planned For Today

Suspicious!

I think this maintenance hints at the big Nintendo announcement being the Smash Direct happening today.

If they want holiday cash. They better implement a loyalty program before the 20th.

People are getting fed up with the high prices and dismal sales.

Heck people are moving from ps4 to steam because of the sale mentality

Surprise: Major eShop overhaul that simply makes it easier to download DLC for all these games!

Ah, "Xenoblade" seems unaffected. Mira adventures continue.

For 7 titles, my speculations for an account system are dead.

'Could this be related to the new Nintendo Account, which recently opened for registration in Japan? Or is it more likely to simply be routine maintenance related to keeping these games ticking over?'

I would imagine it's for both. Each game maybe getting new things/content for everyone who gets them for Christmas morning and also inserting the new Nintendo account system to the games for future purchases to be linked to your Nintendo account from here on out. So it's all set up for people when they turn each game on.

Or, they are adding Smash 'something' to every game listed.

God I'm so sick of Smash. rolls eyes

@Shiryu sure Nintendo have already forgotten about XCX, such a shame too.

Maybe new dlc for each?

I think you'll find its because the 7 titles are all having integration with PROJECT GIANT ROBOT.

GIANT ROBOT will be a playable character in each game and will launch with a 3ft tall amiibo.

@Nintendo_Ninja New DLC for Mario Kart 8 would be beyond awesome...

@gcunit This would be AWESOME! The 3ft tall amiibo - not the game itself. The game can die in a corner for all I care.

I'd be more than happy for Mario Maker, Smash and Mario Kart 8 DLC but honestly, these BIG news need to be something Nintendo didn't wanna mention in the recent Direct so I'd say it's either Mobile Games, NX or My Nintendo. Considering the maintanence, My Nintendo seems more lkely than anything else.

I was hoping the Smash maintenance meant we were finally actually getting Cloud, but since this is for multiple games maybe not. The new account system sounds great, it's just not all that exciting vs actual game content.

Was hoping for Splatoon maintenance.

I figure I'll state my predictions for each maintenance:

• Super Mario Maker: More costumes to coincide with June and December's Smash DLC.
• Smash Wii U and 3DS: Smash Direct today, DLC available afterwards.
• Mario Kart 8: General routine maintenance.
• MH4U: General routine maintenance.
• Devil's Third: Maintenance to prepare for US launch later this week.
• Nintendo Badge Arcade: General routine maintenance.

Hm, we have all of the big Wii U titles on the board here EXCEPT for Splatoon. I don't know about you, but I find that rather odd.

I'm thinking its smash and SuperMarioMaker dlc adding a cloud alternate costume perhaps and then we shall finally get that direct. I mean during the direct we will most likely get the dlc during the direct like the previous ones

Big announcement is Wii U Maxi where all new WiiU will have 128GB internal storage as they finally sell out of the initial manufacturing batch and move on to it's successor. This maintenance update is just to make sure eShop works with the new storage amounts.

OK, that was my first thought when I woke up this morning, and while it's whimsical, Wii did have "Family Edition", removal of the GameCube ports, about 3 years into its life, and the Wii Mini about a year later, so we can't completely rule out a Wii U modification. And with XCX being 22GB to buy digitally or 12GB to buy on disc and download the pacs, the 32GB is woefully inadequate. And expect ting people to pay $300 for a Wii U and $50 for external storage while the 500GB X1 and PS4 also sell for $300 is fundamentally absurd.

It's the nintendo account, surely.

I'm fairly positive the news will have nothing to do with Smash Bros.

@rjejr while I wouldn't rule out more storage at some point in the future, I don't think right now is the time for them to do it. It would've been pre-black Friday. Too close to Christmas now. If they have modified hardware it won't be announced until after Christmas, maybe February or so.

Server capacity upgrades. I don't think it's anything more than that.

@TheNomad Amen. $60 games are ridiculous. Black Friday really proved that here in the U.S. for all games.

It's safe to assume the mega-discussion about "today's" ("today" making a relative amount of sense due to timezones) big news under the newspost reporting Baker's announcement will continue here. Looking forward to the triple-digit-numbered comments.

@Damo @Mitch_Vogel @ThomasBW84 @AlexOlney
If - IF - Cloud's released today and if he's the only character coming out today, promise me the newspost's subtitle will be "Let the battles begin". Please.

Minecraft Wii U Edition is confirmed:

https://twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/673849461949485057?lang=en-gb

@Grumblevolcano Called it!

My wish for the announcement is that they've put all the Wii VC on Eshop with added Amiga, Saturn and Dreamcast games.

No mention of GIANT ROBOT in that tweet, but I imagine he'll get Minecraft integration too.

So, Minecraft just in time for Christmas... how I wish I was still 11. I'm not even gonna have my Wii U with me on Christmas Day sobs

As much as I want this to be the Smash announcement, Smash sure isn't the only game getting an update...IDEK any more...

No splatoon?

If not the smash direct then today we hopefully get it's broadcast date.

@Undead_terror
Precisely.

badge huh, how about customizable themes to the wii u's menu? now that would be outa left field!

@day that would be great! I hope that comes in the near future regardless... Badge arcade for Wii u! ...or... Something like it

Sounds like simple mentinence to me. I bet all this is unrelated to the 'big news'.

If the "big news" are simply game updates, then someone should give that guy a class in size relativity.

Quite a lot, but then again suspicious looking maintenance almost NEVER means anything. Nintendo probably just found an infestation of potatoes in their server rooms.

Hopefully it's something to do with the big announcement. If Minecraft was the big announcement, then I will be disappointed.

@invictus4000
Unrelated? To big news coming out the very same day?

@Grumblevolcano There's no way they'd do a Direct today without previously announcing it.

@AlexSora89 The big news was most likely Minecraft for the U. Yep, the 'big news' was leaked almost a month ago. Perhaps Baker should look around the web for a bit to at least learn what people already know and don't, before creating expectations.

Finally, DLC for Mario Party 10

I hope it's Nintendo Account service. It's been forever since Club Nintendo died off, and I'm pretty sure they had promised us a replacement this fall, so they've only got a couple weeks left to deliver on that.

@iphys They also promised the first mobile game to be in the fall but that got delayed so maybe Nintendo Account got delayed with it for non-Japan regions.

@LinkSword
Still expecting to be able to download Cloud soon. The (supposedly) leaked date for Cloud is December the sixteenth, which is suspiciously close to Christmas to be a release date. Maybe Nintendo wants it to be available sooner than that.

@bngrybt "Too close to Christmas now. If they have modified hardware it won't be announced until after Christmas"

I think it's too close to Christmas to be announcing Minecraft releases in 10 days but that didn't stop them from doing it. B/c that's the way to announce one of the biggest most famous games of all time coming to your console, announce it 10 days in advance for a release 1 week before Christmas. Don't announce it at E3 or release it for Black Friday, just try to sneak it out on a Monday morning when nobody is looking.

Brilliant marketing strategy.

@rjejr A hardware revision and a $30 download-only title are two completely different things. Minecraft is out at the perfect time for kids who get eshop cards in their stockings.

@Nintenjoe64 that would be my wish too

Here's hoping that minecraft wasn't the "big announcement"......really, anything would be better than that...."steve....no...dear god.....no...please..."

@TheNomad Exactly. Nintendo & Microsoft should follow suit and offer older games in Flash Sales. Steam is great, but I somewhat feel it's cheapening the gaming experience. I hope quality doesn't go down.

@Aceboss100

The announcement for the "big news" was from Baker, the guy who deals a lot with Indies so this is probably it.

What were those "big news"?

@RCMADIAX
Yep. I'd hate to get my eShop cards and not be able to download Xenoblade. Got all your games... Lol.

@Aceboss100 wow, people are still in denial? It's late enough in the day they obviously have nothing more to announce. Besides, as mentioned, look who revealed there was news. It was clearly indie related, and there are few indie titles as popular as this (I admit this even though I don't care for it) so an official announcement of this game's release, especially before holidays, is about as big of an indie announcement as Nintendo can get. Sorry, this is all we're getting today people.

Wait, so does anyone actually know when this big announcement is coming? Is there like a steam or direct being released?

@rishisquid
The "big announcement" was the Minecraft's long-overdue Nintendo debut.

Sorry for the brutal honestly. If you're disappointed, welcome to my world.

So where's that big news?

@TheNomad lol that's funny.I'll stick with the consoles.

@AlexSora89 Ah, I was afraid that was the case. It's even more disappointing that we already knew about that...

Hahaahahaha! So the huge Nintendo news was the release of a game we all knew was coming to the console already. And not even the main game in that franchise 😂😂😂 so out of touch.

It is the main game, with Wii U exclusive stuff in the works for later (possibly when the retail copy follows). Good grief.

Lame......

@VR32F1END So you're the one person that buys that guy's garbage?

Most likely - they are just replacing the Online servers to run bigger audiences for the post xmas rush.
Was Eshop down as well? I didn't look..( I was too busy playing Splatoon.. )

@vitalemrecords no , I buy allot of his games too. They are simple games that offer incredible value for money. A full game for the price of a mii costume in smash......winning!! Of course you don't have to like his stuff, nobody does, but dissing people for buying his stuff is very, very shallow.....

@vitalemrecords

Yep. Him and Treefall have their own folder. Every now and then I purchase Jack Daniels DLC with friends and these games take a whole new form.

@ULTRA-64 Take it easy there killer. No, those games are literally the worst games made today. You don't have to like nice things.

I get good games for $5 or under. Spy Chameleon. Color Zen. Little Inferno. Not anything by rcmadiax. Nope. I also don't shoot staples into my eyeballs.