Animal Crossing Mini Nintendo Direct Confirmed for 2nd November in Japan

I'm hoping this update will also bring back some HHD-exclusive features, such as the Ceiling items, Wall-mount TV, and such. I liked those features.

Now we just need some info on the Fire Emblem game.

I don't have the amiibo cards, so this didn't grab me. But I'm happy for the people who will get more benefits from the cards that they've purchased already.

I'm hoping the wait for November means we'll be seeing a reveal for the (hopefully) inevitable NX version. A guy can dream.

I know people, including myself, would rather have a new, full AC game... but I'm happy they are going back and adding additional content to New Leaf. The game is four years old (three in the U.S.), so to have new stuff for a game this old is a treat, considering I still love the game.

I'm thinking this will have news on the upcoming Animal Crossing smart phone game.

I expect smartphone news, maybe Wii U or NX stuff maybe?

maybe there adding HHD items to NL? I bet there doing this because HHD code is similar to NL's so yeah...

if there adding new villagers, I'd like a felyne villager form HHD to come on over.

So they can tell us about a "mini" Direct for an AC update and give us a date all the way out on November 2, but we can't get a date for the NX reveal yet?

Nice to know where Ntineod's priorities are.

Probably some info on how the mobile title interacts with this game.

What should be included is a way to transfer your designs from HHD into new leaf via amiibo cards. Not that I have those but sounds like it makes sense (so probably won't happen).

I will start playing again if the incorporate the new design controls from HHD though.

@rjejr - why bother talking about NX......without Nintendo saying a word the world can't stop talking about it......haha

@Gerbwmu Every time I write NX you get to drink a shot.

That live chat comment wasn't lost on me, I just didn't have a good reply.

And they should talk about it b/c if that is Pikmin 4 on 3DS then they just lost a NX sale.

With all these games on 3DS in 2017 it does make you wonder, doesn't it? How long until the inevitable NX launch delay?

Awesone!!! Just kidding. They really have shifted resources to something else.

You know what I would like to see in an Animal Crossing update? Villagers who don't build their house right on top of all my cool, custom-made pathway designs when they move to town.

@rjejr - well.....with the support 3DS is getting it makes me wonder what NX is. If it was gaming on the go then you'd think they would start slowing up on 3DS titles.....but most of what is coming are ports, localizations, and lesser titles.....like the sports and tank game, both of which would have been good Wii U games....

I don't see a delay of the NX, but thanks to the Mariners sale (I'm not sure what they accounted for in their budget for the sale), I could see them waiting and launching in April or May though just to get all that revenue and profit into FY 2017

@Gerbwmu @rjejr
So, I'm late to all the news today was teaching a game industry class that caused me to miss the direct! Hah. Anyway, you two are talking about two of my key thoughts after watching the Direct.

That really could be Pikmin 4 and it is literally the 4th Pikmin game officially announced and it was completed way too fast to be a Wii U sequel or NX game when Miyamoto casually leaked the information. Still, slim hope that it was an offshoot game meant to release along side a Wii U game that got shifted to an NX. There's plenty of that feeling to go around.

In fact, the big theme of this Direct seemed to be "Hi, we at Nintendo really really wish we could have shared resources between our handheld and console games more easily and directly." They almost seem to be laying out the argument for one target platform for games — multiple devices in that platform or not is still up in the air.

Although, like @Gerbwmu is suggesting that is way more attention to the 3DS than I expected if the NX was going to be a portable/console hybrid device. Wii U is definitely dying out, but we are seeing new releases into 2017. At the very least this seems a play to keep the 3DS propped up as a significant device tier along side whatever NX is for some time. If the NX is this portable/console hybrid it is going to be championed as more of a console first and justify its price that way — in the West at least. How else do you keep 3DS releases flowing alongside it.

@rjejr , you are seeing it as a launch delay and I really hope that doesn't happen, but I'm just thinking we are going to see a full announcement later than September. Nintendo actually wants us to pay attention to current offerings. Maybe it's cogniscent of how a portable/console hybrid is going to pull away attention from the 3DS and it doesn't want to harm its last major money maker before Holiday shopping is over.

Could we be waiting until 2017 for the complete reveal? The only way I could see Nintendo pulling that off is with some sort of extreme — hubris-filled? — confidence in what they have. Part of me hopes that it is so compelling that the confidence is justified. Most of me hopes they start spilling the beans tomorrow.

2 November 2016 ?
Gosh, 2 months later from now...
But at the same time, my 3DS XL will celebrate 3rd anniversarry.
I bought my Pink White 3DS XL on 2 November 2013 ago.

@StephenYap3 In fact, why not just add in HHD-Style decorating.

@aaronsullivan I'm better now, only took about 12 hours of venting, but NX aside they nearly killed me w/ those back to back Mario Sports and Pikmin reveals.

Plot does thicken though, huh. No matter what anecdotal evidence we get I'm always able to interpret it in 2 ways.

Wii U is dead, they need a new home console to replace it.

Wii U is dead, Gmaecube was dead, N64 was dead, they need to stop making home consoles and just make a handheld powerful enough to have TV out.

What kind of idiot would buy another Ntineod home console to have no 3rd party support and all 1st party game support dry up in 3 years? $349 fo ryears w/ everything being ported to the handheld after the fact.

I sitll dont 'know, but still leaning hybrid, a home makes no sense.

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy
AC New Leaf + HHD home design = Heaven...!
Because some villagers on New Leaf have awful house theme, some of them unmatching with their traits (Rod the Jock Mouse but have Pirate theme, Marshall the Smug Squirrel but have Messed Furnitures, etc)

@rjejr
The games getting ported to the 3DS isn't so negative to me. It highlights how much better the Wii U experience is when you make comparisons. Mario Maker is clearly worse, Yoshi's WW is like a nice A/B comparison for why resolution does matter. Even to kids.

The sports, though. I immediately thought of you. That hurts. But this is exactly the problem we understood and Iwata pinpointed as one of the only clear initiatives at Nintendo going forward.

I think there were two stages to the solution, though, not just however NX solves it. It seems that SSB was about designing an engine for 3DS and Wii U that would have internal tools for sharing some development resources or at least easing ports from the Wii U to 3DS. So, the plan was to begin trying to share development resources even between Wii U and 3DS. Problem was the Wii U tanked even faster than Nintendo expected and now, it's just "salvage the 3DS".

So, another way I'm looking at it now is that the 3DS is the new red Wii. Biggest problem with that is it seems like it won't scale well with price. But these handhelds live longer than consoles when a new one comes out in general. (You are so right about the 2DS though, that thing needs amiibo support.)

I did have one far out thought this morning that Sony and Microsoft would be a bit terrified if Nintendo did successfully launch a clone console with strong third party support. Especially seeing something like BotW taking over E3 attention. Zelda, Pokemon, Mario and I'd even argue Metroid have the potential as stronger original exclusive draws than Sony and Microsoft have. It's contingent on those properties being somewhat reimagined to appeal to the core gamers and Western audiences and I don't think I'd want to see that honestly, but despite all the past failures I think that potential is still there. Just think if Zelda BotW was sitting beside Bayonetta and Xenoblade Chronicles X at launch of Wii U along with day and date releases of other major cross-platform games like Tomb Raider, COD, etc.

I don't see that type of thing happening at this stage with NX at all. I don't see the indicators. But I still see the potential.

@aaronsullivan "So, another way I'm looking at it now is that the 3DS is the new red Wii."

I'm going to edit that sentence to "the New 3DS is the red Wii Mini", which I'm pretty sure is what you meant, but I just wanted to be clear. And it's a good comparison I hadn't thought of before, but I like it. (I suppose the 2DS is the real Wii Mini, no 3D and NFC = no internet for Netflix and online for MKWii. )

I don't think Sony and MS pay much mind to Nintendo.
Sony is worrying about PSVR becoming the next Wonderbook, Move, 3D display or Vita. Or PSPgo which I believe sold worse than Vita. They have too many upcoming press events to have time to worry about Ntieod anyway - next week, TGS, Paris, PSX, show after show after show. And they need to sell PS4 Slim next to Neo, they have way too much on their plate to worry about little ole' handheld Ntnedo. They've given them the handheld space (PS Trinity may be another streaming device, but no Vita 2) and that's that.

MS wants everybody to buy a Win 10 PC and and Win 10 gaming console that both play the same games. They're still licking their wounds from Zune and the 10B$ Nokia phone write down. They dont care about the handheld space. They may be planning on going toe-to-toe w/ Sony on VR, but they don't care about Ntinedo. Maybe as an acquisition, but it might be even too rich for them, but I'm sure they do their due diligence and look into it occasionally. Too late now after the P Go spike. Maybe if the NX reveal bottoms out the stock? But my money would be on Apple making the purchase, they'll get into gaming someday. They're already mostly there w/ a 30% take on iOS.

Sony vs MS is the battle of the 2 Goliaths, they don't have time to worry about David. Even if Ninteod is the goliath of handhelds, they are just getting out of that Goliaths way, no point taking it head on, they are waiting on mobile to do their job for them, death by a thousand paper-cuts. If Nintneod goes 3rd party, then compete for the IP prize.

Nintneod is Ntineod. Just like Apple is Apple, only w/o the whole world drinking the Kool Aid, only a handful of the faithful left. And the handful of the faithful are into handhelds, not home consoles. Nintendo home consoles. (already had that arguement once yesterday.)

@rjejr Not quite my point about Microsoft and Sony in relation to Nintendo. My point is that if Nintendo did make a system that was like their consoles, for instance what some people call "standard" controllers and NEO/Scorpio chipset same architecture everything else (for third parties) and target the same crowd, the Nintendo exclusives could beat Sony's alone and beat Microsoft's alone.

The downfall of the speculative scenario is that Nintendo is in the wrong position for that right now and I don't think its collective heart would be in it. Also, just doing the same thing as the other guys but then bending their IP to it. What a heartbreak that would be from my perspective.

That's why the hybrid route makes sense. Don't be a target for those guys be a compliment.

@aaronsullivan So you were doing a "What if"? Man, I still don't know. Wii outsold PS3 and Xbox360, I'm not sure it mattered, it was still a cheaper complement to 2nd console. Which is weird, how can the more successful console be the 2nd one? (I know how, just saying.)

If you are doing a whole what if - hi power, cheap price, 3rd party support, 1st party support of games people want, not Mario Tennis: 1 Arena and AC:aF, marketing, advertising, all of that - yeah, I suppose Sony and MS would sweat, but that's way too many if's for me to even get started on.

Nintneod makes 2D sidescrollers and kid "looking" games, the gaming world wants FPS violence and sex like Withcer 3 and Fallout 4 and GTA 5. (yes, 3, 4, 5 on purpose) And CoD, and Madden and FIFA. The casuals are still out there and might come back - I don't buy the "they all went to mobile" theory, if they did, why keep making Just Dance games? But they'll only come back for cheap and easy to understand.

Whether that means - mobile you hook up to your tv, or console you can take with you - I don't know. But I think Sony and MS caring is a gen away at this point. And I'm afraid of what happens after that.

You watch "Caprica?"

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/capricaexplainvrclub.mp4/view