Industry News, Industry Features - Page 13 of 25

What to do?

Many that follow football — or soccer — have more than likely heard about the troubles faced by Scottish Glasgow-based team Rangers FC. Despite being one half of the overwhelmingly dominant 'old firm', along with Celtic FC, Rangers got itself into trouble with the tax-man and lots of other people who were owed money. The club...

Wii U 'a solution in search of a problem'

For those that didn't know, last week Brighton — South England — hosted the Develop conference, where many figures from the industry chewed the fat and debated the games industry. Being one of the big three console manufacturers that also has a new system on the way, it's only natural that the subject of...

Interested in returning to Star Fox in the future

Dylan Cuthbert is a name well-known to fans of the original Star Fox, as a member of the Argonaut development team that relocated to Nintendo HQ in Kyoto to work on the Super NES title. Cuthbert's had a long and successful career since, and his studio Q-Games was most recently seen on a Nintendo...

Going its own way

One debate that has swirled around Wii U is its graphical power and grunt, with many debating whether it's on par, stronger or potentially weaker than its Microsoft and Sony counterparts. One thing we do know is that it produces HD visuals and that Mario and company have never looked so pretty, all while coming out with its...

Pirates beware

Most will agree that, when it came to online functionality and security, Wii and DS were both below par. Hacking and modding on both systems appears to have been widespread, which not only led to issues with some online games but, most importantly for Nintendo, cost the company money due to the extensive number of pirated games on...

Post-Holiday slump

When it comes to sales in Japan, 3DS has been the undisputed number one for a number of months, finishing top of the hardware charts and often out-selling all other consoles combined. The story elsewhere, however, isn't as rosy, and while we're probably not looking at poor sales of the level that prompted a significant price-drop...

Microsoft doesn't seem to agree

An obsession that has plagued video gaming since its earliest days is power, whether it was the 'BIT' wars of the 1990s or the current-day complexities of graphics processors. Wii has been a staggering success that has faded away in its twilight years, arguably because its lack of power has deprived it of many big...

'Ordinary' services should be free

Satoru Iwata has recently chaired the latest Nintendo Shareholder's AGM, and as expected faced some tough questions about the future of the company and its plans. One subject that came up was online services, primarily whether the enhanced functionality on Wii U and the developing role of Nintendo Network on 3DS...

Is anyone surprised?

It's a fairly common perception that Nintendo is typically happy to reproduce its existing IPs rather than develop new characters or franchises. That theory was put to the test over at Gamespot, where the numbers of new franchises per year were calculated for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, restricted to each company's own developed or...

Meet Duncan Orrell-Jones

To show it's serious about a digital future, Nintendo of America has created a role — senior vice president of network business — and appointed Duncan Orrell-Jones to the new position. Orrell-Jones will lead the company's digital strategy for 3DS and Wii U in North America, reporting directly to Nintendo of America...

Sea change

SEGA Europe has closed regional offices in Spain, Germany, France, Benelux and Australia as it changes focus from retail to digital. SEGA Europe will now shift its priorities to developing new and existing digital content while its retail games will stick to established IP like Sonic the Hedgehog, Aliens, Football Manager and Total War,...

Pricing could lead to a 'sure success'

With the launch of Wii U creeping ever closer, key details of price and release date are still under wraps, leading to the usual range of predictions and guesses. We've seen speculative prices ranging from £199 on Amazon UK — since removed — to €399 on Amazon Germany, though the latter has since dropped...

The timing is both predictable and strange

The upcoming release of 3DS XL, the sizeable update to the original model, is hardly a surprise. Nintendo has constantly iterated its handhelds in an effort to attract more consumers and, to put it bluntly, make a lot of money: we can’t even argue that the XL is arriving earlier than expected, as the...

Don't worry, he still loves you

Reggie Fils-Aime was a busy man during E3, leading Nintendo's main press conference and persistently spreading the word about Wii U and 3DS. As is expected, a lot of what was said was towing the company line, but in a more relaxed exchange with Kotaku, the Nintendo of America boss shared his views on the expectation...

Pastures new

Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton is to leave the company after nearly 20 years of service. Yarnton took the position of general manager in September 2003, steering the UK ship during the successful Wii and DS eras and overseeing the launch of 3DS last year. Before taking up the UK position Yarnton served as director of sales...

E3 is changing

9am PDT, Tuesday, E3 week. For Nintendo fans, this time and date is akin to New Year's Day, ringing in the next big batch of games Nintendo has to offer and beginning a week-long celebration of all things gaming. Nintendo’s E3 press conference has created some magical moments over the years, from the reveal of The Legend of Zelda:...

Doesn't consider the console to be a risk

Ubisoft has recently taken up the role as a major third-party cheerleader for Wii U, and in a recent interview with Reuters, the company's CEO Yves Guillemot continued to talk up the system and its launch prospects. Guillemot had this to say about his expectation that Nintendo will manufacture five million...

Strong arm tactics

On a press tour of Asia earlier this year, Yoshinori Ono was admitted to hospital and stepped down from his role as Street Fighter producer following the health scare. While you might have expected Ono's hectic work schedule to slow down after the incident, a new interview with Eurogamer.net reveals that's not the case. Ono...

Games listed at under £40

Nintendo stated that it would not be unveiling the price or release date for Wii U at E3, and sure enough it steered away from those details. Lack of information never keeps online retailers down, however, as ShopTo.net has posted product pages and estimated prices for Wii U and some of its biggest announced titles. The...