GoNintendo - Top Stories

Denis Dyack goes into great deal explaining what happened with Silicon Knights and X-Men Destiny

RawmeatCowboy — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:06:00 -0400

Why did it take so long to respond to the article?
- Dyack did not think that people would believe it
- He is now coming forward as it's impacting the fundraising campaign

Email from Andrew McMillen
- "There is no hard evidence apart from non-credible anonymous sources"
- Email from Andrew McMillen, which was forwarded to SK.
- Wired did not decide to go ahead with the story
- When McMillen was confronted with only having 8 anonymous sources, he said that it's fair enough
- Dyack: McMillen was aware that it would ruin SK and Dyack's reputation

Funds were diverted from X-Men Destiny to fund ED2 prototype
- SK put more money into X-Men Destiny than they received from Activision as they wanted it to be better than their last game
- Half way through the project, Dyack sat down with Activision executives and talked about how to improve the game after having paid 2 million more than they got paid
- Activision was stunned by this; they appreciated it and even told Dyack it was not a good business move
- Dyack sorry about how the game turned out
- Dyack also sorry about having said certain things in the past, he learnt his lesson and is now not involved in business decisions at Precursor
- Article says that 8 people totalling 45 years of experience were interviewed; Dyack says that people with only 5 years at SK would not know the budget allocation; those people who knew the allocation were not interviewed
- SK had open policy when working with partners; used Perforce and Hansoft; Activision could look at both databases and see which employee worked on what project
- External audits confirmed this

Allegation of why Silicon Knights left Nintendo
- Relationship between Dyack and Nintendo still close
- Iwata recommended that SK would become a second party
- Nintendo and SK went different ways because they wanted to create different types of games
- Nintendo were not oppressive but constructive

Allegation of claims that artists are a "dime a dozen"
- "Nothing could be further from the truth"
- Average salary 25000-30000$ higher than St.Catherines area and comparable to that at large publishers in larger cities
- People like Kevin Gordon would not work with him for over 20 years and many others stayed at SK for 10-15 years

Allegation of Activision demanding to know about staff leaving
- None of that was true, they did not feel out of the loop
- SK went through difficult time with layoffs and departures, but there was no exodus
- Turnover rate was low
- Former SK employees congratulated to Precursor campaign, Dyack does not believe this would have happened if they were treated poorly

Allegation of Activision changing the credits
- Dyack made the final call on credits, not Activision
- Allegation is untrue

Denis Closing Thoughts
- "I made a lot of mistakes"
- "I said a lot of things I should not have said"
- "Learnt my lesson"
- Focusses on creative design now

Check out even more details here

GoNintendo Podcast Webisode 405

RawmeatCowboy — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:08:00 -0400

We have a huge wall of information to talk about on this week's show. Having a Nintendo Direct always offers up major news, but this week also brought in April NPD! On top of that, there were some major news stories pertaining to the Nintendo in relation to YouTube as well as EA. All that discussion, plus banter with you guys, another flawless music section and some great questions!

Download the show here (thanks MoldyClay!)

Online retail game deals - May 18th

RawmeatCowboy — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:56:00 -0400

Wrapping up the week, let's take another look at Best Buy's surprise 3DS sale, with a few new highlights!

In case you missed it, Best Buy decided to kick off an unannounced 3DS sale a few days back, with a number of popular 1st party Nintendo titles available for $10-20 off, free shipping included! Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D are all $29.99 each. Fire Emblem: Awakening is also included in this mix, but unfortunately, the game is currently no longer available online - you'll have to pick it up in-store if you'd like to take advantage of the $10 discount.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Mario Tennis Open are only $24.99 each, Style Savvy: Trendsetters is $19.99, and Art Academy: Lessons For Everyone is only $14.99.

While the real bargains are the Nintendo published titles (it's rare to see straight discounts on many of these games), there are quite a few other notable deals. Both Skylanders Giants software packs are on sale for $20 off - the Starter Pack is $49.99, while the Portal Owner's Pack is $39.99. Many Skylander character packs are discounted as well. The relatively new Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate is $24.99, as is FIFA Soccer 13. Another great deal is Scribblenauts Unlimited for $19.99!

With the exception of Mario Tennis Open, Fire Emblem: Awakening and Scribblenauts Unlimited, Amazon has price matched these offers, also including free shipping with each.

Course, 3DS games are useless without the hardware to play them. If you're in the market for a 3DS system, Best Buy's 3DS XL handhelds are available for $179.99 - a nice $20 off the usual MSRP.

Best Buy is also offering a pre-order bonus offer for the upcoming 3DS game, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. With your pre-order, you'll receive a free 3DS digital download code for Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels on Virtual Console. As if DKCR wasn't difficult enough. ;)

As always, you'll find hundreds of additional game deals and discounts after the jump! Thanks for reading.

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Ubisoft reconfirms Wii U support, believes Nintendo will make the platform successful

RawmeatCowboy — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:27:02 -0400

Coming from a GamesIndustry interview...

"As with any new console, it takes some time to grow an established base. Ubisoft has a varied and high-quality line-up for Wii U, with more big titles on the way including Rayman Legends, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag and Splinter Cell Blacklist. We're confident that this will help in continuing to attract gamers to the Wii U system and that Nintendo will take steps to ensure that the Wii U is successful in the market."

I'm finding it hard to be upset with Ubisoft like I was a few months ago. The Rayman situation still sucks, but having big support from Ubisoft on the Wii U is part of the bigger picture. Nice to see a company saying something like this after the EA situation.

Link

Nintendo Fan Direct - Nintendo Direct 5/17

NintenDaan — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:53:00 -0400

Kevin (RMC) discusses the latest Nintendo Direct in this GameTrailers feature! He also tells you what he thinks about the Nintendo happenings in the last few weeks. Go forth and enjoy!

EA employee badmouthing Wii U on Twitter - System is crap, Nintendo should have 'pulled a SEGA'

RawmeatCowboy — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:42:00 -0400

As you can see, Mr. Summerwill removed his tweets. Our embeds are blank, but his text remains. We will leave it that way so you can still see what he said.

The following comments come from Bob Summerwill Senior SE and Architect, EA Sports.

@shanselman The WiiU is crap.Less powerful than an XBOX360.Poor online/store.Weird tablet.Nintendo are walking dead at this point.
— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) May 17, 2013

@shanselman Nintendo are still operating like it's 1990.They should have "done a Sega" and offered Mario/Zelda as PS4/Durango exclusives.
— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) May 17, 2013

@shanselman Instead they make this awful console, and this ... nintendo.com/wiiu/downloads….Just stop it!Just make great games!
— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) May 17, 2013

@shanselman It is an utterly intentional decision to focus our resources on markets which actually matter ... like mobile, and Gen4.
— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) May 17, 2013

@shanselman One more :-). Nintendo platforms have always been very poor revenue-wise for third parties.Only Mario and Zelda make money.
— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) May 17, 2013

@freebsdgirl @shanselman We're stuck with first-party stores on most platforms anyway.What's the alternative on PC?Paying MS or Valve?
— Bob Summerwill (@BobSummerwill) May 17, 2013

Very professional stuff coming out of that Twitter. I wonder if EA is going to say anything about this.

Link

Is Sumo Digital teasing a Sonic appearance in Mario Kart?

RawmeatCowboy — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:55:18 -0400

Man, of course this had to pop up right when Nintendo and SEGA say there are 3 Sonic titles coming. Man, today just got even more interesting!

Link

Nintendo Direct JP - video breakdown

NintenDaan — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:29:37 -0400

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Nintendo Direct EU/NA - Video breakdown

NintenDaan — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:05:00 -0400

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Nintendo Seals Exclusive Partnership with SEGA on Upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog Games

RawmeatCowboy — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:44:00 -0400

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The next title in SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog franchise will be exclusive to Nintendo’s Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS portable system. Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata announced the details of a new partnership with SEGA during a new Nintendo Direct video announcement today. Sonic Lost World is a new action platforming game, and more information about it will be announced before the E3 2013 video game trade show begins on June 11.

The Nintendo Direct also announced Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games for Wii U, and revealed that additional SEGA Game Gear games would be coming to the Virtual Console service for Nintendo 3DS. Outside of SEGA news, Nintendo announced that select Wii U games featured at E3 2013 will soon be playable at participating Best Buy stores, the launch date for New Super Luigi U, new Pikmin 3 game details and additional information about a variety of previously announced Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games.

“The onetime rivalry between Mario and Sonic has grown into a friendship that has never been closer,” said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. “These announcements in conjunction with SEGA demonstrate the commitment we have to bringing great games to the Wii U platform, and set the stage for our upcoming announcements at E3.”

To view the Nintendo Direct in its entirety, visit http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct. Today’s announcements included:

Wii U News

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games: The game includes a variety of events from the Winter Games, including curling, skiing, figure skating pairs and snowboard slopestyle – which will make its Olympic debut in Sochi, Russia. Different events might use the Wii Remote Plus controller, Wii U GamePad controller or both. In addition to realistic events, the game also includes those set in the worlds of Sonic and Mario that let players perform moves not possible in real life. Launch details and timing will be announced at a later date.

Experience Games from Nintendo’s E3 Booth at Best Buy: Exclusively at participating Best Buy locations in the United States and Canada, consumers will be able to play some of the unreleased Wii U games featured at E3 while the event is occurring in Los Angeles. Details about locations and which games will be featured will be revealed in the coming weeks.

New Super Luigi U: The Year of Luigi-themed downloadable content for New Super Mario Bros. U offers players 82 updated courses. But it also includes a new playable character in multiplayer mode: Nabbit, who steals items from Toad Houses. Nabbit can’t power up, but also won’t take damage when he touches enemies. New Super Luigi U will be released as downloadable content for New Super Mario Bros. U in the Nintendo eShop on June 20 for $19.99. But in honor of the Year of Luigi, Nintendo is also offering a standalone packaged version of New Super Luigi U that doesn’t require New Super Mario Bros. U on Aug. 25 at a suggested retail price of $29.99.

The Wonderful 101: The mass-action adventure from Platinum Games launches Sept. 15. Additional details will be announced after E3.

Pikmin 3: New playable characters Alph, Brittany and Charlie recruit the Pikmin creatures to help them gather fruit so that they can return with the seeds to save their home, Planet Koppai. Players can divide activities among the different characters, and explore separate areas in the same map with different groups of Pikmin. Using the GamePad (known as the KopPad in the game), players can view the overall map and grasp what each character and Pikmin are up to. Players also can choose their preferred control option: GamePad in conjunction with the TV, Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk combo or GamePad only in off-TV mode. Players can also use the Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk with the GamePad as a second-screen monitor. Pikmin 3 launches Aug. 4.

GAME & WARIO: The game launches in stores and in the Nintendo eShop June 23 at a suggested retail price of $39.99, and includes a number of games from WarioWare, Inc., that use the GamePad in different ways. Newly revealed games include: Island, which lets two to five people launch little creatures called Fronks onto islands in the sea to score points; Patchwork, a puzzle game that tests players’ pattern-recognition skills; and Kung-Fu, which challenges players to help Young Cricket navigate a course safely using the forward-looking view on the TV and the top-down view on the GamePad. A new Iwata Asks feature offers more details about the game at http://iwataasks.nintendo.com.
Resident Evil Revelations: Capcom’s horror-survival game is launching in stores and in the Nintendo eShop on May 21. The game originally released for Nintendo 3DS, and the Wii U version offers players updated HD graphics, GamePad controls and new game content. Players can use the GamePad to view the map and change items using the touch screen without pausing their progress. Or they can play the full game on the GamePad in off-TV mode, or play with the Wii U Pro Controller. The game is Miiverse-compatible, and a demo version is currently available in the Nintendo eShop.

Nintendo 3DS News

SEGA Game Gear: Games from the classic hand-held system are headed to the Virtual Console service. These include:

Columns
Crystal Warriors
Defenders of Oasis
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
G-LOC: Air Battles
Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya
Sonic Blast
Sonic Drift 2
Sonic Labyrinth
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Tails Adventure
Vampire: Master of Darkness

Inside the Treehouse with Animal Crossing: New Leaf: Because of the vast amount of content in the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Leaf game, Nintendo’s Treehouse localization team is hosting an ongoing video series to talk about the franchise and many of the fun features of the new game. The videos will be available on Nintendo’s YouTube channel and in the Nintendo eShop on a regular basis leading up to the game’s June 9 launch. Additionally, a new Animal Crossing panel for Puzzle Swap is now available for StreetPass Mii Plaza, and fans also might find a special Animal Crossing-themed message on Swapnote.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D: This game launches in stores and in the Nintendo eShop on May 24 and includes all the fun of the original Wii game, now optimized for portable play. It also includes eight new unlockable levels that are each based on one of the eight worlds from the original game. These levels will challenge players with new elements like platforms that force them to move at a faster pace, large drops of tar falling from the ceiling and giant rotating stone gears that can alter the level itself.

A Legendary Sale: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons arrive on the Virtual Console service for Nintendo 3DS on May 30. Because playing the games together unlocks so much additional content, Nintendo is offering them for just $4.99 each for the first three weeks after launch. After this promotion expires, the games will be available for $5.99 each.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move: The game, which launched May 9 exclusively in the Nintendo eShop, challenges players to place tiles on the bottom screen to guide the Minis to their goal on the top screen. The game includes more than 180 stages, but also dramatically extends the fun of the game by letting players create their own stages and share them with others. Players can opt to try a random user-created level or one created by their friends. They can also select from the most popular levels overall or search the top levels of the week.

Another Nintendo Direct focused on future Wii U content will air around the time of E3 2013.

PR email

Nintendo Direct (NA/EU/Japan) for 5/17 - live-stream, blog

RawmeatCowboy — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:55:00 -0400

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Nintendo 3DS First-Party Software Sales Are Up 52 Percent in 2013

RawmeatCowboy — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:59:23 -0400

A strong launch for LEGO® City Undercover: The Chase Begins helped Nintendo 3DS™ maintain its torrid pace in 2013. Through the first four months of the year, Nintendo has already sold more than 2.1 million units of first-party Nintendo 3DS software in the U.S. alone, an increase of 52 percent over the same time period last year. In 2012, it took 30 weeks for Nintendo 3DS to sell 2 million units of first-party software. In 2013, the platform accomplished that same feat in 18 weeks.

With the peak holiday selling season still ahead and a strong lineup of upcoming games that includes Donkey Kong Country™ Returns 3D on May 24, Animal Crossing™: New Leaf on June 9, Mario and Luigi™: Dream Team on Aug. 11, as well as new titles in the Pokémon™, Mario Golf™ and Legend of Zelda™ franchises, Nintendo 3DS is poised to have the strongest year of sales in its history.

Some notable sales numbers* achieved by Nintendo in April include:

LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins sold nearly 94,000 combined physical and digital copies after launching on April 24.
Luigi’s Mansion™: Dark Moon sold more than 140,000 combined physical and digital units in April and has now sold more than 530,000 total units to date.
In its sixth month on the market, New Super Mario Bros.™ U for the Wii U™ system increased its lifetime sales total to nearly 770,000 combined physical and digital units.
During the next several months, a cavalcade of fan-favorite franchises will launch for Wii U. This includes Game & Wario™ on June 23, Pikmin™ 3 on Aug. 4, Disney’s Planes from Disney Interactive on Aug. 6 and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® Blacklist™ from Ubisoft on Aug. 20. At the upcoming E3 trade show in June in Los Angeles, Nintendo expects to show attendees upcoming Wii U games from the Mario Kart™, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Bros.™ franchises.

*Data regarding physical sales of games in April are from the NPD Group. Data regarding digital downloads of games and combined physical/digital life-to-date numbers are from Nintendo’s internal sales figures. All numbers are specific to the United States only.

PR email

April 2013 NPD - Software, industry sales, analysis

RawmeatCowboy — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:34:00 -0400

- industry sales slumped 25 percent hitting $495.2 million
- software ales fell 17 percent to $267.8 million
- hardware sales fell 42 percent to $109.5 million
- accessory sales fell 19 percent to $131.4 million

“Despite overall declines, April title launches in 2013 fared better than games that launched in April 2012, up 118 percent in unit sales and 130 percent in dollar sales. This increase was driven by games like Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dead Island: Riptide, and Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins.

Overall declines are stemming from the performance of games launched prior to April; for example, the decrease in sales performance of March launches. Specifically, when looking at video games launching in March 2012, month 2 sales represented 25 percent of the total first two months of sales, which contracted to 17 percent for March 2013 launches. One reason for this might be the decrease in the number of new titles, which can cause sales of a title to be 'front loaded' with a greater amount of sales happening in the first month of its release.” - NPD analyst Liam Callahan

Link

Wii U Virtual Console gets a triple dose of Kirby next week

RawmeatCowboy — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:06:26 -0400

What's that, you say? You want a big helping of Kirby come next week on the Wii U Virtual Console? Nintendo is more than ready to deliver! Slated for release next week are Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Course and Kirby's Dream Land 3. How much Kirby can you stand?! Thanks to Vernon for the heads up.

EA says hey have no Wii U games in development right now

RawmeatCowboy — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:55:00 -0400

Coming from an interview with Kotaku...

"We have no games in development for the Wii U currently." - company spokesperson Jeff Brown

Regardless of what you think of EA, this is a very bad thing. EA is one of the top-tier third parties out there. Nintendo and Wii U fans alike should be very worried about this news.

Link

Nintendo of America - Nintendo Direct tomorrow at 7AM PST

NintenDaan — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:13:00 -0400

We're having a Nintendo Direct tomorrow to provide updates on upcoming summer Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games. Remember, you can watch live on Facebook here on.fb.me/XBtY8R. RSVP here: http://on.fb.me/10AA0YQ

We'll discuss future Wii U titles for fall and onward in a Nintendo Direct before the start of E3 2013.

Nintendo of Europe - Nintendo Direct around E3 time confirmed

NintenDaan — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:07:00 -0400

For #WiiU titles coming this autumn and beyond, there will be a #NintendoDirectEU around E3 time in June ow.ly/l5Q8e
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) 16 mei 2013

Nintendo of Europe - Wii U focused Nintendo Direct, kicks off 16:00 CEST tomorrow

NintenDaan — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:04:53 -0400

A new #NintendoDirectEU with a focus on #WiiU spring/summer titles will be streamed tomorrow, 17/5 at 4pm CEST ow.ly/i/283XY
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) 16 mei 2013

This week's North American downloads - May 16, 2013

NintenDaan — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:10:13 -0400

Direct link

Nintendo comments on YouTube 'Let's Play' situation, adding ads to certain videos

RawmeatCowboy — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:44:00 -0400

Nintendo sent over this statement to us just now...

As part of our on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media channels in an appropriate and safe way, we became a YouTube partner and as such in February 2013 we registered our copyright content in the YouTube database. For most fan videos this will not result in any changes, however, for those videos featuring Nintendo-owned content, such as images or audio of a certain length, adverts will now appear at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips. We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property. For more information please visit http://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/faq.html

In other words, Nintendo has ads running on fan-made Nintendo videos that hit a certain length or feature certain content. Thanks to Nintendo for the comment!

Update - Our friends at GameXplain bring up an interesting point. The blurb above from Nintendo 'doesn't mention that it cuts off all revenue to the creators of any claimed videos.' Apparently that's the situation, with GameXplain already being impacted. To clarify, 'it's only for the claimed videos' right now, but that could change.