Dcubed

Remember that cool looking card based top down shmup from Grev and Hiroshi Iuchi (director and planner of Ikaruga)? Well! looks like it's coming out over here! http://www.siliconera.com/2013/04/26/ikaruga-creators-3ds-shooter-is-coming-overseas/ I'd imagine that this is an eShop release. Woot! More 3DS goodness!

No, that was Shin Megami Tensei 4. This is Soul Hackers, a completely different game.

So... Hey! About that VC update for Europe... Japan gets 12 games, US gets 8 and EU gets 0? Looks like it...

http://nisamerica.com/pressreleases/SoulHackers_PAL_20130425_NISA_F.pdf So that's every currently announced Atlus game on its way to Europe! (not counting Devil Survivor 2 Break, but that hasn't been announced for US release yet either) Seems that this NiS America partnership is becoming a regular thing now, instead of just a one off Hopefully this is finally the end of our woes when it comes to EU Atlus releases!

This is an enourmously risky move that has a very high chance of backfiring on themselves. By abandoning the usual E3 conference, they are sending off the message (intentionally or otherwise) that they are admitting defeat and are ceding the international stage to Microsoft and Sony. Regardless of what they show, this is now the prevailing media narrative and will continue to be so all the way throughout the event (and perhaps even for the rest of the year and beyond). They are also relinquishing the mainstream non-gaming media E3 coverage that would normally report on their event as there is no chance of them going out of their way to report on a Nintendo Direct video. However, all is not quite lost. It must be remembered that the last two E3 events in particular have been increasingly universally considered to be huge disappointments, with many people questioning the need for E3's very existence and it is possible that Nintendo may well be acting as trendsetters. For this new format to be considered any kind of success however, I believe that it relies on a series of events that must occur for this move to work in Nintendo's favour. Firstly, Nintendo need to pull some really magic rabbits out of their hats; with a large number of significant announcements and new game unveils (A new western-focused IP from Retro Studios may well qualify!) that would ideally all be hitting the console this year. Secondly, their competitors need to have utterly disastrous events that would make the Sony of E3 2006 proud. If both events occur in their entirety, it is possible that E3 itself may actually be brought to an end - with Microsoft and Sony following Nintendo's lead and shifting to creating their own events instead (as Sony did back in February and as Microsoft are doing next month with the Durango). It may well be the case that Nintendo succeed at disrupting E3 and the entire industry media narrative itself, rendering it all completely irrelevant. This would afford Nintendo a large advantage over their rivals as they have the upper hand when it comes to communicating directly with consumers (lest we forget Sony's disastrous attempts at their own Nintendo Direct style "Vita Heaven" videos; both of which were rightfully seen as laughing stocks) But that is a very VERY idealistic scenario and relies on too many factors outside of Nintendo's own control. I don't think that Nintendo have chosen to abandon the format because they feel that they have little to show (as details on the currently announced lineup alone would be enough to fill an E3 press conference by itself!); they would surely have not forecasted the sale of 9 million Wii Us this fiscal year if they weren't confident in this year's software/announcements lineup (and that 3DS forecast looks very conservative, so I don't think it's a matter of them being overly bullish either). However, as crazy as it seems, I can't see any other scenario where this strategy would benefit them as otherwise it looks like they giving up on the mainstream audience and are retreating to their own little world inside a bubble (where they can just focus on preaching to the already converted choir of existing Wii U and 3DS owners). Iwata is bravely defaulting here and that alone is enough to give me some sort of hope that he knows what he's doing. I just hope that it isn't a final fantasy for them...

Heh, you're right about one thing for sure. Nintendo aren't just flying by the seat of their pants here. They know full well the implications of not turning up at E3 with a conference and they also have the luxury of knowing what they've got cooking up, so I'm sure that they're not making this decision for no reason (they did just put out a forecast of 9 million Wii Us sold this fiscal year, so they surely believe that they've still got some rabbits to pull out of their hat). Even if they had nothing new to show, even if they just went into details about games that they've already announced, that would be enough for a full E3 presser. I'm sure that we're not giving them enough credit here, despite how crazy this looks from our perspective. Still, I stand by what I said. I can't see this ending well for them unless luck rains down from the heavens and MS/Sony's pressers end in complete and total disaster (so disastrous that even Sony's E3 2006 event would blush!), while they knock it out of the park (with something as awesome as the power of the combined forces of Megazord, Godzilla and the Thundercats!)

TBH, the last 2 years have sucked for all of the big 3 console makers. Ubisoft were the real winners last year. That's kinda sad

Considering that he's talking about 3rd party titles here. Fantasy Life is almost certainly one of them. I'd be surprised if Ace Attorney 5 and Layton Meets Ace Attorney didn't make it for this year as well...

Mainstream newspapers and online media outlets like Wall Street Journal do report on E3 conferences. They won't report on Nintendo Directs however, so that readership is completely lost as a result of this move.

At this point, it'll take a miracle to save this thing. TBH, I think a lot of its chances depend on the failure of Sony and MS at this E3. In order for the Wii to zombie itself back to life, they need to pull off a 2013 3DS style massive-lineup-out-of-freaking-nowhere move (with at least 2 big games every month from July onwards), a possible price cut, a massive Kinect-Launch level promotional blitz that highlights the console itself (maybe a slight rebranding, with a different logo design) and Sony E3 2006 level failures to occur for MS and Sony (events so bad that they actually take E3 down with them). I don't see it happening...

Not in the eyes of the media and the general public. THAT's the issue here. The only way this can end well for Nintendo is that MS and Sony both have utterly disastrous E3 conference events (like, Sony 2006 levels of bad) - this would probably take the whole E3 event and format down with it, making 2013 E3's final year. That could potentially give Nintendo an advantage as they would have the upper hand when it comes to communicating directly to consumers, but it's an enormously unlikely outcome. I don't see this ending well for them. They're basically publically bowing out of the mainstream industry narrative completely and sticking to their own little bubble they've created.

I don't think that this is a good idea. No matter what they show, it gives the impression that they're afraid of their competition and whatever they show will be treated as being of lesser importance. I can't see how this is supposed to inspire any confidence in their platform or their lineup. It sends off all of the wrong messages and makes it look like they've given up. The mainstream media will never report on a Nintendo Direct video. They'll just go ignored by the non-gaming media, while Microsoft and Sony get all of the media attention.

Heh, so you're the opposite of me then. You prefer the later years to the earlier days. Am I the only one who preferred the DS' first half (2004-early 2008) to its second half (late 2008-2012)? Not to put a downer on its later years, cause there were some fantastic games released (like Zelda Spirit Tracks, Ghost Trick, Pokemon B&W 1 & 2, Picross 3D, Bowser's Inside Story and Dragon Quest IX) but there weren't as many games that really were taylor made to the DS' unique capabilities and couldn't have been done on othe hardware as there were in the first half of its life and I missed that aspect of the DS' library as time went on; also there weren't many mainstay multiplayer games released in that latter half either, which was a shame after you saw so many great multiplayer titles like Mario Kart DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, 42 All Time Classics, Bomberman DS and Advance Wars DS released in the console's early years. The PSP's resurrection in Japan around then (when Monster Hunter took off) also took away quite a bit of its Japanese 3rd party support, while Wii seemed to eat into Nintendo's own 1st party support.

The third pillar that became the first. There will never be another handheld quite like it. With so many quirky and original titles... Sleeper hits... Games that broke new grounds and revolutionised the industry... Games that re-invented existing series... Unexpected multiplayer hits... Games that revived long lost series... And games that could never have been made before the DS came along... It was a hell of an act that I don't know can ever be lived up to. While the later years were perhaps not as spectacular as the earlier ones, no other console has ever displayed the level of raw innovation, surprises, new IPs, ideas and concepts that the DS brought us - not even the Wii or the NES. The little handheld that could indeed. Godspeed my friend. Yours was a truly golden era!

Speaking of which, what do you think of Rumble U? Better than the Wii & 3DS games? Worth a pickup for someone who thought that the other two games were too shallow to be worth my time, but had the potential for brainless co-op fun?

Reggie used to report to Kimishima, who then used to report to Iwata. This cuts out the middle man as Iwata now gets to oversee and approve every decision Reggie makes directly. Not sure about NOE though, I think Shibata reports directly to Iwata anyway. Hopefully it means more global releases done more quickly and a consistently strong global approach to things like Virtual Console (none of this nonsense that NOA has been pulling on 3DS and Wii U, with their pathetic scheduling and the whole OP Rainfall fiasco! - with hopefully NOA & NOE releasing more games more frequently like in Japan!)

Maybe Iwata made himself NOA CEO in order to ensure that Angry Eyes Kirby never happens again? Trust Iwata to make a typical out-of-freaking-nowhere move that is utterly characteristic of Nintendo. They never do what you expect

http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=38483 Woah! Unexpected! Maybe this'll fix the Virtual Console release schedule! "Resign as CEO!? Pfft, I'll become CEO of NOA AND NCL and you'll just have to deal with it!"

The Nintendo financial results are out! (historical data shamelessly stolen from Neogaf) Nice to see that they made an overall Net Income (even if it was only thanks to the depreciation of the yen and then only by the skin of their teeth) but good lord are those Wii U sales abysmal! That forecast of 9 million for Wii U this year seems overly aggressive. Unless they're being truthful when they say that the lineup for Q3-Q4 is the most amazing thing since sliced bread, I can't see it coming even remotely close... (18 million seems attainable for 3DS though mind you) Super Mario 3D Land is still doing amazingly well, 8.27 million is crazy! Can't believe that it's still out selling Mario Kart 7! (which is sitting at 8.08 million) The real surprise winner here though is Nintendogs & Cats. It might not be reaching the heights of the original game, but 2.7 million is nothing to sneeze at! (It'll probably break 3 million after all is said and done)

The EU Nintendo Direct did show footage of Kirby Super Star and Mario's Super Picross, so hopefully (SHIBATA! PLEASE!!!) our lineup will be much better than the US one... Either way, voicing your dissatisfaction on Miiverse is probably the best thing to do. They're most likely to listen to us there...

Fucking horrible. I can only pray that our lineup is better. Either way, I'm heading off to Miiverse to complain. I suggest that everyone here does the same...

Oh wow cool! I never really liked the games all that much, but I like the characters and always thought that they would make for a great movie!

Yeah it does

That plus they made losses in Q1 & Q2 2012, with them only returning to profit in Q3 (when the 3DS finally stopped being sold at a loss). Not surprising that they made a loss for the whole year. A substantially smaller loss than last year, but still a loss. With the 3DS lineup exploding, the yen weakening, the Wii U finally getting some games and them now making profit on each 3DS console (and possibly also Wii U by Q2=Q3 of this year), they'll be back in profit from here on for sure though.

FREAKING SWEET! I already qualify for one free game! I wonder if I can get more than one free game out of this...