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[StreetsAhead]

A couple of lines about the WiiU & pages of stuff about the QoL the WiiU is supposed to be the companies flagship product!

Wonders if Nintendo is starting to run out of ideas for games related products.

You know that Nintendo can't answer questions they don't get asked, right?

What about amiibos? Did someone ask about lack of info on their use outside smash, or about a dedicated game?

Q1 is about amiibo. They basically talk about the different projects they're planning for next year and the advantage of allowing them to be used in multiple games as well as the speediness of their read/write speeds. They mention non-figure based 'amiibo' are being planned, saying that they are developing cards as part of the 'amiibo' project. They reference the e-Reader cards from the GBA era when saying this. They also talk about smaller, cheaper figures than the Smash figurines and talk about the possibility of using such figures in something like Animal Crossing. Miyamoto is apparently pushing teams to come up with non-standard uses of the NFC reader in the U, the results of which they hope to be able to show off next year. Also talks about using amiibo to extend the life of already released titles, like Mario Kart 8.

 

[JoeM86]

Q1 is about amiibo. They basically talk about the different projects they're planning for next year and the advantage of allowing them to be used in multiple games as well as the speediness of their read/write speeds. They mention non-figure based 'amiibo' are being planned, saying that they are developing cards as part of the 'amiibo' project. They reference the e-Reader cards from the GBA era when saying this. They also talk about smaller, cheaper figures than the Smash figurines and talk about the possibility of using such figures in something like Animal Crossing. Miyamoto is apparently pushing teams to come up with non-standard uses of the NFC reader in the U, the results of which they hope to be able to show off next year. Also talks about using amiibo to extend the life of already released titles, like Mario Kart 8.

Well, I'm screwed. My poor wallet.

 

[Zalman]

Q1 is about amiibo. They basically talk about the different projects they're planning for next year and the advantage of allowing them to be used in multiple games as well as the speediness of their read/write speeds. They mention non-figure based 'amiibo' are being planned, saying that they are developing cards as part of the 'amiibo' project. They reference the e-Reader cards from the GBA era when saying this. They also talk about smaller, cheaper figures than the Smash figurines and talk about the possibility of using such figures in something like Animal Crossing. Miyamoto is apparently pushing teams to come up with non-standard uses of the NFC reader in the U, the results of which they hope to be able to show off next year. Also talks about using amiibo to extend the life of already released titles, like Mario Kart 8.

Amiibo cards? The collector inside me will destroy my wallet.

 

[Mpl90]

Smaller and cheaper amiibos as well? Sounds good, probably they'll be 9.99, compared to 12.99 for Smash Bros. figures.

 

[JoeM86]

Smaller and cheaper amiibos as well? Sounds good, probably they'll be 9.99, compared to 12.99 for Smash Bros. figures.

The Pokémon Rumble U ones were small and came for £3.99/$4.99/200¥. They weren't the worst quality (but intentionally polygonal) so they could be simple things like that.

 

[Aostia]

Not really into cards, but cool about new amiibo sizes and projects

 

[Sammy Samusu]

I'm interested in Amiibo in cheaper, card form! Don't really care for toys.

 

[StreetsAhead]

Thought it was interesting that Miyamoto specifically talks about a card game, where you can play just by swiping cards into the game then use the cards to record your play history. Just after saying that he says 'But I can't talk about that specifically yet, however card games posses the potential to have a new structure with amiibo.'

Wouldn't be surprised if he's talking about a specific product that they're developing, based on that.

 

[Mpl90]

Thought it was interesting that Miyamoto specifically talks about a card game, where you can play just by swiping cards into the game then use the cards to record your play history. Just after saying that he says 'But I can't talk about that specifically yet, however card games posses the potential to have a new structure with amiibo.'

Wouldn't be surprised if he's talking about a specific product that they're developing, based on that.

Loki game for New 3DS confirmed.

 

[JoeM86]

Thought it was interesting that Miyamoto specifically talks about a card game, where you can play just by swiping cards into the game then use the cards to record your play history. Just after saying that he says 'But I can't talk about that specifically yet, however card games posses the potential to have a new structure with amiibo.'

Wouldn't be surprised if he's talking about a specific product that they're developing, based on that.

Ah well if Miyamoto is working on it, I don't have reason to be worried yet

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Culdcept game for New 3DS and localization confirmed.

Fixed.

 

[DrWong]

Thought it was interesting that Miyamoto specifically talks about a card game, where you can play just by swiping cards into the game then use the cards to record your play history. Just after saying that he says 'But I can't talk about that specifically yet, however card games posses the potential to have a new structure with amiibo.'

Wouldn't be surprised if he's talking about a specific product that they're developing, based on that.

Called it a few time since 2012. Evidences were obvious.

 

[Aostia]

Baiten kaitos amiibo card game or burst!

 

[Entryhazard]

It's a bullshit excuse but content ratings differ between regions. What gets a Teen rating in America may not get the same rating elsewhere.

Obviously any hardware designer with a brain would simply turn the region lock off when you disable parental controls. The real reason they don't do it is price fixing. They don't want you buying cheap US games when they can get a nice £35 for a PAL 3DS game.

That is a flmisy reason too since while US games may be cheaper considering currency conversion this does not take into account importing fees.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Called it a few time since 2012. Evidences were obvious.

I'm not really sure what there is to be called. Nintendo has experimented with electronic card integration for decades.

eCard reader for Super Mario Advance 3, Animal Crossing +, and Stage Debut (unreleased).

AR Cards for AR Games, Kid Icarus; Uprising, and Photo Together with Mario.

Then those Suica Point Cards for 3DS and Buta Metal.

Lots of ideas that haven't gone anywhere.

 

[BY2K]

What's this about Dev Speed? Quotes would be appreciated.

 

[valouris]

What's this about Dev Speed? Quotes would be appreciated.

I'd love to hear more about this myself.

 

[Herb Alpert]

I'm not really sure what there is to be called. Nintendo has experimented with electronic card integration for decades.

eCard reader for Super Mario Advance 3, Animal Crossing +, and Stage Debut (unreleased).

AR Cards for AR Games, Kid Icarus; Uprising, and Photo Together with Mario.

Then those Suica Point Cards for 3DS and Buta Metal.

Lots of ideas that haven't gone anywhere.

Well those didn't work. But I still think there is something huge to be made
It seems youkai watch medals do very well in japan.

 

[radcliff]

I had an idea for a Mario Baseball game when Amiibo was first announced where you would get a deck of cards with each game and that would be your team. You could then use that team or trade for/buy new cards to change your team. Card Amiibos would certainly make this possible.

 

[JoeM86]

What's this about Dev Speed? Quotes would be appreciated.

Covered here:

I know Shikamaru already summarized the answer, but here's my translation (not official, obvs)

On development time, we have already completed the step of learning new development techniques. So, we should experience less developmental delays stemming from learning new hardware. From now on, it becomes a matter of if we can use our experience efficiently and one part of our plan to do so is to use 'spin off games', which allow us to use our major title franchises, but create on a smaller scale and we are working hard on making these sort of derived products. In this way, we are preparing to expand on our characters while also increasing the number of software we output and allowing our customers to have their next experiences in certain franchises without waiting three years.

We are also working more and more with many different 3rd party companies to produce our titles [note: this seems to refer to outsourcing stuff like asset creation, cut-scenes, etc] and from this year we have begun to work with some software developers for the very first time. We are in the process of creating a system where we are actively seeking outside assistance to help us create an abundance of major titles. I feel that next year's Wii U titles are plentiful. We will continue working hard.

 

[Somnid]

Different types of Amiibos would be good. That's where I was hoping they'd go with this because it allows them to expand Amiibo as a platform (that could even be separated from gaming systems), rather than accessories. It's also great for me as I can pick and choose lines to collect rather than getting everything. Digital TGCs could be a pretty big thing but I probably wouldn't bother.

 

[GameGuru59]

We are also working more and more with many different 3rd party companies to produce our titles [note: this seems to refer to outsourcing stuff like asset creation, cut-scenes, etc] and from this year we have begun to work with some software developers for the very first time. We are in the process of creating a system where we are actively seeking outside assistance to help us create an abundance of major titles. I feel that next year's Wii U titles are plentiful. We will continue working hard.

...They also spoke of their continued plans for a unified architecture for future game devices, but just said they were continuing down that path without giving details.

Nice to see that Nintendo is actively working to address the issues of droughts on their consoles. The Namco-Nintendo partnership on Smash seems to have been very successful, and outsourcing game finalization to other teams looks like it'll be a good symbiotic relationship for Nintendo and (relatively) smaller developers whose designers may be idle at some point. This way, Nintendo avoids the problem of having huge numbers of developers on permanent staff (a notorious problem with HD game development), while the struggling Japanese developers find work by contracting with Nintedno and polishing off their major titles. Seems like a good arrangement.

Hardware architecture unification also bodes well for the future (although I think the future of a stand alone portable console is seriously in doubt, unless the console functions as a better gamepad for a future Wii U type arrangement). This should seriously speed up Nintendo's game development process, and we may be facing a future in which every Nintendo game will be playable both on the console and the portable system. 1080p capable portable hardware is almost normal now, so super-sizing that to make it at functional parity (though not at graphical parity) with a console is not at all out of the question.

Also, Nintendo going back to its playing card roots is very intriguing. I would appreciate Amiibo that either weren't so overpriced, or were priced at a premium and featured extremely high production values. The current medium state between these two doesn't really interest me. I'll buy into Amiibo if I can buy a decent stack of cards for 15-25 bucks like I used to with Pokemon cards. Moreover, cards are more functional for gaming outside of the digital world that figurines are. Figurines just sit there.

 

[WiiRevolution1]

Amiibo cards? Aw yeah. I'd buy that. I could see perhaps that going along with Mario Party 10 in some special mode or somethng.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

3 months from now I expect the WiiU to be a super hype machine when Iwata has his amiibo Animal Crossing Direct

 

[wigwag85]

It's because of region locking.

I have an American Wii U but live in Europe. Importing the games is slower and more expensive due to customs fees and what have you. I did it for DKC-TP as I was very excited for the game but it's kept me from "casually" buying Wii U games I otherwise might have. Dropping $100 on a Wii U title is not appealing to me. If I use, say, Tronix I'm paying for the cost of the game, $20-25 for shipping to Europe, and another 20 or so Euro in fees that arrives at a later date.

I won't buy games digitally either as their DRM system is garbage and limiting.

When I return home for vacation I may pick up a couple that I missed but it definitely keeps me from supporting the platform to its fullest.

They're region locking system is a huge inconvenience for me and, no, the answer is not simply "go buy another system". If it were region free, however, I would have purchased many more games for the system this year.

Why would you do something that stupid?

 

[Kouriozan]

3 months from now I expect the WiiU to be a super hype machine when Iwata has his amiibo Animal Crossing Direct

I want Rolf Amiibo so much*-*

 

[James Scott]

Confirming that they are open to making amiibos with different price points (cards, cheaper figures) maybe confirms that they could make more expensive collectible ones. That would be cool. I can see them making a ton of money from card games and their amiibo lines.

I really like what I'm hearing about their plans for developing games. Reusing engines and assets to put out more games a year (like NSLU and Captain toad) sounds great and them being more open to spin offs in order to not keep us 3+ years waiting for a new installment in a franchise sounds like a good idea for them. Waiting too long between installments hurts these franchises just as much as extreme fatigue would. Making spin offs with these characters (like Hyrule Warriors) can get fans to try out different types of games while selling more copies than if they were a new IP.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I want Rolf Amiibo so much*-*

it has to happen 300+ little amiibos for Animal Crossing U

I wondered when they would allow us to play as the animals, my hope is with the amiibos even a little playtime would bring something new to the game

 

[stilgar]

I thought it was more that they could potentially handle 1.5 projects at a time. Like assisting on another project (like Mario Kart 7) while working on their own game.

Ah, right. I think you've got the good version. So that means...next Metroid in 2016

 

[Josh5890]

Ah, right. I think you've got the good version. So that means...next Metroid in 2016

Maybe late 2015 for their next project since they started it last december but I would imagine Spring 2016 is more likely. 2015 looks great already so I can wait a little longer for another Retro game.

 

[Roo]

Q1 is about amiibo. They basically talk about the different projects they're planning for next year and the advantage of allowing them to be used in multiple games as well as the speediness of their read/write speeds. They mention non-figure based 'amiibo' are being planned, saying that they are developing cards as part of the 'amiibo' project. They reference the e-Reader cards from the GBA era when saying this. They also talk about smaller, cheaper figures than the Smash figurines and talk about the possibility of using such figures in something like Animal Crossing. Miyamoto is apparently pushing teams to come up with non-standard uses of the NFC reader in the U, the results of which they hope to be able to show off next year. Also talks about using amiibo to extend the life of already released titles, like Mario Kart 8.

What are they saying?
Because I can't think of anything interesting enough to "extende the life" of already released games.
For Mario Kart whats going to be? Save time trials? ghosts? carry your kart set up wherever you go with your amiibo? meh...

 

[James Scott]

What are they saying?
Because I can't think of anything interesting enough to "extende the life" of already released games.
For Mario Kart whats going to be? Save time trials? ghosts? carry your kart set up wherever you go with your amiibo? meh...

Like DLC, they hope that Amiibos will keep the game relevant for longer. If Amiibos take off and become really really popular it might give people a big reason to buy games that support Amiibo.

 

[Min0]

What are they saying?
Because I can't think of anything interesting enough to "extende the life" of already released games.
For Mario Kart whats going to be? Save time trials? ghosts? carry your kart set up wherever you go with your amiibo? meh...

Probably new modes focusing on amiibo. And small DLCs as incentive to buy the figures.

 

[Somnid]

What are they saying?
Because I can't think of anything interesting enough to "extende the life" of already released games.
For Mario Kart whats going to be? Save time trials? ghosts? carry your kart set up wherever you go with your amiibo? meh...

It's not necessarily what you might think. The obvious example I think of is Yokai Watch. The game was a fairly mediocre seller until much later when they came out with a TV show and collectable toy blitz. A secondary campaign on a different front can create synergy and new interest in the product.

 

[StreetsAhead]

What are they saying?
Because I can't think of anything interesting enough to "extende the life" of already released games.
For Mario Kart whats going to be? Save time trials? ghosts? carry your kart set up wherever you go with your amiibo? meh...

Here's all that was said:

We intend to use amiibo to create new play experiences, but as Mario Kart 8, which has already been released, will support them, we'd also like players to experience a feeling of 'Oh, I see - this sort of thing can happen [when using amiibo].'

 

[Mango The Magician]

The card amiibos remind me of the eReader at least by the description alone, which isn't to badmouth it or anything, just a funny similarity. Also, the note about spin-offs make me somewhere uneasy, I like the idea of more games to play, but I fear for their properties if they become too laxed with them. HW was fine, despite pushing the envelope in some areas, but I certainly would like to see them have a stronger hold on their individual characters.

it has to happen 300+ little amiibos for Animal Crossing U

I wondered when they would allow us to play as the animals, my hope is with the amiibos even a little playtime would bring something new to the game

If I could buy a Pecan, Marshal, and Punchy amiibo then use those amiibos to play as those characters, I think I could die happily.

I think Miyamoto was talking more about internally developed 'spin-offs', just from context. Made me think he was indirectly referencing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker rather than HW.

You're probably right, I hate to say it, but I have a bad habit of not actually reading up on the thread I post in.

 

[StreetsAhead]

The card amiibos remind me of the eReader at least by the description alone, which isn't to badmouth it or anything, just a funny similarity. Also, the note about spin-offs make me somewhere uneasy, I like the idea of more games to play, but I fear for their properties if they become too laxed with them. HW was fine, despite pushing the envelope in some areas, but I certainly would like to see them have a stronger hold on their individual characters.

I think Miyamoto was talking more about internally developed 'spin-offs', just from context. Made me think he was indirectly referencing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker rather than HW.

 

[Nemecyst]

Amiibo cards means they finally licensed Final Fantasy 8's Triple Triad game and will take over the world with it.

 

[Aostia]

will they release an official translation?

 

[StreetsAhead]

will they release an official translation?

Yes, they will. They have every other time. Hopefully within the next 24-48 hours.

 

[DrWong]

I'm not really sure what there is to be called. Nintendo has experimented with electronic card integration for decades.

eCard reader for Super Mario Advance 3, Animal Crossing +, and Stage Debut (unreleased).

AR Cards for AR Games, Kid Icarus; Uprising, and Photo Together with Mario.

Then those Suica Point Cards for 3DS and Buta Metal.

Lots of ideas that haven't gone anywhere.

Sure, they're doing cards since forever but I was talking (Miyamoto was talking about it in a 2012 interview) about nfc related to cards game. It was very specific.

But no problem, it's not a big deal and don't take my "called it" too seriously, it's just for the fun of doing it a few time per year since I read this interview a few years back.

 

[Taker666]

What are they saying?
Because I can't think of anything interesting enough to "extende the life" of already released games.
For Mario Kart whats going to be? Save time trials? ghosts? carry your kart set up wherever you go with your amiibo? meh...

The only thing that would appeal to me is if you scan a figure and unlock an entirely new racer/track/vehicle based on that specific franchise. If I could scan Kirby and play as him in Mario Kart or Samus and play as her in Hyrule warriors etc....then I'd buy the figures..

....but it seems the one thing I'd buy figures for is the thing they are shying away from.The whole "train/store data of a character that is already in the game" doesn't appeal to me at all.

When you think about it ...some of the stuff in Bayonetta 1& 2 is the type of thing they should be doing with figures. If in a months time I had found I could scan the amiibo's into bayonetta and unlock all those Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Starfox costumes for Bayonetta..

Spoiler

or the hidden Starfox level

that really would have given me a reason to buy the figures.

I was hoping for lots of crazy cross pollination with amiibo's across franchises.. as opposed to just having a specific franchise character for a specific franchise game.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

My understand for the region lock answer: Iwata gives a bunch of reasons like licensing and stuff as reasons for region locking (you've heard it all before). Though he does say that unlocking has merit to consumers. It would be a challenge to unlock it and they can't do it right now but it is something they will examine in the future.

And then you realise the DS was region free.

 

[Aostia]

I like the "spinoff" part; I've always hoped for a "Captain Toad"-like project in between Mario3DWorld and MarioGalaxy3, just to throw an example there.

 

[Oersted]

And then you realise the DS was region free.

All handhelds were, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[TheMoon]

All handhelds were, if I'm not mistaken.

Yup. DSi was the first but only for DSi-enhanced/exclusive software and DSiWare. Just like the PS3 is only region free for PS3 games with DVDs, PS1, and PS2 games on a PS3 are still subject to regional lockout.

 

[sörine]

All handhelds were, if I'm not mistaken.

All Nintendo consoles through Gamecube were also dead simple to bypass region lock. Usually it was nothing more than a differing cart formfactor.

It wasn't until they had digital storefronts (Wii & DSi) that Nintendo really put much effort into region locking.

 

[69wpm]

The English translation is up.

 

[Tom_Cody]

I'll look forward to working my way through this. I always love reading these things.


And he was exactly right about the location.

Judging from their past formatting, this will be the link to the Q&A once it goes up: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/141030qa/index.html

 

[Dead_Pixel]

Miyamoto's response to Q7 made me laugh:

I need to be very careful about answering this question, or my answers may result in articles titled, “Mr. Miyamoto to retire,” again.