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[Sendou]

"NFC" is not a game genre, neither is "mascot" games.

I thought "NFC" was technology but now they tell me it's actually a platform. I can't keep up with this.

 

[Riki]

I thought "NFC" was technology but now they tell me it's actually a platform. I can't keep up with this.

NFP is the platform. It uses NFC technology.

 

[Somnid]

I thought "NFC" was technology but now they tell me it's actually a platform. I can't keep up with this.

NFC is a technology, NFP is the a platform based on NFC-enabled figurines.

 

[Amir0x]

"NFC" is not a game genre, neither is "mascot" games.

Games with mascots in them are "mascot games", and nobody said it was a genre. In fact the comment specifically says:

. People continue to be complacent about it, make the whole "well as long as they're different genres who cares" argument, but it's a serious issue with Nintendo now

Acknowledging the different genres the mascots are a part of.

But hey, the semantics are the semantics. One way or another, Nintendo's reliance on mascots is hurting them, and if they don't diversify soon it'll be an even greater bottleneck for growth going forward.

We'll have to see exactly what they do with the QoL products to see how serious they are, because if they keep following this mascot road, it's clear they're disconnected from the realities of the market.

 

[digita1alchemy]

I'm guessing they'll have some kind of dedicated 3DS and Wii U game to get this whole thing going, and then after that most key 1st party Nintendo games will incorporate the figures to varying degrees. In some games they may just unlock cool bonus features while in others they may be more tightly integrated. I think one of the advantages they see in this is people investing money into a collection of figures and then feeling like they need to go out and also buy all these different games that support them so that they can get the most out of them. Or, conversely, "I have all these games that support these figures, maybe I should buy a couple to see what this is all about". At least I think that is what they're aiming for here.

 

[Joe T.]

It might make them some money, who knows. I'm more disappointed that they found yet one more way to milk their franchise characters. Can't ever just break away into actually new territory anymore, *sigh*

Whatever, I just hope they can make good money off of it. Something needs to work for Nintendo right now, so maybe it'll be this.

I think that's what I'm worried about, that it will be profitable for them and they'll continue marketing these types of gimmicks to new audiences while in large part forgetting the fans that grew up playing their games and made their name synonymous with gaming. In any event, should be interesting to see how they present this at E3.

 

[SoapyLemons]

First look of the NFP figures in action!

i'm fucking dead.

 

[RulkezX]

I think he's talking about like... grandmas.

Ask your grandma to name some nintendo characters. If you're lucky, you'll get mario and donkey kong, and not much else.

That said, grandmas aren't going to buy anything nintendo anyway.

Why the hell would I be talking about grandmas ?

The current crop of games that come with toys are aimed squarely 6-12 year olds and I'll take a bet with anyone that Nintendo roster awareness is low amongst that age group.

On any given day I can pick my kids up at school or nursery and see dozens of Marvel , Pixar or Skylanders merchandise , I can't say the same for anything Nintendo related.

Ninty fans all seem to be grown men who grew up playing Nintendo.

The games are going be more popular on one console over the others and if Nintendo can get that audience through exclusive content it could be them. Also, how many parents do you think are buying a PS4 and Xbox One?

Who mentioned the new consoles ? And even if you do want to bring that up then I'd say a lot. Parents buy and X1 , PS4 , 360 , PS3 or WiiU and their kids play them as well.

My point was that currently in any house that has any console in it there is the potential to sell Infinity/Skylanders to it.

 

[Sorcerer]

I guess Nintendo weren't kidding when they said they would be doubling down on the gamepad.

I guess this also means a Wii U with out the gamepad included will never happen.

 

[rawktapus]

Why the hell would I be talking about grandmas ?

The current crop of games that come with toys are aimed squarely 6-12 year olds and I'll take a bet with anyone that Nintendo roster awareness is low amongst that age group.

On any given day I can pick my kids up at school or nursery and see dozens of Marvel , Pixar or Skylanders merchandise , I can't say the same for anything Nintendo related.

Ninty fans all seem to be grown men who grew up playing Nintendo.

Completely anecdotal. Plenty of kids love Nintendo characters and they have plenty of merch in the toy aisle, as well as clothes sold at Target and other stores. kirby, Mario, pokemon and donkey Kong to a lesser extent are all known outside of the older fan base . Yeah, you could say kids don't know Starfox or F Zero , but Disney has plenty of lesser known titles too like Black Cauldron, great mouse detective, etc. There's almost too much to name.

 

[Tregard]

I'm envisioning some kind of Super Mario Crossover dealy.

 

[Kyzer]

Definitely pokken fighters. I can see a figurine promo box with 3 rising fist boosters.

 

[Oersted]

Definitely pokken fighters. I can see a figurine promo box with 3 rising fist boosters.

Fight with the same Pokemon in Pokken, Smash and (most likely) another Pokémon title.

 

[Kyzer]

Fight with the same Pokemon in Pokken, Smash and (most likely) another Pokémon title.

Mega Lucario figurine and M Lucario EX promo card with 3 boosters, containing codes to use in the Pokemon Trading Card Game for Wii U and 3DS

 

[The_Lump]

I guess Nintendo weren't kidding when they said they would be doubling down on the gamepad.

I guess this also means a Wii U with out the gamepad included will never happen.

That will never happen for multiple reasons - but this isn't really one of them

Spoiler

(there's no reason the dongle for 3DS couldn't be used on WiiU)

 

[Sandfox]

Who mentioned the new consoles ? And even if you do want to bring that up then I'd say a lot. Parents buy and X1 , PS4 , 360 , PS3 or WiiU and their kids play them as well.

My point was that currently in any house that has any console in it there is the potential to sell Infinity/Skylanders to it.

I was talking about the new generation of consoles in my post and my point was that if Nintendo does a good job with this idea they could position themselves to be the platform to buy when parents want to buy this type of game for their kids to start playing in the first place. If a kid just wants to play Skylanders, doesn't want to play the Nintendo game and the family already have another platform they obviously wouldn't buy a new one most of the time.

 

[BM8]

Imagine if Nintendos NFC game included a level editor, to create your own 3d platformer/whatever other items they throw in(vehicles, powerups, ect.). Basically like disney infinity, but much better. Though, this sounds very unlike Nintendo.

 

[Muzy72]

Hope you don't mind, Nirolak,but I cleaned up the OP a bit with information from the official translation.

 

[Outtrigger888]

Imagine if Nintendos NFC game included a level editor, to create your own 3d platformer/whatever other items they throw in(vehicles, powerups, ect.). Basically like disney infinity, but much better. Though, this sounds very unlike Nintendo.

my wallet is reggie

 

[R&D]

I don't like NFC at all. Very polluting :-( I hope the games are solid without the need to get more figurines to enjoy it. We'll see.

 

[Tom_Cody]

I'm finally reading through the Investor's Q&A and Iwata drops two very important comments about NFP on the first page:

As for utilizing character figurines, Activision has released video game titles from the Skylanders series over the past three years and Disney Interactive released the software title, “Disney Infinity,” last year. Both video game series are compatible with character figurines and have created an extremely large market for these products. In the overseas markets especially, a huge amount of space has been allocated to those product lines at retail stores with a large market presence. Our primary focus, however, is not to develop software that is compatible with figurines. Rather, we have been developing figurines since last year because we believe there may be different approaches or ways to appeal to consumers by using them, and this could also be one way for Nintendo to utilize its character IP. At the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in January this year, we talked about our policy of actively utilizing character IP imagining that we would be able to show you the actual NFP product, which I mentioned today, at E3. However, when we talked about actively utilizing character IP, people were only focused on to whom and how licenses would be granted. So today, I decided to talk about our own project. Still nothing has changed in our belief that, for video game platforms, hardware is driven by software and our basic approach of developing new, unique and incredibly interesting software has not changed at all. We will work hard to meet your expectations.

1) In the first bolded part, he directly states that the primary focus of this venture is on the sales of the figures themselves and not the software experiences that will be connected to them. This is kind of an extremely important distinction. Disney Infinity's justifies the price of their figurines with the content linked to them. Barring that, there is no way they could justify $10+ for those tiny things.

To me this indicates that, at least to start with, these figures will be more like the Kid Icarus AR Cards than physical DLC. They will try to sell the figures on their own merit and not simply link them to gated content within their games to blackmail gamers.

2) In the second bolded part, he specifically states that these figure will be their own venture and they won't merely be licensed. This is a big deal. This indicates to me that they are going control the manufacturing of the figures themselves, just as they do with their gaming hardware. This greatly increases my expectations for the quality of the figures. This also represents a major shift for the company as this will likely entail greatly expanding their physical toy division or possibly the creation of an entirely new division.

 

[weevles]

I have mixed feelings about this. While I think Nintendo certainly has a the IP power to draw in their dedicated fan base to collecting these things, I also think they are LTTP to the whole toy-in-video-game concept (although they did have Pokemon Rumble U, I don't think that really caught on?). My kids are starting to move away from Skylanders, and they never did care for Disney Infinity much at all.

 

[Tom_Cody]

I have mixed feelings about this. While I think Nintendo certainly has a the IP power to draw in their dedicated fan base to collecting these things, I also think they are LTTP to the whole toy-in-video-game concept (although they did have Pokemon Rumble U, I don't think that really caught on?). My kids are starting to move away from Skylanders, and they never did care for Disney Infinity much at all.

I think this is more of a long term initiative.

These figures aren't just about one game or one toyline. The idea is that they want to have these figure available for Nintendo fans to buy from now own and into forever. They want their customers to have a physical component to buy along with their digital software.

In that sense it is a win-win for them. They will make a profit on every figure sold. It doesn't really matter to what degree it takes off.