Tag Archive

Nintendo Dropping EU Retail Orders For The Wii U Should Be Cause For Concern


Posted on September 23, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Wii U Production Stop

Word came out earlier today that retailers in the European Union have until the end of this month – just 7 days from now – to get their final orders in for Wii U hardware. None of this has been confirmed by Nintendo themselves but at least one twitter user corroborated the original GameSeek report that broke the story. With six months to go before Nintendo’s next generation console – code named NX – launches and no official reveal in sight this whole situation should be a little concerning.

It is not uncommon for console manufacturers to ramp down production after the launch of a successor. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was discontinued just this past April, staying in production for 3 full years past the Xbox One’s unveiling. In some cases the end of production can actually occur prior to the launch of a successor console – as an example Nvidia stopped manufacturing the Original Xbox’s GPU in August 2005 just 3 months before the debut of the Xbox 360.

Nintendo’s prior history with discontinuing consoles isn’t as cut and dry as its competitors, however. They haven’t shyed away from dropping an obvious failure like the Virtual Boy, which was discontinued just six months after its initial launch in August 95. But other, more successful, Nintendo consoles have had a much longer life, even alongside their successors – the GameCube wasn’t sunsetted until late February 2007, giving the console an additional 4 months on the market alongside the Wii before Nintendo finally pulled the plug.

wii-u

The house of Mario has traditionally sold it’s hardware at a profit, however the expensive Research & Development and hardware costs of the Wii U GamePad have been eating into Nintendo’s bottom line for sometime. Wii U is the first Nintendo device in recent memory that has been sold at a loss and with declining sales an argument could be made for ending the production of the console if Nintendo has enough in-stock to meet their projected demands until the NX has a strong foothold with the company’s faithful customer base.

What is a bit odd in this particular situation is that Nintendo isn’t announcing the end of hardware production at its’ partner factories but rather telling retailers in the European Union to place orders for hardware within a weeks’ time. Traditionally Europe hasn’t been the strongest of the three major markets in terms of units sold – those honors shift between North America and Japan – but Nintendo’s pattern of discontinuation of hardware has always occurred either after a successor has been released into the market for a matter of months or at least announced and demo’d publicly.

gamecube-console-set

Even when Nintendo discontinued the GameCube in February of 2007 and stopped producing new titles for the machine, then Nintendo’s long time marketing Guru Perrin Kaplin took the chance to re-position the remainder of GameCube stock as an alternative to expensive next-gen consoles for players who are new to console gaming.

Here is what she said about the GameCube’s end of life plans and its position in the market at the time:

“I mean, I wasn’t the first to buy an iPod. By the time I bought it, it came to a price where I wanted it to be and looked the way I wanted it to look. So we’re not selling GameCube to the people who are hardcore players and want all the gadgetry – we’re going after the people who never really bought a system before now it’s finally at a price that they can afford for their family.” 

The NX Question

Nintendo-NX

With all of this history taken into account there is still one unanswered question that remains shrouded in secrecy: what are Nintendo’s plans for the NX? The facts are that they confirmed its existence and announced its March 2017 release date, a year before its scheduled launch. Now with news coming forward of the Wii U’s hardware discontinuation in Europe, the company is about to enter the holiday season with no shelf presence for its existing platform or its successor.

There have been a ton of leaks coming out of Foxcon factories, the supply chain and development sources, to pretty much confirm that the Nintendo NX is a hybrid / dockable device that can be used either on-the-go or while hooked up to a television. If true then the NX is probably one of the worst kept secrets Nintendo has ever held so tightly to their chest. What is of concern here is that none of Nintendo’s recent decisions surrounding NX or to some extent the Wii U fit with the company’s history of hardware launches or the end of an existing console’s lifecycle. This whole strategy seems very concerning for those of us watching Nintendo, but here’s hoping it is a direction that works.

This fake 3D printed proto-type sure fooled a lot of people, us included.

This fake 3D printed proto-type sure fooled a lot of people, us included.


0

Nintendo NX Dated For March 2017, Newest Zelda To Launch for NX / Wii U


Posted on April 27, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Some huge news came out of the Nintendo Japan financial call for investors this morning relating to Nintendo’s next console, codenamed NX, and the next The Legend of Zelda game. It is typical for companies to slide little tidbits of unknown information in their investor’s reports or on earnings calls in order to assure investors that the company is heading in a safe direction.

Confirmed via Nintendo of America’s official Twitter account, as well as on Nintendo of Japan’s Twitter account, the Nintendo NX will ship worldwide in March 2017. This of course flies in the face of rumors that Ninty was ramping up production for a Fall or holiday season release. It was also confirmed that the NX will not be at this year’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles. That news sounds disheartening, but it wouldn’t stop Nintendo from unveiling the console at a pre-show Nintendo Direct or a similar presentation sometime after the show.

Regarding the newest The Legend of Zelda title, previously confirmed for a Wii U release, Nintendo announced through their financial call that the game will be released simultaneously for both systems sometime in 2017.  This is the second time The Legend of Zelda has been delayed since its gameplay reveal at E3 2014.

What are your thoughts on The Legend of Zelda being released simultaneously on both platforms? Will it be the Wii release of Twilight Princess all over again?


0

Are these new images of the NX controller?


Posted on March 23, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

New images of the development kit version of the Nintendo NX controller have leaked thanks to Perkele37 on Reddit. We now have an up & close look at the controller in much higher detail than the previous leaked photos. From these photos it is quite clear that the NX’s thumbsticks are physical nubs, not unlike the Vitas, and not on-screen controls as some had suggested. We also now know that the development hardware supports 3.5mm headphone audio output and features haptic feedback similar to Apple’s force touch.

Here are the brand new details leaked by Perkele37:

  • Only the upper ‘nubs’ of the sticks move. The bottom part is static (kind of like the circle pad, but it moves along the bottom ‘sphere’.
  • The rollers on the top feel and look pretty much identical to a mouse scroll-wheel. Though I do don’t believe this will be the final design.
  • Haptic feedback is feels like Apples ‘taptic’ engine. Not like regular rumble.
  • 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom

Here are the images that went along with the post

NXcontroller2 NXcontroller

what do you think?


1

It doesn’t matter if the NX is a failure Nintendo will go on


Posted on March 21, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

Guest post by SZKO

Have you ever heard of the term “Golden Parchute”? Well if not, a Golden Parachute is basically a contract between a C-level executive and a company that says if the executive screws up in running the company and gets fired then they will be paid out some arbitrarily high amount of money. This allows the executive to make bold decisions that hopefully will steer the company into making giant piles of money that the executive may not otherwise make because they are playing it safe. Having a giant pile of cash to fall back and to draw upon if your ideas screw up is a huge boon to an executive and allows the executive to go in new directions and make fun, interesting, and hopefully very financially rewarding decisions.

Read More


0

Is this the NX controller Nintendo patented in the wild?


Posted on March 18, 2016 by Fionna Schweit

Our friends over at Dualpixels claim to have an exclusive source who has shown them the NX’s all touch screen controller. They have published the first ever photos of what appears to be an all screen controller, with two contol “nibs” on the top, exactly what we saw with the patent diagram from last month.

patent

So here they are, in the flesh, all credit to Dualpixels and the anonymous source from Reddit, so take with a grain of salt. 3

nx2 NX

What do you think? Tell us on Twitter or Facebook!


0

2016 and Gaming: A Year in Preview


Posted on December 28, 2015 by Kenny Keelan

2016featured

As we’re closing in on the end of one year and getting ready to start the next, a lot of people are reflecting on the year that’s past and others are looking at the year to come. I’m one of those looking to the future and I’ll tell you why: 2016 and the coming years after are going to be an extremely exciting time for games. While gaming has always been a longtime passion of mine, I do have to admit that it has felt like, in the last couple generations, innovation and creativity had been been steadily decreasing while market saturation has been steadily increasing. It wasn’t looking good as the market was looking stale and things weren’t change. Sure, there were gimmicks that came and went but nothing really stuck. There were few real surprises and the things that jumped aboard the hype train were mostly games we’d been anticipating and asking for, for years. There was a lot of vaporware, a lot of E3s that came and went that left us wanting more and spending more time laughing at the flaws than celebrating the wonders. In my honest opinion, the fifth generation was the last generation that truly brought us wonders we never thought we’d see possible and all the last couple generations did was expand on that. We never saw anything truly groundbreaking and that’s part of why 2016 is going to be an exciting year: we are going to see a lot of broken ground and whether or not it will be truly successful, we finally see companies going out and taking risks and those are the kinds of moves that change gaming for the better. Follow the jump for our preview of the year to come and what to watch for!

Read More


0

Get the latest articles and news from BrokenJoysticks and a selection of excellent articles from other sources.

Simply fill out the form below and you’ll be on your way to getting our upcoming newsletter.