Business
GDC-buzzkill Nintendo quiet period ‘over soon’
GameDaily: Because of the company’s stock situation in its native Japan, Nintendo has had no choice but to enter “quiet mode.” This may have been disappointing for Nintendo fans who were expecting big announcements to come out of GDC last week, but the good news is that this quiet period, from what we’ve heard, is expected to come to an end in less than two weeks. Perhaps s...
Suda 51 on game development
Infendo regular Josh D. points us to a Next Generation feature on Killer 7’s Suda 51 (Grasshopper Manufacture president Goichi Suda) entitled Suda 51 and the Punk Spirit. It’s worth a read for all you Killer 7 fans out there, as well as you aspiring game designers/developers still reeling over comments made last week that Nintendo consoles lack artistic style. Here’s my fundament...
"Mum" is the word for Nintendo at GDC ‘07
As many of you have heard, the big Nintendo news this week is that there will most likely not be any news from Nintendo in the following week, at least not from the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. What you may not have heard (if you don’t like digging through sources) is exactly why. The reason is somewhat convoluted, but here’s a simplification of the epic mini-serie...
Wii shortage: Supply chain issue or cold, calculating Nintendo?
Normally I’d dismiss this tip to Infendo as a “just because it happens to you don’t mean it happens to everyone” event, but because it’s theJON I’m listening: “I got a job at my local Gamestop recently and last week, the Nintendo Rep stopped by and talked to us a bit about the Wii and DS (and how our kiosks weren’t on). One of the things he told us w...
This guy says Nintendo stock GET (now)
Some analyst (I loves my analysts and their crazy “numbers”) says Nintendo is a market force to be reckoned with, and that its low cost and Wiimote capabilities give it incredible momentum for the next two years, at least. Nintendo trades at about 32 times forward earnings. While no analysts publish five-year growth expectations, earnings are expected to soar over the next two years, w...
IDC’s latest Wii prediction shows tide is turning
From IDC (very respectable analyst firm based in my backyard): IDC predicts that the Wii will outship and outsell the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2007 and 2008, as Nintendo’s rivals battle over the core consumer. IDC gaming program manager Billy Pidgeon said that Nintendo’s strategy to reach out to the non-core gaming market will pay off. “With the Wii, Nintendo is abdicating t...
Casual games: The secret to Nintendo’s success?
DFC Intelligence by way of Next-Gen has an exhaustive feature exploring the secret to Nintendo’s success, at least on the handheld side of things. They say great casual games pay most of Nintendo’s portable bills. “Nintendo’s secret – the one that the others don’t quite get – is that it is essentially a maker of casual games. The DS’s success illustr...
Ubisoft posts 78% sales surge thanks to the Wii
Some savvy blogger over at Joystiq points out why digging deeper into a sales number can yield surprising results. The number in this case is the 78% surge Ubisoft saw in sales thanks to the Wii. “I’m betting, however, that Ubisoft can thank the sheer amount of junk games it threw at Wii owners for the spike in sales as other conservative publishers offered little to no games. And thou...
Japanese government sells Nintendo stock
Oh Noes! The sky is falling! But really, it’s all ok, honest. The value of Nintendo shared has dropped over the weekend on news that the Japanese Government is selling its stake in the company.The Banks’ Shareholdings Purchase Corp. is a government organization set up in 2002 to safeguard stocks from precipitous offloading by major banks. Nintendo has sought the release of the shares i...
Wii might take 30% of U.S. homes
No no no, not 30% of all gamers, 30% of all HOMES, of which there are substantially more than the niche category of “gamer.” Merrill Lynch has predicted that 30% of U.S households will own a Wii by 2011. The analyst says the figure in Japan could be as high as 33%. The prediction comes in the aftermath of extraordinary results for Nintendo’s console, outselling all competitors in...
Nintendo stops producing GameCube systems and games [or not?]
Nintendo has stopped producing GameCubes and will not release any new first-party games for the system. I think I just cried a little. Well, it makes sense, really, but *sniff* it’s still a little sad. As for other companies making new games for the Cube, Infendo Forums poster Alucard clued us in on a new shoot-em-up coming out in March called Radio Allergy. And it’s “Wii Compati...
Sega shifts portable development to DS
From Chris Kohler at Game|Life: In an interview with Nikkei Shimbun, Sega managing director Hideki Okamura says the company is shifting its focus from PSP to Nintendo DS, pointing out that there is a title they will release this year that will “surprise absolutely everyone.” And remember that point I made about competing with Nintendo on first party titles and seeing it as a challenge ...