The Wii U has one hell of a software drought ahead of the release of Zelda.
NX: Nintendo Should Hope That More People Buy Their Console Than Buy Their Lies
The Nintendo NX will be launching in March of 2017, missing the crucial holiday season which might have provided it something of a boost out of the gate. This will result in Nintendo’s new system hitting the market several months after the release of the Playstation Neo, meaning that the NX will not even present an appreciable leap in capabilities over what is already on the market. One is not overly supportive of Sony’s plans for a mid-generation refresh, yet one has to respect Sony’s play to handily cockblock the big N. It seems unlikely that Nintendo would deliberately plan to miss the 2016 holiday season, so there is even every possibility that they had to do so on account of Sony entering Neo production before they could, and monopolising Foxcon production bandwidth to such an extent that Nintendo had to push back their release plans in order to build up the requisite inventory. In any case, regardless of the reasoning behind the decision, it nonetheless amounts to Nintendo releasing their console at a time when there is little appetite among consumers for buying new consoles.
This also means that the NX will not be shown at E3, as ten months prior to release is apparently way too early for Nintendo to be showing off one of their new products. Because of this Nintendo will be focusing their E3 efforts on their new Legend of Zelda title, which has been pushed back to March of 2017 – a mere ten months after E3.
“The new Legend of #Zelda will be the focus of #E3 2016. It will launch simultaneously on both Wii U and NX in 2017.”
The reason for Nintendo’s new Legend of Zelda title being delayed to March of 2017 is in order for the team to give it some extra polish and iron out some bugs – it assuredly has nothing to do with the launch of the NX. @Cheesemeister3k confirmed this by translating a tweet from Nintendo of Japan which confirms:
“Zelda for #WiiU, planned for 2016, has been delayed to 2017 in order to improve quality. #WiiU and #NX versions release together.”
Well, that is a relief. One is glad that Nintendo can be upfront like this. Perhaps NX has been delayed to ‘improve quality’ too. At any rate, the launch of the NX promises to to be a historic event, as one can scarcely recall a console ever launching without first being shown off at either E3 or CES before it. Even the shambolic launch of the Sega Saturn occurred at E3, giving it some much needed exposure to general consumers. Nintendo, a company in deep decline, will be launching their NX without the benefit of this kind of exposure, in a period directly subsequent to the glut of luxury spending which comes with the holiday season. Well played, guys!
It has not been so terribly long since PSN was regarded as more of a liability.
PSN Now More Lucrative Than All of Nintendo
With Nintendo operating as a nonentity throughout the majority of the console generation, sales of Sony’s PS4 have soared. Moreover, Nintendo is understood to have pretty much nothing significant in store for Wii U owners until their new Zelda title releases almost a year from now, meaning that, much like Sega after the Saturn, Nintendo will go almost a full year without having any kind of home console presence at retail. Hell, by the time Zelda actually does release for the Wii U, owners will likely have to order it online, as the Wii U will have relinquished the scant retail space that still remains to it at present.
As Nintendo shrinks Sony expands, and nowhere is this more evident than in the hard numbers. This week both Sony and Nintendo have released their numbers for the 2015 financial year, revealing that PSN alone is now earning more revenue than Nintendo as a whole. This generation Sony has started charging money for Playstation owners to access online game features, and given that the PS4 has shipped over 40 million units as of the 31st of March, that means that Sony is bringing in a tidy chunk of revenue along with the digital sales of PS4 software:
“Sony’s PlayStation Network sales hit 529,000m yen which means that PSN generated more revenue than the whole of Nintendo (504,000m yen).
Yes, you’re reading that right. PSN generated more revenue than all Nintendo revenue in FY2015/16.”
To put this in US dollar terms, the revenue from PSN was 4.97 billion dollars, while the revenue of Nintendo as a whole was 4.74 billion. In broader terms the revenue from Sony’s gaming division as a whole was 13.7 billion dollars, and now accounts for nineteen percent of all Sony revenue. Because of this Sony as a whole has returned to profitability in 2015 after several years of posting losses. One hopes that they use this breathing room to get the rest of their house in order, so that when these stellar PS4 sales numbers diminish other divisions of the company will be able to hold their own.
As for Nintendo, they do have a large warchest left over from the Wii, so they are in no imminent danger of going out of business. That said, if the NX does poorly and Nintendo’s mindshare and marketshare continues to decrease, then it is difficult to see how Nintendo’s shareholders could allow the company to throw their hat into a subsequent console generation. It is not even as though Nintendo handhelds can take the slack anymore; the 3DS might look great in comparison to PS Vita, but it has still yet to reach 60 million units sold after five years on the market – a far cry from the 154 million units of DS hardware that Nintendo moved during the previous generation. Moreover, Nintendo’s financials could be looking even worse were it not for the runaway success of Amiibo, which went on to generate almost 500 million dollars for Nintendo in 2015, which is roughly half of the revenue accrued by 3DS software sales in the same period.
“Fun Fact: All 3DS software generated $1B for Nintendo over the last 12 months Clash of Clans generated ~$1.4B alone in the last 12 months
Fun fact 2: amiibo and other accessories generated nearly $500m in revenue for Nintendo in FY2016/3.
Nintendo have now sold in approximately 35.2 million amiibo figures (More than half in the US/Canada) and 28.9 million amiibo cards.”
Aspiring game developers will never get the chance to ask Journey’s director how he became so successful at such a young age.
SJW Professors Rob Students of Rare Learning Experience
File this one under pure blithering idiocy. What do Rob Pardo [former CEO of Blizzard], Jenova Chen [founder of thatgamecompany], Dave Stohl [president of Infinity Ward], Brandon Beck [CEO of Riot Games], Peter Levin [president of Lionsgate Interactive], Min Kim [former president of Nexon America], and Jeffrey Kaplan [former director of World of Warcraft] all have in common? Besides being massive industry heavyweights of course. What commonality do these individuals all share with one another aside from the fact that they are immensely important and influential gaming professionals, any one of which would be worth seeking an audience with? The answer to that is quite simple – all of these very important people had taken time out of their busy lives in order to fly to LA so that they could attend a USC panel titled ‘Legends of the Game Industry’. Not only had these industry titans made themselves available to answer the questions of USC game design students, but they were also prepared to take a look at the game design projects that the students had been working on. For most people this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Sadly, it was not to be. Professor Anthony Borquez had organised the event, yet he was only granted the space on the provision that he would not assemble an all male panel. With this stipulation in mind Borquez assembled a panel which included an [as yet] unnamed female gaming professional, yet due to a scheduling conflict she had to pull out at the last minute. A mere four hours before the panel was due to get underway director of USC Games Tracy Fullerton cancelled the event because there was not going to be a female on the panel.
“Dear Students, Faculty and Invited Guests:
After much consideration, we have decided to cancel tonight’s “Legends of the Games Industry” panel. The panel didn’t reflect both the diversity within the USC community and the games industry at large. We intend to reschedule this panel in the coming days and weeks with a balanced group of panelists. We regret presenting an all-male panel and are committed to a diverse and inclusive games industry.
Thank you for your commitment to USC Games.”
This is profoundly sickening in terms of its sheer wastefulness – both regarding the unique opportunity lost to students and the faculty’s flagrant disregard for the time of the guest speakers who had flown out to be there. If the department is able to put together another panel then one imagines that it will look a lot less like ‘Legends of Gaming’ and a lot more like ‘Rejects of Tumblr’. Brianna Wu is a shoe-in to attend for the attention, and so too are the duo behind Tale of Tales [provided the University puts on a free lunch]. However, it is difficult to imagine an actual industry professional taking this joke university seriously enough going forward to waste their time on another such panel. These morons are supposed to be educators, yet they just ruin it all for everybody. Nobody who was actually serious about a career in gaming would have passed up this kind of opportunity in protest over something as silly as gender composition, and unintentional gender composition at that. Of course, the faculty in question likely could not appreciate this, on account of the fact that they were never themselves able to make it in the game industry, and so became career academics instead. Those who can do, do; those who cannot do, teach. Now one just hopes that Lusipurr will give this author a sporting head start before he looses the hounds!
[UPDATE]: Tracy Fullerton has attempted to explain why she decided to fuck over her students due to petty nonsense:
“There was no perfect choice here. There was only the choice to stand for one set of values or another. So, I chose the path I believe in. You all are free to disagree, but I think it is the right side of history.”
There is no right side of history for hysterical SJWs. Their day in the sun is rapidly setting.
Endride has your generic fantasy needs covered.
Anime Spotlight: Endride [2016]
Shun Asanaga is a fifteen year old Japanese kid who happens to be transported to another world on account of a mild case of kleptomania. Emilio is an Endran prince who is languishing in prison after attempting to avenge his father against the current king of the realm. The former enables the latter to escape, and they subsequently encounter Alicia who has her own pet dragon! In the series Endride the Earth is hollow and contains a second planet beneath its surface known as Endora. The show starts off with both boys attempting to evade the King’s soldiers as they make their getaway, and from there Shun needs to find a way to get home, while Emilio needs to find a way to avenge his father.
Endride is… retarded. The show is somewhat generic, Shun makes for an annoying protagonist, and the quality of animation is less than resplendent. The whole thing feels more than a little goofy. As far as mediocre anime is concerned, Endride is somewhat more interesting than is typical. It is reasonably watchable, yet with so much great anime around there is not really much of a compelling reason to settle for this. Endride is licensed with Funimation, and new episodes are simulcast on Saturdays at 3:00 pm Eastern.
