Bravely Default Gameplay Trailer

First announced in Jump Magazine, Bravely Default: For The Sequel returns to the 3DS on December 5th, 2013 in Japan. The game will have support for save data from the original Bravely Default. According to the Japanese website, the game will have over 100 improvements and new features. Chief among them is support for Japanese or English voiceovers and text in Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, or Spanish.

Check out the awesome trailer below. Bravely Default comes to the Nintendo 3DS early 2014.

Nintendo disables Swapnote/Letter Box over “offensive material”

Inappropriate pictures being sent via service says publisher.

Nintendo has suspended its Swapnote service, known as Letter Box in European countries, after reports that it was being used to distribute “offensive material” to minors.

Although the messaging service only allows users to send content to people on their Friends list, many 3DS owners post their Friend Codes in public forums or on social networks to gain more friends. Nintendo specifically advises against this, but says many children don’t heed its warnings.

“Nintendo has learned that some consumers, including minors, have been exchanging their friend codes on Internet bulletin boards and then using Swapnote (known as Nintendo Letter Box in other regions) to exchange offensive material,” a statement explaining the decision reads. “Nintendo has been investigating ways of preventing this and determined it is best to stop the SpotPass feature of Swapnote because it allows direct exchange of photos and was actively misused.

“Nintendo always wants to provide a positive experience for all consumers and limit the risk of any inappropriate activity or misuse of a service. We feel it is important on this occasion to take this action.”

It’s unknown whether the service will be reinstated or not.

 

[source]

Nintendo Passed Over For Inclusion In The Nikkei, Shares Drop

Nintendo has just been hit by the biggest share price drop in two years after they were excluded from the Nikkei 255 Stock Average when it was expected they would make the cut. Their stock fell more than 8.4 percent to 10,860 yen, after they’d previous seen a massive gain of 31 percent when it was speculated they would indeed be included in the Nikkei.

The Nikkei 255 is Japan’s most prominent average of equities, and analysts predicted that this year, Nintendo would make the cut and be promoted to be included in the average. If they had, Nintendo’s stock would have been estimated to be the fourth most influential behind Fast Retailing Co., Softbank Corp and Fanuc Corp. A review of the 255 takes place once every year, and now Nintendo will have to wait to be considered for promotion again.

Nintendo currently is on the Osaka exchange in Japan, and has seen relatively positive results despite trouble with the Wii U’s first year. The 3DS and its software have performed exceptionally well, and a recent Wii U price cut and cheap 2DS handheld meant things were looking up for the holidays. The fact that they were being considered for the Nikkei shot their stock up even further. But now?

Pikmin 3 

“We believe Nintendo’s shares have been overvalued due to speculative demand, on the assumption that they would be included in the Nikkei,” Takao Suzuki, an analyst at BNP Paribas SA in Tokyo (via Bloomberg). “As this expectation has come to nothing, this appears to be the right time to sell.”

And of course, there is still the ever-weak Wii U to consider in the end.

“The early signs of key first-party software inducing a major turnaround in Wii U console fundamentals are not promising, and the outlook for third-party support is grim,” Jay Defibaugh, an analyst at CLSA in Tokyo. “The value of iconic Nintendo franchises may be declining as younger generations discover gaming through mobile devices.”

Those damn mobile devices again!

Whether it’s mobile that’s killing Nintendo is debatable, as their most successful product is a mobile device, but I agree with the assertion that the value of Nintendo’s franchises may be declining.

I think there is just so much quality competition at this point between Sony, Microsoft, PC and 3rd party developers that Nintendo’s flagship franchises may not be the system sellers they used to be. Yes, new Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc. titles are usually quite good, but do they have the power they once did?

The problem is that there hasn’t really yet been a chance to find out. There have been relatively few entries in most of Nintendo’s major series since the release of the Wii U. The biggest titles have yet to be released for the system including a new Zelda game and new sequels in the Mario Kart and Smash Bros series.

But once they are out, what then? Are people still buying Nintendo consoles just for those games alone? That’s where a lack of third party support comes into play. I always said that if Nintendo found a way to combine its stellar first party line-up with the ability to play every third party title available for rival consoles, it would be in a massively powerful position. Now, Nintendo is able to play versions of current and cross-gen 3rd party games, meaning older titles like Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City, but also upcoming ones like Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed 4. But what happens once there stop being last-gen versions of next-gen titles? Nintendo will find themselves left behind again with minimal 3rd party support.

I think the Wii U is a fun system and Nintendo will likely release a lot of good games for it. I hope they figure out some way to retain the current 3rd party relationships they do have as companies start designing exclusively for powerful next-gen systems Xbox One and PS4. They also need to reforge relationships with companies who have abandoned them like EA and Bethesda.

Maybe next year, Nintendo.

 

[source]

Saints Row IV retains UK #1 as Final Fantasy takes 3rd

Killer is Dead and Lost Planet 3 both fall outside top 20 in debut week

Saints Row IV has maintained its place at the top of the UK charts, as has last week’s number 2, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn manages third as it relaunches after a disastrous PC-only debut which called for the game to be thoroughly redesigned.

Rayman Legends and Madden NFL 25 stake their claims to sixth and seventh places respectively as hey hit the shops this week, but Capcom’s Lost Planet 3 can only manage 26th, with Suda 51’s much maligned Killer is Dead even further behind in 28th.

UKIE Games Charts courtesy of GfK Chart-Track

Last Week	This Week	Title
1	1	Saints Row IV
2	2	Splinter Cell: Blacklist
New Entry	3	Fina Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
3	4	Disney Infinity
4	5	Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
New Entry	6	Rayman Legends
New Entry	7	Madden NFL 25
5	8	Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
18	9	Payday 2
6	10	FIFA 13
7	11	Animal Crossing: New Leaf
8	12	LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes
9	13	The Last of Us
12	14	Max Payne 3
13	15	LEGO Lord of The Rings
15	16	Tomb Raider
16	17	Skylanders Giants
11	18	Assassin’s Creed III
17	19	Grand Theft Auto IV
21	20	Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Can the 2DS change the game for Nintendo?

Nintendo

The 2DS is a neat package for a nice price. But can it rejuvenate Nintendo’s ailing business?

When Nintendo unveiled the 2DS, a new lower-priced member of its celebrated line of DS mobile gaming consoles, fans met the news with characteristic excitement. But for market watchers, the 2DS seemed like a peculiar answer to a persistent problem. The Wii U hasn’t been selling very well, Nintendo admits, and the marketplace for mobile gaming devices has steadily shrunk as the one for other mobile products has exploded. Whether or not fans want the 2DS, is it what Nintendo needs to set itself back on the right course again?

“I think the 2DS is brilliant,” Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities told NBC News. Pachter is one Nintendo’s most vocal critics — he called the Wii U a “failure” and said Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata “sucks.” So it’s surprising to hear him sound such a positive note.

Yet Pachter insists that Nintendo can’t really go wrong with the 2DS, chopping 3DS bells and whistles — the stereoscopic 3-D effects and a bendable hinge for its two-screen display —  giving it a more affordable price ($129 vs. $169) in the process.

“It’s going to lift sales,” he said. “It just is!”

Other analysts like Piers Harding-Rolls of IHS Electronics and Media and Lewis Ward of IDC’s gaming division, agree. Both told NBC News that Nintendo is essentially going down market to snag a new group of customers — prospective buyers, mostly young children or their parents turned off either by the price of the 3DS or the scary-sounding labels that warn about its potential to cause seizures. In the process Nintendo can then up-sell the 3DS as a “premium” counterpart to the new device, thus hitting the mobile gaming market with a sort of one-two punch.

“The 2DS launch removes the pricing pressure on the higher-end 3DS and gives the company a path to up-sell from 2DS to 3DS, with both the hinged form factor and 3D as a selling point,” Harding-Rolls of IHS told NBC News.

This is how Nintendo itself sees the new product. The new console is “designed specifically for consumers looking for an entry point into or a new way to enjoy the Nintendo hand-held experience.” Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, told NBC News. He added that the launch of the 2DS does not mean the company had any plans to phase out the 3DS or spend any less time focused on that device as well.  “Content will be shared between both systems” Moffitt said, and that the 3DS is “very popular in the market, and we expect that will continue.”

But Melissa Otto, an analyst at TIAA-CREFF, isn’t convinced that a new DS will do Nintendo any favors.

“The DS was a huge success in the past,” Otto told NBC News. “But we have a whole new group of products now — tablets and smartphones. We didn’t have those five or six years ago!”

Now, Otto said, parents are no longer choosing between Nintendo or Sony when it comes to buying their children a portable entertainment device, but choosing between “tablet and console,” or “smartphone and gaming device.” And at the end of the day, a console “is not as multidimensional a product.” It may cost less than a smartphone with a data plan, but it also gives its owners “less bang for their buck.”

Other analysts didn’t deny that smartphones and tablets have eaten away at the market for mobile gaming consoles, but questioned how profound the immediate impact of these devices would be on Nintendo’s business.

Still, even Pachter said that the market for smartphones and tablets is now “10 times as large” as the one for mobile gaming consoles, describing Nintendo as “a victim of technological advances” that mean the latter is no longer a 30-million-sales-a-year market. The 3DS may be selling well — reaching 32.48 million units sold as of July 2013, according to Nintendo, and remaining the best-selling console for three months this summer in the U.S., according to NPD data. But that’s nothing compared to the 153.93 million units the original DS has sold.

For Otto, that’s the whole problem. “Hardware doesn’t make Nintendo money,” Otto said. “What makes them money is their content, their software.”

But the company still won’t separate the two by putting any of its franchises on massive platforms like the iOS app store or Android’s Google Play. And as far as Nintendo is concerned, it’s never going to.

“I think it’s plain to see that Nintendo hand-helds offer a more complete gaming experience, with richer controls and more immersive gaming worlds,” Scott Moffitt of Nintendo said. “One of the reasons that people have such a fondness for Nintendo franchises and characters is that their games are paired so well to Nintendo’s hardware. Nintendo’s IP works best on Nintendo systems, and that’s where it will remain.”

 

[source]