Game|Life’s Chris Kohler recently sat down with Nintendo senior VP George Harrison to chat about the current state of Western development on the Wii and Nintendo DS. Harrison told Game|Life that he was unaware of any plans to bring in developers beyond those already working on Nintendo published software. Nintendo’s more recent notable efforts from the West include Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Mario Strikers Charged. While those games, and their respective series, have performed quite well, as Kohler points out, N-Space’s Geist for the Gamecube was a critical disaster for the company.
Harrison stated that the current market leader is instead looking to third parties such as Ubisoft and EA to appeal to non-Japanese gamers. The future plans of Retro are currently unknown, but N-Space was reported to be knee deep in Wii development some 18 months ago.
Nintendo: ‘No Plans’ To Increase Western Game Development [Game|Life] More »
So a little rumour broke yesterday about a “new” DS. Analyst Evan Wilson reckons he knows, in his heart, that the next DS is already done, and Nintendo are just waiting for sales of the DS Lite to slow down before they release it. As they should, Nintendo have responded to these rumours. Thing is, NoA’s George Harrison went and responded like this: We don’t have any imminent plans for an upgrade for the Nintendo DS. The product is still selling extremely well around the world.
Then he went and said this: I’m not sure what his source was for it, but it’s not something you’re going to hear about anytime soon.
“Imminent”? “Anytime soon”? That’s a real funny way of saying “no comment”, George. Way to get the speculating fanboys off the scent. Harrison: No “Imminent” Plans for New DS [Next-Gen][Image] More »
The idea that the Wii isn’t in direct competition with the “other two” isn’t new. It’s been expressed dozens of times in dozens of ways. Never as…poignantly as this, though. Nintendo’s George Harrison: Consider three 30-something suburbanites. On a Saturday morning, two of them drive their big SUVs into a tyre shop to buy big new chrome rims. The third is home online, doing product comparisons to figure out which hybrid he wants to buy.
There you have it, Wii owners. You’re total nerds. Fun, Games, and an Interview With Nintendo [The Motley Fool, via Go Nintendo] More »
