SatoruIwata
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Hackers say Nintendo’s hidden golf game on Switch is gone
Back in September, intrepid hackers prying into the Nintendo Switch found a game hidden in the system's code: FLOG, a version of the classic NES title 'Golf.' After further examination, the dataminers found that you could only access it on July 11th, and guessed that the game was a tribute to the late, great Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who passed away on that day in 2015. In other words, you could play it if you fudged the date on your console and didn't connect it to the internet -- until now. Hackers reported that the latest Switch update (4.0.0) wipes FLOG from the console's firmware.
Latest 'Pokémon' games include an ode to Nintendo's late president
Developers are still eager to show their gratitude to Nintendo's late Satoru Iwata. Gamers have learned that Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon include a clear, heartfelt tribute to the company's long-serving president. It requires that you have a creature carried over from Pokémon Silver (thankfully available in the eShop) and a trek to the Game Freak building in Heahea City, but it's worth the effort to read a short-but-sweet anecdote about one of Nintendo's most appreciated leaders.
'Golf' Easter egg on the Switch may be a tribute to Satoru Iwata
It sounds like that hidden version of Golf on the Nintendo Switch may actually a tribute to the company's late president, Satoru Iwata. A group of enterprising hackers (including "yellowS8" from our last report) discovered that unlocking it is limited to one day per year: July 11th, the day Iwata passed after battling cancer. You can't just go in and manually set your system clock, mimic Iwata's Nintendo Direct gesture and start hitting the links, though.
Nintendo loses a little piece of its identity with 'Super Mario Run'
Today, Nintendo announced Super Mario is going mobile -- Super Mario Run will launch on iOS and Android before the end of the year. We knew the company was making more content for smartphones, but for long-time Nintendo fans, this announcement still feels like a shock. For years, Satoru Iwata rallied hard against bringing Nintendo characters to the small screen. "If we did this," he said in 2011, "Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo." The company's leader was adamant: Putting Mario on mobile would make good short-term profits but would ultimately devalue the property. Now that it's here, we have to wonder -- is Nintendo still Nintendo?
The late Satoru Iwata honored by Game Developers Choice Awards
The video game industry lost one of its most passionate members last year when Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata passed away. He's been honored before, but there really isn't such a thing as paying tribute to him too many times. During tonight's Game Developer's Choice Awards the governing body debuted a heartfelt animated video touching on various aspects of the legendary game developer's life including the conception of the Nintendo DS, the Wii Remote and Nunchuck and much more. Iwata may be gone, but his legacy will live on for a very, very long time.
DICE Awards nominate 'Fallout 4,' 'Ori' and more for GOTY
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has revealed its finalists for the 19th annual DICE Awards, with Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt leading the pack at eight nominations each. Finalists for Game of the Year are Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3. On the other side of the development spectrum, the DICE Sprite Award recognizes innovative games from small studios -- nominees this year are Her Story, GALAK-Z, Rocket League, Undertale and Kerbal Space Program.
Nintendo's 2015 was the best of times and the worst of times
Let's face it: In the world of video games, Nintendo exists in a state of constant scrutiny. More often than not, the Japanese company is targeted for being "behind the times" or "out of touch" with what its fanbase wants. Looking back, however, we see a more dynamic mish-mash of good and bad decisions. In 2015, Nintendo teased us by promising to build mobile apps, but pleased us by adding some unexpected classics to its digital game library and announcing a new game console. The company had breakout hits like Splatoon, but also fumbled on launch dates, failing to deliver Star Fox Zero and Zelda Wii U by year's end. How is Nintendo doing, really? Let's take a look back at the highs and lows of Nintendo's year and find out.Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Nintendo appoints Pokemon USA head as company president
After Satoru Iwata's passing, Nintendo has announced its new company president today -- and no, it's not the legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Instead, the console maker has promoted Tatsumi Kimishima (above left), a name that's probably unfamiliar to most of the gaming populace. Until now he's been a managing director at Nintendo, overseeing the human resources division. Not the most exciting role, but since he joined the company in 2000 Kimishima has also been chief financial officer for the Pokémon Company, president of Pokémon USA, and president of Nintendo of America.
Nintendo was right about the Wii U. We were wrong.
With the announcement of the Wii U, everyone thought Nintendo was wrong. Hell, we thought Nintendo was out of touch, foolish and doomed for producing a gaming-focused, two-screen console that wouldn't be able to compete technologically with whatever Sony and Microsoft offered in the new generation. The most vocal players wanted better graphics, bigger games and more online experiences. The Wii U offered sub-standard graphics, convoluted online policies and a lineup of classic franchises that, in theory, could eventually show up on the console. By its launch in November 2012, the Wii U was a joke and its sales suffered.But then: Sony launched the PlayStation 4; Microsoft launched the Xbox One; and as hype for each rose and fizzled out, the Wii U began to look more promising. It had been out for a year longer, meaning it had more games. It offered local cooperative and competitive experiences, something in short supply from the online-focused PS4 and Xbox One. Most importantly, it offered fun -- and today, with a lineup of revamped classics and fresh competitive experiences, the Wii U is the most consistently joyful console of the current generation. As it turns out, Nintendo wasn't wrong. We were.
The best of Public Access Vol. 5: Paying tribute to a gaming giant
It is with great sadness that the world mourns a man responsible for many treasured gaming memories. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, who died Saturday, had a history with the company that pre-dated even Mario. In honor of Mr. Iwata and Nintendo's cultural impact, we're turning to the Public Access community for your tributes to the consoles, controllers and games that Iwata and co. made possible. On a lighter, still nostalgic note, y'all continue to excite our inner-childhood geeks with reflections on your early human-machine interactions. These rememberings and an explainer on drone journalism make up the best Public Access entries of the week that was. It's all available for you after the break, so dig in. P.S. The homepage is coming soon! in the meantime you can check out the latest from Public Access right here. Not a member? Apply, and keep the weird alive.
JXE Streams: A special tribute to Nintendo's Satoru Iwata
Above all, video games are meant to just be one thing: Fun for everyone. - Satoru Iwata, 1959-2015 The gaming industry mourned the passing of Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata this week, sharing his many memorable quotes and creating touching pieces of art in his honor. Iwata was consistently beloved in a fickle and volatile industry, often winning over players with his joyful approach to gaming. Iwata joined Nintendo as a developer in the 1980s and helped create Earthbound, Kirby, Balloon Fight and other major titles, before rising to the role of President in 2002. Iwata was the first Nintendo president not related to the company's founding Yamauchi family. In recent years, Iwata led Nintendo through releases of the Wii, 3DS and Wii U, and laid out plans to dive into mobile gaming and launch a new console, the NX. He delivered much of the company's news in (super adorable) "Iwata Asks" interviews and Nintendo Direct live streams, some of which featured him as a puppet, as Robot Chicken-style claymation, or gazing longingly at bananas. Today, we tip our hats to Iwata with a special Wii U live stream where we'll play some of our favorite Nintendo games and talk about the good old days. We kick off with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time at 3PM PT / 6PM ET right here, on Twitch.tv/Joystiq or on the Engadget Gaming homepage. Join us -- and bring your memories.
Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata dies
It's a sad, sad day in the video game world. Nintendo reports that President Satoru Iwata has died at the age of 55 due to a bile duct tumor. The executive had been forced to skip E3 2014 due to health issues and had surgery to remove a growth later that year, but it's unfortunately clear that this wasn't enough to help him recover. The company isn't saying much about succession at this point, but it looks like Genyo Takeda and company legend Shigeru Miyamoto are taking the reins for now.
The history behind Nintendo's flip-flop on mobile gaming
Did you hear the one about Nintendo "never" putting its content on mobile platforms? About how Nintendo makes its own hardware specifically intended to cater to its software? About how it would dilute those "brands" (think: Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong) to put them on hardware other than Nintendo's? Clearly Nintendo isn't so worried about that, as it announced plans last evening to work with Japan mobile game giant DeNA on moving its many brands over to mobile. Or, as Nintendo describes the relationship: a "business and capital alliance to develop and operate new game apps for smart devices and build a new multi-device membership service for consumers worldwide." Sounds like a blast!
Deconstructing the method to Nintendo's madness
It's easy to hate on Nintendo. With the Wii U, the company played right into negative consumer expectations by releasing a product derided for its kid-friendly appeal, Fisher-Price toy-like looks, less-than-bleeding-edge silicon, confusing branding and (initially) clunky operating system. The message to the market at the system's launch seemed clear: The gaming giant had fallen behind the times. But that's not quite the truth. There's a well-reasoned and deeply entrenched philosophy behind the often baffling, public-facing decisions Nintendo makes and that's to deliver high-quality and accessible entertainment experiences on cheap-to-produce (often older), innovative hardware. It's the Nintendo recipe for success as concocted by the domineering former president Hiroshi Yamauchi. It's the reason why Nintendo sits on billions of dollars of cash; why its famed first-party studio -- the home of Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto -- is called Entertainment Analysis and Development, or EAD. The company quite literally agonizes over ways to innovate the concept of "fun."
Nintendo toys with the idea of a Mii mobile app
Nintendo has been dropping hints for years about possible smartphone apps starring its classic characters or somehow tying into the Wii and Wii U. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata is back at it this week, this time with a specific idea: Mii for mobile devices. "It would be fun for players to use their Mii characters as icons on social media," Iwata said in an interview with Nikkei. "We are currently developing an application that will allow users to do that."
Nintendo bosses take big pay cuts in penance for Wii U failure
We don't really need numbers to tell us the Wii U's flopping, but figures released today quite clearly spell it out. Something's gotta give at Nintendo, and that something is head honcho Satoru Iwata's salary, and that of his chums. The AFP is reporting Iwata's paycheck is to be cut in half, which is the same reduction he took as recompense for poor early uptake of the 3DS, while several of his execs will see a 20 to 30 percent drop. Much like the frustration of Acer's top tier and their dwindling income, Iwata & Co.'s pay cut is only a temporary measure to claw back some cash, with things changing again in July when sentences have been served. Perhaps it's time for Nintendo to think about a move into mobile after all? There's money to be made from apps, or so we hear.
Wii U speed update delayed to fall, Nintendo placates users with minor stability fixes
Looking forward to that second Wii U speed update? Take a seat, son: Nintendo says it won't be here until fall. According to a statement given to The Verge, Nintendo has pushed it back to the end of the year, promising delivery sometime "between the end of September and beginning of October." Instead, Wii U owners are being offered a smaller patch, bringing the console's system menu to version 3.1 while providing minor stability fixes and tweaking the machine's standby download function. Good things, of course, but a small comfort to gamers who have been eagerly awaiting the performance update Nintendo president Satoru Iwata promised back in January. Then again, Nintendo fans are getting used to waiting.
Nintendo confirms Wii Vitality Sensor's death, says it produced inconsistent results
Oh Wii Vitality Sensor, we hardly knew ye... in that we didn't know you at all. Nintendo introduced the pulse-sensing Wii peripheral at its E3 2009 stage show, and said we'd hear more in "the future." That future never came, despite occasional assurances that the device still existed. During a recent Q&A with Nintendo head Satoru Iwata, an analyst brought up the device once more, and Iwata said it encountered too many issues in quality assurance testing to bring to market. "We have not been able to launch it as a commercial product because we could not get it to work as we expected and it was of narrower application than we had originally thought," he told investors. According to Iwata's estimates, approximately 90 out of 100 people were able to use the Vitality Sensor without a hitch, though he (thankfully) requires that it work with "1,000 of 1,000 people." However, he admitted "but [since we use the living body signal with individual differences] it is a little bit of a stretch to make it applicable to every single person." He'd still love to make the Vitality Sensor a reality "if technology enhancements" allow, but thus far, testing renders it "insufficient as a commercial product." In other Nintendo news, Iwata assured investors that he will continue to monitor employee cafeteria quality-related concerns. Seriously though, that was a question.
Nintendo Wii U's spring update, Panorama View arrive next week
Nintendo's Wii U game console is getting its promised spring update next week, said company president Satoru Iwata in a Luigi-filled video presentation this morning. The update is said to launch software dramatically faster than before, as Nintendo demonstrated in a video last month. Iwata also said the update adds continuable downloads while the console is off, and that Virtual Console won't arrive until the following week -- should you wish to directly launch into the Wii menu, you'll be able to hold down the B button as the console is starting up. That said, if you wanna play those VC games directly from the Wii U menu, you'll need to re-buy them for $1 apiece for NES games and $1.50 for SNES games. A variety of games were shown off as available at the Virtual Console's launch, including classics like Super Mario World and Punch-Out! Apparently GameBoy Advance and Nintendo 64 games are planned for inclusion on the VC in the coming months, but no definitive date was given. He also said Panorama View will arrive next week for free, and it sounds like it'll be a separate download from the software update.
Re-watch this morning's Nintendo Direct right here, right now
Nothing says, "Nintendo news" quite like watching Nintendo president Satoru Iwata gesticulate in a featureless white room for nearly an hour. This morning's Nintendo Direct presentation didn't disappoint in that respect, with Iwata moving his hands this way and that, all the while detailing upcoming system updates to the Wii U, new features and mobile access for the Miiverse social network, and Virtual Console finally heading to Nintendo's latest console. That's to say nothing of a new yarn-based game starring Yoshi and the HD remake of Wind Waker. But you're not here for that, are you? You just wanna watch Iwata make silly arm movements? Done and done -- head past the break for your fix.
