Nintendo News Roundup: The Networked Edition

Nintendo held their corporate management briefing for the third financial quarter last night, and there revealed a few interesting tidbits that have been making the rounds on the various gaming websites since then. From the mélange of information discussed in the briefing, here are a few of the more intriguing bits and pieces.

First of all, early in the week we reported on the rumors of a forthcoming Nintendo Network that would be similar to Microsoft and Sony’s online networks—and that information seems to have been accurate. Satoru Iwata, the company’s president, explained that the company will be integrating the 3DS and the as-yet unreleased Wii U into the Nintendo Network, which will offer content and connectivity for first- and third-party software, as well as “personal accounts” for users, which will hopefully be the total and absolute death of friend codes now and forever.

In addition, it seems possible that the network will allow for in-game communication, but the briefing doesn’t mention whether or not this will be restricted to text or if actual voice-communication will finally come standard to Nintendo’s systems.

As for the 3DS system itself, the briefing notes that two weeks ago, the console “broke the record of the fastest sales pace [for a handheld system],” which Iwata explained was proof that the hunger for dedicated handheld gaming systems was there.

“Lasts summer, when the sales pace of the Nintendo 3DS was slow, there were extreme remarks saying, ‘With the penetration of smartphones, will there still be a market for handheld hardware?,’ which was almost equal to ‘Handheld hardware is not necessary anymore,’” said Iwata. “I believe we proved that such opinions are incorrect.”

Iwata went on to note that despite that good news, the company did, indeed, have to adjust their predicted sales for the system to a lower number, as we reported yesterday.

With regards to Nintendo’s MVP (Most Valuable Property), the company’s planning on releasing a new, 2D side-scroller starring Mario for the 3DS. What 3D functionality, if any, the game will offer is unknown, but we should expect more info on that one as the months go on. Not only that, but according to a post on Eurogamer today, Super Mario 3D Land is the first game to break 5 million sales, pointing to the fact that good games sell well—and that’s a good freakin’ game.

So there are the salient points from the Nintendo briefing from last night. Anyone else out there looking forward to the forthcoming Nintendo Network? I know it’s not a particularly innovative idea at all, but frankly, both Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network have their share of irksome issues. I’m sure Nintendo will find their own way to mess things up, but surely with this much time to learn from the examples set by their competition, they’ve got to have a great network coming, right?

Right?

Via Nintendo and Eurogamer

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