Metroid Prime studio working on Wii U game engines, but what about Unreal Engine 4?

Retro Studios, the company behind Metroid Prime, is reportedly building the tech that many first and third party Wii U games will run on.

It’s appropriate that Texas-based Retro Studios inherited the Donkey Kong Country franchise from Rare Inc. Like Rare was in the mid-‘90s, Retro Studios has become the western face of the intensely eastern Nintendo, a group of developers responsible for some of the best and most technologically impressive games to grace the Gamecube, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS over the past decade. While rumors continue to swirl about what Retro’s first game for the Wii U might be, a new one hints that Retro’s first creation for Wii U won’t be a game at all, but a proprietary engine for Nintendo to build HD games on.

GenGame reported on Tuesday that a source within Retro says that Nintendo has tasked the company with building multiple engines for Wii U to aid both first and third party developers in making games for the unusual tablet controller console. This makes sense in light of Nintendo’s past comments about developing HD games in house. “I think that we will have to rely on outside companies for graphics and other elements that require massive resources,”Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma said earlier this year.

The exact wording used by the source was that the engines were for Nintendo and “other developers,” meaning that Nintendo’s taking a more aggressive approach to fostering third-party support on the Wii U than with past machines.

Retro’s work could prove pivotal for the Wii U’s future as well. The studio’s efforts have gone a long way towards helping convince Epic Games to get Unreal Engine 4 running on Wii U. A number of the ports populating the Wii U’s launch line up are Unreal Engine 3-based (Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition), but Epic’s hinted in the past that it didn’t think Unreal Engine 4 would support Wii U. “I don’t think it’s our intention to bring Unreal Engine 4 to Wii U, but Unreal Engine 4 is going to be supremely scalable,” said Epic’s Mark Rein in July, “We’ll run on mobile phones and on a wide variety of things, so if a customer decides they want to port an Unreal Engine 4 game to Wii U, they could. But Unreal Engine 3 is a really good fit for that platform.”

Retro’s technological pedigree is impeccable, as evidenced by the still impressive Metroid Prime on Gamecube. If the company can build effective tools for developers that make the Wii U’s capabilities shine, Nintendo should have an easier time getting games to market

Bayonetta 2 studio Platinum Games wants to work on Nintendo 3DS,

Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba discussed his studio's future after Bayonetta 2 in a new interview, citing Steam and 3DS as his destinations.

Platinum Games hasn’t had an easy year. While its first for-hire work on another company’s property, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, has gotten a steady stream of good press since its playable debut at E3 2012, Platinum’s only original title got bounced from a summer release and its future in the world market is in doubt. Japan got Anarchy Reigns, but Sega has yet to firm up details for the US and Europe. With a new partnership with Nintendo in place, though, Platinum’s future is looking bright, and the studio is discussing future opportunities.

What comes after Platinum’s debut work on Wii U? Maybe new games for Nintendo 3DS and Valve’s Steam.

Speaking with Polygon at the Tokyo Game Show, Platinum’s Atsushi Inaba talked about his company’s future beyond home consoles. He believes that many publishers, like his old Japanese employer Capcom, have been myopic about PC releases. For independent studios like Platinum though, PC represents an easy way to develop games without worrying about astronomically high budgets.

 “Many publishers don’t view PC as an important platform,” said Inaba, “Console game development budgets are really big so we need publishing partners to create those games. I was thinking—with our own money—about creating a PC title for Steam. It would give the possibility to become a publisher, which is very attractive to me. I view the PC as an area with huge potential. It would be great if we could do a Kickstarter and gather enough money for a game to be released on Steam.”

Self-publishing would also protect Platinum’s intellectual property as well. When the studio opened for business in 2008, its five game publishing deal with Sega came with the caveat that the publisher would own all of Platinum’s IP. That agreement put Bayonetta 2 at risk earlier this year. Sega reportedly cancelled the project, but Nintendo stepped in to save it as a Wii U exclusive.

Even as Platinum considers its independent future on PC, it’s also discussing strengthening its ties with Nintendo. Nintendo is publishing both Bayonetta 2 and Platinum’s latest original The Wonderful 101 on Wii U. Platinum wants to give Nintendo’s handheld some love going forward.

“We are very interested in the Nintendo 3DS as a platform,” said Inaba, “I view 3DS as a proper, straightforward evolution from a platform that has had huge success. Being able to view stereoscopic 3D with the naked eye is a great innovation, but very straightforward, so I’m very interested in it. Currently we have a lot of titles in development, and we cant fund a 3DS game ourselves, so there’s nothing in the works. But I’m very positive on it.”

Unity Technologies Enters Extensive Agreement With Nintendo to Support Wii U

Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, announced that it has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Nintendo to provide a version of Unity which supports deployment to the Wii U™ to Nintendo and third-party developers as well as Unity's 1.2 million registered developers.
This extensive agreement will provide Nintendo the right to distribute the Unity development platform to its in-house, external, and third party licensee developers providing the large number of artists, designers, and engineers intimately familiar with Nintendo gaming systems direct access to Unity's powerful engine and highly efficient tools that have been specifically designed to enable developers immense creative freedom.
Unity Technologies and Nintendo will collaborate to create a Wii U deployment add-on that will provide the over 1.2 million registered developers using Unity, including thousands of studios currently developing mobile and social games, an excellent opportunity to bring existing titles from the massive Unity catalogue and create a slew of new games for the innovative new console.
"The rapid growth of incredible games coming from the experienced and talented developers in our community makes Unity the new development platform of choice for AAA console developers," said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. "Nintendo's unfettered access to Unity will produce a wealth of insanely good games from knowledgeable Nintendo developers and the Wii U deployment add-on will create an amazing opportunity for our massive community of developers to showcase their incredible creativity on one of the most anticipated and innovative gaming platforms to date."
Unity's Wii U deployment option will become widely available in 2013 and offer the same powerful, intuitive, and efficient engine and tools that the vast community of Unity developers has come to know and love.

Nintendo-Themed Desk

Here’s the kind of back-to-school decor we  can really get into — a desk dedicated to old school Nintendo.
Reddit user CantEvenRemember created two desks painted to resemble the original Game Boy and the Nintendo NES controller. Though Redditors mentioned the desk’s slight disproportions, we have to give the creator credit for an impressive DIY project.

Nintendo Wii U Preorders Sell Out at Online Retailers

Nintendo's new Wii U console are already sold out at online retailers across the United States.
The Wii U will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 18, 2012 but lots of online retailers are already taking preoders for the console. Or, at least they were.
As first reported by IGN, most major retailers have already sold out of the Wii U. Nintendo is offering the console in two packages, a Basic bundle for $299.99 and a Deluxe bundle for $349.99. The Deluxe bundle includes a game, more storage and additional accessories — so it's clearly the better bargain.
Best Buy, Toys R Us, Sears, Walmart and GameStop have already sold out of the Deluxe bundles. At the time of this writing, only Best Buy and GameStop have the Basic bundle available. Amazon.com isn't offering the console for preorder at this time, however a number of its sellers are offering the device on preorder at a hefty $200 premium.

Nintendo

The Wii U, is Nintendo's next-generation gaming console, comes with a tablet-like controller.

Without knowing how many consoles Nintendo is offering retailers for preorder, it's impossible to know what this means for the early success of the console. After all, Nintendo has been known to keep inventory artificially scarce to increase demand.
Still, the fact that the console is already broadly sold out online is a good sign for the console — even if it's only in perception.
We got to spend some hands-on time with the Wii U at the launch event in New York last week and couldn't help but be impressed by what Nintendo has put together.
The concept of the Wii U game pad, which includes a tablet-like touch screen, offers up some really interesting game possibilities. Moreover, the new Nintendo TVii could be the big differentiator that sets Nintendo apart from the other players in the media player and connected device space.
Nintendo hit a real sweet spot with the original Wii. It managed to create a device that was used — and loved — by causal gamers. With the Wii U, Nintendo is betting that family's will be willing to upgrade to the new hardware, while also hoping to bring some of the more hardcore gamers back into the fray.
Nintendo needs the Wii U to be a success. The company has company reported its first ever annual loss back in April and its 3DS console hasn't met earlier expectations.
The fact that the device is already selling out — two months ahead of its release — at least shows that there are lots and lots of customers that still love Nintendo. That's a good thing.
What do you think of the Wii U? Are you interested in pre-ordering one before its release? Let us know in the comments

One on One: Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America

In an event in New York this week, Nintendo had demonstration booths where people could play with its new Wii U, a game console that can be operated with a touch-screen controller. It also introduced Nintendo TV, its new online video service that is intended to make its Wii U competitive with set-top box systems like the Apple TV, Google TV and Roku.

Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, sat down to explain the company’s goals with the new television service and Wii U. An edited transcript of the interview follows.

Q.

You introduced the Wii U, the next-generation Wii with a touch-screen controller, last year. What’s new now?

A.

This week we pull it all together. We’re showing more games and unveiling the Nintendo TV service and how we’re approaching the entertainment space. Nintendo TV is the one place that will have all of your video entertainment in one place. If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime plus your cable box — if you’re trying to watch an episode of “Modern Family,” you might have to go to three different places to try to find out what’s available. This service puts it all in one place, so you can literally sort by titles, sort by actors and directors, and the service aggregates all of your viewing options. That’s the Nintendo TV service.

Q.

Why is Nintendo getting into TV?

A.

We’ve found that Nintendo consoles tend to be hooked up to that big screen TV in the center of the living room, and we want people to pick up our GamePad controller as often as possible and interact with our product. We found that video entertainment is a key part of that proposition. Today the Wii is the No. 1 device that connects the TV to the Internet. For us, any time that consumer picks up that GamePad is an opportunity to interact with them. We’ve found that Netflix on Wii, for example, has been a great opportunity to the consumer.

Q.

So you acknowledge, then, that your competition goes beyond game consoles? There’s Amazon, Apple and all these players who make set-top boxes.

A.

We’ve always viewed our competitors in a broader entertainment landscape because we compete for time. I compete for your time minute by minute. Getting a consumer to spend time with us doing a combination of fitness and fun builds our brand and builds our business.

Q.

Nintendo’s earnings have been lower than in past years, and many believe it’s because of mobile games for Apple and Android devices. Do you view those as a threat?

A.

As I said before, our competition is everything from time watching movies to time reading magazines to time surfing the Net and time playing a game on a mobile device. That’s all competitive time that takes away from our opportunity to have a consumer play a game on our device.

So with that as the context, why are Nintendo earnings down? The reason Nintendo earnings are down is the Wii home system is on the downward part of its life cycle, so we’re not selling as many home systems. We were transitioning from the Nintendo DS, which was the best-selling piece of hardware of all time, to the Nintendo 3DS. The Nintendo 3DS for its launch time period didn’t present the consumer value that we needed it to, so we had to reduce the price, and we actually had to reduce the price below its cost.

So that’s why our earnings took a hit last year. As we look to the future, how are we going to build our business back? It’s Wii U, and now that we’re selling more 3DS devices, we’re now actually making money on that.

Q.

The Wii U is basically a tablet. Is that Nintendo’s answer to the competitive mobile market?

A.

The Wii U is not a tablet. It’s a two-screen experience. And so you have this unique GamePad that gives you a different way to have a gaming experience. We’ve got a range of different examples that we can show you. It’s everything from the three of us can be playing the game, and I’m using the GamePad to maybe try and attack you with a space ship. We’ve got an attraction called Metroid where literally I’m playing against the two of you, using a space ship trying to shoot you, you’re shooting up on the ground, so we’re playing the same game but having a fundamentally different experience and that all happens with the GamePad. So it’s a controller with this screen built in that allows us to create content that shows different ways to play together but have fundamentally different experiences.

Q.

But if you’re saying everyone is your competitor in entertainment, then why not just turn that second screen into a general-purpose device like a tablet?

A.

Through our GamePad you’ll be able to surf the Internet — it comes with an Internet browser. You’ll be able to watch video content on it. So it will do many things that a stand-alone tablet can do, but in addition, because it’s connected and it’s integrated, our second screen can do a lot of things that a tablet can’t do.

So as an example with our Nintendo TV service, imagine we’re watching a sports game. The sports game is on the main screen. On my GamePad I’ve got all the up-to-date stats, scores — something happens immediately. It’s immediately on my GamePad. I can tap into social networks, comment on it. I can go further back into the game. All of this is done because my GamePad is seamlessly connected to my TV experience. That’s not something you can do with a smartphone or a tablet — there’s a lag. There’s latency built in because the systems aren’t talking to each other and they’re not connected.

Q.

So in the short term you want to sell some new Wii hardware. What’s the long-term strategy? Are you migrating toward becoming more of a media company as opposed to a game company?

A.

We are becoming more and more an entertainment company. We’ve always been an entertainment company. Our history is making playing cards in Japan. What we recognize is we own that most desired space in the home, and it’s the big screen TV in the living room. We own that because of the games that we offer that are targeted toward multiple players in the household sitting down and having fun together. By owning that big screen TV we can branch out to other services like Nintendo TV and continue to really solidify our footprint.

Q.

Do you foresee a business model where you make more money from digitally distributed content instead of from selling hardware and games?

A.

There will be revenue made from that, but we won’t make the content. Companies will make that content. There will be companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime that aggregate that content. We’re going to make it seamless for the consumer to view it, find it, share it and talk about it. Our goal is to monetize that experience in addition to monetizing the game.

There’s a range of different ways we can monetize. We have a relationship with service providers like Hulu Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime. In this Nintendo TV network, we’re showing examples where if you’re watching a live TV show and there’s someone wearing a dress, we can highlight that through Amazon, for example, “Hey, you can buy that dress through Amazon.” Is there an opportunity for us to get revenue from that transaction? Sure.

Q.

What are some of the challenges ahead for Nintendo?

A.

In the end, given the way we view the world and the way that we view ourselves as an entertainment company, our biggest challenge is creating content and creating services. Excite people. We were fortunate we were able to do that with the Wii. How do you continue creating that compelling content? Whether it’s games or services, how do we create this ecosystem that gets people excited and talking about it? It’s really tough to do. Android may be the most installed operating system on mobile, but how often do you hear people talking about Android? Get really passionate about it? That’s the biggest challenge.

Q.

Isn’t Nintendo late on forming a robust media ecosystem?

A.

Ecosystems are constantly being created and constantly going away. What we’re trying to do is create the next significant ecosystem. Because the one we created for Nintendo DS was great, but it’s going away. The one we created for Wii was great, but it’s going away. Talk to the people over at Facebook. What’s our next ecosystem? Talk to the people at Zynga. If you just sit on what you’ve created, chances are you’re not going to be around much longer.

Wii U - Nintendo Wii U Games and Accessories | GameStop | GameStop

Wii U - Nintendo Wii U Games and Accessories | GameStop | GameStop