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WiiU

Nintendo Newsletter: The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lowdown

by Zachary Miller and Donald Theriault - April 27, 2015, 4:54 pm EDT
Total comments: 7 Source: Kotaku, Natsume, Nintendo Europe

Rumors of Konami's death are greatly exaggerated. For now.

Today in the Nintendo news, don’t panic about Konami. At least, not yet.


Konami Cutting Console Gaming: Digital Delisting Could Come In The Future

A couple of actions by Konami today began a furious storm of rumors that Konami was yanking all of their digital games off various online stores, including the Nintendo eShop and Wii Shop Channel.

As confirmed by Kotaku, Konami has officially cancelled the upcoming horror PS4 title Silent Hills, leaving just Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain as their 2015 console lineup. Combined with the slot machine manufacturing portion of Konami removing a minor security from the New York Stock Exchange, there was some concern that Konami was abandoning their existing games as well, which would remove both Konami and Hudson titles.

As of press time, there’s no timeframe for games being removed from the eShop or Wii Shop Channel, but we will advise if anything changes.

Our Take: “Some of the rumors about what’s going on at Konami are quite scary, so here’s hoping we get notice before anything gets cut. This has happened before without notice.” – Donald Theriault

“It’s looking more and more like Konami is just bowing out of the console business. I, for one, will mourn their passing.” – Zach Miller


Unconfirmed: Nintendo De-Prioritizing NES and Super Nintendo Games On Virtual Console

If a Q&A posted on Natsume’s Tumblr is accurate, it looks as if the Virtual Console lineup on Wii U will be moving into the late 90s/early 2000s.

In that Q&A, Natsume reconfirms that the process of choosing games is largely handled by Nintendo, with 3rd party publishers providing game files as appropriate. The statement regarding what systems are coming is: “At this point, it’s unlikely we’ll see any other Natsume SNES games coming to the Virtual Console, as Nintendo’s interest has moved onto other classic systems.”

The statement presumably refers to GBA games such as those in the upcoming Mega May promotion, as well as the recently introduced DS and Nintendo 64 systems. Obviously, Nintendo has not commented on the statement.

Our Take: “If this is accurate… I know it was on Wii, but whoever picked Natsume Championship Wrestling over Pocky and Rocky or Lufia II chose poorly. Let’s hope there’re no gaps in the GBA lineup, though.” – Donald Theriault

“I don’t like the idea of Nintendo ‘moving on’ from consoles that still have a lot of life in them, especially considering how many N64 games have aged…poorly.” – Zach Miller


Amiibo Tap Headlines European Downloads: Also Coming To North America Thursday

The European downloads for the week are headlined by a whole load of Smash Bros DLC and Amiibo Touch and Play, with North America joining the party on the latter.

Europe will see the public release of Mewtwo and the Mii costumes for Smash Bros on Wii U and 3DS, as well as the app that lets you demo Virtual Console games by tapping Amiibo to the gamepad. As well, the Kirby sale continues with a group of games including 3D Classics Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby Super Star going on sale, and a discount for Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush buyers who own them. Lastly, Activision games will all be reduced in price for Europe.

Nintendo’s weekly fan newsletter also confirmed that North American Wii U owners will also get in on Amiibo Tap this Thursday with the usual update. Our own Daan Koopman has a look at the Japanese version below.

Our Take: “Best Kirby goes on sale, while Activision appears to be realizing what a sale means… kind of. Angry Birds Star Wars is still about 9 quid too much.” – Donald Theriault

“I look forward to trying Amiibo Tap exactly one time, then relegating it to my “Apps” folder on the Wii U menu.” – Zach Miller

Images

Talkback

ChariblazeApril 27, 2015

Quote:

In that Q&A, Natsume reconfirms that the process of creating games is largely handled by Nintendo, with 3rd party publishers providing game files as appropriate.

Do you mean "choosing" here?

They create the files... but yeah, that should be a little clearer. I'll fix it.

Ian SaneApril 28, 2015

For my brothers and I, when we play games from the NES/SNES era, the games that get the most play time seem to come mostly from three companies: Nintendo, Capcom and Konami.  To see Konami essentially die just plain sucks, for lack of a better word.  And they're ditching consoles for mobile?  See why there is such concern about Nintendo even sniffing mobile games?

alegoicoeApril 28, 2015

Creator of Castlevania gone, Kojima gone, no silent hill, desliting on the NY stock exchange, that pretty much tells you where the company is heading.

nickmitchApril 28, 2015

A voluntary de-listing is different from the stock exchange is different from a forced removal.

The fact that they're doing it themselves is probably just a cost-cutting measure.  How much capital are getting from that anyway?  However, coupled with the news of cancelled projects, they could be doing some major down-scaling.  Have they announced layoffs?  I would look for that first.

Most of the staff have been reassigned to other projects (read: mobile) or are basically working as contractors to get Phantom Pain done.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterApril 28, 2015

Wait, would Konami have ownership over things like the TG16? That might be really bad.

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