Nintendo of Japan today announced its SUICA cards can be used to pay for stuff using the NFC reader on the Wii U GamePad. However, its website states that firmware version 5.1.0 will be required once the cards are released on Tuesday, July 22, signifying that a minor update could be incoming to Wii U owners, in Japan at least anyway.
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has published the top 50 best-selling games in Japan for the first 6 months of 2014. Nintendo’s Yokai Watch took the top spot this time and what’s amazing is that all of the top 7 games are Nintendo games, cementing Nintendo’s position as the top publisher in the region. The surprising thing is that Sony’s older PS3 had more hit games than its newer sibling, though it may be because the PS4 only launched in late February this year in Japan.
For the first time since the 2013 holiday, Nintendo has had a strong month in the US, mainly thanks to the release of Mario Kart 8 in May. Here are the June stats:
PS4: Number 1 best selling
Xbox One: Doubled sales from the previous month
3DS: 150K (up 55% over May, was 225K last June)
Wii U: 140K (up 233% over last June)
Meanwhile, Mario Kart 8 sold 470K units, bringing US lifetime sales to 885K. That’s not bad, considering only 2.8M units have been sold in the US since its release, meaning about 1 in 3 Wii U owners now own Mario Kart 8, myself included.
Looking ahead, Wii U’s next big release is Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors on September 26, along with Platinum Games’s Bayonetta 2 in October. It’s also worth noting Nintendo is celebrating its 125th anniversary on September 23.
https://sickr.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/zelda_majora_mask_target_shelf.jpg
In the image above, retail giant Target has seeming made space for the 1999 game’s remake, which fans have been crying for for years. Series producer Eiji Aonuma recently said he was aware of the demand but would not confirm if the game was in production.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfZr7aVUSrM
Koei Tecmo has released yet another trailer for the next entry in the Zelda series, Hyrule Warriors. In this trailer, Zelda can be seen fighting with the Wind Waker from well, the Wind Waker.
It launches September 26 in North America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1rv4GAZoho
To learn more about the game, read here: http://mynintendonews.com/2014/07/17/fatal-frame-wii-u-coming-september-27-for-japan/
This week’s sales charts for the JP market are in and the 3DS tops the charts again, thanks to the newly released Yokai Watch 2, which topped the software chart.
P.S.: Yokai Watch 2 sold more this week than its predecessor’s lifetime sales! Amazing!
Software sales (followed by lifetime sales)
[3DS] Yokai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke (Level-5, 07/10/14) – 1,316,707 (New)
[PSV] Freedom Wars (SCEJ, 06/26/14) – 20,617 (252,665)
[3DS] Yokai Watch (Level-5, 07/11/13) – 19,153 (1,195,287)
[Wii U] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 05/29/14) – 15,143 (527,366)
[3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Don and Katsu’s Space-Time Great Adventure (Bandai Namco, 06/26/14) – 14,713 (92,220)
[PS3] Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, 06/26/14) – 10,273 (53,957)
[3DS] Pokemon Art Academy (Nintendo, 06/19/14) – 7,465 (63,922)
[PS3] Grand Theft Auto V Low Price Version (06/26/14) – 6,121 (18,570)
[PS4] Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, 06/26/14) – 6,000 (82,378)
...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeKNadbLukw
YouTube channel VSauce has torn down Nintendo’s latest home console and put down the facts about this underappreciated console - 2GB of RAM may sound paltry, but that’s 23 times more than what the original one had. Watch the video in the link above to waste 2 minutes of your life.
Apparently this ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6FmIKSqTKo
has done better than luxury car-maker Mercedes-Benz has expected. Here’s a statement they released:
“[The commercial] was quite a talking point, bringing a lot of people to the showroom,” Mercedes-Benz Japan president and chief executive officer Kintaro Ueno commented. “This is a new market segment for us, but it has exceeded our expectations. I can say that it’s going well.”
So it wasn’t Shulk after all! Robin and Lucina from Fire Emblem will be in the next iteration of Smash Bros! Along with that, Captain Falcon will be joining the roster too.