3DS 2016 Line Up List Leaked

[Award]

I'll agree with the Amiibo's success being rather odd. Though I guess all the hype they had built up enough that many people wanted them. Some wanted them to the point of scalping them. *cough* The Roselina Amiibo incedent *cough* But due to it's popularity, it's destroyed sales for Skylanders and Disney Infinity alike. Hardly anyone buys those brands anymore due to the smash popularity of the Amiibos. The popularity will end eventually, just not for a while yet. It's still rather hot in the supply and demand market. Heck, the new LOZ Twilight Princess HD remake is going to have a Wolf Link and Midna Amiibo, along with the official hard copy of the soundtrack if you pre-order the game.

Personally I think the Skylanders/Infinity is unrelated to Amiibo. I think Skylanders had run its course and become old hat by then. The fad had been around for years and run its coarse. They ran out of interesting ideas (vehicles? Even Giants was stretching it. Kids lost interest. Infinity was surprisingly DOA. They made it a cash grab with the blind packs. It was too obvious in the face of even Skylanders.

Amiibo on the other hand seems to sell more to adults than kids :D I think Amiibo, especially due to their short supply, which I suspect was a combination of Nintendo having as low hopes for its success as I did, similar to Fire Emblem Awakening, only to be surprised by demand, plus, after the Wii it seems obvious that create demand through short supply is an Iwata strategic hallmark. They became limited edition collectors items, while Infinity & Skylanders were just disposable toys. I can't see that lasting forever though. Another year or two and they'll hit their threshold. Especially if they start running it into the ground.

UNLESS.

There has been speculation based on some patent filings that the NX will not have a CD slot, and may not have a cartridge slot of any kind. I can't imagine Nintendo doing a download only console. Even Sony and Microsoft failed miserably trying to go that route with an even more tech savvy audience, plus despite the growth of digital, retail still represents over half of Nintendo's overall sales, and they're more dependent on retail partners and floor space presence than the other brands so they can't dispense with physical. It's entirely possible that Amiibos could BE the physical distribution for NX games. That would actually make them pretty cool. The game itself is the collectors edition swag. I'm not sure if the transfer speeds and storage capacity of NFC can handle that kind of content yet so I don't know how possible it is, but the Wolf Link bundled with TPHD is an example of it working, distribution wise. Tap the Amiibo, download/install the game from it. Or, if they don't want to go that fancy, have AmiiboNX that have an SD card built into a little holder on the stand that you can just pop the card out of the Amiibo and put into the console for install. That could make Amiibo relevant, and maintain their shelf space practicality. And that could be what Kimishima alludes to of using them for game content to encourage people to open and use them.

It's something I'd considered from their comments and NX rumors before, but the bundling of Wolf Link might just be free swag with the game, or a pilot launch for the concept.

It makes sense....if they're doing SD card games (and why not, it's the logical successor of cartridges, their favorite format, and is essentially what Vita uses) that comes with a big loss in shelf presence amid big PS4 boxes. But sticking the little cards in a 3D Amiibo demands big shelf presence and makes their titles stand out.


If they don't go that route, Kimishima did point out that when he visited US retail stores he saw how crowded the toys to life category was in stores and that there's more room for expansion in Japan than the US, so he does realize that we're kind of near capacity here so it might fade away a little.

Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but I don't really recall that much hype for the amiibos prior to their release.
Me, well... I'll admit, I'm the unlucky sod who fell for a scalper at the swap meet. (And learned that I could've gotten a better deal on eBay afterward.) So I can't say that I don't like them that much. I'm just lazy when it comes to actually using them.
I'm not so sure their popularity is a bad thing, though? Or is it the execution that y'all take issue with?


So... I've been hearing that the codename for Sun & Moon was indeed Niji. But I can't figure out if they got that from this list or if the Niji codename was leaked elsewhere, separately.

Yeah, a successful product that keeps Nintendo funded and able to make games and hardware is good for everyone. It's their unnatural obsession with shoehorning EVERYTHING to involve Amiibo that runs it into the ground and makes one fearful that that will dominate over real games in favor of monetized cash grabs: (I.E. half the Splatoon single player campaign requires the Amiibo trilogy. ALL of the charger and roller missions are locked behind them. That's revolting. It's "Day One DLC" in the most EA of ways.)

As for the leaks...well....apparently Erik Peterson is unceremoniously leaving Nintendo. It doesn't seem to be hostile, but he's pretty nondescript about what he's going to be doing now either...not a stated "but I'm going to this new opportunity at X company I"m excited about" sort of thing. We know these leaks have been escaping Treehouse for a while. I imagine if he were the leaker, at least intentionally, it would have been more hostile like it was for Chris. But it's possible he was facilitating the leaks by being loose with information, or poor security practices or something. It's interesting timing just after the whole Niji incident. Could be unrelated and he might be genuinely moving to a specific new opportunity, but Nintendo always works secretly and the timing is suspicious. Few people leave something like Treehouse because they WANT to, it's a dream job for most there.

 

[Ink Gunner Emily]

Personally I think the Skylanders/Infinity is unrelated to Amiibo. I think Skylanders had run its course and become old hat by then. The fad had been around for years and run its coarse. They ran out of interesting ideas (vehicles? Even Giants was stretching it. Kids lost interest. Infinity was surprisingly DOA. They made it a cash grab with the blind packs. It was too obvious in the face of even Skylanders.

Amiibo on the other hand seems to sell more to adults than kids :D I think Amiibo, especially due to their short supply, which I suspect was a combination of Nintendo having as low hopes for its success as I did, similar to Fire Emblem Awakening, only to be surprised by demand, plus, after the Wii it seems obvious that create demand through short supply is an Iwata strategic hallmark. They became limited edition collectors items, while Infinity & Skylanders were just disposable toys. I can't see that lasting forever though. Another year or two and they'll hit their threshold. Especially if they start running it into the ground.

UNLESS.

There has been speculation based on some patent filings that the NX will not have a CD slot, and may not have a cartridge slot of any kind. I can't imagine Nintendo doing a download only console. Even Sony and Microsoft failed miserably trying to go that route with an even more tech savvy audience, plus despite the growth of digital, retail still represents over half of Nintendo's overall sales, and they're more dependent on retail partners and floor space presence than the other brands so they can't dispense with physical. It's entirely possible that Amiibos could BE the physical distribution for NX games. That would actually make them pretty cool. The game itself is the collectors edition swag. I'm not sure if the transfer speeds and storage capacity of NFC can handle that kind of content yet so I don't know how possible it is, but the Wolf Link bundled with TPHD is an example of it working, distribution wise. Tap the Amiibo, download/install the game from it. Or, if they don't want to go that fancy, have AmiiboNX that have an SD card built into a little holder on the stand that you can just pop the card out of the Amiibo and put into the console for install. That could make Amiibo relevant, and maintain their shelf space practicality. And that could be what Kimishima alludes to of using them for game content to encourage people to open and use them.

It's something I'd considered from their comments and NX rumors before, but the bundling of Wolf Link might just be free swag with the game, or a pilot launch for the concept.

It makes sense....if they're doing SD card games (and why not, it's the logical successor of cartridges, their favorite format, and is essentially what Vita uses) that comes with a big loss in shelf presence amid big PS4 boxes. But sticking the little cards in a 3D Amiibo demands big shelf presence and makes their titles stand out.


If they don't go that route, Kimishima did point out that when he visited US retail stores he saw how crowded the toys to life category was in stores and that there's more room for expansion in Japan than the US, so he does realize that we're kind of near capacity here so it might fade away a little.

This would make sense, though I'd like to think that existence of Amiibos was the last nail in the coffin for Skylanders and Disney Infinity.Though I can see Skylanders declining about he same time Amiibos were becoming the new thing. That would explain a lot. As for Amiibos being the new form of storage for game data. That could certainly be a very viable option for Nintendo. Considering what they can do in Japan, I'd be not too surprised if they are already considering it. Amiibos could provide the edge Sony and Microsoft lack to do a strictly digital console system for games. Though I'm sure it'll be a Japan only thing for a while till they can see if it'll work well enough to be sold internationally.

 

[Award]

This would make sense, though I'd like to think that existence of Amiibos was the last nail in the coffin for Skylanders and Disney Infinity.Though I can see Skylanders declining about he same time Amiibos were becoming the new thing. That would explain a lot. As for Amiibos being the new form of storage for game data. That could certainly be a very viable option for Nintendo. Considering what they can do in Japan, I'd be not too surprised if they are already considering it. Amiibos could provide the edge Sony and Microsoft lack to do a strictly digital console system for games. Though I'm sure it'll be a Japan only thing for a while till they can see if it'll work well enough to be sold internationally.

Skylanders, I'm just tired of seeing, and annoyed at introducing "physical DLC" to begin with, but ultimately it's not an evil platform. Disney Infinity was, from the beginning evil as most Disney machinations tend to be. Blind packs to unlock your game so you don't know if a complete games costs $90 or $500 depending on your scratch-off lottery is as wrong as wrong can get.

It wouldn't need to be a Japan thing, and honestly that would work against them. Amiibo already has a strong foothold everywhere, so making "on-Amiibo games" would slot right into the retail scheme nicely. With TPHD including an Amiibo in the box, the concept is already on the market by the end of this week: "Buy your boxed Amiibo, with the game inside!" Even if it doesn't use NFC to transmit the game data from an Amiibo to the console's internal storage (some games are 80+GB, that's a LOT of storage for an NFC system to move, and a lot of on-console storage for a presumably handheld NX.) But even if the Amiibo is a glorified Gamecard (Sony's name for the SD-like physical Vita game cartridges) holder (Some SD-like "cartridge" or memory chip) that just has a slot that stores your game's card (plus the regular Amiibo NFC chip for in game usage) it would still be an advantageous way to solve several problems: How to handle retail, how to promote retail partnerships, how to get attention to their shelf space, and how to sustain retail markets in the digital age. Technically that wouldn't be an all digital system but still fully physical: Just distributing new physical media by way of figurines. It's very Nintendo, and solves some real world problems of retail in the digital age.

If they DON'T do it, I'm going to have to storm Reggie's office and tell him he needs me in their marketing staff after blowing such an obvious strategy :p

 

[Flareth]

There has been speculation based on some patent filings that the NX will not have a CD slot, and may not have a cartridge slot of any kind. I can't imagine Nintendo doing a download only console. Even Sony and Microsoft failed miserably trying to go that route with an even more tech savvy audience, plus despite the growth of digital, retail still represents over half of Nintendo's overall sales, and they're more dependent on retail partners and floor space presence than the other brands so they can't dispense with physical. It's entirely possible that Amiibos could BE the physical distribution for NX games. That would actually make them pretty cool. The game itself is the collectors edition swag. I'm not sure if the transfer speeds and storage capacity of NFC can handle that kind of content yet so I don't know how possible it is, but the Wolf Link bundled with TPHD is an example of it working, distribution wise. Tap the Amiibo, download/install the game from it. Or, if they don't want to go that fancy, have AmiiboNX that have an SD card built into a little holder on the stand that you can just pop the card out of the Amiibo and put into the console for install. That could make Amiibo relevant, and maintain their shelf space practicality. And that could be what Kimishima alludes to of using them for game content to encourage people to open and use them.

It makes sense....if they're doing SD card games (and why not, it's the logical successor of cartridges, their favorite format, and is essentially what Vita uses) that comes with a big loss in shelf presence amid big PS4 boxes. But sticking the little cards in a 3D Amiibo demands big shelf presence and makes their titles stand out.

Hands down, that is one of the craziest ideas I've ever heard... I don't fully approve, but it's something I could see working with a lot of TLC and some hyper-technological-futuristic bullshit.

Spoiler: Speculative Rambling

In my mind, the game itself is a hockey puck-looking block that serves as the base of the figure. The console has a little puck-shaped pit on top, which is where the amiibo would be placed (probably with some sort of latch to keep the figure from falling off mid-game). Either through NFC or some other fancy techwork, the game reads the data from the amiibo like how game disks currently work (however that is).

With the handheld NX model, I could see it being sorta the same, with one difference: since it'd be impractical to hold this thing with the amiibo on it, there would be a little panel on the back that opens up to reveal the same pit that the NX would have. Take the amiibo figure off the base, then put the base in that space, and voilà, handheld console gaming.

...I really should know better than to yap about things I know nothing about...

(I.E. half the Splatoon single player campaign requires the Amiibo trilogy. ALL of the charger and roller missions are locked behind them. That's revolting. It's "Day One DLC" in the most EA of ways.)

Eh, those missions are just re-runs through existing levels with reskinned weapons. The unlocks are a bit iffy, but the gear isn't quite pay2win in mine eyes and the minigames are unimportant. I'd hardly call that "EA" style DLC stuff. (Then again I've never played any EA games in a while, so I'm not privy to what they do other than hearsay.)

Now I've expressed in the past my disappointment for things like Amiibo Party, but I'm hopeful that game's reception taught them not to pull that again.

As for the leaks...well....apparently Erik Peterson is unceremoniously leaving Nintendo. It doesn't seem to be hostile, but he's pretty nondescript about what he's going to be doing now either...not a stated "but I'm going to this new opportunity at X company I"m excited about" sort of thing. We know these leaks have been escaping Treehouse for a while. I imagine if he were the leaker, at least intentionally, it would have been more hostile like it was for Chris. But it's possible he was facilitating the leaks by being loose with information, or poor security practices or something. It's interesting timing just after the whole Niji incident. Could be unrelated and he might be genuinely moving to a specific new opportunity, but Nintendo always works secretly and the timing is suspicious. Few people leave something like Treehouse because they WANT to, it's a dream job for most there.

Erik Peterson? A "Chris"? ¿Quienes son? (I've been out of the loop for a while now, are they supposed to be super leakers or something?)

 

[Award]

In my mind, the game itself is a hockey puck-looking block that serves as the base of the figure. The console has a little puck-shaped pit on top, which is where the amiibo would be placed (probably with some sort of latch to keep the figure from falling off mid-game). Either through NFC or some other fancy techwork, the game reads the data from the amiibo like how game disks currently work (however that is).

With the handheld NX model, I could see it being sorta the same, with one difference: since it'd be impractical to hold this thing with the amiibo on it, there would be a little panel on the back that opens up to reveal the same pit that the NX would have. Take the amiibo figure off the base, then put the base in that space, and voilà, handheld console gaming.

...I really should know better than to yap about things I know nothing about...

That would be a VERY Nintendo implementation so I can see that happening. I was picturing more an NFC transfer of the game to local storage (if NFC can really handle the required transfer speeds right now.) OR using the Amiibo as nothing more than a glorified SD card case, but it would qualify in all practical terms as distributing the game on Amiibos. In practice most "hardcore" gamers with piles of games would toss the Amiibo in one bin and keep the cards in a card case. But you'd have to buy the game with the Amiibo as part of how it's distributed (and many Amiibo would be exclusive to the physical game copies.) It's sufficiently low tech that I could see Nintendo doing that easy.

Now I've expressed in the past my disappointment for things like Amiibo Party, but I'm hopeful that game's reception taught them not to pull that again.

Sometimes I think Amiibo Party wasn't actually meant for consumers but was meant for investors. "You want your Amiibo tie in game? Here it is. We told you it would fail." Iwata truly was a master at giving the idiot investors the middle finger in a very "polite Japanese businessman" way. Man was a gamer through and through ;)

Erik Peterson? A "Chris"? ¿Quienes son? (I've been out of the loop for a while now, are they supposed to be super leakers or something?)

Chris Pranger, Erik Peterson...geeze it's like you don't even WATCH the Treehouse Live videos during E3 ;) They're Treehouse employees at NoA (localizers, translators, script writers). Erik was one of the more recognizable ones as he anchored a lot of the Treehouse E3 coverage and appeared variously for Treehouse segments in a few Directs in the Iwata-hosted direct days. He's leaving (presumably by choice, though he's stated nothing he's moving onto) and it happens to coincide with the whole Niji & NX leak timing. It might be a coincidence.

But there was an incident with Pranger earlier in the hear (he was also part of the E3 coverage last year but not as prominent as Erik) where he actually went on the air for a podcast interview, unsactioned by Nintendo (and they're forbidden from discussing things with the press. Treehouse is THE most secret part of NoA. That area of the building is secured & locked down from even other Nintendo employees to enter. They work directly with NCL meaning they have involvement in games from the design phase on, and work with Miyamoto, Eguchi, Tezuka, etc. directly. Only Treehouse unit employees, Reggie, and NCL developers are allowed to even enter that wing.) Anyway he did an unsactioned against the rules interview to the point of saying unflattering things about Sakurai. Revealing things about NoE willing to take the funding hit for localizing Xenoblade 1, etc. Not in a malicious way, he was just speaking candidly, but he wasn't supposed to be speaking at all, and any fool would know that. He was shown the door shortly after fairly publicly.

There seems to be a lot of "exits" from treehouse as it's become more famous with the fans due to the E3 coverage and directs.

FWIW, Bill Trinnen is the boss of Treehouse. He's the guy that's hosted some of the Directs in Lieu of Iwata, he's been in most of the skits with Reggie, he usually follows Miyamoto around as his translator (and fought "Reggie Fils-A-Mech" wearing a cardboard robot suit controlled by Miyamoto's gamepad in the Project Giant Robot sketch at E3 a few years ago. )

 

[Flareth]

geeze it's like you don't even WATCH the Treehouse Live videos during E3

Oh. Crap. My bad.

I actually don't pay much attention to gaming news in general; I only got into the Directs last year as a result of re-discovering my inner Nintendo fanboy. So the Treehouse is something of an alien concept to me, hence I paid no attention to them during E3 week. Thanks for clarifying all that, mate!

 

[birdiebee]

Oh. Crap. My bad.

I actually don't pay much attention to gaming news in general; I only got into the Directs last year as a result of re-discovering my inner Nintendo fanboy. So the Treehouse is something of an alien concept to me, hence I paid no attention to them during E3 week. Thanks for clarifying all that, mate!

I dont watch Treehouse either. I follow news but for the most part the nerds in the Treehouse are just obnoxious to me. I miss the days of press conference, trailers, done. xD

 

[Award]

LOL, some of the Treehouse people are obnoxious (though one of those was canned, as stated above ;) ) Some of them are incleverly disguised PR shills. Most of them are pretty decent.


But NOTHING is as obnoxious as a press conference. I keep picturing Andrew House and his repeated cringhe-worthy utterings of "Once Again Proving that Playstaytion is 'The Best Place To Play(TM)!' and Major Nelson's creepy grins, Don Mattrick's smarmy smugness (and overly shiny sport coat). And we won't talk about EA and Ubisoft. Or Microsoft's somehow corporate approved **** joke for Killer Instinct.

Of course Nintendo conferences were Iwata...those were good. But that was Iwata. He was always a pleasure to watch. I keep HOPING Kimishima does the NX presentation himself. I'd prefer he was a public figure and not a Yamauchi - the shark behind the curtain. Seems like a likable guy, and is fluent in English (moreso than Iwata who I've read didn't really know much English at all and would spend tons of time memorizing his presentations and insisted on doing it in English rather than being translated) having lived in the US many years (NoA, Pokemon USA, and the bank he worked at prior.) No reason for him not to. And he seems a lot more tolerable than 45 minutes of Reggie's PR jargon.

The one that's offensive to me is Nintendo Minute. It's so fake, it SEEMS so obviously fake, and Krysta does the whole "I'm just an innocent fan talking about games" act. She's the Social Media Director for NoA. She's PR MANAGEMENT acting like some high school fan. That's just wrong.

But the treehouse nerds...thy're mostly "English majors' so that probably puts some perspective on their personalities. But I don't mind them because they are technically part of the dev team for the NA release. They're the script writers and such, so "obnoxious" or not, they're the people behind part of the finished product. I'd rather hear from that group than the PR folks.

I actually ignored the Treehouse stuff the first time they did it, but then realized that a good chunk of real game info came from the Treehouse portion. Some whole games were discussed there that weren't even in the main event, so I paid more attention after that. Also, the ones this past E3 where they had Miyamoto and/or Tezuka sitting in were wonderful (SMM & Starfox.) It's fun to watch Miyamoto in such settings because you can just tell when he's thinking through ideas in his head and not listening to them at all :D

 

[Flareth]

Now, the cynic in me wants to believe that the leaked games listed for a Spring 2016 release were easy guesses, but the fact remains that those games were discussed in the Direct. Plus the whole Sun & Moon = Niji thing... eh, I'll stick with safe guesses for now.

 

[Award]

I think it's kind of a given there's been a leak at Treehouse. What we don't know is who that leak is/was, if they KNOW who that leak is/was, or if the leak is even "accidental" at all. Rumor mills are indeed news cycle dominance after all...