#IwataSays We will discuss new Smash Bros., 3D Mario game, Mario Kart and other Wii U titles in our #NintendoDirectNA before the start of E3

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 17, 2013

After today’s Nintendo Direct, some of you may be asking, “Where’s Smash Bros./Mario Kart/that new 3D Mario game?”

Well, Nintendo hasn’t forgotten, but rather than talk about them now, the company has decided to wait until the pre-E3 Nintendo Direct to go into details.

Source: @NintendoAmerica

Shin Megami Tensei IV artist Masayuki Doi and Dragon’s Crown artist George Kamitani will both be at E3 to sign prints for attendees and Atlus wants you to choose which ones they should make.

The poll is open to everyone subscribed to the company’s “Atlus Faithful” newsletter, but you can also click on the posted links to vote for your favorite print. However, not being on Atlus’ mailing list eliminates you from winning one of the twelve signed prints they plan to give away in the future.

Vote for SMT IV Print A

Vote for SMT IV Print B

Vote for Dragon’s Crown Print A

Vote for Dragon’s Crown Print B

Source: E-Mail

Instead of a big presentation at this year’s E3, Nintendo has decided to go with a hands-on event at their booth before the show floor opens.

The event will provide the opportunity to try out new and upcoming games for the Wii U. So far, we know there will be a new 3D Mario, Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. at E3.

Nintendo EAD General Manager Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo of America COO Reggie Fils-Aime have also been confirmed to speak at the event.

Source: IGN

CVG is reporting that the new Mario Kart and new 3D Mario game Nintendo announced last January will be playable at this year’s E3.

Nintendo announced both projects during a Nintendo Direct at the beginning of the year.

According to CVG, the new 3D Mario title will be out by October, pending delays.

Source: CVG

Rather that host a big press conference at E3 like they’ve done in the past, Nintendo wants to scale things back this year and break things down into smaller presentations focused on reaching specific audiences.

Their plan for E3 is to focus mainly on games for the U.S. market. There will be an event directed towards American distributors and a separate, hands-on event for members of the media.

For the Europe, Japan and other markets, Nintendo is planning to use Nintendo Direct as a primary medium of delivering information over the course of the expo.

Nintendo is still looking into ways on how to change their presentation style and will share details as they are decided upon.

Source: Nintendo IR Page

With free-to-play games popping up everywhere, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed that Nintendo is giving developers the option to implement the increasingly popular business model in Wii U games.

“With respect to the Wii U system, when we began working on it, one of our goals was to have a variety of purchase options and additional e-commerce options available at its launch,” said Iwata. “And because of that, we have prepared a Digital Rights Management system. We have designed the system from a technical standpoint to allow developers to freely take advantage of things like free to play and micro transactions.”

Iwata went on to say that Nintendo currently has no plans to develop free-to-play content.

“Currently, we are not actively looking at free to play for our first-party content and I don’t think that’s a direction that we should go in right now.”

That’s not to say that Nintendo would completely rule out going free-to-play. It would just require a suitable gaming concept.

“But that doesn’t mean for the future that there may not come a time where we have specific content that might be suited to that model,” said Iwata. “If there are some people who feel that Mario is something that should be available as a free-to-play type model, I would have to clearly say that I disagree. But in the future if we come up with a very interesting idea of a novel game with totally different value and structure that would potentially be very well suited to free to play, we might go in that direction.”

Source: Nintendo.co.jp, 2

It’s already known that Nintendo’s first-party titles will be getting digital releases later this year; however, it sounds like third-parties will be able to release their games in the eShop as well.

With the above image presented, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told attendees of their E3 Analyst Q & A Session that several 3DS exclusive titles will be getting digital releases along with standard physical launches.

“We’ve got a massive list of AAA content on the way from all of the biggest names in gaming that are all proven franchises, all exclusive to our platform, and all coming to stores both in physical and digital formats in the second half of 2012.”

Source: Nintendo.co.jp [via GoNintendo]

Reggie Fils-Aime didn’t avoid answering Kotaku’s Wii U questions. Even when it came to talking about the elephant in the room – the Wii U Pro Controller design – the Nintendo of America president did not back down.

There was definitely tinge of PR spin in his words, but it was surprising to hear the brass at Nintendo be so vocal about their plans for the upcoming system.

Some highlights:

• On friend codes:
• Friend codes will open up more options for interacting with others, but Wii U owners can still interact with random people in a lesser capacity.
• The method for marking someone has a friend hasn’t been revealed, but Reggie says it’s “a lot simpler” than the current system.
• On digital content:
• Wii game saves and bought content can be transferred to the Wii U.
• On achievements:
• Wii U will have system-level achievements (a la 3DS StreetPass content). Game-specific achievements would have to come from developers.
• On Miiverse:
• Miiverse moderation will work on four levels: Parental controls, “technology-driven” scans, community flagging and Nintendo intervention.
• Parents can restrict Miiverse messages to only friends or block them completely.
• A “technology-driven” scan will inspect messages for inappropriate words and images.
• Wii U users will be able to flag messages as inappropriate.
• Contrary to Iwata’s statement, if a message passes the tech scan, it should appear instantly.

Source: Kotaku

We still don’t know how much the Wii U will cost when it launches this holiday season, but in an interview with IGN, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that they’re taking a different approach than their competitors when pricing their new console.

“Nintendo believes in being a mass market product, so unlike our competitors when they’ve launched historical systems to maybe start at a really high price and work their way down, we don’t believe in that,” Fils-Aime said.

“We want to launch at a price that’s going to represent an ongoing great value. If you look at the Wii, we stayed at $250 for a really long time, so we’re going to give that same level of thought to Wii U. How do we launch at a value that we’re going to be able to sustain for a long time? I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, if you will, about the way we’re managing value equation.”

I can see Nintendo comfortably pricing the Wii U at $250, even possibly shooting for the $300/$350 mark. Judging from its lukewarm reception at this year’s E3, though, I’d expect Nintendo to stick with the lower price point.

Source: IGN [via CVG]

Without a doubt, Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs was one of the biggest surprises of E3.

While the open-world, subterfuge-heavy shooter has been announced for the 360, PS3 and PC, Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft, told IGN that they haven’t ruled out bringing the game to the Wii U sometime in the future.

“Not at this time. We have so many titles in development for Wii U right now that we need to keep that team focused and this is a very very ambitious game. But it’s not out of the question.”

Even though it wouldn’t be the most imaginative use of the Wii U GamePad, being able to map all the neat hacking functions to the touchscreen would be pretty great.

Source: IGN [via My Nintendo News]