July 2011
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Microtransactions for 3DS games coming
In a Q&A session with investors on Friday, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said that his company is preparing to offer developers support for paid downloadable content on the 3DS by the end of the year, and eventually on the Wii U.
The executive notes that while it will allow third-party studios to take advantage of this microtransaction system, Nintendo is wary of using this feature itself....
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Risks & limits of 3DS's free NES/GBA games
Nintendo’s announcement that it’s giving out 20 free NES and GBA games to early 3DS buyers took the edge off its extreme hardware price cut — it’s hard to stay angry at someone offering you Yoshi’s Island: SMA 3, The Legend of Zelda, and more at no extra charge.
WoSblog’s Stuart Campbell, though, looked back at console makers’ previous attempts to win...
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Preorder a Nintendo 3DS for $169.99 now →
The Nintendo 3DS price cut won’t take effect until August 12, but you can put in a preorder now for the cheaper $169 system at Amazon — just hit this link and choose whether you’d like a Cosmo Black or Aqua Blue portable.
Of course, you could also pay $225 to receive your handheld sooner and take advantage of the “Nintendo 3DS Ambassador” program for early...
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Has Nintendo done enough for the 3DS? →
Though Nintendo addressed one of gamers’ biggest complaints with the 3DS by cutting its price to $169.99, lower than probably anyone could have anticipated, is that enough to reverse the system’s fortunes?
Gamasutra argues that there’s still the issue of 3DS games costing too damn much (for what few games are available). I mean, a lot of people can justify spending $40 on...
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3DS price cut to $169, NES/GBA VC games for early...
Four months after the 3DS’s launch, the system has sold only 830,000 units, Nintendo posted its first ever quarterly operating loss and cut its full-year profit forecast, and there’s a feeling of dissatisfaction amongst the general public around the DS successor. With PS Vita on the way, it’s time for a competitive 3DS price.
Starting August 12, the 3DS will sell for $169 in...
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Sega leaves Shiren off to die →
For those of you with import copies of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 1 to 3, when your adventurer dies deep inside the games’ dungeons — as he often does — starting November, you can no longer put out a WiFi request for friends to come rescue you and your gear.
That’s because Sega will shut down the servers for the Shiren games it put out in Japan (Shiren 4, which...
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Super Dodge Ball headed to 3DS VC in Japan →
On August 3, Nintendo of Japan will add the Game Boy sequel to Super Dodge Ball, “Nekketsu High School Dodge Ball: Fearsome Foe! Tale of the Dodge Soldier,” to the 3DS’s Virtual Console, alongside Alleyway. I’ve never played that particular version of Super Dodge Ball, but I’m going to assume it’s totally entertaining, yet has terrible slowdown. Just a guess.
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Vote for Ni no Kuni DS in Level-5 poll →
Along with its new office and site, Level-5’s International America branch set up a Facebook page, where it just posted an poll gauging excitement for its games still unreleased in the West. The survey doesn’t explicitly ask fans to choose what games they want to see localized, but I’m sure it’s something the publisher will take into consideration for those kind of...
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“As near as I can figure, having pored through the game and its documentation,...”
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Wired’s Chris Kohler, on Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions’ odd score system. So, you can only have one high score saved at a time, and the only way to erase it is to replace it. In addition, the game awards you Achievement-esque titles for accomplishing things, which also can’t be...
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“An internal Amazon.com shipping issue triggered a brief hold on orders of...”
– Nintendo’s formal statement about yesterday’s Amazon confusion, during which the online retailer halted its sales for the 3DS’s Cosmo Black model for a few hours.
I’m not surprised that Amazon and Nintendo acted quickly to dispel rumors and get the product back on virtual...
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New, vague system update for Nintendo 3DS
About a month after its last firmware release, Nintendo has put out a new update for the 3DS, providing this super uninformative note in version 2.1.0-4’s list of changes:
System stability improvements and other adjustments: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience.
That sounds like anti-piracy measures,...
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Report: Amazon suspends its Cosmo Black 3DS sales...
[Update: Amazon has removed the message from its Cosmo Black 3DS listing, and is selling the system again.
Disagreeing with earlier reports, an Amazon rep has commented that the issue was not related to the loose hinge issues or any other hardware deficiencies, and was an unspecified “inventory problem” that customers brought to the shop’s attention.]
As of yesterday, Amazon...
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Reminder: Lots of 3DS deals
Just in case you missed our posts about them here or at DS Dates the first time around, there are a bunch of decent Nintendo 3DS deals going on at the moment:
Buy a 3DS console, get $25 credit
Buy 2 games, get 1 free — includes Ocarina of Time 3D, RE: The Mercenaries, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, Pokemon Black/White, and almost 800 other games on various platforms
Rayman 3D - $19.99
Super...
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Brave Company site opens, screens and artwork... →
If you don’t mind braving a Japanese Flash site — something that immediately fills me with a sense of hopelessness, because I can’t mechanically translate the text — you can see the first artwork and screenshots for Namco Bandai’s 3DS (and iOS) hero management game, Brave Company.
I can’t really say much about the game (see above re: hopelessness), but the...
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