Although Nintendo has continued to offer a wide range of programming for the Wii U — including but not limited to a sweet new ‘Starfox’ game — a report from Japanese newspaper Nikkei indicates that this might be the last year of production for the four-year-old console.
Although Nintendo hasn’t confirmed the report, it wouldn’t be surprising that the company would want to cease production. There have been plenty of rumors swirling around the company’s next console, called ‘Nintendo NX’ by the media, including a leak last week of what people are assuming is the controller for the new system . Add to that a relatively stagnant sales cycle that puts the Wii U miles behind its smash-hit predecessor, and the writing could be on the wall.
In context of home consoles, a 4-year console life doesn’t inspire good feelings. For example, Microsoft is still producing and making games for the Xbox 360, which it will support through the end of the year. That measures up to an 11-year console life. Meanwhile, Sony discontinued PlayStation 3 production after 9 years. And Nintendo’s previous console, the Wii, was discontinued after 7 years of production.
Although it seems that hardware production might cease, there is hope that Nintendo will continue to produce software content for the device in the coming years. After all, as seen in the past few years, there has been a strong response to releasing games across console generations and continuing support to preserve the life of those systems. After all, users have paid good money for them.
If these rumors are true, it will be hard to recommend the Wii U as a console to purchase — a shame, considering it has a great library full of games, in addition to Wii game support and a budding virtual console store. Perhaps Nintendo will have better luck on this next go.
Update, 23 March :
Nintendo has denied the claims. A spokesperson for the company told IT Media :
“This isn’t an announcement from our company. From the next quarter and thereafter as well, production [of the Wii U] is scheduled to continue.”
➤ Nikkei [Japanese] [via VentureBeat ]
Bloxels will let you make a video game with no coding skills whatsoever
Bloxels , a Kickstarter campaign looking to raise a modest $40,000, promises to let even the most code-illiterate children and adults build video games.
Essentially, all you need to do is create a layout on the game board, and snap it with your tablet or smartphone camera. Once you’ve done that, you can use the Bloxels app to customize all the elements and play the level through.
While building it, each of the different blocks represent different in-game items.
The project comes from Pixel Press , which has some experience in delivering games without coding skills. Although its previous versions did require some sort of drawing ability , this one does not.
And in true gamification of the gamification process, as you play through levels you’ve created, you can earn coins and gems to unlock new features and environments. You can also combine more than one board to create a bigger play area.
To give backers an idea of what’s achievable, the company has already created one game – Brave Squad for Bloxels .
In each set, there’s a board, 250 blocks and a guide book. Early bird Bloxel packs are $40 for the first 100, with the price then rising to $50.
Even though Bloxels has previously delivered game-based projects, we’d always still caution that it’s ‘buyer beware’ when backing any crowdfunding project.
➤ Bloxels [Kickstarter]
You might need a cartridge to play your next mobile game
Having been reared on a steady diet of 8- and 16-bit console games, the very sight of a cartridge makes my heart skip a beat at the thought of the exciting adventures it contains.
Beatrobo wants to introduce the concept to today’s mobile gamers: At the recent Tokyo Game Show , the Japanese startup showed off Pico Cassette , a tiny cartridge that plugs into your device’s headphone jack to unlock games.
The Verge reports that the cartridges themselves don’t have games stored on them, but instead emit an inaudible sound that authenticates a game app to let you start playing.
By phoning home to Beatrobo’s servers, you’ll be able to save your game progress and pick up where you left off on multiple devices.
As of now, Beatrobo only has a proof of concept cartridge that lets you play a Flappy Bird knockoff. However, the company is working to land content partnerships and will launch a crowdfunding campaign to bring Pico Cassette to market soon.
➤ Pico Cassettes are retro game cartridges for your phone [The Verge]