The Big N is back, and Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata must be giddy. Nintendo has been no stranger to financial woes recently, but with the recent release of Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U, Pokemon ORAS, and Amiibo, Nintendo’s fiscal prospects have dramatically improved as console and software sales have skyrocketed and Amiibo are selling out across the globe.
In the wake of this success, Shigeru Miyamoto recently spoke to the Associated Press about Amiibo use in upcoming games, the production of Zelda and Star Fox for Wii U, a purported animated Mario movie that became public knowledge as a part of the recent Sony Pictures hack, and the future for Wii U and new console development.
In the light of news that Amiibo figures will likely be discontinued as new games and figures are developed, Miyamoto stated the possibility of releasing Amiibo cards with a chip identical to the ones in Amiibo that would function the same as the figures:
“In the future, we have the option, if certain Amiibo figures are no longer available in stores, to release an Amiibo in card form with the same functionality.”
While pretty much simply re-stating information already known about both the upcoming Zelda and Star Fox games for Wii U, Miyamoto goes on to discuss how with the new Zelda game Aonuma and his team are working to create a truly open world in which you can explore anything you can see, and use the bow and arrow while riding Epona (check out this awesome footage of the game from The Game Awards 2014).
Star Fox is expected to come out before Zelda, and Miyamoto is focusing on the control scheme utilizing both the television screen and the Wii U GamePad screen, which should be quite innovative (aka potentially confusing at first):
“The gameplay mechanics are going to feel very different because of the two-screen system of the Wii U with the GamePad and TV screen. It’ll make for a very fun and unique way to play.”
Miyamoto then went on to neither deny nor confirm that, courtesy of the recent Sony hack, Spiderman Producer Avi Arad is working to create an animated Mario film:
“I heard something about that this morning. What’s interesting is that over the past 20 years, people come to us on a fairly regular basis about creating Mario movies. There are times that those ideas end right when they bring them to us, and other times we’ll listen to presentations. It’s not very unusual, and it’s something we’ve been doing for a very long time. I don’t particularly have a vision that the next iteration of Mario is going to be in film.”
Finally, Miyamoto discusses the future for the Wii U, and confirms that, if nothing else, ideas are at least being batted around over what the Next-Gen Nintendo console what be:
“We’re focused on providing a robust line-up of Wii U software for next year. It seems like we’ve managed to do that this year and people are very happy with what we’ve done on Wii U. For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems. While we’re busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.”
Compared to where Nintendo was six months ago, things are really looking up for the company. There’s no question that Zelda for Wii U will result in even more hardware sales, and the New 3DS will be eventually finding its way to North America in 2015. Nintendo is a company well known for innovation, and no doubt whatever their next-gen console will be will surprise and amaze.
What do you make of Shigeru Miyamoto’s comments? Would you buy Amiibo cards? Want to see an animated Mario movie? Excited for Next-Gen? Let us know in the comments!