Nintendo NX Riddles

Nintendo has been on the radar for a long time. The language they have used to tease the new console -- is very interesting. As is Nintendo's interest in using projectors.

The sleep monitor has been put on hold (or killed) depending on what you pay attention to, but this project goes on, with top gaming companies playing along, saying they will contribute and support games. and saying what a new approach it is to gaming. 

You can't play Just Dance with two people on a 7 inch screen. Just can't.

Still watching.


Source IGN


Speaking to IGN at an Ubisoft event yesterday, Guillemot - who has previously expressed his admiration for the upcoming console - explained specifically why he was excited for NX:

"I think, once again, the interface is very attractive," he said. "It's a machine that will be easy to use for all gamers. They have built in something that will give us chance to really have a different experience from what exists today. That's what I like - that they come with something new that is adapted to what we actually want now."

During a separate presentation, he called it "a fantastic machine", going to on to explain that "I think it's a really new approach, it's really Nintendo, coming with something new again. We love it."

Nintendo Sleep monitor with Projector

Interview with Pokemon Go Chief

This is pretty interesting, and I think PicoP, once in a mass market product will experience growth on a similar trajectory. 

And I think PicoP is the perfect Pokemon Go accessory.


Venture beat

Hanke: If we could have seen the future we would have provisioned for 500 million downloads in two months. But if we had told anyone that was our plan, we would have sounded insane. I don’t know how you plan for something as strange as the way it took off virally. We just had to play catch up. I wish we’d had everything provisioned in advance, but I don’t know how any of us could have anticipated that.

**

We thought about Pokémon because the story of Pokémon, the notion of becoming a trainer and going out into the world, it’s really the perfect setting for an augmented reality game. At the same time, independent of all that, a guy on the Google Maps team was collaborating with the Pokémon Company to do this April Fool’s mashup for Maps. Some of you probably saw that, when Pokémon appeared all over Google Maps. Once we saw that we realized we had to do this.

We went to Tokyo and pitched the Pokémon Company. They were super excited. They’d been playing Ingress and the immediately got that this real-world gaming concept would fit perfectly with Pokémon. We started in, and it was in development for about two years before we launched.

**

Hanke: It’s not exclusive. Our mission as a company is to evangelize this whole concept of playing game outside, real world games, what we call augmented reality games. We want lots of people to create games like that. Our technology is a platform that can be used to make these experiences. We’re interested in moving that genre of games forward. A part of that is moving people away from looking at their phone all the time and enabling them to enjoy the people around them, to walk around and see the sights while you’re also playing the game. Apple Watch is a great vehicle for that.

***

Working with Apple on that was amazing. It was amazing to be part of an Apple event. Even after a decade at Google, to go through the preparation and everything Apple does for one of their big launch events was illuminating. It’s an interesting piece of hardware. The stand-alone functionality with the GPS, faster processor, waterproof, I like where they’re going with that.

We also have the Pokémon Go Plus, which is a low-cost $35 device that pairs with your smartphone and gives you the ability to play heads-up while you’re walking or running or biking. That’s an interesting part of the strategy. If other devices come on the market, like Android devices, or devices from other quadrants that are interesting for active, mobile gameplay, we’ll look into supporting those too.

Niantic Labs -- Games on the Go.

Pokemon Go is the first and the beginning of something quite new -- mobile computing. Gamers are always early -- When the maker of the games are looking at all of the other devices that could make mobile gaming more interesting... PicoP fits that quite well.

We'll keep watching for when, not if PicoP is involved --- PicoBit will make it possible.

At TechCrunch

“Our whole mission as a company is to evangelize this whole concept of playing games outside, real world games,” explained Hanke. “Apple Watch we think is a great vehicle for that,” he added, complimenting also the new Apple smartwatch hardware, which includes a standalone GPS and waterproofing, among other things.

“As other devices come on the market – if those are Android Wear devices or if they are devices from other quadrants that are interesting for gameplay and mobility, and being active – we’ll look into supporting those, too,” he said.

However, when asked about his longer term vision for the game, Hanke said that now the minimum viable product is out in the market, it’s really just the “tip of an iceberg” in terms of where the team wants to take the game.

“I think it will change substantially over the years.”

The only hint as to what’s in store was a nod to Ingress. “If you want to predict the future, you can look at the past,” said Hanke.

“A lot of what we’re doing with Pokémon, we learned through three years of hard work with Ingress and building up that community around the world, maturing that technology, the social aspect of it, the group gameplay, and the events for Ingress are really the lifeblood of that game,” Hanke said. “I think you can expect to see things like that in Pokémon Go.”