In a conversation with IGN during its Nintendo Voice Chat podcast, Fils-Aime recounted a story about an argument he had with Shigeru Miyamoto surrounding whether or not Nintendo should offer Wii Sports as a pack-in title for the console. According to the story, Miyamoto was quite against including the title as a free pack-in with the console.

“It’s an understatement to say that Mr. Miyamoto pushed back,” said Fils-Aime. “During the development of the Wii and the Wii Sports software, you know again the goal was, we wanted the system to be attractive not only to the most active players, but to new players, and to bring them into the video gaming experience. And we saw Wii Sports as the way to be able to do that because each of these sports made great use of the [Wiimote]. Each sport was known by a global population… and my recommendation was that we pack Wii Sports in with the hardware.”

“And literally, when I first made this suggestion, Mr. Miyamoto said ‘Reggie, Nintendo does not give away software for free. You don’t understand how hard our developers work to create compelling content like this,'” continued Fils-Aime. “Now, fortunately, because my SNES came packed in with software, I knew that in fact the company has given away software in the past. But it was against a very strategic objective. And that was my commentary back to Mr. Miyamoto. That, by including Wii Sports, we would immediately have value in the hardware as the consumers opening it up and setting it up. But more importantly, we would have a touchstone piece of software that so many consumers would experience”

“It’s what led to Wii Sports being played in bars, being played on cruise ships, being played in retirement homes. It became this universal experience. But he was not happy when I first made the suggestion, to the point where, on a subsequent visit to Kyoto and the headquarters, the team showed me software that would become Wii Play. Those themselves were fun as well, but they didn’t have the connective tissue that Wii Sports had with all of the experiences. So then I proceeded to piss Mr. Miyamoto off again by suggesting that we bundle Wii Play with the Wii Remote.”

“In the end, in the Americas and in Europe, Wii Sports was packed in with the Wii. It was not in Japan, which created a bit of a test market, and it was obvious that, in the markets where Wii Sports was packed in that the Wii became much more of a phenomenon. Wii Sports itself became much more of a phenomenon. And we did pack the Wiimote with Wii Play, and I think it became the fifth best selling piece of software in the history of Wii.”

Incidentally, Nintendo hadn’t released any pack-in games with the Switch when it launched back in 2017. Rather, the company has been focused on selling even titles like 1-2-Switch separately, sticking to the philosophy that Miyamoto had told Fils-Aime about in the story.

EVs AND IVs (POKEMON)

With Generation 3, the Pokemon series introduced EVs and IVs, and completely changed the metagame. Governing individual base stats and their values and collectively allowing for massive variation even within a single species of Pokemon, EVs and IVs have since then become crucial to the underlying mechanics that dictate how players catch their Pokemon, raise their Pokemon, and battle with their Pokemon. Sure, it’s still entirely possible for someone to do an entire playthrough of a Pokemon game and not engage too deeply with EVs and IVs, but especially where the competitive scene is concerned, these are crucial.

Jesse Moerkerk – Longest Game Session In Freefall

Some might say that Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the gravity mechanics within are out of this world, but gamer Jesse Moerkerk took that a bit more seriously than Nintendo intended when in 2011, he spent 18 minutes and 52 seconds within an indoor sky dive playing the game mid free fall. The 6’5” man was said to be very graceful while remaining suspended, though I imagine the waggling of the Wii Remote could have easily sent him into a tailspin.

Nintendo Switch Reveal

Nintendo was coming off of the Wii U, and very much had everything to prove. All eyes were on the January reveal for Nintendo to show us what they had, and luckily they came out of the gate swinging with a strong concept, still very Nintendo uniqueness with their 3 ice cubes and many amazing reveals including Super Mario Odyssey. It was a long road, but Nintendo’s return to prominence began here.

As part of a new bundle, you can pick up the Nintendo Wii console – which comes with a Wii Remote Plus controller and Nunchuk – Wii Sports, and Wii Sports Resort for $129.99 USD. This bundle will be available in stores on October 28th.

Nintendo of America’s executive VP of sales & marketing Scott Moffitt stated that, “Nearly six years after it launched, people are still attracted to the pure, inclusive fun of the Wii console. A new suggested retail price and the inclusion of two great games make it an easy choice for families looking for a great value this holiday season.”

Will this motivate people who haven’t already purchased a Wii to pick one up when the Wii U is so close to release? Time will tell.

Source: The Verge

Super Mario 3D Land, which has been at the top (or near the top) of all charts- 3DS and all formats- ever since it came out in November, has now sold 5 million units, becoming the first 3DS game to reach the milestone. Mario Kart 7 is close behind, with 4,540,000 copies sold.

The third best selling game of the 3DS is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, selling 2,490,000 since its release last June. Capcom’s Monster Hunter Tri G is the fourth highest selling 3DS game, selling over a million units.

Nintendo also announced that DS titles New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS have also created records, with the former selling 28,740,000  unitsand the latter selling 22,300,000 units.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which came out in November last year, has sold 3,420,000 million copies globally. Wii Sports, now the Wii’s best selling game, has sold a whopping 79,160,000 copies, counting the millions of copies it must have sold when it was bundled with all Wiis. Bundled or not, this is an impressive figure indeed.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports Resort and Mario Kart Wii also impress, having sold 25,470,000, 29,870,000 and 31,910,000 units respectively.

Nintendo recently announced plans to release a New Super Mario Bros. game for the 3DS. It will be out before April next year.

Rare, Nintendo’s premiere in house developer at one time and now Microsoft’s not so premiere developer, has stated that it has no qualms in admitting that its upcoming Kinect Sports and Nintendo’ motion controlled classic Wii Sports can be compared. In fact, he admits that Rare had a good look at Nintendo’s offering before they set out to make a ‘better game.’

“In terms of the competition, we looked very carefully at Wii Sports,” said Rare’s creative director George Andreas in an interview with Edge. “We didn’t shy away from it – we actually attack it head on, if I’m honest.

“We looked at Wii Sports and, okay, if we were going to do this better, how much further can we go with this and will the consumer see an obvious improvement?”

Apparently, they have succeeded in their goals.

“The user feedback and user testing said we were coming back as a superior experience, and we added a lot of bells and whistles,” he commented, before reiterating: “We never shied away from the Wii Sports comparison.”

Oh, Nintendo. You’ve created a monster, you have.

Kinect Sports hit the stores this November, as one of the dozen launch titles for the peripheral.