Nintendo Live event canceled following threats against staff

On a drizzly February afternoon, I arrive at a modest, three-story building a stone’s throw from Kyoto’s Kamo River. A plaque reads “PLAYING CARDS” in gold letters against a staid shade of dark green, next to a stylish double door flanked by a pair of bright-red flags. Around the entrance, the pale brick facade has a distinctive mix of 1930s-style art deco curves and linear graphic stonework; it’s clear that in this quiet, largely residential area, this establishment isn’t like its neighbors. A pair of tourists and their Japanese guide coast along on bicycles. “This is the original headquarters of the video game company Nintendo,” the guide says in English as they slow down next to me. His clients express delight — they’d never have known if he hadn’t pointed it out.

Nintendo has been doing its best to expand its brand beyond “just doing video games” by putting its IPs into the public viewing space in different ways. We know about their success in movies and such via Mario’s animated film, but another big success for them was Super Nintendo World. The park had a rocky start thanks to the pandemic happening right when they were supposed to open, but they bounced back well and have had a great turnout. Plus, they expanded the park into the United States and will be opening a third park location there, too. But, like with everything Nintendo does, expansion was inevitable.

Movies and games have always had an ambivalent relationship. Gaming’s the new kid on the block, and it seems pathologically obsessed with clinging onto Hollywoodesque tropes and presentation styles. Nevertheless, with its flourishing popularity, the gaming industry does occasionally show deep-seated desires to forge an independent identity.

Surprise! There's a free demo for Another Code: Recollection now available to download from the eShop.

Hideo Kojima’s work is heading to the silver screen. Announced today, A24 is bringing Kojima Production’s Death Stranding into live-action. The film is said to delve into the blurring between life and death, the titular “Death Stranding”, that brought horrific monsters into an ever-collapsing world.

Pre-orders for Team Ninja’s Rise of the Ronin are now available digitally on the PlayStation Store and physically on PlayStation Direct and various retailers. The Standard Edition retails for $69.99, while the Digital Deluxe Edition costs $79.99.

The Nintendo Switch has been an absolute juggernaut where its sales are concerned (and in other areas), and it’s enjoyed that success all over the world. In fact, in the United States, it recently crossed another major sales milestone.

Finally, we’ve got an update on the live-action adaptation of My Hero Academia, and it’s pretty promising. The show has been long in development at Netflix after they landed the rights to the beloved anime.

Fortnite has had some amazing crossovers in the past, scoring huge brands such as Star Wars and Marvel. However, there’s one collaboration that developer Epic Games hasn’t been able to pull off yet, but it wants to: Nintendo.

The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has said the next game in the series probably won't be a direct sequel to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo has added three more classic N64 games to its Switch Online expansion pack: 1080° Snowboarding, Harvest Moon 64 and Jet Force Gemini.

Even though there was still no mention of it at The Game Awards - to be expected since Nintendo prefers to do its own thing - the widely held belief, almost expectation at this point, is that the Switch's successor will be announced, and maybe even launch, in 2024. That means the amiibos coming our way during the first two months of 2024 will be the Switch's last, and maybe even Nintendo's last if amiibos aren't a factor on the Switch 2. First Xenoblade's Noah and Mio, and then Sora, the final Smash amiibo which finally received a firm release date this week.