Talk:Nintendo: Difference between revisions

Archives
Archive 1 Archive 2

Added sources for Nintendo DS section

Since the first scribe that wrote the Nintendo DS section decided to throw random facts out there unsourced, I took the liberty of updating and sourcing the facts in this section, including:

• Nintendo DS has sold over 16.73 million units.
• It is neck-and-neck with the Sony PSP, shipping over 17 million units.
• This isn't counting the DS Lite, selling over 2 million units in Japan alone.

This is my first time editing in Wikipedia so far, just tell me if I screwed anything up. John D'Adamo 14:57, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

You did good. Though to be fair, the Nintendo's DS sales numbers did include DS Lite, which was at 580 thousand units as of the end of the 2006 fiscal year. The 2 million units figure is for a different point in time. In less than two-and-a-half months, the number of DS Lites have multiplied significantly. Dancter 15:31, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and to sign your posts, just append four tildes at the end (~~~~). The software substitutes the relevant information. Dancter 15:31, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Question. Is Associated Press, Tokyo branch a semi-reliable source? I'm contemplating whether to add Iwata's claim that two million DS Lites will be produced each month, backed up with the Tokyo AP source. John D'Adamo 14:56, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Considering that most of news outlets worldwide rely heavily on the Associated Press, I'd assume that it is reliable enough. But I don't know much about the Tokyo branch, so I don't actually know. I'd add it, anyway. It can always be modified or removed if there are any problems. Dancter 15:07, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Added some new figures I picked up off a Japanese website that first published the figures and then I added another source, GameScience, with the English translation for good measure. Then, I added the blurb about Iwata's claim he'd sell 2 million units per month backed up with the AP source. John D'Adamo 15:49, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Seems fine to me. One note, though: content on newswire pages such as on Reuters or Yahoo! Finance tends to disappear after a while, but as long as it's monitored, it's usually easy to find the information reproduced more permanently somewhere else when that happens. Dancter 16:03, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Vandal IP

Ok, I can't work out how to report the person who blanked this page, so if someone could do it, that would be great. His IP is 195.8.168.98 and he has been warned before.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ninjoc (talk • contribs) .

GA status

I have granted the GA status though there are still a few things to do :

• Currently, Nintendo's main competitors on the gaming front are Sony and Microsoft. shouldn't be used as there is no time in an encyclopedia.
• upcoming Wii. same as above.
• Decide what type of referencing to do, the prefered one is inline citations.
• Too many lists.
• Splitting should be envisioned.
• Image:Virtual Boy kit.jpg, Image:Nintendo.svg should give their fair use rationale.

Lincher 17:01, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Founding Date

Upon a Google search, I found most, or all perhaps, of the sites reference Wikipedia for the founding date. Does anyone know for sure the date of founding? Scepia 06:21, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Nintendo was founded in 1889. [1] I am not sure about the month and day. -- ReyBrujo 06:25, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, 1889 is pretty sure, but the exact date is unknown to us. I have traced the edit to this one, by Maxstokols: here. It was edited on 28 November 2005. Scepia 06:36, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm sure that it was November. It doesn't help that any Google search brings up this same Nintendo Wikipedia article. :P Ex-Nintendo Employee 06:42, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Source for November? And do you know the day in November, such as the 6th? Scepia 06:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC) Also, here is the text in the page history:

23:18, 28 November 2005 Maxstokols m

--Scepia 06:57, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Read it in a gaming history book a long time ago; it might have been David Scheff's Game Over, or there was this other one that had Pac Man on the cover that I don't remember the title of. Ex-Nintendo Employee 07:23, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Would you perhaps have some sort of access to one/both of the books? Scepia 07:34, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

The Scheff one is at the library down the block; I'll see if I can grab it when it opens this Monday. If anyone can recall what the title of the other one is, it would be greately appreciated. I know it was something like "History of Videogames", and has a PacMan on its cover (it seemed like almost a collage of game screens). Ex-Nintendo Employee 12:39, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Cool. Perhaps a {{cite book}} reference would work? I probably should have discussed this here first, but I started adding citations using footnotes and templates, due to the fact that there were already some uses of them in the article (they were hidden because there was no <references/> tag in the references section). There aren't many right now, so it should be easy to fix things if people disagree, but I feel that inline citations are important to facilitate verification. I'm not particular about which style is used, just as long as it's consistent. What does everyone think? Dancter 16:38, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and about the other book: are you talking about The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent? That and Game Over seem to be the two most popular gaming history books. Dancter 17:38, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

That's exactly the one! Thanks Dancter. Ex-Nintendo Employee 21:12, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, here is the response I got after emailing Nintendo of America.

Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

I'm sorry, the exact day that Nintendo was founded is not available. We appreciate your interest.

Have fun!
Nintendo of America Inc.
Joel Nicholson

This is something to consider, anyway. I will await for you to look the info up when you get the chance. Scepia 10:42, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

It's baffling I know, but Nintendo of America in general, and Joel Nicholson in particular, are actually the LAST place one should turn to if one is seeking timely answers to a question regarding in-depth Nintendo information. Take this response to a letter someone else once wrote about whether or not the DS' item code NTR-001 had anything to do with the word "Nitro":

"I'm sorry, we don't have access to the information that you requested.

It makes a lot of sense, though! The system was almost called "Nitro".

So, you are probably right!

Have fun!

Nintendo of America Inc.

Joel Nicholson"

I'll keep looking for the answers. Ex-Nintendo Employee 11:47, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Although we appreciate this information, remember that this is called original research. Even if this Joel Nicholson had stated the date was December 25, we would not be able to include it in the article as we are still lacking a reliable source for the statement. -- ReyBrujo 14:58, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I'd be surprised if you could trace it back to an exact date. Fusajiro Yamauchi probably didn't think it was relavent enough to keep that on record or even in mind. These were the days of paper and ink and any records held by the registration office (or whatever it was called it in 1889) I assume would be long gone. Obviously, had he known the success his company would lead, he would have kept details like that, but this was just someone trying to make a living selling hand painted cards. Would be interesting to see if it was known and recorded though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 01:28, 25 July 2006 (talk • contribs) 59.167.76.151.

Real founding date

Nintendo's 会社概要 mentions two specific dates. 創業: Meiji 22, 9-23. 設立: Meiji 22, 11-20. Meiji period says Meiji 22 is 1889. In Korean, 創業 means "open for business" and 設立 means "founded." I assume they mean the same thing in Japanese. --Kjoonlee 06:52, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Good work! Ex-Nintendo Employee 07:09, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Nice find, but I think you're confusing things slightly. The year for the second date is not Meiji, but Shōwa, which would be 1947. Dancter 07:12, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Heh, thanks for spotting that. I corrected the dates. According to Japanese calendar, Japan used the Gregorian Calendar since 1873, so 1889-09-23 should be correct. --Kjoonlee 07:25, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

One thing that slightly bugs me is, "What's the definition of 'foundation date?' Shouldn't we use 1947 instead, or could it be a mix-up due to a language barrier?"

Anyway, IMHO 1889 sounds better than 1947. --Kjoonlee 15:46, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I've edited most of the InterWiki links to mention the correct date. Some versions didn't include the date, so I didn't touch those. Could someone familiar with Greek or Hebrew check to see if I did okay?

The Esperanto and Japanese versions were OK from the beginning. --Kjoonlee 16:12, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Could someone familiar with foreign languages check to see if I did okay? --Kjoonlee 16:49, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

External links

There are quite a few external links, including some in the "references" section. Are there any that are expecially valuable?
brenneman ^{L} 01:04, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the following external links labled "references." Can any be tied to a spot in the article?
brenneman ^{L} 06:20, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

• Calderon, Anthony. Nintendo EAD: Pioneers of the Renaissance. Retrieved Feb.10, 2005.
• Liedhold, Marcus & Liedholm, Mattias. Nintendo Land. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• Forbes. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/41/41877.html Yahoo! Finance details for Nintendo Co, Ltd.] Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• Yahoo! Finance details for Nintendo of America. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• Bayer, Glen and Calderon, Anthony. Wii First-Party Support. Retrieved Mar. 18, 2005.
• McCullough, J.J.. Filibuster Cartoons. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• Nintendo copyrights. Retrieved Feb. 9, 2005.
• Nintendo's annual financial report. Retrieved July 29, 2005.
• List of official Nintendo sites. Retrieved October 9, 2005.
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System
• Did Nintendo want Atari to market the Famicom?

Gyration Corporation

Hello all. I noticed that an individual put a "fact" tag on the statement that the Wii used the technology from Gyration corporation. I'd like to discuss that particular fact tag.

• Gyration is the maker of a wireless mouse that (with the exception of the x/y sensors placed on the monitor) works the same as the Wii controller.
• Gyration expressed, publically, a desire to produce game controllers. According to them: "Gyration intends to be the first company to produce game controllers enhanced with gyroscopic motion-sensors, which have a tenfold performance increase over accelerometer tilt sensors and add the ability to sense yaw as well as pitch."
• Gyration also publically stated that they intend to specifically work with Nintendo in order to produce said controllers: "In September of 2001 Gyration Inc., a leading manufacturer of efficient gyroscope sensors, announced a deal with Nintendo. The details of the deal were straightforward - Nintendo was to invest an undisclosed amount of money into the company in return for the use of the Gyration technology.”

[2]

So we have three things: We have specific details of Gyration making clear a desire to make game controllers. We have a sum of money paid, by Nintendo, specifically for the use of Gyration's technology. And we have, after a small period of time, a controller that utilizes the exact same technology (with the exception of the x/y sensors added) that Gyrations does.

To me, the combination of all these factors makes it rather obvious that Nintendo pioneered the use of Gyration's technology for the Wii. What are your opinions regarding this? Ex-Nintendo Employee 02:19, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm the one who added that {{fact}} tag, and while I also thought it was obvious at first, the more information that gets out, the less likely it seems to be.

• Since the announcement, which was quite a few years ago, there has been very little news on the Gyration connection. Since that announcement, Gyration has been acquired by Thomson SA, and mention of ambitions to expand into the gaming domain seem to have cooled considerably. And you figure that the company would've made some announcement by now if a component of theirs was being included in the controller. The others have. It's not like the tilt-sensing functionality is a secret.
• The only recent information I could find was a blurb in a MEMS bulletin in February which indicated that a new Gyration sensor was forecast to be used in a controller developed by Diamond Multimedia, and available within three months (before May).[3] Not a single part of that forecast has yet come to pass.
• With the exception of yaw, all the tilt-sensing for which the Gyration sensor would be used for is possible with the announced linear accelerometers, as indicated in their press releases.[4][5] While it is not the same functionality, the sensor bar can be used to largely mitigate the loss of yaw detection.
• This wouldn't be the first time a deal with Nintendo would be announced that seems to have gone nowhere. A few years back, Nintendo announced an agreement with AOL concerning Internet service for the Nintendo GameCube. At the time this was speculated to be a hugely significant development, but few GameCube games ended up having an online capability, and none of them made any notable use of AOL services. While it may be argued that the GameCube agreement was just the companies dipping their toes before diving headlong with Wii, that doesn't seem likely. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection has had over 1.3 million unique users login, yet no mention has been made of any AOL involvement.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that there may still be a Gyration sensor in the Wii Remote, but I feel it's by no means a sure thing. Dancter 07:43, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I looked around a bit online and found out that the Gyration Inc. technology that Nintendo invested in in 2001 was used later in the two GBA games that used gyroscopes (Wario Ware Twisted and Yoshi Topsy-Turvy) and that the Wii-mote does not use gyroscope technology as it can measure movement on the x, y AND the z axis (distance from the TV). Movement on the z axis is not a gyroscope function. Also Sony has said numerous times that their controller cannot use rumble because it interferes with the gyro, but the Wii-mote has rumble so that implies that there is no gyro (this is speculation based on logic). I would hold off on saying that nintendo pioneered anything, especially since they mentioned on numerous occasions, apparently, that they did not invent the technology used in the controller, they just applied it to their game console (they said the same about the rumble and the analog stick). --Thaddius 12:21, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Quote from ip129.186.140.209 from the Wii Remote talk page: "According to this article [6] ArsTechnica seems to have it backwards. The sensor bar generates an infrared field, and the remote detects the movement through that field. I'm not quite sure how the controller is able to detect full position and orientation, but this sounds like a start."

Ok, so the sensor bar is for most spacial movement. It would seem that they use Accelerometers for the tilt though (link here) as they're using them in the nuchuk add-on. I don't see why they'd use gyros in the wii-mote and acellerometers in the nuchuk. I don't think they use gyros, I think it's just acellerometers. We can always just leave all this out until the danm thing it released and someone opens it up. --Thaddius 13:06, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, considering that you've read Talk:Wii Remote, then you already know the lengths to which this has been discussed. This page probably isn't really the place to have an all-out discussion of how the Remote works, but my point was that the dots shouldn't be considered connected yet. At the very least, the current statement should be {{fact}}-tagged, and probably would best be reworded to remove any inferences that a Gyration sensor being used in the controller. Dancter 16:52, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Nintendo offices and locations

I've been searching for the location of the main Nintendo office in Kyoto, Japan but haven't had any luck. I narrowed my search down to a small area (on google earth) and have been panning around looking for a white square building. I've seen a few but not sure which one is it. If anyone has this location could they post the coordinates on the article? I thought it might be worth mentioning here since others may be interested. Thanks.

Update: Found it! lat/long = 34.96963200, 135.75637800 (current google earth image has a slice through it where the 2 satellite images join so looks distorted) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.167.76.151 (talk • contribs) .

HAL Labs: isn't this a first-party?

If you take a look at where HAL Labs are mentioned in this article, and at HAL's own article,you'll see that it is owned by Nintendo and is a first party (in the same way that Retro Studios is a 1st party). Therefore, I feel I must ask, how come in the 'Developers Box Thing at the botton of the page it is listed as a second party?--NP Chilla 18:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The party status of HAL Labaoratory is frequently changed, as it seems there is conflicting sources on the matter. I imagine if more editors knew how to do it, it would also be changed in the Nintendo developers box, as well. As far as I can tell, though, it seems that despite the very close relationship between the two companies, HAL is not a full subsidiary of Nintendo. Dancter 20:04, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Now THAT is complicated. But correct me if I'm wrong, please - Retro Studios shares a very similar relationship to the Big N, as does Game Freak, and they are both counted as first party titles (ie, Pokémon is counted as a 1st party franchise); so how come these are both 1st parties, but HAL is not?--NP Chilla 14:08, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Anascape lawsuit

I wonder where can I find a section or article relating to Nintendo that has this lawsuit. I know it first started in 'The Inquirer', but soon it spread to more reliable sources like IGN and GameSpot. So if there is no mention of this incident please help record it in Wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.239.84.199 (talk • contribs) .

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. -- ReyBrujo 04:22, 5 August 2006 (UTC)