by Stone Marshall | Dec 16, 2016 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
This week’s launch of Super Mario Run should power up shares of Nintendo, 7974.TO -2.786675208199872% Nintendo Co. Ltd. ADR U.S.: OTC USD30.35 -0.87 -2.786675208199872% /Date(1481757601000-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1026072 P/E Ratio 69.83433041877589 Market Cap 34748994841.3984 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 753082 More quote details and news » which still offer value as the Japanese game maker looks to replicate the massive success of Pokemon Go that fueled a powerful rally in the stock this year.
Nintendo’s (7974.JP) release of Super Mario Run marks the company’s first proper foray into smartphone games, and it’s been a long-time coming for the 130-year old company. Nintendo has missed out on the mobile craze, which has spawned mega hits from Candy Crush to Clash of Clans. Sales of its gaming hardware have dwindled. Pokemon Go, which has been downloaded 500 million times, was developed by Google’s Niantic and its impact on Nintendo’s bottom line has been negligible. For the company’s full-blooded mobile debut, players take control of Mario as he runs through levels collecting gold coins and fighting his arch-foe – a large turtle called Bowser.
While the success of the launch of Super Mario Run will dictate the stock’s short term direction, there is more to Nintendo than just its mustachioed Italian mascot. Long-term earnings should lift as the company gradually unlocks the mobile potential of its intellectual property, while new hardware set for next year could get gamers logging on again. The stock is up roughly 70% this year, placing it on track for its biggest calendar year return since 2007, but potential to grow earnings at a double digit pace could lift the stock another 30%.
Nintendo Can Score 40% Gain on Super Mario Run
by Stone Marshall | Dec 16, 2016 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Minecraft took off while it was still the project of just one developer, and went on to become one of the biggest games in the world today. Imagine how different its history might have been with the backing of Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto.
That’s the alternate world state we’re all contemplating in the wake of a Glixel interview in which the creator of Donkey Kong, Mario, Pikmin and more revealed his own dabbling in the genre.
“I do like Minecraft, but really more from the perspective of the fact that I really feel like that’s something we should have made,” he said.
“We had actually done a lot of experiments that were similar to that back in the N64 days and we had some designs that were very similar.”
Given how much Nintendo enjoys fostering play and creativity, you have to wonder why it didn’t happen. Was it hardware limitations? The lack of online infrastructure at the time? Miyamoto’s next comment may provide some clues.
“It’s really impressive to me to see how they’ve been able to take that idea and turn it into a product,” he said. That sounds to me like Nintendo prototyped some sort of sandbox builder but couldn’t figure out how to turn it into a compelling game. Heck, plenty of people still don’t “get” why Minecraft’s so fun.
At this point I was reminded of a 2014 Kotaku interview in which Miyamoto and colleague Shinya Takahashi said that Minecraft isn’t as popular in Japan as in the west, and that they’d like to see it made more kid-friendly in terms of controls.
It occurs to me the family-friendly Nintendo would definitely have wanted some way to prevent players creating giant golden dicks, too – something LEGO Universe struggled with – as well as copyright infringements.
Anyway. Elsewhere in the interview Miyamoto talked about his drafting process and how he views himself as a designer of products, not works of art. Nevertheless, he said he designs gams with his three close colleagues at Nintendo based on what they themselves think is fun, and then see if it sells, rather than researching the market first.
Miyamoto also said he doesn’t really play many competitor’s games; he prefers to spend time gardening and practicing carpentry.
There’s heaps of other good stuff in there for anybody interested in one of Nintendo’s most important figures and how the platform holder functions; go check it out through the link above.
Nintendo made a game “very similar” to Minecraft for the N64
by Stone Marshall | Dec 14, 2016 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Since its release in 2011, Minecraft has captured the hearts and minds of today’s youth. With the recent release of MinecraftEDU school version, this popular game is rapidly becoming the most important educational software of our generation and is now used to teach logic, problem solving, and geometry.
While many educators use Minecraft to teach project-based learning and other liberal arts topics, many don’t realize that Minecraft is one the best ways to teach students computer programming. Here are four reasons Minecraft is great for teaching kids coding.
Minecraft Motivates
Getting kids to try computer programming is surprisingly easy. Keeping them engaged, however, is a very different story. While kids will quickly adapt to the new stimuli, they rarely take the steps towards became masters of this new, albeit complicated skill.
But when it comes to this popular game, kids are more interested that you can imagine. Be introducing mods, you can engage kids by letting them change their own game. “Mods” (short for modifications) are changes to the Minecraft game that give its characters, objects, and landscapes new and surprising characteristics. In order to “mod” the game, students must learn to to code in order to make meaningful changes. When kids are able to imagine and code their own custom mods, they become focused and engaged.
Visual Block Coding Options
Hunting for keys on a keyboard can be frustrating for young learners. As a solution, some brilliant educators developed drag-and-drop visual block tools that allow kids to perform event-driven programming with with Lego-like function blocks. Alice and Scratch popularized this methodology, and in 2016 Microsoft and Code.org unveiled a Minecraft drag and drop coding platform.
Visual blocks represent important computer programming functions such as If Then statements, Loops, and more, and can help younger students learn the foundations of computer science in a visual way. Visual block coding is in some respects similar to training wheels on a bicycle. It is designed to be outgrown. For early learners, however, it allows students to focus more on concepts rather than syntax, and provides another great way to use Minecraft as a coding resource.
Modding Teaches Real Java
When kids are ready to take their skills to the next level, Minecraft Modding with Java can introduce them to real programming. One of the coolest byproducts of Minecraft’s open architecture is that it allows users to access Minecraft’s Java source code to literally create anything that they can imagine. While modding with Java, kids learn to create their own custom pickaxes, their own enemies, or their own dimensions. They can use Java coding to give their creations special properties and then try out their creation in the game that they love to play.
The “Ah Ha” moment in which a child plays with her mod in the game is a marvel to see, and once kids experience it, they want to learn more. Modding provides children with the additional motivation and persistence required to overcome common occurrences in programming – bugs, exceptions, and other technical glitches.
Courses Provide Numerous Options
Minecraft-based educational offerings keep expanding at breakneck speed, and there are many interesting resources that kids can use to learn coding. Microsoft’s investment in MinecraftEDU seems promising and they’re expected to build out more Minecraft visual block coding challenges.
Other providers such as CodaKid, CodeKingdoms, and LearntoMod are also producing interesting high-quality Minecraft coding courses that can help kids gain an understanding of important coding concepts and walk away with valuable 21st century skills.
David Dodge is the founder and CEO of CodaKid Online Kids Coding Academy. He is a former game designer for the Sony Playstation and PC, and the software architect of Tutorware.
4 Reasons Why Minecraft Is Great for Teaching Kids Coding
by Stone Marshall | Dec 14, 2016 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
The creator of Nintendo’s Donkey Kong, Pikmin and Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, expressed his regrets that Nintendo was not able to release a game like Minecraft. The creator admits they had games designed like it but the project never realized to an actual game.
Nintendo Released A Game Like ‘Minecraft’
The ‘Minecraft’ project started with only one developer and suddenly became one of the hottest and most popular game in the world. But fans can’t help but think what could have happened if they have Nintendo to back them up.
According to Miyamoto, they had the same idea and design similar to it before. He reveals the game even have multiple experiments to polish the game as they plan to release it on N64. However, Miyamoto shares the team just didn’t have enough ideas to turn the idea into an interesting game. “That sounds to me like Nintendo prototyped some sort of sandbox builder but couldn’t figure out how to turn it into a compelling game.” Miyamoto said.
Why Nintendo Never Released the Game Like ‘Minecraft’
And it looks like ‘Minecraft’ didn’t really need a compelling idea how the game should be played as its players have their reason why they’re playing. Miyamoto says a lot of people never really figured out the purpose of the game but lots of them still play the game.
Minecraft has definitely captured the hearts of many gamers of every age. This is also the reason why more players are wondering why Nintendo never really released a game like this. But Miyamoto seems to understand now why it happened. Nintendo is strict in providing family-friendly games and with the freewill every player have in ‘Minecraft’, a clash between ‘Minecraft’ gameplay and the rules of Nintendo will clash at some point. For instance, the ability of ‘Minecraft’ players to create naughty images or anything not suitable for a child.
Nintendo Made A Game Like ‘Minecraft’; Super Mario Creator Regrets Nintendo Did Not Release ‘Minecraft’
by Stone Marshall | Dec 13, 2016 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
‘Minecraft’ News & Update: Nintendo Almost Made the Game for N64; Here’s Why It Didn’t Happen
The six-year-old widely popular sandbox video game “Minecraft” from Swedish game designer Markus “Notch” Persson and Mojang is one of the today’s best selling games. But what most don’t know is that Nintendo almost made the game for N64, or something similar to it. Here’s why it didn’t happen.
VG247 reports that Shigeru Miyamoto, who is responsible for the games found in the NES Classic Edition, admitted that he came close to making something like “Minecraft” for the N64. Miyamoto is credited for his work on iconic video games “Donkey Kong,” “Mario,” “The Legend of Zelda,” and more.
According to IGN, Miyamoto admires “Minecraft” and feels as if the game was something Nintendo “should have made.” He also admitted that back in the day, he and his team performed experiments that were much like “Minecraft,” adding that even the designs were similar as well.
There are no bad feelings between Miyamoto and Mojang, however, even if Nintendo almost made the game for N64. In fact, Miyamoto admitted that he’s very impressed with the success of “Minecraft” to this day. But the reason behind why Nintendo almost made the game for N64 remains unclear.
What’s the reason why it didn’t happen? Why was Nintendo’s version of “Minecraft” left on the cutting room floor? The gaming genius that is Miyamoto should have foreseen the success of something like “Minecraft,” given its status today. He did not explain why he and his team did not push through with Nintendo’s version of “Minecraft” for the N64, but he did admit his admiration for the game.
As we still don’t know why it didn’t happen, let’s all just be thankful that “Minecraft” does exist, and that somewhere in a parallel universe, a Nintendo version of “Minecraft” is existent. As for Miyamoto, we’re still waiting on what iconic games he’s going to release next
‘Minecraft’ News & Update: Nintendo Almost Made the Game for N64; Here’s Why It Didn’t Happen
by Stone Marshall | Dec 13, 2016 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
Shigeru Miyamoto – the man responsible for creating Mario back in 1981– has been in the United States promoting the December 15th release of Super Mario Run for iPhone and iPad, keeping a brutal schedule that has included playing guitar with the Roots on The Tonight Show and speaking to a packed crowd at the SoHo Apple Store in New York. His new game marks a massive change of approach for the pioneering company he’s worked at for more than 30 years, as it sees its crown jewel property appearing on devices not made by Nintendo.
We caught up with Miyamoto at the end of his big publicity tour and spoke to him about his creative process, his feelings about getting older, whether he’s thinking of retiring any time soon and how he sees himself as a creator. He also reveals that he’s been able to find the time to work on ideas for Nintendo’s theme park partnership with Universal by not leading the charge on the company’s upcoming Switch console.
You mentioned in your presentation at the Apple Store this week that your core team has been together for 30 years. How do you keep that relationship together and keep it working?
It’s interesting, because people often ask me what I’m most proud of and for the longest time it was a question I always really struggled with. A few years ago, I realized that the thing that I’m really the most proud of is that I’ve been working with the same core group of people for the last 30 years – and really it’s because you just don’t see that happen very often.
There’s myself, Takeshi Tezuka, Toshihiko Nakago and there’s actually a fourth member of our group too: Koji Kondo. Usually it’s the four of us that work on things together. There are probably a few reasons for it. I think we’re actually somewhat special because we’re all Nintendo employees, and that’s unique compared to what you’ll sometimes see with other creative groups. The other is that in working together over the past 30 years, we’ve all fallen into these very specific roles in the development process and that’s enabled us to work really well.
What are those roles?
Well, I’m the boss. Because I’m the oldest.
What’s key is that all that we do is work very closely together to make sure the thing we’re doing is really fun. That’s what we’re always striving for. One of the things we’ve done to maintain the relationship is that we spend a lot of time together. Japan is a country where people really work a lot, so every day we always eat lunch together and go to dinner together.
When there’s an idea for a game or something that we think is just going to be fun, generally the four of us share a similar opinion. We all kind of agree on the fundamentals. The other thing I’ve noticed is that although we have this strange convergence of opinions, when other people come into the group and see what we’re getting all excited about, people will often question us and say “oh, does that really seem that fun?”
We just really trust each other, and that came into play with Super Mario Run because it was easy for us to drill down and know what we should and shouldn’t do on mobile. We aligned very quickly.
So what did that look like?
This time from the very beginning we decided that we wanted to make the very simplest Mario game that we possibly could. When we first made Super Mario Bros. 30 years ago, obviously a lot of people played it and part of the reason they liked it was that all you did was move to the right and jump. It was pretty simple. Gradually Mario games have become more complex and it’s harder for people to control now. This time we started off with the idea of: “What if we made a Mario game where all you do is jump and everything else is handled automatically?” Then we had to think about how we could take that basic structure and make it fun.
Shigeru Miyamoto on Mario, ‘Minecraft’ and Working With Apple
