Nintendo 3DS Blog

At the moment, the usage of StreetPass outside of Japan is a lot less and interesting than StreetPass usage inside of Japan. But as announced at E3 2013, Nintendo is planning to fix this problem in a software update.

“How?”

Well, the StreetPass feature will be changed so you’re able to “exchange data with others by visiting the same location even at a different time”.

This is possible because certain locations (mostly Wi-Fi access points at Starbucks or McDonald’s) will be transformed into “relay stations” with this update. These relay stations save your data and pass it onto other people while also passing your data onto other people. In the end, more StreetPass fun is had by all.

The software update will be released later this year.

Woo.

As expected, a new batch of Pokémon have been leaked from CoroCoro magazine in Japan. You can find images of the following additions after the break:

• Kofukimushi, a bug type Pokémon that evolves into Spewpa. From there, Spewpa evolves into Vivillion (a half-flying, half-bug type) which we have previously seen.
• Shishiko, a fire and normal type.
• Furabebe, a fairy type (which in itself is a new type).

I wonder why it’s always the fire types that look the best. I’d say these are overall better than the previously-revealed batch though.

(via nintendolife.com)

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The original Shantae was supposed to be released on the Virtual Console before the end of June, but it has since moved to an unspecified date in July. When the final date is shared, I’ll of course post it to this blog.

(via twitter.com)

Reggie Fils-Aime has shared this anecdote at E3 2013:

I was emailing back and forth with Mr. Iwata a couple of weeks ago and he asked me why one reporter in the U.S. was saying that Nintendo ‘wouldn’t even be at E3’ this year. I told him I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out why people report what they do.

But there’s not a lot to “figure out”. This happens for three reasons:

1. Laziness. Can’t be bothered to get the facts right.
2. Bitterness. Doesn’t want to get the facts right.
3. Greed. Misleading to make a story more dramatic, and therefore more profitable.

And for the times I’ve been guilty of any of these (for that has surely been the case), I apologise. But the “wouldn’t even be at E3″ story was particularly bizarre. I did notice a lot of people assuming that Nintendo wouldn’t have any presence at the show. Bit of an odd detail to get wrong.

In an effort to “expand [their] digital business”, Nintendo is “planning to offer new types of content” via the eShop. As a result, they’re currently working on their first ever free-to-play software. This will be a game we can play for free, but assumably can pay to expand with additional content. We don’t know anything about it for the moment, but it’s coming out during this fiscal year (before the end of March 2014).

To be clear though, this could be a Wii U title. We’re not sure. No console has been specific so far. But the fact that Nintendo is interested in free-to-play at all is interesting. No matter what console they start with, if it makes Nintendo money, it will surely spread to the other.

(via nintendo.co.jp)

Nintendo has shared their official video recap of the developer roundtable for Pokémon X and Pokémon Y at E3 2013. You can watch it after the break.

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Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that Nintendo worked on versions of Pikmin for both the 3DS and the GameBoy Advance. This is his explanation why we saw neither of them though:

…but they were versions that I wasn’t really happy with until we came to this version on the Wii U and I finally felt like I was able to create the Pikmin game that I wanted to create.

And while a portable Pikmin would have been cool, I’m going to trust Miyamoto’s judgment on this.