Nintendo also announced a new hardware project, codenamed NX, likely due to arrive in 2016. The future of the company may depend on how carefully it embraces non-Nintendo platforms. Thus far, the reality of that notion has been limited. In 2015, Nintendo partnered with DeNa with a plan to bring Nintendo franchises to mobile phones. In 2015, Nintendo also put an end to three straight years of losses, with a profits announcement in May. Next year sees the arrival of a new Zelda game. This year saw the launch of, arguably, Wii U's most impressive game to date, Super Mario Maker, which accounted for a significant leap in hardware sales. Still, the company fights on, partly through initiatives begun by Iwata and now being steered by his successor Tatsumi Kimishima, a business manager with a solid history of competence. The company has been battered by tough competitors, the growth of mobile games and its own tactical misstep with Wii U, which has not been a sufficiently compelling draw for consumers. More than ever, Nintendo needs leadership and inspiration. But at a practical level, it was a great loss for Nintendo itself. His passing was felt keenly by many who love games and who love Nintendo. He was a man of good humor, intelligence and generosity. When the company seemed to falter during the GameCube era, he steered through genuine innovations like the DS and the Wii.
He was a gaming visionary who understood, perhaps better than anyone, how to connect Nintendo with its audience.Īn admired game developer, he rose through the company ranks during the 1980s and 1990s, becoming president in 2002. Nintendo's much loved president Satoru Iwata passed away in July, aged just 55. These days they're joined by death threats and graphic fantasies about raping me, often accompanied by my home address and proof that the sender has everything they would need to carry through on them."Īt the end of the year, GamerGate was accused by one of its most vocal critics Veerender Jubbal of doctoring a selfie to make him look like a terrorist bomber involved in November's atrocities in Paris.Ĭorrection: An earlier version of this story quoted and linked to a report by the Broadband Commission Working Group on Gender covering online abuse against women that is currently in revision. "The girl I used to be," said Quinn during the hearings, "used to sit down and check her email where she'd get the occasional fan letter, business correspondence and spam email. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence this year branded GamerGate " an online hate group which was started by an ex-boyfriend to ruin life." The release of her 2013 text adventure Depression Quest inspired much admiration from fans, as well as hate speech and abuse from men who represented an actively misogynistic and reactionary section of gaming. GamerGate erupted in the summer of 2014, targeting feminists in games, and continued its abusive activities through 2015, with Quinn a central target.Įven prior to GamerGate, Quinn had been the target of misogynistic abuse. in April to discuss harassment and cyberstalking at a congressional briefing, she had already endured nine months of intense threats and abuse. When game developer Zoe Quinn arrived in Washington D.C. Finally, in mid-December, Kojima confirmed that he'd left Konami, while Sony announced a new partnership with him called Kojima Productions. At The Game Awards in early December, it emerged that Konami's lawyers had blocked Kojima from attending the Los Angeles event to collect an award. Konami promptly claimed that Kojima had merely left to go on vacation. A few weeks later, pictures emerged of him attending a farewell party at the company along with a report in The New Yorker that he had finally departed. Soon after the release of MGS5, Kojima released a farewell video celebrating the end of the Metal Gear series. Konami's subsidiary Kojima Productions was closed and, as we head into 2016, the publisher has no significant console projects on its future roster. But it had cost $80 million to make, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei. When the game appeared in September it attracted rave reviews and decent sales. Kojima issued a statement saying he was 100 percent dedicated to completing Metal Gear Solid 5. A few weeks later a report emerged in Japan that portrayed the company as an awful place to work, including allegations that employees who linger on lunch breaks have their names announced throughout the company. Konami delisted itself from the New York Stock Exchange, claiming a need to save cash.