The gaming world lost one of it’s great innovators this past weekend. Satoru Iwata passed away due to complications from Bile Duct cancer. Following his graduation from Tokyo University, Iwata worked with frequent Nintendo developer HAL Laboratories, where he developed games such as Kirby, Balloon Fight, and Mother (a.k.a Earthbound). In the early 90s, he became president of the company, helping turn its fortunes around, and contributed to Pokemon Gold/Silver, the start of another classic Nintendo franchise. In 2002, he became the fourth president of Nintendo, and the first not to be related by either blood or marriage to the Yamauchi family. Taking over Nintendo, Satoru began an initiative to make gaming more appealing to all different audiences. To that end, Satoru was the catalyst behind the development of the Nintendo DS and Wii, along with their successors the Wii U and 3DS, all of whom provided Nintendo fans with unique styles of gaming that were unseen on either of their competitors’ consoles. He also improved communications with fans as well, creating the Nintendo Direct conferences, a series of online presentations aimed at introducing new software and hardware to the public outside of regular channels. In 2013, Iwata took over as head of Nintendo of America. Under his direction, the company nixed large E3 presentations in favor of the smaller Nintendo Directs, such as last month’s puppet show. Earlier this year, Iwata cut a deal with mobile developer DeNA to bring its properties to the mobile market.

Ever since it entered the console gaming market in the early 80s, Nintendo has been an innovator in the industry. It was thanks to the efforts of great men like Shigeru Miyamoto, The late Gunpei Yokoi, Reggie Fils-aime, and Takashi Tezuka that the company continues to be innovative. Satoru Iwata is another one of these innovators, and he helped pushed the company above and beyond what it was. The impact of his loss will no doubt be felt throughout the gaming industry.

More posters and the trailer after the jump!
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ToyNewsInternational is reporting that Mattel’s presence at SDCC will be marked by the acquisition of the Thundercats toy license. Mattel has figures to show off based on the classic cartoon in scale with MOTU Classics figures. Lion-O and Vulture have, reportedly been sighted on the floor at SDCC.

Bandai last had the license in 2011, accompanying a failed reboot of the cartoon series on Cartoon Network. With MOTU Classics supposedly winding down this year, Mattel needs another big franchise to supplement MattyCollector. It sounds like they have found that in Thundercats.

We will be reporting further updates as the week and coverage continue!

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The product of a kickstarter which raised a little over $50,000, Hunniepop obviously isn’t for all audiences, nor is it meant to be. Clearly if you’re buying it, you know what you’re getting into. I personally don’t believe in any kind of censorship as all consumers should be able to decide for themselves whether or not games like this are appropriate for them or not, so I’m glad this game was made available. If one is willing to look past the ‘fanservice’, they’ll find an engaging puzzle game disguised as a dating sim/visual novel. Of course I admit that the eye candy doesn’t hurt either.
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More posters and the trailer after the jump!
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More posters and the trailer after the jump!
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Click here to see project releases for upcoming Wii U and 3DS titles.

Tuesday morning, Nintendo held its E3 digital presentation. Things were a bit underwhelming on the Wii U side (as they were likely preparing for the NX), but they went deeper into some of the newer things they were planning to release throughout the next several months. Square-Enix also had their press conference later that afternoon. While they showed more of what we had seen during the Sony and Microsoft conferences, they went deeper into what they have panned for gamers, and they also showed off a few new titles.
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