Daily Briefs (Oct. 27): Renesas (Wii U semiconductors manufacturer), Boo amiibo

Today’s Daily Briefs: impact of the Wii U flop on Renesas (Wii U semiconductors manufacturer), but also…

• Boo amiibo
• Mario Party: Star Rush

Renesas (Wii U semiconductors manufacturer)

Renesas is a name you’re most definitely not familiar. It’s the company that produced key semiconductors for the Wii U, and actually did the same for the Wii. Nintendo’s former home console was an incredible success with over 100 million units sold worldwide. The Wii U… not so much. And quite naturally, Renesas was hurt badly by the downright terrible sales of the Wii U.

The success of the Wii lead the company (previously known as NEC Electronics) to make several bad decisions:

• enhance the output capacity at its plant in the city of Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture
• taking as many orders as possible to raise the operating ratio of the plant… even loss-making orders, since it was pretty clear the Wii U was not going to be a goldmine like the Wii was.

In 2013, the company stopped supplying chips to the gaming and smartphone market (with volatile demand), and that’s how the Tsuruoka plant ended up sold to Sony.

Source: Nikkei

Boo amiibo

Here’s a promotional video for the Boo amiibo, which actually glows in the dark:

Mario Party: Star Rush

Here’s the segment dedicated to Mario Party: Star Rush from the latest episode of Denji Getcha:

And here’s a commercial showcasing amiibo use in the game:

Mario Party: Star Rush (3DS) comes out on November 4th in North America.