Nintencats

The United States just got virtual dogs in Nintendogs, but is Nintencats heading for development?

Eurogamer comes to the rescue with an interview with Hideki Konno. In the interview, it appears that at some point Nintendo was doubting which would be the 'best' product for the market: Nintendogs or Nintencats?

The interview:

Eurogamer: So what came first - the idea of doing a pet sim, or the idea of creating a killer app for the Nintendo DS?

Hideki Konno: Actually, the original idea was to make software dealing with various types of animals for consoles, and we were doing a number of different experiments based around this.

Then Nintendo DS hardware development project began, and once we realised the DS was going to feature the dual screens, touch screen, microphone and wireless capability, we decided to make the software for the DS. We saw that by making use of the DS's unique functionalities, we could make a game based around puppies, and that it could be a lot of fun.

Eurogamer: You mentioned there that you were looking at other types of animals... Why did you pick puppies in the end?

Hideki Konno: We narrowed down the candidates into dogs and cats - after all, they are the two main types of companion animals loved by people all around the world. Why dogs instead of cats? Well, one of the things we really wanted to do was to let players teach tricks by utilising their own voices.

Cats are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning tricks, and also we wanted to have animals with much more fun-loving natures - we wanted the animals to be able to take part in contests, such as agility competitions, and we wanted people to be able to take their pets for a walk. So we decided that dogs were more preferable than cats when it came to realising those elements.

Eurogamer: Hmm... So does that mean you have no plans to do another version of the game which features cats?

Hideki Konno: Actually we are not excluding the possibility of developing games based on other animals. Now, with the success of Nintendogs in Japan, we are considering other options.

Eurogamer: So, er, Nintencats is a real possibility then?

Hideki Konno: To tell the truth, we were already starting to develop a cat-based game at the outset of this project. So we already have the cat models, voice data and so on.

Eurogamer: All righty then... When do you reckon we can expect Nintencats?

Hideki Konno: Give me more time to review the possibilities!

With the succes of Nintendogs and the efforts done in the past by Nintendo (voice samples were recorded and cat models were made), Nintencats is surely an option for the future.

src: Eurogamer

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Comments

• 

  how do i get new cats? please respond :)

  marcelman, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  thats kinda stupid cats dont really do anything exiting they should make nintenhorses but if they did make nintencats id buy it

  doggylover18, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Why is there a picture of a dog beside this thread?

  unusual_rex, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  there is a game called Cats 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and its just like nintendogs only its 4 computer

  marcelman, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  can sum1 help me with nintendogs?

  marcelman, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  hey i wouldnt buy it....

  marcelman, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  i dont think its a real game. I wouldn't want it anyway, cats arnt that active than dogs. I like dogs better.

  mikau, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  It is not a real game. It may come out eventually. You cannot get new cats unless this game becomes a reality.

  Nintendude, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  is nintencats a real game? please answer back...

  marcelman, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  um... can sum1 answer!!!!!

  marcelman, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Oh nice. 'If' it does come out I think i'd prefer it to nintendogs. Cats are so much better :)

  Opium, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  I have a cat already. I see no need to get a virtual one, but if this was released, I probably would get it anyway! :) I don't have a dog, so I'm going to have virtual ones! (My copy STILL hasn't arrived yet.) Personally, I'd like to see NintenSnakes or NintenBugs. Or NintenPeople. :P

  Nintendude, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Frankly, if you want a kick butt game, I'd go NintendFerrets ... Smarter than dogs AND cats, infinitely more 'adorable' than either - SO much you could do with them. Cats basically ignore you (we have two .. and all they want to do is ignore us unless they want something). With ferrets, you'd have to nip train, box train, give them shiny objects to steal (finding them would be part of the game). Who knows? After all, after cats and dogs, ferrets are one of the most popular pets on the planet!

  Darkuni (DSR), 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  oh please....once i adopt it...its going to do a garfield on me....bring on Nintendogs!!!!

  tiamat1990, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  If they make a cat verson my friend would love that for some reason she hates dogs and loves cats!

  mazinger, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  No, he says that at some point they were experimenting with a cat-version. Basic prototyping-idea.

  Dennis, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  This practically confirms the release of Nintencats since he said they were already in development of a cat based version. They have models + sound stuff done, so first screens coming up hopefully \o/

  skarma, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Wow, does this include "cleaning your backdoor from dead present-mice (and mouse-parts..) every morning"-Tasks? ;)

  Sildorian, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Maybe the dinos could kill the Dogs \o/ Posted by Skarmachild by the way.

  rocket_exe, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
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  Waiting for Nintendosaurs myself. Would be nice if that would feature connectivity with Nintendogs :P

  Dennis, 30-11--0001 at 00:00