NeoGAF member “Mama Robotnik” has written up a brilliant feature on Silicon Knights. The post goes well into detail regarding the studio’s early times, debacles, and cancelled projects.

Much has been said about Silicon Knight’s Eternal Darkness 2 (perhaps one of the studio’s most-anticipated yet not-officially-announced projects), but we’ve never seen any assets from the game. Screenshots have never popped up online, nor have concept arts of any kind.

Thanks to some findings by Mama Robotnik, we may finally have some renders/art from Eternal Darkness 2. A former Silicon Knights 3D character artist included the images below in a couple of folders that could very well be from the game.

The purple creature in particular was probably created for Eternal Darkness 2 based on the fact that Mantorok was the only surviving ancient. The other ancients were able to create red/blue/green undead monsters, so Mantorok would have likely made his own purple soldiers in the sequel.

Source

3D Classics: TwinBee, Metroid II, Mario Party 2 available on Club Nintendo

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii Shop Channel | 0 comments

Three digital downloads are available on Club Nintendo. Through January 6, 3D Classics: TwinBee, Metroid II: Return of Samus, and Mario Party 2 can be ordered from the site for 150 coins each. Last week’s addition, 1080 Snowboarding, is also up for 150 coins.

View order pages for each game here.

Video: The wrath of Reggie

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Random, Videos | 0 comments

I’d probably be doing you all a disservice if I didn’t post the above video on the site. It’s amazingly funny!

Frontier lays off staff

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Frontier Developments, known for the LostWinds games and Elite: Dangerous, has confirmed layoffs at the studio. Managing director David Walsh told Eurogamer that “the changing mix of skills requirements for our current and future projects”, which “remain healthy”.

Frontier let go of 14 of its 233 staffers last week. Positions affected include art, animation and audio.

Eurogamer reports that affected staff were informed about the layoffs last Friday at 6 PM. The news hit just eleven days before Christmas.

Walsh said the following in a statement:

“Frontier regretfully has given a total of 14 people (from a staff of 233) notice that their roles are redundant, across art (9), animation (3) and audio (2) disciplines. This is due to the changing mix of skills requirements for our current and future projects – it is not a reflection on the company’s prospects, which remain healthy. Once we took the decision to make the roles redundant, we felt it was better that the affected people knew ASAP so they can plan any further expenditure over the Christmas period accordingly and focus on their search for new roles as soon as possible. We have provided redundancy arrangements in excess of the minimum. We are actively recruiting to shift the balance of skills we have within the company to enable us to deliver the set of projects currently in development.”

Source

Happy holidays from Nintendo

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Nintendo is wishing its fans a happy holiday for the 2012 season. The company has produced an animated card that can be viewed in a number of different languages. It’s heavily influenced by New Super Mario Bros. 2’s launch back in August.

You can view the card here.

Nintendo Power Dec. 2012 scans – Nintendo Power memories, reviews

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, General Nintendo, Images, News, Wii, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Well folks, this is the end of the line. Nintendo Power’s final issue is out that door and has started to reach subscribers. The magazine picks their all-time favorite games and looks back on Nintendo Power’s history. There are reviews of the first wave of Wii U titles as well.

Club Nintendo registration issues being ironed out

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Club Nintendo has been experiencing issues as of late. Some members were not receiving coins for filled-out surveys, and issues have been plaguing the site in general.

Nintendo is currently resolving the issue, but assures Club Nintendo users that their coins will not be lost.

Logged-in visitors should be seeing the following message on the site:

“Some customers are currently experiencing issues with registrations and earning Coins for surveys. We are actively working to resolve these issues, and apologize for any inconvenience. Please be assured that we will make sure you receive Coins for any eligible registrations or surveys taken during this time.”

“Zelda Game” pops up on Windows 8 store

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Random | 0 comments

Something called “Zelda Game” has been found on Microsoft’s Windows 8 Marketplace. Believe it or not, developer Joeri Kerkhof is charging consumers $1.49 for the download.

I wonder how long this one will remain on the store. A day? A week? I can’t see it staying up too long.

Via

Capcom looks to improve localization efforts, hire new staffers next year

Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Next year, Capcom is hoping to improve its localization efforts. Director and executive corporate officer for Consumer Games Business Katsuhiko Ichii told GamesIndustry that the company wants to break into more territories and have titles translated into 13 to 15 languages.

“We’ve seen a great deal of expansion of markets in emerging countries and regions, such as Russia, Eastern Europe, South Africa, India, and the Middle East. When you combine the size of these new markets, they’re about as large as the markets in major developed nations such as Germany and France. However, to successfully break into these regions, localizing our games is a must. Up until now we’ve only done English voiceovers for game characters, but by next year we’re looking to do voiceovers in languages of 5 to 7 countries, and have the in-game text translated into 13 to 15 languages. This will give us with a major boost in the area of game localization.”

Capcom is also looking to expand its overall pool of developers in 2013. Roughly 100 additional staffers will be brought in starting next month.

“We’re looking at taking on about 100 additional developers next year, with plans to continue strengthening our development structure. Capcom is actively working to create games for the ever-diversifying range of platforms, such as smartphones and tablet devices. That’s why we intend to actively recruit and employ largely new graduates. This will provide us with individuals we can raise up into employees capable of forging Capcom’s future.”

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