Petition for ‘Dark Souls II’ on Wii U started
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
I actually saw this on reddit a couple of days ago, but didn’t think it was news-worthy for our great website. Apparently, IGN has not such high standards.
I kid, of course. This is serious business, because the ultra-hard sequel to the ultra-tough game Dark Souls was announced just a few days ago for PS3, PC, and 360– but not for Wii U. Apparently a group of gamers is pretty frustrated by this, so they’ve started an online petition to try and get Namco Bandai to reconsider. Currently there are about 6,000 people who have pledged support, and while I’m not sure that’s quite enough to get the game released (try 100,000… or more!), it’s a start. If you would buy Dark Souls II on Wii U, add your name to the petition:
Eurocom officially shutdown
Posted on 12 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
After laying off 150 staffers last month, Eurocom has now dismissed its remaining employees and will now close its doors. The company suffered from a “severe cash flow shortage” once it was unable to land expected development contracts.
42 staff were left at the studio following last month’s wave of redundancies. They were each let go this morning.
A lengthy statement from Eurocom can be found below.
Activision executive says smartphones and tablets threaten the 3DS/Vita market
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
“It is a challenging market, and challenging in a number of ways. From a gameplay immersiveness standpoint, from price point and business model standpoint, I mean it’s $40 for some of those games and you can get great experiences – not necessarily comparable experience, but great nonetheless – for seven dollars on a tablet. Our relationships with Sony and Nintendo are important and we continue to support them by creating games on both [Vita and 3DS] platforms. Beyond that the market’s going to speak ultimately as to the viability of those products.” – Activision’s Vice President of Mobile Development, Greg Canessa
Well, I think the market is speaking fairly strongly on the issue! The 3DS just recently surpassed the lifetime sales of the Gamecube (yes, after just two and a half years being out), it’s halfway to meeting the lifetime sales of the SNES, and two-thirds of the way to meeting the N64’s lifetime sales. On top of that, it’s still outselling the original DS on a week-to-week basis!
Vita isn’t doing so hot, but I think the 3DS’ performance alone speaks to how healthy/unhealthy the portable gaming market is.
NBA 2K13 (Wii U) producer says devs shouldn’t base games around a console’s features, and instead only use them when they enhance the experience
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Wii U | 0 comments
“One of the main things– and it’s a philosophy I wish more people would take– is not trying to build your game around what the feature set of the hardware is, but analyze how your customer has interacted with the game up to that point and see if the hardware’s feature set can further enhance that. Because you’ve been successful for a reason, so to go and try and reinvent everything just because you want to use this feature doesn’t necessarily mean your customer is going to enjoy the new experience.” – NBA 2K13 producer Rob Jones
Much like what Jim Sterling said in a recent piece about Black Ops 2 on Wii U, sometimes you just have to let games be regular games, even when a console has specific features that make it stand out. Mr. Jones seems to understand that! He continued:
“For example, with the Wii you could use the remote as a pointer, but people don’t experience basketball games that way, so trying to change the game just to get the Wii pointer to work didn’t make a lot of sense. PlayStation Move probably had the same kind of effect. We tried to make a game that could be played simply with the peripheral, but the peripheral just didn’t match our core customer. So what you’ll see with the Wii U title is we only did what we thought would be an extension of what our customers were already experiencing because it makes sense that way.”
I like this guy! He understands how games are made! Of course, it’s a steady balance– if you (as a developer) pass up the opportunity to use a feature that would clearly improve gameplay just because you’re lazy, and then you try and pass it off as “not being gimmicky”, you’ll get into trouble. I have a feeling that’s not what’s happening here though.
New ‘Kunio-kun’ game in the works?
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Before you scroll past because you have no idea what that is, Kunio-kun is the Japanese name for the series that spawned River City Ransom, Super Dodgeball, and Nintendo World Cup. So what does it mean that a teaser page for the series has been put up by Arc System Works?
It’s hard to say, but the last game released in this conglomerate series was a remake of Renegade on 3DS last year. That game has yet to come out outside of Japan.
Next ‘Inazuma Eleven’ game is getting back to its roots?
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Fans of the soccer RPG Inazuma Eleven will be pleased to hear that a new game is in the works, and Level-5 CEO is saying that it will return to the “origin”. No exact word on what that means (translations are tough!), but I would guess he just means it’s getting back to its roots as a franchise.
Keep your eyes peeled– we’ll likely hear more shortly.
Disney Infinity – New details
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
A new project from Disney Interactive is being teased…
– Code named “Toy Box”
– Large, ambitious project by Disney Interactive
– Most likely uses NFC/RFID to interact with physical objects
– Will be a console game
– Features Disney/Pixar characters and environments
– Interacts with mobile and online applications
– “Infinite possibilities”, according to Roger Iger
Ubisoft CEO says they’re interested in buying THQ
Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
I know a lot of people hate Ubisoft for their UPlay DRM baloney (among a few other things, I’m sure), but I can’t help liking them to some extent, and now I’m happy to hear that they’re at least considering purchasing slowly-dying game developer THQ.
“What happened to [THQ] is something that happens regularly when we have transition. They have good things. We are always interested in good brands. For sure, it’s something we can consider, but I can’t tell you more.” – Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot
I just want them to bring the Worms franchise back! That game has so much potential!
