General Nintendo

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

TimeSplitters 4 was officially revealed in 2007. A year later, developer Free Radical Design went into administration.

Speaking with GamesTM (#128), former employee Steve Ellis told the magazine that the game “was in the very early stages of development” at the time. Unfortunately, publishers weren’t too interested in the project.

“TimeSplitters 4 was in the very early stages of development when Free Radical went into administration. A small playable demo was shown to several publishers, but it didn’t attract any publishing deals.”

Another former staffer and current Crytek UK managing director, Karl Hilton, also spoke with the magazine regarding the lack of interest for TimeSplitters 4. At the time, publishers had been skeptical due to the reception of Haze and concerns about how the title will be sold.

Hilton said publishers relayed the message “that you can’t market a game that is based around a diverse set of characters and environments – you need a clear and easily communicated marketing message, and TimeSplitters doesn’t have one.”

“We pitched it to a lot of publishers, and from each of them we got the same two responses. Firstly, they would ask what happened with Haze. We were the company that made a series of high-rated shooters and then we had released Haze, which wasn’t as well received. This worried them. Secondly, their marketing person would say something alone the lines of, ‘I don’t know how to sell this.’ The unanimous opinion among all publishers that we pitched TimeSplitters 4 to is that you can’t market a game that is based around a diverse set of characters and environments – you need a clear and easily communicated marketing message, and TimeSplitters doesn’t have one. Perhaps they are all right. Perhaps this is why the previous games in the series achieved much more critical success than commercial success. For these reasons, one by one they all declined to sign the project.”

Thanks to joclo for the tip.

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

Eurocom, the developer of Dead Space: Extraction and the most-recent 007 games, has significantly reduced the size of its team. Over 200 staffers had been employed by the company, but only 50 will remain.

The company said in a statement:

“Eurocom are undertaking a restructuring which I regret to say has meant we’ve made the majority of our workforce redundant today. This includes many very experienced, talented and highly skilled employees, and we’d like to thank them all for your hard work and efforts. We’ve fought to try and save as many jobs as possible, but the steep decline in demand for console games, culminating in a number of console projects falling through in the last week, left us with no option. Eurocom has retained a core staff of just under 50 employees and will be focusing mainly on mobile opportunities moving forward.”

ThisIsDerbyshire.co.uk writes that Eurocom is suffering from cash-flow problems. The site says the studio is working hard to preserve the final 42 jobs.

Source 1, Source 2

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

Via

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

R4 cartridges, which have been used to play pirated Nintendo handheld games, have been officially blocked in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced today that those who import these devices can be punished by law.

Nintendo was understandably vocal in pushing for the ban of R4 cards.

Source 1, Source 2

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

Nintendo of America director of product marketing Bill Trinen, who is quickly becoming a very familiar face with the company, has addressed a few topics about Wii U – and even the Wii as well.

In the interview roundup below, you’ll find out what Trinen said about Nintendo TVii’s absence at the Wii U’s launch, what lies ahead for the console, and more. Trinen also confirmed that, as expected, Nintendo is no longer developing any Wii games internally.

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

The gold nunchuck has been sold out on Club Nintendo since August. Soon though, the reward will be coming back in stock.

As stated on the gold nunchuck’s product page, it will be available once again on Monday, November 26. It likely won’t be on the site for too long, so you should place an order as soon as possible next week.

Be sure to visit this page on Monday.

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

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

Earlier this month, a trademark for “Fighters of Capcom” was registered. Capcom filed the name on November 8.

One possibility is that the trademark could be the localized name for Capcom All Stars With Everyone, a Japanese mobile card game RPG. Or maybe it’s something brand new.

Source 1, Source 2

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

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

Dark Horse, the publisher of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia in North America, is changing the art book’s cover.

Take a look below.

Dark Horse editor Patrick Thorpe explained the decision to change the cover:

“This is the official cover for the North American version of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. The logo and gold colored design elements will be gold foil stamped. The large symbol on the cover is the Gate of Time from Skyward Sword. We felt that it was appropriate for a number of reasons. Hyrule Historia is a history book, not only about the development of the games, but the history of Hyrule as well. We wanted the reader to feel like they were stepping through the gate, back in time, and experiencing all aspects of the Legend of Zelda. As keen-eyed Zelda fans will tell you, the three symbols surrounding the triforce are the symbols of the three goddesses who… well, I’ll let you read the book to find out their signifance. But we loved the gate’s symbol because it is fraught with meaning, much of which is explained in different sections of the book, and appear again and again throughout the series. One of the other reasons is that there are Skyward Sword sections that bookend Hyrule Historia. It felt appropriate to put a symbol from the 25th anniversary game on the cover. I hope that you all like it as much as we do.”

What do you think about the updated image? Like it? Hate it?

Source