General Nintendo

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments

Ken Lobb, now the creative director at Microsoft Studios, once played a prominent role at Nintendo and worked on several games. This includes Metroid Prime – a title that, at the time, stirred up some controversy for turning the franchise into a first-person adventure.

Lobb spoke about the initial fan resistance surrounding Metroid Prime as part of an interview with EDGE this month. He said:

The fight, in the pre-internet world, was that we were getting a lot of pressure from fans. Nowadays, you’d be buried under Twitter, NeoGAF — both of which I love, by the way — but those voices are even louder today than they were back then. It comes back to a lesson I learned a long time ago: always listen to your customer, but also understand that if you do focus testing what you’re going to hear is, “I want that thing you did last time, because that was awesome.” Every once in a while, you have to learn to not listen to that and go, “Actually, Metroid in firstperson we think could make more sense.” Great creatives are going to disrupt their earlier designs and make things that are new, or build completely new games or new genres.

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More: interview, Ken Lobb, Killer Instinct, Metroid Prime, Retro Studios

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 23 Comments

Yoshio Sakamoto is most well-known for playing a prominent role in three Nintendo series: Metroid, WarioWare, and Rhythm Heaven. But Sakamoto has mainly acted as a producer in recent years, and hasn’t done too much with Metroid as of late aside from Other M.

That being said, Sakamoto is still interested in working on the franchises he is most famous for. He told CVG the following when asked if he will continue to contribute to some of his more traditional game series:

I do not intend to do so. There might [currently] be various tasks I might be involved in with past series. However, even if so I would always like to introduce new entertainment and new fun to those series.

I would like to satisfy fans of those series, but also working with other talented individuals I would like to create entertainment that’s completely different and that brings new emotions. I would like to challenge myself in those unique directions.

This might be indirect, but if we can make new types of gamers enjoy video games for the first time through Tomodachi Life, then they might eventually become interested in the more conventional games. I think we need to ensure that video games remain attractive to consumers, and in order to do so new concepts and ideas are important. I would like to challenge myself to do that.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Mega Man Xtreme 2 wasn’t the only Mega Man game recently rated by the OFLC. The first Mega Man Xtreme was added to the Australian classification database last week, too. It should be hitting the 3DS Virtual Console in the very near future.

More: Capcom, Mega Man Xtreme, OFLC, Virtual Console

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 6 Comments

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Ubisoft’s E3 2014 media briefing will take place on June 9, the publisher confirmed today. The event will be held at 3 PM just like previous years. Ubisoft intends to hold its briefing at the Orpheum Theatre.

In 2012 and 2013, Aisha Tyler hosted Ubisoft’s press conferences. It’s unclear if she’ll be returning for this year’s show.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Capcom has announced plans to open two brand new R&D buildings located near its Osaka head office building. Construction is official underway, the company has confirmed.

In its announcement, Capcom explained why these two new buildings are necessary:

The appearance of next-generation consoles with a variety of network functions has shifted the focus of sales from conventional package software to digitally distributed content. The profit structure and business model are changing at an increasing speed as a result. Furthermore, the popularity of social games due to the widespread use of smartphones is enabling games to reach more user segments and enlarging the entire game market.

To succeed in this challenging environment, Capcom has been focusing resources on strategic and growing areas under a policy of selection and concentration in order to operate with speed and flexibility. Constructing these new R&D buildings will make game development operations more efficient by centralizing these operations and upgrading speed and control. Another goal is to improve quality while holding down development expenses by accumulating development technologies and other knowledge. To accomplish this goal, Capcom plans to hire about 100 developers every year, mostly new graduates, and raise the share of game development work that is performed internally. By March 2022, Capcom plans to have a workforce of 2,500 developers. Capcom believes that these actions will give the company a competitive advantage due to the more powerful development capabilities in the rapidly growing mobile content and PC online games markets.

Capcom’s new R&D buildings will be packaged with the latest facilities, including a motion capture room, a studio for producing and recording sound effects, and multi-purpose spaces that can hold more than 100 people.

Each will also use seismic isolation systems for protection even during a major earthquake and are designed to be environmentally responsible.

Capcom closed out its announcement by noting, “The two buildings will enable Capcom to utilize its outstanding game development skills even more effectively. Capcom is determined to use the new facilities to create highly original games that can meet the expectations of users.”

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 14 Comments

Sony’s lovable executive Shuhei Yoshida has been banned from Miiverse. And this has actually happened not once, but twice.

Yoshida told Engadget that his bans came about for including his Twitter account in his Miiverse profile and for subtly promoting PlayStation.

He said:

“The first time was because I had my Twitter account in my profile and that’s against the rules,” he says. “The second time is because I wrote, ‘I love PS.’ You’re not supposed to promote a commercial product in MiiVerse, so they correctly interpreted ‘PS’ as ‘PlayStation,'” he says with a laugh.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 27 Comments

Some time after the release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Nintendo and LucasArts were discussing the possibility of creating a new intellectual property for Wii, 3DS, or Wii U. Game Informer reports in its latest issue that the negotiations led to a Darth Maul game.

Red Fly began handling prototype work in 2010 under the code name “Damage”. Ultimately, the project became a multiplatform release and shifted development to the Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC “due largely to Nintendo not meeting financial demands to make it a first-party project.”

As for the game itself, Red Fly’s original idea was to create a title that would explore the origin story of Maul’s transformation into a Sith Lord. A number of ideas were considered such as creating a title focusing on stealth and action. George Lucas also stepped in at one point and changed the project’s direction, resulting in a story that would have Darth Maul and Darth Talon facing off against Darth Krayt and his Sith army.

Several prototypes later, LucasArts felt that Red Fly was in a position to create the project. LucasArts also considered the possibility of purchasing the studio.

Sadly, in June 2011, LucasArts ceased its communications for unspecified reasons and eventually sent out a letter stating that the game had been terminated. Red Fly Studios did manage to continue on despite Darth Maul’s cancellation and lack of funding, though the team did end up having to lay off about 70 percent of its staffers.

More: LucasArts, Red Fly Studio, top

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, Images | 0 comments

Photo 1:

Actor G Hannelius (C), currently starring in the Disney Channel sitcom Dog with a Blog, and fans enjoy themed treats at the Disney Magical World launch event at the Nintendo World store in New York on April 12, 2014. Now available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, Disney Magical World allows players to interact with more than 60 Disney characters and embark on adventures through ghost-filled forests and dungeons. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Nintendo and © Disney)

Photo 2:

Actor G Hannelius, currently starring in the Disney Channel sitcom Dog with a Blog, celebrates the launch of Disney Magical World at the Nintendo World store in New York on April 12, 2014. The game allows players to interact with more than 60 Disney characters and is now available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Nintendo and © Disney)

Photo 3:

Fans visit Nintendo World store in New York on April 12, 2014, for a range of Disney themed activities in honor of the release of the Disney Magical World video game. Now available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, Disney Magical World allows players to interact with more than 60 Disney characters and embark on adventures through ghost-filled forests and dungeons. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Nintendo and © Disney)

Photo 4:

Actor G Hannelius, currently starring in the Disney Channel sitcom Dog with a Blog, plays with her Mickey Edition Nintendo 3DS XL system at the Disney Magical World launch event at the Nintendo World store in New York on April 12, 2014. In the game, players manage and decorate their own cafés and customize their characters with hundreds of Disney-themed outfits. Disney Magical World is available now, exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Nintendo and © Disney)

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Club Nintendo Europe has gained a new reward. As of today, members can order a soundtrack CD for Super Mario 3D World. It’s available for 3,000 points.

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