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

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

The Harry Potter universe is back in full force. Earlier today, a film series based on the 2001 book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” was announced.

Harry Potter creator J.K. Bowling, who will pin the first movie’s screenplay, said the series is “neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.”

Warner Bros.’ plans for the series extend beyond films. “In addition to the film series, Fantastic Beasts will also be developed across [Warner Bros.’] video game, consumer products and digital initiatives businesses, including enhanced links with Pottermore.com, Rowling’s digital online experience built around the Harry Potter stories,” Warner Bros. said in a statement.

Source 1, Source 2

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Blitz Games Studios has been in the industry for over twenty years. But sadly, the company announced today that the studio will be closing its doors.

CEO Philip Oliver said:

“Frustrations with clients, the global economic crisis, and more than our fair share of simple bad luck” has led to Blitz going out of business. We have done all that we can to make Blitz a success, and we have come frustratingly close in recent months. Major clients have felt unable to commit to investment in significant projects, others have changed strategy whilst appearing committed, and others have been slow to commit at all – all of these things have continued to hurt our finances. We have also sustained the business for some time with our personal savings but even those reserves have now been exhausted.”

Blitz Games Studios was established in 1990. While it was mainly known for its work on TV and movie-based titles, Blitz did recently work on Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.

175 staffers have been let go as a result of today’s news. However, roughly 50 employees intend to create a new studio and continue working on two of Blitz’s current projects.

Source

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii, Wii U | 8 Comments

Ever since the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, it’s been known that the remake came about while Nintendo was experimenting with different art styles for the series’ next original entry on Wii U. As it turns out, Wind Waker wasn’t the only title the company tinkered around with. Eiji Aonuma confirmed to Polygon that Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were also tested in HD.

So what does this mean for the possibility of these two games also receiving Wii U remakes? Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma isn’t ruling anything out, but having just wrapped up Wind Waker HD and now fully turning his attention to Zelda Wii U, there likely won’t be any additional HD releases in the near future. Aonuma wouldn’t necessarily rule anything out for the future though, telling Polygon:

“I can’t say that the possibility is zero that those will be made into HD, but right now I need to work on the next installation in the series so I don’t have the bandwidth to do that right now. But maybe it will happen if someone else does it.”

Here’s a question: would you like to see Twilight Princess and/or Skyward Sword in HD? If you had to choose one or the other, which would you pick?

Source

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

Miiverse users now have a new way of communicating with their friends and followers. Starting today, a newly introduced update allows for messages to be posted directly to your friends and followers’ Activity Feed.

Nintendo of Europe passed along the news earlier today:

Source

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

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

Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has expressed some interest in creating Sonic spin-offs and titles featuring other characters.

Iizuka was asked by ONM this month if Big the Cat will ever receive his own game. In response, he said that such a proposal is “a nice idea”, and feels that the character would be well-suited in a fishing title.

As far as spin-offs in general are concerned, Iizuka said: “if there was a game in which we could use the characters in the best way, we might consider it.”

Iizuka’s comments in full:

“That’s a nice idea! At Summer of Sonic a lot of people were asking if we might feature characters like Shadow, or if there was any possibility of spin-offs. The focus isn’t on taking characters and building around them, but on the game itself. Obviously, if there was a game in which we could use the characters in the best way, we might consider it. For Big the Cat, if it’s a fishing game, it’s a possibility.”

Thanks to joclo for sending this our way.

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

Eiji Aonuma may be in charge of the Zelda series for the most part, but Shigeru Miyamoto is still around as a significant member of the team. In fact, Aonuma feels that Miyamoto is still “the most important user for the Zelda games before their release.”

Aonuma recently spoke about Miyamoto’s importance to the development of Zelda titles with ONM:

“I think that Miyamoto is the most important user for the Zelda games before their release. How he sees the games is a guide for us in terms of whether what we are making is any good, including whether it is right for Zelda, because users will be sure to judge them even more harshly after the release.”

Aonuma also discussed a dream of his – to hear Miyamoto say, “I couldn’t make a game like this.”

“A long time ago I came up with the phrase ‘upending the tea table’ for him, but recently there haven’t been any big upendings, so maybe that’s proof that I’ve come closer to his vision. My dream is to have Miyamoto say to me, ‘This is amazing. I couldn’t make a game like this,’ but there’s still a long way to go. I will keep trying my best.”

Source

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

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

Capcom’s latest financial result are in. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, the company posted ¥94 billion ($940 million) in revenue. That’s up from ¥82 billion ($820 million) the year prior.

In spite of the financial gain, Capcom’s Digital Contents Business – which accounts for a little more than 57 percent of the publisher’s total income – saw a profit loss by more than 50 percent. Console, Windows PC and mobile titles primarily encompass this sector.

Going forward, Capcom will emphasize its online games division, which experienced a revenue increase of 45.9 percent. Additionally, the company is planning more DLC.

COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto said:

“I regret to say that, up to now, we had few plans for the full-scale implementation of DLC. From here on out, we need to focus on the long-term provision of content starting at the earliest stages of development. Furthermore, in terms of user response, if the additional related content we are providing continually to users online is deemed uninteresting from the start, there will be no ongoing business to pursue. This means that, more than ever before, the creation of underlying content is the key to success.”

Source