Ubisoft: franchises in gestation, BG&E2 “will happen when it will be perfect”
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
One Ubisoft brand that hasn’t been mentioned much as of late is Prince of Persia. Once one of the publisher’s top series, it’s now “in gestation” just like Ubisoft’s other franchises.
According to Ubisoft’s Europe boss Alain Corre:
“All our franchises are always in gestation. We are iterating. We are thinking about what can be done. But we can’t bring all the games and all the franchises every year. We have a lot on the show floor this year already. It will happen when we feel it is ready, when the creators have brought something interesting. That’s the case for all our franchises. They’re cooking. Some are cooking longer than others, but they’re cooking.”
No talk of Ubisoft would be complete without bringing up Beyond Good & Evil 2. There isn’t any important news to share, but Corre promised that the game “will happen when it will be perfect.”
“There are some works on it. There are some iterations on it. Now, some games are taking longer to be done, depending also on the creativity the creator can bring. You see the level of quality of the games today is very high. It takes time to find the right angle and message. It’s true that the trailer we showed years ago, in the desert with the pig sneezing and flies still resonates very well. These kind of brands are part of Ubisoft’s DNA. It will happen when it will be perfect.”
Square Enix trademarks Occult Maiden, renews Star Ocean
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
In Japan, Square Enix picked up a new trademark for “Occult Maiden”. Potentially more exciting is Star Ocean, which has been renewed by the company. Siliconera points out that Square Enix usually re-registers a trademark right before using it, so maybe some sort of Star Ocean announcement is on the way.
How Pokemon characters are chosen for Smash Bros.
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Choosing Pokemon characters for Smash Bros. games can’t be an easy task at this point. Well over 600 characters exist at this point, and only a small selection can be included on the Smash Bros. roster.
Director Masahiro Sakurai explained to NowGamer that the team looks at a few things, such as popular Pokemon, Pokemon featured in the movies, and what makes them unique.
He said:
“Well first of all, we talk with the Pokemon company. What’s the hot Pokemon? What Pokemon are in the movies right now? And really do a lot of research on that front. For example, X and Y are coming out – of course, we haven’t done any market research because they’re not out yet, but we look at the animated series or movies and anything like that and again, find out which ones are going to be central to any of conversations in Pokemon going forward. But it’s not just that – going back to just what we talked about, what’s unique about them? Where do they fit in with the rest of everything else? What do they have? It’s a combination of those things.”
Miyamoto, Reggie say Nintendo isn’t playing it safe this year
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments
Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime have responded to comments from Kotaku stating that Nintendo may be playing it safe this year.
First, here’s the full exchange with Miyamoto:
Kotaku: One of my senses is that the games [you have at E3] are fun but they feel safe, like this is not a Nintendo taking risks this year. Is this a safe year for you guys?
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo: So I don’t look at this as us playing it safe, because, whenever we make a game, we’re striving to create new experiences for people. Certainly from outside the company and even internally we have a lot of staff members who are talking about, we should create new [intellectual property, as in characters or series]. To me the question really comes down to: What is new IP and, by definition, what is a new game? And I think there’s a lack of understanding about the difference between the two.
And so, from my perspective, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you should make new characters and those would be fun games,’ but creating a new character doesn’t necessarily mean the game is going to be fun. You really need to be focusing on creating a new gameplay experience that’s fun and unique.
And so even with a game like Pikmin 3 where our focus is on perfecting the Pikmin game design, we’ve really finally felt like we’ve created a new gameplay style even within the Pikmin franchise.
Nintendo open to free-to-play Animal Crossing
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Nintendo is open to exploring a free-to-play Animal Crossing game, but it doesn’t sound like there are immediate plans to pursue this route.
Animal Crossing lead designer Katsuya Eguchi told GamesBeat that finding a business model appropriate for a free-to-play entry is imperative. Additionally, they would need “to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning.”
“I think the main thing that we need to think about before even considering doing something like that is to determine what we’re going to make available from the beginning. I think that’s key in deciding whether we do something like that. If I find a business model that works, however — that works for Nintendo and the end-user — then I can’t say that [free-to-play] is something we wouldn’t consider.”
Eguchi also drew a comparison to the demographic playing Animal Crossing and the audience in Japan who enjoy casual free-to-play smartphone titles.
“When you look at our main audience in Japan, they are definitely that audience that has smartphones. [They are] women in their late teens and early 20s. They are certainly playing free-to-play games on their smartphone.”
Suda51 remains interested in making another No More Heroes
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 0 comments
Suda51 created two No More Heroes games for Wii. There hasn’t been many developments in the series since No More Heroes 2 came out a few years ago, but he’s still interested in the series.
When asked about the possibility of No More Heroes 3, Suda51 said:
“Travis [Touchdown] is one of the characters I’m really fond of, that means a lot to me. So if there was the opportunity to create another sequel then yeah, I’m always up to the idea.”
Come on, Suda… you basically promised another No More Heroes for Nintendo’s new console (which we now know is the Wii U) way back in 2009. The fans demand it!
SEGA opens “Project 575” teaser site
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
SEGA launched a teaser site today for something called “Project 575”.
Currently, the page contains a video featuring two female silhouettes engaged in conversation. The two don’t appear to be revealing any significant information about what SEGA is actually teasing, so we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for future updates.
Keep track of the site here.
Peter Molyneux talks Nintendo, says their hardware is starting to get in the way of their success
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
Game developer Peter Molyneux took some time with GamesIndustry International the other day all about Nintendo, and he outlined some of the things he feels the company is doing right, as well as some of the things they’re doing wrong.
You know what Nintendo did – this is a fascinating thing – Nintendo created gamers by the software they made. They created millions of gamers with Donkey Kong and Mario – they were the birth of gamers. That exact same thing is happening on this platform today. Millions of new gamers are being created almost every month, and they’re being created with titles not from Nintendo, not from Microsoft, not from Sony, not even necessarily from Activision or EA. They’re being created by companies like Supercell and Rovio. They’re the ones that are bringing and creating new gamers. And now there are millions of people interacting with franchises, which Nintendo won’t even touch, which seems a shame to me because Nintendo are brilliant about bringing people into the industry, and I think their hardware is starting to get in the way of that.
I caveat all of this by saying that they are a factor more intelligent than I am, and they’ve probably got a plan, and you should never underestimate Nintendo. We’ll probably be sitting here in a couple years saying, ‘Oh that’s what they were doing’.”
– Peter Molyneux
I must admit, sometimes I feel the same way as Molyneux! Occasionally it feels like Nintendo is using their hardware in ways that are simply “different” rather than “better”, which isn’t inherently a bad thing, but perhaps their focus could be better shifted to incremental improvements to gaming while bringing in more people with games themselves.
That being said, I think the Wii U is a perfect example of an incremental improvement, rather than something different for the sake of different’s sake. I have a feeling Peter disagrees with me on that point! And he also said that the Wii U is a reaction to Microsoft’s SmartGlass, which is somewhat troubling and shows that perhaps he isn’t paying as close attention to the timeline of the industry as he should be!
Iwata says make games people won’t want to sell, forgetting to talk about games
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Because of how the Xbox One will be implementing certain policies, the topic of used games has come up often in recent weeks. IGN asked Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata for his thoughts in a recent interview.
For Iwata, the best approach is making a game that people won’t want to sell.
“The best possible countermeasure against people buying used product is making the kind of product that people never want to sell. Taking as an example Mario Kart or Smash Bros., even though you might think, ‘I’ve done enough with this,’ you’ll still have second thoughts. ‘Wait a minute. If one of my friends comes over, I might need this again.’ You’re never going to want to sell these games. That’s something that always occupies our minds. We need to make software that players don’t want to sell.”
“We’re competing with each other in terms of who’s creating the most fun games. Unfortunately, however, as I saw the reports dispatched from E3 this year, they’re pretty much occupied by talk about which machine is more friendly to used games, or which machine is $100 cheaper than the other. I’m sorry that we’re missing the most important discussion – about video games.”
Iwata also said that he never thought about implementing anti-used games measures or “typing down” any Nintendo system with restrictions.
Miyamoto on always-online, more powerful systems, competitor price comparisons, Zelda toon-shading style could return
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments
Shigeru Miyamoto has weighed in a number of prominent topics, including always-online, the need to make creative games in the wake of more powerful systems, price comparisons of Wii U’s competitors, and the possible return of the toon-shading style introduced with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Head past the break for Miyamoto’s comments.
