EA trademarks “Battledrome” in the US
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
EA filed a new trademark for Battledrome with the USPTO.
Does that name sound familiar? Perhaps some of you have heard of Metaltech: Battledrome, an old PC game from the 90s.
EA’s trademark may or may not have any connection to the title. It’ll be interesting to see if the company puts the name to any use in the future.
THQ CEO on lack of bids for Vigil, new IP Crawler
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Arguably the biggest travesty to have resulted from THQ’s auction this week is the lack of interest in Darksiders-maker Vigil Games. Numerous assets and studios were purchased from THQ – but not Vigil.
In an interview with Game Informer, CEO Jason Rubin explained – at least somewhat – why others may have been hesitant to make a purchase:
“Having just finished a product, Vigil was farthest from release of their next game. We were not able to garner any interest from buyers, despite a herculean effort. Additionally, they were working on a new IP, which meant even more risk for a buyer.”
It’s been made clear that Vigil’s next project was a new IP under the codename “Crawler”. Rubin noted that the game “is a fantastic idea, and truly unique.”
“When the teams got together recently to show each other their titles, Crawler dropped the most jaws. It is a fantastic idea, and truly unique. The fact that nobody bid for the team and title is a travesty. It makes no sense to me.”
A poetic story about Earthbound from series creator Shigesato Itoi
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
At first glance something like this comes off as a little “odd”, but when you get passed the weird translation oddities and the stigma of being weirdly artistic in this industry, I think this sort of thing is super awesome to see from a developer. The following is a (long) piece written by Earthbound series creator Shigesato Itio where he tells you exactly what the games mean to him as a person. It’s a pleasant little read if you’ve got some time to kill!
You can find it all after the break actually, since it’s pretty long.
Iwata Asks: Platinum Games now live
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 0 comments
Nintendo has published the Iwata Asks: Platinum Games discussion. Executive producer Atsushi Inaba and president Tatsuya Minami talk about their gaming origins, positions in the industry, and direction of their company. You can read the entire interview here.
It’s official: THQ is no more, as approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
It’s something of a sad day for the gaming industry today– well, it’s been a sad few weeks anyhow– because THQ is finally, officially, irreversably gone. The U.S. Bankruptcy court approved the sale of many of the publisher’s properties to studios like Take Two, Ubisoft, and SEGA, and those that weren’t sold (Darksiders, we’re looking at you!) are being closed and added to THQ’s chapter 11 filing.
Platinum Games yesterday expressed some brief interest in purchasing the Darksiders brand “on the cheap”, but there’s no word on whether or not that will actually happen.
Disney Infinity will have yearly releases
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments
Disney Interactive will be releasing Disney Infinity games on a regular basis – each year, in fact. Activision has gotten into the same habit with its Skylanders franchise.
While speaking with VideoGamer, producer John Vignocchi discussed how yearly releases will be handled:
“With Infinity we’re looking at releasing versions that come out each year and those will feature all of the content [for] the year. One of the reasons why we did the figures was that future versions of Infinity will still respect all of those characters. So when we release a future version of Infinity, although we won’t have a Play Set that necessarily goes with the characters, the characters will still be able to play inside of the Toy Box, and we’ll add new features to future versions of Infinity as well.”
Fortunately, any character made for a Disney Infinity sequel will work with all previous games, according to Vignocchi.
XSEED not localizing any Fatal Frame games
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii | 0 comments
XSEED has done an amazing job bringing Wii games to North America. The publisher not only localized The Last Story, but also recently announced Pandora’s Tower for the states.
That begs the question: could we see any other older Wii games? How about Project Zero 2: Wii Edition?
Well, no, that’s not happening. When asked if XSEED would consider localizing Project Zero 2 for North America, Ken Berry said:
“Afraid that we have no intention of trying to publish any Fatal Frame titles. Speaking to Tecmo Koei America is going to be your best bet for that title.”
GameCenter CX – Balloon Fight Wii U VC edition
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
You may remember that GameCenter CX did a special episode with Satoru Iwata late last year. That segment featured Balloon Fight. Now GameCenter has returned with a new episode focusing on the same game – this time with the Wii U VC release.
Platinum Games’ Inaba shows interest in Vigil purchase
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Practically all of THQ’s major assets and studios have been picked up by other companies. The likes of Volition and Relic have new homes, but no one has acquired Vigil Games.
But hey… maybe Platinum Games could purchase the studio.
Platinum Games Atsushi Inaba tweeted today:
“In THQ studio and IP selling off auction, Darksiders is unsold? [We] wanna buy it…on the cheap…”
Could something actually come from this? Seeing Darksiders in the hands of Platinum Games would be both strange and possibly amazing.
THQ: Who’s buying who, letter to staff
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
THQ has sold off a number of its studios and assets to a variety of different companies.
Relic is now in the hands of SEGA. Volition and Metro are going to Koch Media. Crytek now owns Homefront, while Take-Two purchased Evolve. Finally, Ubisoft has agreed to acquire Montreal and South Park.
There’s one big studio missing here: Vigil, the team behind the Darksiders titles. Vigil and some of THQ’s other IPs are not included in the sale agreement, but they’ll still be included in the Chapter 11 case. The company hopes to find new buyers for these assets.
A lengthy letter from THQ chief executive officer Brian Farrel and president Jason Rubin can be found below.
