“And we also have a strong games release this year, which will include the next release in the Batman Arkham franchise. So all in all, we expect Warners to post another very strong year in 2013. And with a little luck, the year should be as good or maybe even a little bit better than 2012.”

It’s unclear if Martin was referring to the calender year or next fiscal year. Either way, we know a new Batman is in development. VG247 is running a rumor that it isn’t being made by Rocksteady Studios, interestingly enough.

Source 1,Source 2

Pokemon Scramble U announced for Wii U, available as a download

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

The Wii U has its first Pokemon game. “Pokemon Scramble U”, announced in CoroCoro this month, is heading to Japan this spring. It will be available exclusively through the Wii U eShop.

Pokemon Scramble U features the same kind of gameplay fans have been accustomed to with the past two releases. You’ll be able to team up with three other players and use up to 100 Pokemon at once. Pokemon Scramble U will contain the full set of 649 Pokemon.

Fans can likely expect Pokemon Scramble U to make its way to North America and Europe in the future. The mini-franchise is known as “Pokemon Rumble” in the west.

Rumor: Gearbox only made Aliens: Colonial Marines’ multiplayer

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Podcast Stories, Rumors, Wii U | 0 comments

For the most part, it has been known (or at least assumed) that TimeGate Studios was lending a hand to Aliens: Colonial Marines’ development. The studio’s involvement appears to have been deeper than initially expected, however.

An unconfirmed forum post from a Gearbox staffer, posted last year, states that TimeGate actually handled a majority of Aliens’ creation. Gearbox was mainly relegated to the title’s multiplayer component.

The message says:

Hate to say it, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Colonial Marines. I used to work at Gearbox, and the development of that game has been a total train wreck, going on what, 6 years now? Gearbox isn’t even making the game, except for the multiplayer. Primary development was outsourced to TimeGate Studios, which has a less than stellar past.
I hope it proves me wrong, as I still have alot of friends still working at Gearbox, but I am expecting it to be average at best.

Aliens: Colonial Marines hasn’t exactly received the best reception thus far. If this information is true, it would have been interesting to see how the shooter would have turned out had Gearbox been the game’s sole developer.

Source, Via

New downloadable rewards now available on Club Nintendo

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

This month’s digital rewards on Club Nintendo have gone live. Members can choose from Bird & Beans (3DS, 100 coins), Metal Torrent (3DS, 150 coins), Paper Mario (Wii, 200 coins), and Kirby Super Star (Wii, 150 coins). These rewards will last until March 10.

Visit this page to order a downloadable game.

Codemasters producer has high praise for Wii U

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Codemasters senior producer Clive Moody is a fan of what Nintendo is doing with the Wii U. Moody went as far as to say that he believes “it is the future.” He seems to be particularly big on the GamePad, since it is comparable to what Apple is doing with iPads, Microsoft’s Surface, and other technologies.

Moody stated:

“It works brilliantly, having played it. I think it is the future. I mean, you’ve got to look at what’s happening in the world of mobile, you’ve got iPads, Surface just came out from Microsoft. I think you’re going to see a lot more of that cross-over.”

Source

Resident Evil: Revelations HD supports off-TV play, Pro Controller

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Resident Evil: Revelations HD details have started to arrive from the latest issue of ONM.

The magazine confirms support for off-TV play. With the feature, gamers will be able to experience the full title directly on the GamePad.

Revelations HD will also feature a refined version of 3DS version’s touch screen controls as well as an optional Wii U Pro Controller configuration.

Look out for more details about the new release of Resident Evil: Revelations soon.

Dev says companies talked about canned Wii U games rather than new ones at DICE, more

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Developers and publishers from around the world gathered at the D.I.C.E. Summit earlier this week. For Wii U, the main piece of news stemming from the event concerns the delay of Rayman Legends. But that’s not all – there’s another concerning Wii U update to discuss.

Sidhe co-founder Mario Wynands writes that other devs and publishers were discussing “the Wii U projects that have just been cancelled” rather than “the new Wii U projects they have started”:

At DICE, nobody has been talking about the new Wii U projects they have started, only the Wii U projects that have just been cancelled.
Platform is in serious trouble.

[Interview] ‘A Hat in Time’ developer talks the decline of 3D “collectathon” platforming, whether his game will come to Wii U, more

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Interviews, Podcast Stories, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

NintendoEverything sits down with ‘A Hat in Time’ developer Mecha the Slag, pretending to spend a quiet evening sipping on tea, talking about where all of the awesome platforming games went– and how he’s going to unintentionally bring them back.

Author: Austin

Earlier this week I learned of a game.

I was scouring the internet for any sign of the dead 3D exploration platforming genre to no avail, and I turned to reddit to have a discussion on the topic, asking for any games people knew of that fit the bill. The response was pretty sizeable.

I was recommended games from Cave Story to Shadow Complex, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts to Prince of Persia; none of these games quite scratched the itch I had though. There was always something “off” about them, either gameplay-wise or artistically. Perhaps they were too linear, or didn’t feature enough backtracking; maybe the atmosphere was closer to a Saturday morning cartoon than a charming game of the N64 era– each one had some different “flaw”. The point is that after ten hours, I figured that maybe the genre was dead, and I was looking for something that wasn’t there. Apparently developers had simply abandoned the genre overnight, and now a former industry staple was nowhere to be found.

But why?

Monolith Soft Kyoto on working together as a team, Nintendo’s relationship

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

This isn’t Iwata Asks – it’s more like Monolith Soft asks!

Monolith Soft Kyoto, the studio behind titles such as Baten Kaitos, conducted an internal interview. Topics such as working together as a team were covered in the discussion. Nintendo’s influence came up in the talk as well.

A quick summary of the interview is posted below.

– Since working alongside Nintendo, Monolith Soft has realized just how important it is for a team to work closely together
– There has been a great increase in meetings between Nintendo and Monolith over the past year
– Nintendo has been actively consulting on the studio’s work and providing feedback with tweaks and ideas on how to make things better
– Monolith Soft is amazed by Nintendo’s ability to work and think together as a team
– Monolith thinks this is a major asset in producing quality products
– From a developer’s standpoint, seeing how Nintendo communicate and their companionship as the foundation of their hard work, has inspired Monolith Soft to do the same with their studio
– Monolith designer Shoko Fukuchi mentions making people feel included by—for example—asking programmers, who aren’t often in talks with designers, for ideas
– Some of the staff had been worried about moving to Kyoto, but these concerns have since dissipated
– Having taken a page from Nintendo’s book, Monolith Soft have been livelier than ever
– Monolith Soft has been working closer together as co-workers and as a family with the common goal of developing great games

Source 1, Source 2

Obsidian says they’re pitching a new Star Wars RPG to Disney

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

Creator of the critically acclaimed sequel to the critically acclaimed Bioware RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Obsidian are saying that they’re attempting to pitch a new RPG based on the sci-fi series to Disney, possibly based on the events between Episode III and Episode IV. No word on exactly what the final product might end up being, but they’re hoping for the best!

“I would say it’s within the top three pitches we’ve ever come up with. There’s a lot of different eras in Star Wars, and that’s what we would focus on.”
[The Lucas/Disney situation] changes things a lot, but you know, we’re gonna push on it. We really worked on it hard and distilled it down to these eight or ten pages that really sold the story and characters. Then we sold it off to LucasArts and got a call back later that day. They were like, ‘This seems really cool. We want to talk to you guys, like, tomorrow about it’.
“We haven’t [talked with Disney yet]. We’re kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that’s one of my next big things to do. To kind of go over there and [get the ball rolling again].”

– Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart

I could definitely use a high quality single player Star Wars RPG sometime in the future! The Old Republic seemed good, but since it didn’t come to consoles I didn’t have the chance to try it out– if this new one happens to hit next-gen devices it would be a big incentive for folks to go out and get one!

Rock Paper Shotgun via MCVUK