THQ Nordic says de Blob was “a bit underrepresented” on Wii, cancelled online game was similar to Splatoon
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 15 Comments
de Blob didn’t achieve massive success, but the series was one of the more interesting experiments on Wii. THQ Nordic business and product development director Reinhard Pollice believes that the franchise has potentially, calling it “the perfect indie game.” Pollice added in an interview with GamesIndustry that de Blob “was a bit underrepresented on Wii,” and it should have been on Steam for the potential of being “a massive success.”
He said:
More: de Blob, interview, Reinhard Pollice, THQ Nordic
Nippon Ichi president – Disgaea amiibo interest, next game “likely” for Switch, Phantom Brave 2 possible, more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii | 37 Comments
Nippon Ichi Software president Sohei Niikawa participated in a new Reddit AMA today. Niikawa was asked quite a bit about Disgea, including a possible amiibo, future Switch support, and more. He also indicated that Phantom Brave 2 could be possible thanks to interest from some of the company’s developers who ask about a sequel.
We’ve picked out the notable comments from the AMA below. You can check out the full thing here.
Designer talks about how Retro Studios turned an original FPS into Metroid Prime
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii | 15 Comments
Metroid Prime has a pretty interesting development history. Before it was a Metroid game, Retro Studios was working on an original first-person shooter that had no ties to anything Nintendo-related. It was only when the big N stepped in and saw a level of the game that the game eventually morphed into Metroid Prime.
Speaking in the latest issue of Switch Player, senior designer Mike Wikan noted:
“When I came on board, the Engine group was significantly behind schedule and there was no way to create gameplay demonstrables in an effective fashion. I was told, quite literally, by leadership that designers would design the game on paper, then hand it off to engineering and art to create it. In my opinion that was insanity.”
“When Nintendo arrived suddenly, wanting to see demonstrables of all the games that the teams were working on, only our FPS had demonstrable real-time scriptable content. Nintendo liked what they saw and proposed we adapt that game and viewpoint, but restart it as a Metroid game.”
“The moral of the story is that if you see a problem, work to solve it; don’t assume someone else will take that responsibility on.”
More: interview, Metroid Prime, Mike Wikan, Retro Studios, top
Metroid: Samus Returns development complete, Sakamoto on the wait for 2D Metroid, Other M criticism, more
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii | 61 Comments
Kotaku was one of several outlets that went hands-on with Metroid: Samus Returns at E3 last week. The site also spoke with some of the people involved with the game.
According to Tim O’Leary from Nintendo Treehouse, development is complete. Perhaps that not massively surprisingly given how it’s due out in just a few months. Still, it’s pretty interesting to hear.
Kotaku also shares some new comments from producer Yoshio Sakamoto. Sakamoto was asked why Samus Returns is on 3DS rather than Switch, why it’s taken so long for a new 2D Metroid, criticism of Metroid: Other M, and how the 2D / 3D Metroids are handled at Nintendo.
Continue on below for Sakamoto’s comments. You can find a few more on Kotaku here.
Just Dance 2018 boxart
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Images, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 12 Comments
Amazon has posted the boxart for Just Dance 2018. We have all three versions above: Switch, Wii U, and Wii.
More: boxart, Just Dance 2018, Ubisoft
Rumor: Ubisoft had internal concept of Mario and Rabbids adventure game during the Wii era
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Wii | 2 Comments
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle should finally be announced at E3 this week. Before that game existed though, Ubisoft apparently had interest in mashing the two franchises together during the Wii era.
It seems that a formal pitch was never actually made to Nintendo, and it ended up as nothing more than an internal concept at Ubisoft. Nintendo may have shut things down before talks ever progressed in the slightest.
Liam Robertson has the full report on the concept below.
YouTube Wii support ends at the end of June
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 10 Comments
Support for the YouTube app on Wii is ending in the near future. An official notice states that after June 30, users will be on their own, but can still access YouTube “in many other ways.”
Frankly, it’s surprising to see that support lasted as long as it did. Nintendo has created two new consoles since the Wii after all.
More: YouTube
Former SEGA exec says games could be big sellers on Wii no matter the quality, Mario & Sonic gave the company a boost
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 25 Comments
Jurgen Post has been the COO and president of SEGA Europe since 2012. The company as a whole was in a pretty fragile state back then. After having success with Mario & Sonic and Wii, SEGA saw that sales of the series and Nintendo’s console in general were slowing down, prompting a change.
Post spoke about the situation with GamesIndustry:
“The business model that we had wasn’t working anymore. We were starting to make sizeable losses, so we had to change. In the past, you could be successful by being a bit opportunistic. The Wii platform, ten years ago, was so successful and anything you launched on it was selling. Even with some lesser qualitative stuff, you were able to be successful. But that was all changing and you could only sell quality products. We had Mario & Sonic back in those days, and that game was selling so much that a number of other titles could afford to underperform. But when the sales of Mario & Sonic, and the Wii in general, began to slow down, it became very visible that we had to change.”
SEGA ended up going through a whole slew of changes. The company focused on PC, “being consumer-first, and digital-first,” and made sure that its various studios took on more responsibility.
This was actually Post’s final interview at SEGA. He’s leaving the company to take on a new challenge elsewhere. If you’d like to read the full interview, hit up the source link below.
Mario Kart is the all-time best-selling racing franchise in the U.S.
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Switch, Wii, Wii U | 23 Comments
Another piece of significant information has been reported stemming from the April 2017 NPD report. According to Mat Piscatella, an analyst for the company, Mario Kart is the all-time best-selling racing franchise in the U.S.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the best-selling game in the U.S. last month despite being on the market for just two days. In that short period, over 460,000 physical units sold. With digital sales included, the total exceeds 550,000 units.
More: Mario Kart, NPD, sales, top
Series producer talks about the cancelled Fire Emblem real-time strategy game for Wii
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 30 Comments
Awhile back, we heard about an unreleased Fire Emblem game for Wii. Fire Emblem series veteran Toru Narihiro noted how “you would take a large group of people with you much like Pikmin” – in other words, it sounded a heck of a lot like a real-time strategy game.
Nintendo series producer Hitoshi Yamagami elaborated on the cancelled project with Dengeki Nintendo this month. It was planned following the completion of Radiant Dawn, but never saw the day of light.
Yamagami said the following about the game, as translated by Kantopia:
“It had me as the producer, and Mr. Kusakihara as the director. It was going to be a real time strategy Fire Emblem game with all sorts of interesting departures from the norm. But, as we approached a finished product, the incredibly picky Mr. Kusahara was not content with it as it didn’t fit the image he had in mind when he played it. While it was incredibly amusing watching him try the product, I don’t think I could’ve reached such a decision so quickly based on that alone. It did show just how passionate he was about the real time system though, but, in my experience, Fire Emblem was always about minimizing casualties as much as possible and thinking about things carefully by the turn. To put together a real time experience in a short time without these considerations and make a judgement based on that was a little premature in my opinion. So, in the end, development froze.”
