Another fallout from THQ’s recent auction is the transfer of the WWE licence. IGN reports that it is now in the hands of Take-Two Interactive.
One thing to note: the rights were apparently sold outside THQ’s formal auction process. Exact details behind the negotiation are currently unknown.
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.
One user on the Capcom-Unity boards asked about a possible Resident Evil Mercenaries game for consoles and PC. This wouldn’t be a port of 3DS’ Mercenaries 3D. Rather, it’d be a brand new title with modern visuals.
Capcom’s Christian Svensson, responding to the note, said: “Understood on the request. Let’s talk next week on this topic.”
Svensson also had a few things to say about Resident Evil: Revelations HD’s Raid Mode. This will be “extremely expanded”.
“The other thing you should look forward to is trying out the extremely expanded raid mode (details to come in the coming months) in RE:Revelations. I find it scratches a LOT of the same itches.”
Went ahead and captured this footage for you all, just in case you want to see it in action!
Notes:
– Controls are completely customizable, button for button
– The only buttons that can’t be customized are the control pad(s)
– Virtual Console games are played in 4:3 as opposed to 16:9 (not widescreen)
– Restore points can be set via the Virtual Console menu (accessed by pressing ZR using default controls)
– Quitting a game via the home menu will also create a restore point, just like on Wii/3DS
– Dual-Gamepad support is hinted at, but I can’t confirm that yet
– Something I missed in the video is that the game automatically shows up on the TV and Gamepad at the same time, like NSMBU
“This being our first launch title, we did not know what to expect. And we’re still puzzled by the dynamics of this launch. I can’t deny that I had higher hopes but this has more to do with my personal attitude than with the performance of the game itself. As for the game, the Christmas sale did really well and the eShop is hitting his stride now. We’re still learning how to operate in this new and exciting environment.
“Obviously, we’ve got the technology in place and the capability to make another Wii U title. Yet as a small studio we have to chose very careful what platforms we’re targeting. From the current perspective we plan to bring our next game to the Wii U. But I can’t see into the future, so I can’t guarantee anything at this point.” – Broken Rules’ Martin Pichlmair
Yea, the Miiverse community for Chasing Aurora is among the smallest on the whole service, so it’s no surprise the game didn’t sell so well. Most of the reviews I’ve seen have been average at best, and the game just didn’t seem like something a lot of people needed to pick up with all the other eShop and retail titles available! Hopefully their next game does better– and is better!
“What we experienced with the Wii U is probably what a lot of developers experienced with the Wii U, which is, ‘What do we do with it?. It was this really neat secondary controller that has a screen and you can do different things on it. When I talked to my friends who were designing games for the Wii U, it’s like, ‘We don’t quite know what to do with it’. It’ll probably be about a year before you start to see games just completely nail exactly what that controller is for.” – ‘The Cave’ dev Ron Gilbert
I can understand his point and he’s probably right, but if you’re a game developer who can’t think of things to do with the Wii U Gamepad then I’d say don’t do anything with it beyond menu scrolling and item selection! Nothing wrong with a game just being a regular ol’ game.
Note: Yarn Yoshi name not final. Tentative name from Nintendo of America/Europe.
– Graphical improvements are not just an upscale to HD
– Models have been changed, updated, etc
– For example, a first aid kit that Chris carries in the mountains now shows scissors, medical equipment on its model instead of a bland box
– New creature type that was in the trailer will cause players to make decisions about what the best way to approach the situation is
– Takenaka hinted at the creature being a recurring encounter
– New weapons, HUNK confirmed for ‘Raid’ mode
– Enemy positions have been fine tuned for ‘Raid’
– The team is working on ways to implement the Streetpass functionality
