CEO and founder of Crytek Cevat Yerli has once and for all confirmed that Crysis 3 won’t be heading to Wii U. Some may be surprised to hear, however, that the reasons are business-related rather than technical.
Yerli said that Nintendo, EA, and Crytek have been in talks, “but the bottom line is that there is that there’s not enough business drive in it.” While Yerli would personally love to see Crysis 3 on Wii U, “what I love to see and what gets done at the end of the day are two different things.”
Yerli said:
“There has been discussions between Nintendo and EA and Crytek, but the bottom line is that there is that there’s not enough business drive in it. It’s a purely business decision. I’d love to see it on Wii U, but what I love to see and what gets done at the end of the day are two different things. Even so, I could initiate it but someone has to sell it, right? It’s a business decision between EA and Nintendo. If that business decision doesn’t make sense, or seems to not make sense for them, it’s… not possible for us to make it. We can’t publish ourselves, and that’s the bottom line.”
So, that new Pokemon announcement? It looks like a brand new game will indeed be revealed.
Nintendo of America and Nintendo UK just tweeted that Nintnedo president Satoru Iwata will host a short Pokemon Nintendo Direct tomorrow. The event is set for 6 AM EST / 3 AM PST / 12 PM CET.
Join fans around the world tmrw for the 1st Nintendo Direct of 2013.Mr. Iwata will share a short message w/ Pokémon news @ 6 AM EST!
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 7, 2013
Join Mr Iwata for a short #PokémonDirect broadcast on January 8th at 12 noon CET! ow.ly/gB75j ow.ly/gB760
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) January 7, 2013
Satoru Iwata gave an update about the Wii U’s sales performance while speaking with Reuters. The Nintendo president said that the console wasn’t quite as popular as Wii was initially, though “sales are not bad, and I feel it’s selling steadily.”
“At the end of the Christmas season, it wasn’t as though stores in the U.S. had no Wii U left in stock, as it was when Wii was first sold in that popular boom. But sales are not bad, and I feel it’s selling steadily.”
Wii U sold 638,339 units in Japan for the system’s December’s launch, Enterbrain data reveals. Sales were obtained between December 8 and December 30.
Iwata noted that there have been challenges in selling two different Wii U models. Nintendo doesn’t have experience in this area, as the company has never before offered two different models of a console simultaneously. Additionally, the Deluxe/Premium Set has been selling much better than the Basic model, so inventory levels were unbalanced and “many people wanted that version and couldn’t find it.”
“It was the first time Nintendo released two models of the game console at the same time … and I believe there was a challenge with balancing this. Specifically, inventory levels for the premium, deluxe package was unbalanced as many people wanted that version and couldn’t find it.”
Team Ninja, through publisher Tecmo Koei, released Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge – its first game for the Wii U. The studio could choose to support the console further going forward.
In an interview with ONM, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi said: “We are working on an action game, and we are looking into other titles for Wii U.” Hayashi didn’t specify which “action game” the team is working on.
We all know Team Ninja and Nintendo share a close relationship, so expect to see more Wii U titles from the company in the future.
But Austin, what am I about to watch!?
You are about to watch myself (Austin), Aysha (das co-host), and Jack (of ‘Here’s a Podcast’) play some New Super Mario Bros. U together while filming the TV with an iPad! It makes it feel like you’re there with us, playing games with your friends, having a grand ol’ time.
I think that’s all you need to know.
This episode was a normal episode, except that Laura was not present, and ‘Two People Playing Games’ co-host Aysha was! Everything else was pretty regular. The list was Nintendo Power’s top 285 Nintendo-platform games, and the discussion was not in existence.
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The two videos above come from yet another analysis done by Digital Foundry. Be sure to read the New Super Mario Bros. piece here.
Crash Bandicoot has been dormant for many years. The last mainline entry, Crash: Mind over Mutant, came out in 2008. There have been a few mobile titles released since then, and Radical Entertainment did work on a couple of cancelled projects.
Perhaps a reboot could be in the cards. One eagle-eyed NeoGAF member came across a photo from Vicarious Visions’s Facebook page, which seems to show a new design for Crash Bandicoot tucked away in the corner.
Could there be a brand new title in the works? If so, will it feature an updated Crash Bandicoot?
Frozenbyte had no difficulties in porting Trine 2 to Wii U. Some have previously said that the Wii U possesses a somewhat slow clock speed, but the developer was able to “ramp the Trine 2 art to a higher degree than with the other consoles.” Frozenbyte also feels “there is a nice base for future original development too.”
“None whatsoever. The whole architecture is running very well and we were able to ramp the Trine 2 art to a higher degree than with the other consoles. So for porting no issues at all and there is a nice base for future original development too. Maybe some were looking for a larger leap in terms of pure power, but in the end I believe most developers will be quite comfortable with the system.”
Frozenbyte also spoke about how Nintendo tends to get the most out of their systems through first-party titles “regardless of the actual CPU or GPU performance”:
“Absolutely, but again in a very different direction that Nintendo has always been known for. They create their own standards and have huge IPs to fall back on. As for untapping the hidden power of new consoles.. I think Nintendo personifies that in all of their first party titles, regardless of the actual CPU or GPU performance.”
