The image above could be the boxart for Tank! Tank! Tank!. Amazon added it to the game’s page, but Namco Bandai hasn’t officially confirmed that it’s the final photo.
On August 10, the Eternal Darkness trademark received a fourth extension. And on August 15, the Wave Race trademark was renewed.
Neither of these updates probably mean much, but it’s a smart idea to keep track of these things. You never know what Nintendo has up its sleeves.
This week’s Nintendo Download includes the following featured content:
Nintendo eShop
Balloon Pop® Remix – Balloon Pop Remix takes the classic Balloon Pop® formula and turns it on its head. Use the stylus to draw lines on the puzzle board and all the balloons in the line’s path will pop, leading to mesmerizing chain reactions. (For Nintendo 3DS™ / Nintendo 3DS™ XL)Virtual Console™
Prince of Persia® – Survive perilous levels, rescue the princess from the evil Jaffar and claim the royal residence before the hourglass is empty. Beware of obstacles such as unpredictable floors and ceilings, hidden spikes and walls of flames. (For Wii™)
Based on comments rounded up by Kotaku, some anonymous Nintendo of America staffers feel that the company’s main Japanese division makes almost all decisions for NOA. Another comment states that NCL finds “difficulty trusting and allowing US subsidiary to be proactive.”
One former staffer wrote the following on May 23, 2011:
Extremely hierarchical. Decisions are made in Japan and NOA employees are expected to execute. Initiative is not encouraged.
And another one from January 20, 2011:
Cons – Parent headquarters micro-manages most marketing tactics. Spend most of your time explaining and justifying actions, instead of being innovative and agressive [sic] in the competitive video game industry. No work/life balance. Headquarters want to be cooperative but has difficulty trusting and allowing US subsidiary to be proactive.
Advice to Senior Management – Let the US subsidiary do their work and market in the style appropriate to our consumers. Move beyond finger pointing and finding scapegoats to making the best video games possible.
So should we start blaming Nintendo of Japan for the long wait for Xenoblade’s localization? Or were these comments just made by disgruntled employees? In the end, we probably won’t know for sure.
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Ubisoft still hasn’t resumed work on the Wii U version of Ghost Recon Online. According to producer Theo Sanders, the team has been focusing all of its efforts on the PC version.
“As of right now, the entire Ghost Recon team is focused on the PC version only. The Wii U version is on hold. If in the future we have an opportunity to address it again, we’ll make future announcements. But as of right now we’re focused completely on the PC version.”
Fortunately, Ubisoft didn’t move away from the Wii U version because of issues with the console. It was really just a matter of the team needing to concentrate all of its efforts on the PC game.
“It’s not a reaction to anything specific happening to [Wii U]. It was a really fun, cool platform to develop for. But you realise once you launch an online service that it’s an all-consuming effort, so we really wanted to have all hands on deck. It was the same dev team working on both SKUs, and [we] really wanted to focus on doing the PC version right. I’m not really in a position to talk about the Wii U, but our particular choice for Ghost Recon Online was purely based on the fact that we had one dev team working on both SKUs and it was an all-consuming effort with the PC launch. It’s tough launching an online game.”
So Ghost Recon Online may be out of the question for Wii U’s immediate future, but that doesn’t mean it won’t ever land on the system in the future.
“It’s hard to say how the future will go for Ghost Recon Online. I think in the future as different platforms evolve towards service models and towards being really online-driven, community-driven platforms, then we’ll definitely be looking at what our options are. I think it’s one of the strengths of the PC platform and I believe it’s something that all console manufacturers understand to be a strength of the PC platform, and will definitely be looking for interesting and innovative ways to bring their own experiences to.”
If you missed today’s Media Create report, you may not have heard about the big news surrounding New Super Mario Bros. 2.
The game officially crossed the one million units sold mark in Japan for the week of August 27. Media Create says that sales are now at 1,037,205.
Congratulations, Mario!
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
