This information comes from SEGA’s executive vice president of marketing Alan Pritchard…
“Aliens: Colonial Marines for the Wii U was part of Nintendo’s briefing, so that was great. And Sega and Gearbox have been fortunate enough to be involved with Nintendo from the start. It was a prototype, but we do have it playing on the [Wii U] dev kit. We need to know more about the exact launch timing [of the Wii U] and if it is something that will work for our Aliens franchise. Is it something that is going to be simultaneous? To be up there with the other first- and third-party tech demos…it’s good that we’re part of that thinking for the platform.
It was interesting that Nintendo didn’t really talk about the Wii [during its briefing], which is obviously a platform that is still important for most third-party publishers.
We have some big titles [for the Wii]. Mario & Sonic is a semi-first-party game so that’s going to be important for us this year. We do have some Wii games left in development, and we do have some Wii product in our product road map. We do have some future stuff. How the Wii lands compared to PS2…I don’t think we know though about that yet. They have potential future price drops up their sleeve. But it does need new content, as well as a catalog to drive the new hardware through. Obviously, it’s going to be big for this Christmas, and I think the Wii will be a very viable platform through next Christmas.”
Sonic Generations isn’t coming to Wii because the system can’t deliver HD graphics. However, things are obviously different with Wii U. Does that mean that the game will see a release on the console? Short answer: no.
The title is due out later this year, whereas the Wii U is at least a year away from launch. Some publishers are willing to create a separate Wii U version of multiplatform games coming late 2011 such as Warner Bros. with Batman: Arkham City. SEGA, however, does not think that strategy is reasonable.
SEGA’s executive vice president of marketing Alan Pritchard said in a recent interview:
“The timing just doesn’t work. Generations releases this November, and the Wii U is coming out next spring/summer. I think one of the things we don’t have to do, or reduce where possible, is we don’t want to port games. I think if there’s going to be a Sonic game for the Wii U, it needs to be built from the ground up. It’s more likely that it would be a separate stand-alone installment or in conjunction with a multiplatform release in the future. But to bring out Generations on a platform six or eight months after we release PS3, 360, and 3DS probably won’t be the best strategy.”
The other interesting quote from the comments above is that Pritchard indicated Wii U will launch in spring/summer of 2012. Nintendo hasn’t said anything officially about a release date other than the fact that it could ship anytime between April 1 and December 31. A few days before the console was announced, Japanese publication Nikkei said that it could make it to store in mid-2012.
A developer at E3 has apparently said that Nintendo has no plans to introduce a “3DSWare” category on the 3DS eShop. It’s true that the company filed a trademark for 3DSWare in the past, but that isn’t an indication that Nintendo intends to use it.
Some consumers feel that downloads categorized under the “Ware” brand offer inferior content compared to retail titles. This stigma is something that Nintendo would like to prevent by removing the name.
This information comes from Mario Kart 3D producer Hideki Konno…
“…our goal right now is to have the same number of players for both local wireless and multiplayer over wi-fi.”
Eight players is fine with me! Mario Kart Wii did offer a few extra racers, but I really have no problem with eight racers. As long as all of the tracks are available (remember some of the DS tracks were randomly left out online?), I won’t mind.
Nintendo has released a 3D movie trailer for the upcoming release of Green Lantern. I have to admit that it’s a bit of a pain to watch since you have to download the video to the system menu. Since it’s free, though, it’s tough to complain!
