SEGA and Game Freak announced its new collaboration title today: Tembo the Badass Elephant. The game is coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC as a digital download, but not Wii U.
James Turner, director and character designer at Game Freak, was recently asked by Gamereactor about why Tembo isn’t coming to Nintendo’s console. Turner replied:
When I was writing the presentation documents for this game, I drew a mockup poster, and I put the Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox logos at the bottom. It seemed to fit, and it happened to stick that way. We thought about other hardware during development, but our hands were pretty full with those three platforms!
Turner was also asked about the possibility of bringing the game to other platforms in the future, such as 3DS. To this, he said: “Information on the potential for other platforms is classified. Right now our main mission is deployment on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.”
Update: Daily Nintendo reports that a Dutch restock is happening this summer as a selection of the first four waves. This will apparently include Villager, Little Mac, Captain Falcon, and Marth.
We’ve heard from Nintendo before about how some amiibo will be restocked. Marth, for instance, is finally returning to U.S. store shelves later next month. Other figures will be reproduced depending on demand and available shelf space in stores.
This is something that a Nintendo of Germany customer service representative essentially reaffirmed to one fan. After sending in an email because pre-orders for the new Smash Bros. amiibo wave sold out so quickly, he received the following response:
We will reproduce several amiibo, which have been sold out after only a few hours. This will take some time. We sold our 5.7 million amiibo worldwide, which exceeded our expectations. This is also a reason that our production is delayed.
Update: (3/11/15) It’s not a mobile game as many had expected, but it isn’t for a Nintendo platform. The game is “Tembo The Badass Elephant” – read about it here.
The postcard above, coming from Game Freak and SEGA, was sent out to certain folks today. It seems to be teasing a potential collaboration between the two companies. I have no idea what this is about – and there’s a possibility that this has nothing to do with Nintendo – but I figured this was worth sharing!
There’s been a very tricky topic making the rounds today. I’m not going to go into details here, but an exploit has been discovered involving OlliOlli’s cross-buy functionality.
Curve Digital, the game’s publisher, is definitely aware of what’s going on. The following tweet was just published on Curve’s Twitter account a short while ago:
We're flattered people are prepared to compromise their account security for a copy of OlliOlli on 3DS, but we wouldn't recommend it.
— Curve Digital (@CurveDigital) March 11, 2015
Curve Digital spokesperson Paul Watson also told Eurogamer:
“Before opting in to Nintendo’s Buy One Get One Free initiative, the company made clear that we could do it one of two ways, and both were potentially open to exploitation beyond our control. Despite this, we’re very happy with the cross-buy sales on Nintendo’s platforms so far, and will be taking part in the initiative again where possible.”
Jonathan Biddle has moved on from Curve Studios. However, that doesn’t mean he’s cutting ties with the company.
Biddle, formerly the design director for Curve Studios, has created new studio “onebitbeyond”. He will now continue work on his new project “White Space” (unclear if the game is coming to Wii U). Curve is publishing White Space, so Biddle’s relationship with the company remains unaffected.
While at Curve, Biddle led the way on the Fluidity games for Wii and 3DS. He also worked on Stealth Inc and Explodemon.
This week’s GameStop ad has gone live. You can find it in full below (warning: it’s pretty boring!).