It’s time for the latest Famitsu’s most wanted games chart! Not too much has changed in the top five, though Hyrule Warriors has finally exited following its release in Japan.
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Persona 5, Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, and Super Smash Bros. for 3DS top the latest list. For the full lineup, head past the break.
With more and more Kickstarter campaigns popping up these days, it would be tough to cover them all without overloading the site. And thus, the Kickstarter roundup was born! We’ll be posting these each weekend (assuming I don’t forget… haha) so that we can bring the latest Kickstarter efforts to your attention.
Here’s today’s roundup:
Games
Adventures of Pip – $40,000 for funding, planned for Wii U
Stash: No Loot Left Behind – $50,000 for funding, planned for Wii U
A Rite from the Stars – $40,000 for funding, planned for Wii U
Hive Jump – $50,000 for funding, planned for Wii U
Nefarious – $50,000 for funding, planned for Wii U
Acky’s Reloaded – $10,000 for funding, planned for Wii U and 3DS
Tiny Galaxy – $8,000 for funding, already confirmed for Wii U regardless of campaign’s success
Aegis Defenders – already funded at $65,000, Wii U stretch goal at $150,000
Super World Karts – $16,000 for funding, Wii U stretch goal at $32,000
Other
The Power of Glove: A Power Glove Documentary – $15,000 for funding
Note that this is kind of a work-in-progress thing, so expect these types of posts to evolve over time!
Bandai Namco has confirmed that One Piece: Super Grand Battle! X will be hitting Japan on November 13. Pricing is set at 5,690 yen. You can find the game’s boxart above.
Three different companies contributed to Hyrule Warriors to make the game possible. Omega Force and Team Ninja, two subsidiaries under Koei Tecmo, created the project directly. Nintendo also helped out in some capacity.
But what exactly was each company’s function? We now know courtesy of producer Yosuke Hayashia, who divulged to ONM this month:
Omega Force were kind enough to create the “basic Dynasty Warriors style gameplay”, Team Ninja made the “one-on one” and “boss battles” sections for us, and Nintendo gave us the “understanding required for the Zelda series”. As we were using the Zelda IP, Nintendo did detailed checks at the beginning of development, but what really stood out from a developmental perspective was Nintendo’s constant encouragement to “take a freer approach in the creation process”.
Thanks to joclo for the tip.
Nintendo-Online published an article today analyzing the development team of the Super Mario series over the last 29 years. While it was written in German, it does come with a chart showing how the size of the development teams shifted over time. You’ll find the chart attached above.
NeoGAF’s “Shikamaru Ninja” has done some investigative work in hopes of discovering new information about the Nintendo Kyoto development center. Check out the findings below.
Central HQ Building / Kyoto Research Office (old buildings)
– “1,000 developers” from the Central Office HQ vacated
– “100 developers” from the Kyoto Research Office vacated
– Intelligent Systems vacated from Kyoto Research Office into their new private building.
– No more development personnel in Central Office HQ?
– Only Mario Club Co., Ltd left in Kyoto Research Office?
Kyoto Development Center (new building)
– June 2014 official time of personnel transplant
– “1,000” Nintendo developers from Central HQ and “100” Nintendo developers from Kyoto Research Office merged into new Kyoto Development Center.
– Hardware and all Software personnel now in one building.
– 1,100~ / 1,500+ capacity filled thus far
– Nintendo hopes for better efficiency and expansion
– SRD is on the “8th floor” of building (Nintendo technology affiliate)
– EAD absorbed several SPD development personnel.
– SPD production units still separate. May not be in this building.
– SDD (Miiverse, System tools) and IRD (Hardware engineers) in building.
– SDD includes a Network Operations Department, with over 100 developers purely focused on network infrastructure and network based applications. (small chapter at Tokyo office as well)
– Katsuya Eguchi is department manager of all EAD groups in building. (New 90’s Miyamoto)
– Slight delay of Kyoto based development of games until 2015.
Miscellaneous
– Sakamoto and his personal development team re-emerging under new identity?
– Graphic Art staff collectively throughout Nintendo about 40-50% female.
– EAD Tokyo unaffected
– Iwata / Miyamoto establish “General Support Group” which is an alliance of small internal and external support studios filling out large EAD production units. (1-Up Studio, Monolith Kyoto, Indies Zero, Mox).
– Nintendo has become a large client of Digitalscape Co., Ltd. (temp agency) hiring large number of contract workers, and having a high retention rate of most of them after contract is over. (Mostly for EAD Tokyo)
Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball may finally be heading to Europe. A trademark was recently spotted in the European database, hinting at an upcoming release. Nintendo submitted the filing this past Friday.
