Here’s a little bit of trivia for you: all Mario Kart games are made from scratch. Nintendo doesn’t reuse its programming, assets, or other material across entries in the series.
We know this thanks to a Mario Kart 8 interview with director Kosuke Yabuki recently conducted by EDGE. The magazine mentioned that vehicles are easy to handle once acclimatized to, but wondered if Yabuki ever worried about the possibility of making the game less immediate.
He said in response:
After becoming Ubisoft’s most-preordered new IP ever, CFO of the company Alain Martinez has said that he believes the game has the chance to be the start of a major new series, like Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry:
“Very clearly, the priority today is to release the game, and make it a success. Of course we believe it has the power and the potential to become a longstanding brand for Ubisoft, [but] at this stage we don’t have any announcements to make to say whether it’s going to be one, two, or three years. I think at first we have to care about making it a success.”
Ubisoft Earnings Call via Gamespot
In an interview with Nikkei Trendy, Tecmo Koei Games president Yoichi Erikawa was asked about the company’s goal for the next fiscal year.
Erikawa started out by discussing Tecmo Koei’s theme of “IP Creation and Deployment”. He pointed to major titles, large collaborations, and continuing to grow collaborations abroad. There seems to be interest in television, comics, novels, and movies. You may remember that various media efforts were announced when Tecmo Koei and Nintendo confirmed the new Fatal Frame game for Wii U.
Erikawa later went on to discuss Hyrule Warriors, of which he said Tecmo Koei hopes will sell over one million copies worldwide given the popularity of the Zelda and Warriors brands.
Erikawa told Nikkei Trendy:
In gaming, this is a first-time collaboration. As a new entry in the Warriors series, we plan to release the game Hyrule Warriors in collaboration with Nintendo in the summer of this year. In addition to our Warriors series fan base, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda is also a very popular series with a large fan base, and I think it will become a great new market. Because of The Legend of Zelda’s legion of fans overseas, we are aiming to sell more than one million copies worldwide.
The Game Bakers confirmed a May 22nd release date for Squids Odyssey today – on Wii U that is. But what about the 3DS version?
At the moment, a release date hasn’t been determined for the portable release. However, its launch is tentatively targeted for within the next month.
The Game Bakers wrote on Twitter:
@kitroplious We don’t have a date for the 3DS version yet, it should be within a month, we will let you know as soon as we do.
— The Game Bakers (@TheGameBakers) May 16, 2014
I’ve Got to Run! is confirmed for release on the North American Wii U eShop in June. It’s due out on June 5th for $1.99 / $2.19 CAD.
4 Corner Games is working on “a few exciting projects”, one of which could be announced in July or August. If another one pans out, we may hear about it even sooner.
Source: 4 Corner Games PR
