Xbox boss Phil Spencer says no current plans for Game Pass on Switch and talks about why
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Many gamers are becoming invested in the Xbox ecosystem thanks to Xbox Game Pass. By purchasing a subscription, players gain access to a ton of different titles across various platforms. Some have hoped to see the service migrate to other consoles like Switch, but it doesn’t appear to be in the cards for now.
GamesRadar recently spoke with Xbox boss Phil Spencer and asked him point blank about Xbox Game Pass potentially coming to the console. He ultimately said that there aren’t plans at the moment for any closed platforms “mainly because those closed platforms don’t want something like Game Pass.”
Spencer’s full words:
More: interview, Phil Spencer, top, Xbox Game Studios
LEGO City Undercover dev says the team wanted to avoid making a GTA game, scrapped zombie mechanic talk
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Wii U | 0 comments
LEGO City Undercover may feature an open world, but it’s not overly comparable to Grand Theft Auto. It turns out that this was intentional.
During a recent episode of the Bits N’ Bricks podcast, lead animator Matt Palmer mentioned, “One thing we were keen to try and avoid was it becoming a Grand Theft Auto game.” Rather than being violent, the team “constantly stepped back from things and just made sure that we were looking at the fun and the funny element of what we could do.” That lead to elements like the grapple gun.
Palmer explained:
Fatal Frame producer hopes Maiden of Black Water re-release will lead to a new game
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
After being on hiatus for several years, Fatal Frame is finally back in the spotlight. Maiden of Black Water was the last entry in the series having first launched on Wii U in 2014. Koei Tecmo is now bringing back that game by re-releasing it on modern platforms, including Switch.
Japanese magazine Famitsu spoke with producer Keisuke Kikuchi this week and at one point, the two discussed the future of Fatal Frame. Kikuchi was asked if the series could start up again off the back of a good response Maiden of Black Water. He responded favorably, and indicated that the team hopes it’ll lead to a new game.
Kikuchi’s full words:
Square Enix says Final Fantasy X’s Tidus was originally going to be a plumber
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Famitsu recently published a new Final Fantasy X developer interview with writer Kazushige Nojima, character designer Tetsuya Nomura, and producer Yoshinori Kitase. As part of that, the two revealed some interesting origins about main character Tidus. It turns out that he was originally imagined as a plumber.
Nojima stated the following, as translated by Kotaku:
Divinity: Original Sin 2 Switch dev feels Nintendo needs more powerful hardware
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Back in 2019, BlitWorks partnered with Larian Studios on the Switch version of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Co-founder Tony Cabello has gone on record and said that the port “was one of the most difficult projects we’ve ever done”. BlitWorks would later partner with Larian again, as the company’s development team would form the recently-announced Larian Barcelona.
Larian’s main focus at the moment is Baldur’s Gate 3, though it’s unclear if it will end up on Switch. One factor that could influence the situation would be if Nintendo introduced more powerful hardware.
More: interview, Larian Studios, top
Suda51 hopes there’ll be a No More Heroes movie or TV show, says one proposal “came really close” to happening
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
The No More Heroes franchise was dormant for about a decade following the release of the second entry on Wii. But we then saw Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes in 2019, Switch ports of the previous titles last year, and we’re about to get No More Heroes 3. You can definitely say that the series’ future is looking bright.
No More Heroes has stayed within the gaming space, but creator Suda51 is interested in expanding the IP into areas. Speaking with IGN, he talked about how he hopes there’ll be a movie or TV show based on the series someday. Also revealed is that one past proposal “came really close” to happening, with a decision even having been made egarding “the actor to play the main character, but it never made it into production.”
Suda51’s full words:
More: interview, No More Heroes, Suda51, top
Video: Producer and composer talk Legend of Mana
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch, Videos | 0 comments
Square Enix shared a new video today to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mana. In it, series producer producer Masaru Oyamada and Legend of Mana composer Yoko Shimomura discuss the RPG in detail.
Here’s the full video:
GungHo says Ninjala downloads grew faster than expected, most popular in the US, considering spinoffs
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
In an interview with GamesBeat, GungHo Online president Kazuki Morishita discussed the performance of Ninjala. It appears to be doing well, as Morishita mentioned that the amount of downloads “grew much faster than we expected.”
Ninjala has been most popular in the United States. Japan, then France, and finally Spain round out the top four in that order.
As for the future, it looks like GungHo will revisit Ninjala at some point with even more projects. Morishita said in the same interview that the company is “thinking about doing more spinoffs” down the road.
Ninjala is out now on the Switch eShop.
Monster Hunter Stories 2 devs on updated visual style and addition of co-op, concept images shown
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
According to Monster Hunter series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, the team working on Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin spent “a long time deciding what to do with the graphics at first.”
Tsujimoto, along with director Kenji Oguru, spoke about the visual style during the Monster Hunter Stories 2 Special Pre-Launch Program. Oguru mentioned wanting to appeal to a wider audience compared to the first entry on 3DS. The character models were a big focus, and the team ended up going with more realistic body proportions.
Here’s the exchange between Tsujimoto and Oguru, which also includes some talk about adding in co-op:
More: Capcom, interview, Monster Hunter Stories 2
Former BioWare producer reveals details on Mass Effect: Corsair, a cancelled Mass Effect game for DS
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News | 0 comments
BioWare made one game for DS back in the day in the form of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. It turns out that the company was also tinkering with an exclusive entry in the Mass Effect series, but the project was ultimately scrapped.
The same team behind Sonic Chronicles was also working on something called Mass Effect: Corsair. This would have been a Star Control-inspired game set in Batarian space that ran alongside the original trilogy.
Former BioWare producer Mark Darrah told MinnMax:
