Destructiod is reporting that Xenoblade is finally confirmed for North America. Strangely the source for the news article is a reader who contacted a Nintendo customer service representative. Whether or not this is enough confirmation to publish that the game is officially confirmed for North America is something I’m unsure of. I’d wait for the official word from Nintendo personally. Hopefully we should hear something soon!
Tip: Lee Neon Kieselbach
North American Wii owners who’re dissatisfied with Nintendo’s decision not to publish the highly regarded Xenoblade in the United States have made a stand on Amazon. The team known as Operation Rainfall have made Monado the number one best selling game on Amazon. Monado, which is the original name for Xenoblade, is currently available to pre-order on Amazon. Lets hope Nintendo take note!
The eagerly anticipated Japanese RPG The Last Story is headed to Europe according to Ludovic Amouroux, product manager of Nintendo France. This will undoubtedly come as a blow to American Wii owners who are still awaiting confirmation that Xenoblade will come to the United States. As it stands it doesn’t look like either title will be making its way to the US.
Katsuya Eguchi, game designer and manager at Nintendo EAD, has told gaming publication EGM that Nintendo are hoping that the casual crowd that bought into the Wii will return for the company’s forthcoming Wii U console. Apparently Nintendo are striving to satisfy both the causal and the hardcore crowd with the Wii U. Let’s hope they succeed.
“With the Wii, we wanted to bring in as many new users as possible and have them experience the games, but as a consequence, I think a lot of the core gamers felt that it wasn’t for them, and they started moving away. With the new console and the new controller, we definitely want to bring core gamers back and create new gamers as well. So, with the Wii U, we hope that the players who were introduced to gaming for the first time on the Wii will step it up and become core gamers themselves.”
Masachika Kawata, the producer behind Capcom’s stunning looking Resident Evil Revelations recently had a chat with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to discuss the two Resident Evil games that are in the works for the Nintendo 3DS. Iwata was specifically interested in how Capcom were finding it developing both Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and Resident Evil: Revelations simultaneously on the same platform.
“This time might have been an unusual example, but since we were making two games at once, we divided it up, taking care of the final action bits in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and making graphics and other aspects of presentation in Resident Evil: Revelations,” Kawata replied.
He elaborated further: “The plan for Resident Evil: Revelations was moving along first, but we were putting a lot of work into the scenario and other aspects of the game, so it was going to take a long time to complete.”
“However,” Kawata continued, “we wanted to release something soon after the Nintendo 3DS system hit the market, so we started making and testing Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D — the game system of which was already pretty much in place.”
“Since we were making Resident Evil for a handheld, we were careful about adding elements specific to handheld gaming,” he revealed. “It’s hard to talk about anything we haven’t disclosed yet, though.”
Revelations will be a more traditional Resident Evil game, focused more on scaring the player than recent games in the series. “Some who have played the series on a home console may be worried. But I think you can experience the horror and enjoyment in a way unique to handheld,” Kawata assured.
Nintendo fans have resorted to writing directly to Nintendo of America in a plea for the company to release several high profile Japanese RPG’s. The group is desperate for Nintendo of America to bring The Last Story, Pandora’s Tower and Xenoblade to the United States. What’s strange is that Xenoblade is currently scheduled to be released in Europe but not in the United States. If you feel strongly that these games should come to the US then feel free to write into Nintendo.
Tip: Errol Docena
Ever wondered how The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time would look if it was recreated using Minecraft? Well, some ambitious Minecraft players have done exactly that and have faithfully recreated a number of familiar locations from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Enjoy!
Tip: Joe Meinen
David Jaffe, the outspoken creator behind popular Playstation franchises such as Twisted Metal and God of War is not entirely convinced that the Wii U will be anywhere near as popular as Nintendo’s Wii console which launched back in 2006. Jaffe believes that the families that originally purchased the Wii will have simply moved onto other things such as Apple’s immensely popular iPad.
“I don’t think it will do anywhere near as well as the Wii did.”
“… I think there’s a large enough percentage of people who bought the Wii as something other than a gaming device, and turned it into the fad that it was.
“Most of that percentage is going to go away now. I don’t think enough of them have become ‘gamers’. They tried [the Wii], now they’re onto something like free-to-play MMOs and then they’ll move onto something else. How many of them got converted into actual gamers? I don’t think a large portion.”
“A lot of kids want iPads, iPhones and iPods now. And a large portion of the people who would’ve been interested in traditional Nintendo stuff, beyond core gamers, are just as happy playing Storm in a Teacup on iPad versus a new 3D Mario,” he said.
“Between those two audiences going away and the number of choices core gamers already have on the other systems – which, let’s be honest, a lot of them like super-amazing graphics on their 3D TVs and stuff like that – a lot of people are going to be better served going to the competition.”
“I think the Wii U is going to be less successful than the Wii, probably 50% less successful,” he said.
“I don’t think you’re going to see the Wii U at number one in the next console generation.”
Monolith, the development studio behind the critically acclaimed Xenoblade are currently hard at work creating a new game for Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii U console. Monolith are actively recruiting for more staff to work on its announced Wii project. Xenoblade for the Wii is due to be released in Europe later this year, but it doesn’t appear as though the game will launch in the United States.
EA Sports president Peter Moore has spoken in depth with the developers at Nintendo and has come away suitably impressed after hearing the company’s plans for its online offerings with the Wii U. Moore believes that Nintendo are well aware that the future is online, and they’re desperately trying to deliver a good online experience for consumers.
“Nintendo has recognized the future is connected. The future is online. The future is about building powerful communities,” said Moore. “They know they have to do that, and certainly with the conversations I’ve been in with them I’m very optimistic. We all need to help them, which we’re all willing to do. When I say ‘we’ I mean developers and publishers bringing their best practices.”
“I think it would be great to have three, powerful online game networks going at it with each other.”
