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WiiU

Star Fox Zero Delayed to 2016

by Neal Ronaghan - September 17, 2015, 9:38 pm EDT
Total comments: 39 Source: Nintendo

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto confirms the delay of the major Wii U holiday title to early 2016.

Star Fox Zero is no longer due out on November 20, 2015 as the marquee Wii U game is being pushed back to Q1 2016 according to Nintendo.

Shigeru Miyamoto made the decision to delay the game last week, as per a statement posted on Facebook. Miyamoto explained that they "have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time," but that Nintendo and Platinum Games want to polish the game so "players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play."

He elaborated: "Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes."

In the statement, Miyamoto stressed that the delay won't be a long one and that the new anticipated release date for Star Fox Zero is Q1 2016.

With the delay, Nintendo's holiday 2015 Wii U lineup in North America now just contains Yoshi's Woolly World (October 16), Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (November 13), Xenoblade Chronicles X (December 4), Devil's Third (December 11), and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Holiday) in addition to a few eShop games such as Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.

Talkback

azekeSeptember 18, 2015

Hopefully they can make it look more Platinum-y than it looked in E3.

MagicCow64September 18, 2015

Ah dang, that is phhht of a holiday period now. They must have accepted in their souls that nothing can help the WiiU. But sheeet, this version of Star Fox was already a pretty wan replacement for Zelda U. Theoretically Xenoblade should be a heavy hitter, but that game seems to have leaked most of its buzz after the Japanese launch.

EnnerSeptember 18, 2015

PUSH XENOBLADE X


As for Star Fox Zero, I'm happy about the delay. The game's E3 2015 showing showed a game that looked undercooked for some. Now, I think the Star Fox game a lot of people want would take 2+ years, while Zero looks half that. Hopefully this extra time will address the complaints from the more negative side of Zero's mixed E3 2015 reception.

AdrockSeptember 18, 2015

Star Fox Zero wasn't going to make or break Nintendo's holiday lineup. A nice game to have and nothing more. I'll always support game delays. If a company is willing to sacrifice profits for customer satisfaction, I can't rightly fault it for that. At the same time, stop showing games so early. Star Fox was quasi-announced at E3 2014. "It's a demo, kind of, maybe..." In hindsight, this greatly weakens Nintendo's 2015 E3 Digital Event.

ShyGuySeptember 18, 2015

Christmas is ruined.

It's not ruined, I just wanted to beat Ian to the punch

Evan_BSeptember 18, 2015

They must have realized how stupid the control scheme was.

In other news, the Wii U is dead.

Nile Boogie ReturnsSeptember 18, 2015

Welp, thank God Battlefront is coming out this Christmas, how else would I get my dogfighting Space fights?




THIS BLOWS!

Nile Boogie ReturnsSeptember 18, 2015

HEY NINTENDO!




Maybe give us a Zelda Wii U trailer to apologize for this bullshitm


Thanks


Nile

broodwarsSeptember 18, 2015

Well, the game looked like shit and it would've released in the same window as Black Ops 3, Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void, Star Wars: Battlefront, and Just Cause 3. It would've been a bloodbath.  I would have delayed it, too.

We've had enough terrible Star Fox games, and it's not like Nintendo's even a serious competitor to the other consoles anymore. Delaying this game and making it the first good Star Fox game in nearly 2 decades is the right move.

broodwarsSeptember 18, 2015

Considering Nintendo's pretty much conceded the entire Holiday 2015 console season to Sony & Microsoft now, I wonder if management is feeling any differently about dropping the Wii U's price. Otherwise, I could see the November NPDs setting some new All Time Lows for them.

NeifirstSeptember 18, 2015

I don't mind the delay, but I hope NoA will at least increase the number of VC releases so there's something to get while waiting for Xenoblade Chronicles X. 

SorenSeptember 18, 2015

Quote from: Enner

PUSH XENOBLADE X

That was my idea from day 1. Get ready for Animal Crossing Amiibo Cult Party as the big Black Friday title! Fitting...

Quote from: Neifirst

I don't mind the delay, but I hope NoA will at least increase the number of VC releases so there's something to get while waiting for Xenoblade Chronicles X. 

Hey, maybe they'll release Zero Miss-hahahahahahahhahahahahahaahhhhhaahahhhahhhahhahahahahahahadshaljbegsjabenr;jot;d

TOPHATANT123September 18, 2015

I would like to see Nintendo put all their marketing bandwidth behind  Xenoblade X for the holiday, give it the chance it deserves.

I think delaying Star Fox is the right decision although I question if they can really make any significant changes in such a short space of time, I think this is more to do with bugs then it is the design of the game.

Luigi DudeSeptember 18, 2015

As others have said, the best bet is to release Xenoblade X as their big November game now and give it a bigger marketing push.  Open world games are extremely popular in the West, and even though Xenoblade's anime look is going to limit it's appeal to the wider audience, it's still an open world game that allows you to use giant battle robots to fight huge enemies which is pretty unique for this genre in America.  If NOA could really market that aspect of the game, it could be pretty appealing to some.

Quote from: TOPHATANT123

I think delaying Star Fox is the right decision although I question if they can really make any significant changes in such a short space of time, I think this is more to do with bugs then it is the design of the game.

Well we haven't really seen any new footage since E3 so we don't know what kind of progress the dev team has been making.  For all we know because of the negative reactions at E3, it went through some pretty big changes shortly after to improve quality and they just need a few more months to finish them.  Or knowing Nintendo, they know they need more time to improve the quality so they're saying it'll be a Q1 release right now so people won't get as mad because they only think they need to wait a few more months when in reality Nintendo knows the game probably won't be ready until Q2 and wait until next year to announce that delay. :-\

EnnerSeptember 18, 2015

Quote from: broodwars

Considering Nintendo's pretty much conceded the entire Holiday 2015 console season to Sony & Microsoft now, I wonder if management is feeling any differently about dropping the Wii U's price. Otherwise, I could see the November NPDs setting some new All Time Lows for them.

If they could drop the price, I think they would have done so already. Maybe the sad reality is that the current price is close to breaking even for Nintendo. Which... is an insane thought now that I think about it.


Also, I don't think Star Fox Zero was ever that big a draw. If the premise is that the game being delayed means that Nintendo conceded, then Nintendo conceded long before.

For dropping the price to work it'd have to increase sales to the point of making up the difference between what they'd be making and what they'd have been making at the old price, and if anything I'd think the lack of a big holiday title actually reduces the chances of that. Nintendo knows the Wii U is a lost cause, so they're going to ride out the rest of its life in the way that they think makes them the most money, even if that means a lower user base.

They could make it up by selling a bunch of Amiibo.

also #loveisover #pleaseunderstand and all that.

They were going to do that anyway.

ejamerSeptember 18, 2015

Doesn't feel surprising. The window to finish development and polish Star Fox seemed really short if they were going to hit 2015.  Give it more time and make it a better product, and I think most fans will end up happier in the long run - unfortunately 2015 is ending not with a bang, but a whimper.


It's disappointing. So if the fact that Fatal Frame is going digital only in North America. But
I bought the console for Xenoblade. As long as that comes out this year, I'm willing to forgive almost anything.

fred13September 18, 2015

I'm hoping they take some of the extra time and give us a 4 player mode. we played almost as much 4 Player star Fox 64 as we did Goldeneye.

OedoSeptember 18, 2015

I have no problem with this in a vacuum, but I hope they don't make a habit out of committing to release dates/time frames for big titles and then reneging on them. Development isn't always smooth sailing and sometimes things come up, but the original release dates for the two big delays this year both seemed ambitious at the time.

famicomplicatedJames Charlton, Associate Editor (Japan)September 18, 2015

They delayed it to add the 4-player online co-op mode I suggested.




#hypertrollGET

nickmitchSeptember 18, 2015

There's probably gonna be a Nintendo Direct announcing the holiday release of the 2D Metroid that Nintendo has been saving for an emergency.

broodwarsSeptember 18, 2015

Quote from: nickmitch

There's probably gonna be a Nintendo Direct announcing the holiday release of the 2D Metroid that Nintendo has been saving for an emergency.

You mean Zero Mission?  :P:

It's sad that that probably is what NoA's been doing with that game.

Ian SaneSeptember 18, 2015

Quote from: ShyGuy

Christmas is ruined.

It's not ruined, I just wanted to beat Ian to the punch

What are you kidding?  Xenoblade's still coming.

Nintendo isn't without a good holiday game, they're just now without the game that is easier to market and has an established brand.  Xenoblade X is going to be one of the Wii U's best titles and the first game was easily one of the best for the Wii.  The game's great, it just isn't as immediately accessible.  It will take more of an effort to push it and let the existing Wii U ownership know that this is a game worth trying. A good demo would really help though I suppose that wouldn't be something NOA could do on their own.  The Wii U isn't going to be saved and it isn't a big hit with casuals like the Wii was.  This Christmas the goal is to sell games to the existing Wii U userbase.  That userbase is going to be more willing to give a complicated game a go than the Wii Sports crowd was and it doesn't have to be the sort of game that sells systems.  It just has to be a good game that the existing userbase will like, which it is, and that userbase has to be made aware that this is a game they would like.

Now is Star Fox truly in need of more work or are they just trying to spread releases around to help fill a weak 2016?  Or is this moved to the NX?

peacefulwarSeptember 18, 2015

NO ONE IS SURPRISED BY THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.

TOPHATANT123September 18, 2015

I supose a Xenoblade demo could work, something like Just Cause where your save file self destructs after like 30 minutes and if you want to go on you have to pay. The issue there is that it would be a very big download. Another way you could do it is release a free character creator before the game comes out like Saint's Row.

YmeegodSeptember 18, 2015

Xenoblade/Starfox were never going be Nintendo's Ace-in-the-hole IMO.  At best you're looking at 250-300K (NA) for each title which is a drop in the bucket.  Mario Tennis should do double that just on name brand alone.

Right now I think the best move would be to focus on the games that actually selling/sold.  Namely making more DLC and reducing prices to pre-existing games (hell I would throw in a few wii titles in as well). 



Ian SaneSeptember 18, 2015

Quote from: TOPHATANT123

I supose a Xenoblade demo could work, something like Just Cause where your save file self destructs after like 30 minutes and if you want to go on you have to pay. The issue there is that it would be a very big download. Another way you could do it is release a free character creator before the game comes out like Saint's Row.

I was thinking more that NCL notices that this might be an issue and gets a proper demo made that can be a small file.  The new president used to in charge of NOA.  Let's see if he learned that Christmas shopping is a big fucking deal in North America and that games being moved out of that timeframe at the last minute is not a good thing.

sudoshuffSeptember 18, 2015

I'm actually more excited about Star Fox now that it's been delayed.  The game looked pretty bare at E3...both graphically and content-wise.  Mario Maker, Fatal Frame, and Xenoblade will occupy me the rest of the year.  And, I agree with those above that they should use the opportunity to really push Xenoblade.

StratosSeptember 18, 2015

Quote from: famicomplicated

They delayed it to add the 4-player online co-op mode I suggested.




#hypertrollGET

I remember the push for 8 player LAN in SF Assault... that went over well.

KhushrenadaSeptember 18, 2015

Good!

And don't bring it back until it's Metroid Prime 4!

I would be really conflicted if Platinum made a Metroid game. On the one hand, it's Platinum and their A-game is best of breed. On the other hand... Metroid. I'm not sure they could save it after the mess Armature left.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterSeptember 19, 2015

Nintendo must have seen all the negative buzz around various forums and figured they better up their game a little. If it isn't the graphics that is putting people off it's how empty and slow the stages seem to appear at the moment. Now these could just be what we are given for previews and teasers but there isn't much spectacle to be excited over right now.

I'm glad for the delay. Make it a little prettier and a little crazier even if the world is being rendered twice and then give us some online multiplayer! I think more than anything all I've wanted out of Star Fox since 64 was a major expansion on the multiplayer. Assault was slow messy garbage and the 64 remake was just fine but with no online there was no one to play.

peacefulwarSeptember 20, 2015

Wouldn't it be so hilarious if the true reason it was delayed was something utterly mind-numbingly frivilous like they need more time to animate and render out the CGI intro?

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterSeptember 20, 2015

Quote from: peacefulwar

Wouldn't it be so hilarious if the true reason it was delayed was something utterly mind-numbingly frivilous like they need more time to animate and render out the CGI intro?

They probably source that kind of thing out to different studios. Miyamoto probably flipped some tables and took the internets reaction to heart.

Quote from: Khushrenada

Good!

And don't bring it back until it's Metroid Prime 4! a Rogue Squadron Sequel!

KhushrenadaSeptember 21, 2015

That would also be acceptable.

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