Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

[Luigi Dude]

And clearly, Sega's dev studios are not very capable if they keep f*cking up their games. Don't give me that "proper guidance" nonsense. Many of those teams flat out ignored bugs and glitches. If you need to be told that glitches break games, that's not lacking guidance, that's being terrible.

Yep, this right here is the main reason Nintendo would not want to own Sega.  One of the things Nintendo prides itself in is how polished their games are.  Even the worst Nintendo games are still playable and don't suffer from the bugs and glitches a lot of other companies games do.  Any glitches that are in a Nintendo game are usually minor things that the players has to intentionally look for in order to activate them, unlike the 3D Sonic games where Sonic will sometimes fall through the floor and die for no reason because Sonic Team was to damn lazy to code the game right.

Seriously, if Nintendo had owned Sega, NONE, I repeat NONE of the 3D Sonic games would have ever been published in their current forms.  Good God, if Miyamoto had been in charge of overlooking Sonic 2006, he would have literally killed every member of Sonic Team with his bare hands.  Not to mention the reason Nintendo wont release Fatal Frame 4 outside of the Japan is because it's a glitch filled mess that Tecmo refuses to fix.

And even though some of you say that Nintendo's guidance will fix things, not really.  Nintendo's guidance only works when the development studio at least have some talent of their own.  Case in point, Nintendo's very own studio NST.  There's a reason why NST hasn't done anything this gen aside from working on some DSiWare games.  Project H.A.M.M.E.R was canceled because it was a terrible game and NST lacked the talent to fix it.  Nintendo then had them work on a simple casual type game hoping it'd be easier for them, and yet they still managed to be f*ck that up as well.

See this is the thing, the majority of Sega is nothing but NST type studio's.  Nintendo is not going to buy a company where they're going to be forced to constantly waste money on projects that will have to be canceled because the studio's are too incompetent to do anything right.  This is why Adrock is right when he says it would be cheaper for Nintendo to just start up another company to make mature series.  Right now if Nintendo bought Sega, not only would they have to spent a lot of money on buying the company, but then they'd have to probably spend just as much if not more on completely reorganizing the company and it's studio's in order to eventually reach a point where it finally meets Nintendo's standards.  And even after all of that, there's still no guarantee Sega's studio's will be very productive either.  In which case after all the time and money Nintendo spent, they'll now be stuck with over a dozen new NST type studio's in which case Iwata is not going to be very happy with that.


To sum it up, Sega is the equivalent to a run-down old building.  The building is so run-down, that it'd just be cheaper to make a new building then spend money on remodeling the old one.  Not to mention the foundation of the old building is so damaged, that even if you do remodel the old building, there's a good chance it could still collapse on you even after all the work.  This is why just making a new building is a cheaper and safer choice.

[vudu]

Even the worst Nintendo games are still playable and don't suffer from the bugs and glitches a lot of other companies games do.  Any glitches that are in a Nintendo game are usually minor things that the players has to intentionally look for in order to activate them

To be fair, a couple of pretty bad glitches have slipped through the cracks--see Metroid Prime Twilight Princess.  But I suppose your point still stands.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Sometimes you buy a house you don't necessarily like on a property that you do.
You tear down the house and rebuild it the way that you want it.

I think Sega's foundation is fine, it's just the house that's built on it that has the problems.

If such a buyout were to happen, I have no doubts that teams would be consolidated and refocused, people would get layed off and projects would be canceled. It's not like Nintendo would buy Sega and say "carry on as usual, just let us know when you need more money".

Sega is far from perfect but I don't see anything that a good restructuring couldn't fix should Nintendo really want to take on such a task.

They could keep them as a secret 2nd party and pit the brands against each other for marketing purposes. The brand awareness, IP collection and general talent of the workforce that Sega would bring into the fold could be worth the price if Nintendo were willing to take the time to make it work.

[Deguello]

Nintendo would buy Sega and say "carry on as usual, just let us know when you need more money".

What were those Mario and Sonic Olympics games, then?  Those were basically loans to Sega to continue functioning, and what does Nintendo get in return?  A bunch of bullshit about their weird black-and-white games and mediocre shooters and tired rail shooters, while focusing on other systems, where their games underperform as well, and cost them more money.

I bet if Nintendo owned them they'd still find a way to make NGage games.

[Stratos]

People still make games for NGage?!

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo made a good profit off of those too. Nintendo did publish it in Japan afterall.

[Ian Sane]

Sega as a whole doesn't seem worthwhile.  Specific teams from Sega seem more worthwhile.  Overworks for example created Skies of Arcadia and Valkria Chronicles.  They've got talent and a proven track record and since they aren't tied to a specific series they themselves are essentially the brand.  Any pre-existing fanbase (though small) would know them as developers instead of specific IP.  Getting that specific team would be beneficial.

I think that Nintendo's partnership with developers ultimately is what makes the difference.  A lot of you crap on Rare.  I think that's stupid since Rare was incredibly consistent during their time with Nintendo.  Before they joined Nintendo they were a decent-but-not-great dev, then they joined Nintendo and became great, and now they're more okay-at-best again.  I still think Nintendo should never have sold them as the Nintendo-Rare TEAM was the valuable property.  Rare isn't a lesser developer today because they started to suck, it's because they're not with Nintendo anymore.  They were one of the world's most elite developers the entire time with Nintendo.  Star Fox Adventures wasn't the best title to go out on but it's still better than anything they've done since.  And that game was all full of corporate bull****tery with Miyamoto himself shoehorning Star Fox into it.  I think that compromised the development of the game and makes it an unfair test of Rare's talent.  Their previous game, Conker's Bad Fur Day, was an exceptional title.

Anyway a decent developer with potential can become an elite developer with Nintendo's guidance.  The potential thing is important though as arbitrarily picking up guys who used to make Olsen Twins games is not buying devs with potential.  Monolith Soft is not a bad pickup though since they already had a decent track record.

[Stratos]

Amusement Vision is another good Sega studio. Monkey Ball and F-Zero games were both good.

[Deguello]

Amusement Vision doesn't exist anymore.  It's all just Sega now.

I think that compromised the development of the game and makes it an unfair test of Rare's talent.

You ever think that the true compromise was that Rare was falling apart internally at the time?  That the "shoe-horning" of Star Fox was a desperate attempt to save a project that was already 2 years overdue?  I don't want to dig up fossils and be blasphemous but, while Nintendo can add enormous direction and talent to any project... they aren't miracle workers.  Rare was imploding and basically all that's left now is a shallow husk MS uses to make Nintendo-knockoff stuff.  (And apparently Natal games.  Yikes, talk about being demoted.)

And Nintendo doesn't own n-Space, Ian.

[BlackNMild2k1]

^ that's how I remember it.
Rare was going down hill, the Stamper brothers were walking away. Key people from Goldeneye that worked on PD left to create Time Killers 1 & 2. Conker had changed so much from what it was originally revealed to be and it came out 2.5 yrs later than it was supposed to. Kameo & Grabbed by the Ghoulies had been in the works for who knows how long and everything they did just took forever.
Like i said before, Nintendo getting MS to pay what they did for Rare when they did was a great move on Nintendo's part. Rare was only still Rare in name, not content or ability.

[Ian Sane]

You ever think that the true compromise was that Rare was falling apart internally at the time?  That the "shoe-horning" of Star Fox was a desperate attempt to save a project that was already 2 years overdue?

Rare's only truly lousy game (well I don't know how the Mickey Mouse racing games turned out) was the one game that involved Nintendo's corporate interference.  And it was also a game that started development on the N64 and was moved to the Gamecube which would have added to the development time (Eternal Darkness had a similar delay).  Would Rare not have gotten the game out sooner if they didn't have to shoehorn Arwing sequences into the game?  Doesn't forcing a dev to rehaul their existing game to fit in another IP add to the development time a tad?  There just were a lot of outside factors in that specific game.  Aside from that example though Rare had a very good track record with Nintendo.  Their creative output was exceptional until sell-out bullshit fucked with their game.
 
I am talking about Rare as a creative talent here, not necessarily as a company.  I believe, we, the gamers, are worse off because Nintendo broke up the team.  If this is just all about business then maybe it was a good idea since Nintendo is doing awesome right now.  But I'm not a Nintendo stock-holder so I don't care.  All I've cared about is the games.
 
Plus the revisionist history crap were people act like Rare were overrated and didn't release that great of stuff is NUTS.  Total Nintendo fanboy doublethink there.  I wouldn't be bothered if there was more acknowledgement of Rare's great years with Nintendo but instead they get treated as if they were always lousy. 
 
But I'm off topic now.  I wonder what Miyamoto is working on with Motion+.  I also wonder how close the Wii successor is.  I think it's due for 2011 or 2012.  With Sony and MS releasing their own motion control options the uniqueness of the Wii is lost and its technical shortcomings are more exposed.  Though whether or not the competition releases anything worth a damn is up in the air.  But Nintendo ideally has to plan for the threat of them doing so.

[BlackNMild2k1]

More Speculation inbound.

Deadspace 2 coming to a handheld Q4 FY2011 (Jan - March)?
http://i45.tinypic.com/344fwo9.png <-- could be a typo since there is no PC version listed.
But it could mean a DS2 version and/or a PSP version.
If there is a PSP version, then that means they have SD assets and could make a Wii version.

I didn't have anywhere else to throw this bit of news speculation, so I decided to put it here.

[Deguello]

Plus the revisionist history crap were people act like Rare were overrated and didn't release that great of stuff is NUTS.

Who's arguing this?  Are you arguing with people who aren't here?  Rare was great.  They weren't in 2002.  They haven't been since.  I certainly don't think Rare sucked before Star Fox Adventures.  I don't even think Star Fox Adventures was that bad, but it was a sign of dwindling talent and lack of focus.

I am talking about Rare as a creative talent here, not necessarily as a company.  I believe, we, the gamers, are worse off because Nintendo broke up the team.

If they have such creative talent, why do they suck now?  You have no idea if the Nintendo/Rare team would have been anything good if Nintendo decided to buy Rare and lose its founders and key developers.  The fact that they turned to crap after Nintendo sold their share proves it.

Total Nintendo fanboy doublethink there.

Oh you want some doublethink?  Nintendo is a lazy, corporate (LOL! that one still cracks me up), non-artist, casual, non-gaming factory, and yet somehow is, at the same time, able to pull miraculous development miracles with horrible developers, and just their involvement makes the game better, as if they were King Midas and everything they touch turns to gold.  How can both these ideas exist in your head at the same time?

[BlackNMild2k1]

More speculation based on something from EA

In fiscal 2011, every one of EA’s releases will have an online component, both downloadable content and online play and don’t forget that we have a full roster of titles coming from our online subscription site, www.pogo.com, from our mobile and iPhone group, and of course, our social gaming team, Playfish. That’s a lot of exciting content and revenue opportunities coming through all three of our businesses, package goods, digital and distribution.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/187400-electronic-arts-inc-f3q10-qtr-end-31-12-09-earnings-call-transcript?page=5

Could be good and bad news
Sounds to me like NBA Jam will have online multi(Yay!!) and possibly DLC(hmmmm) too?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Not a rumor, but something more to speculate on.

What is Level 5 developing for the Wii?
Is it Inazuma Eleven Break? Dragon Quest X? Prof. Layton? Ni No Kuni?

Level-5 Working on New Wii and PS3 Titles

Aside from the recent White Knight Chronicles, Level-5 has come to be known mostly for its portable hits like Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven. But the Fukuoka developer does seem to have big plans for consoles.

As reported today at Dengeki Online, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino hinted at these console plans during a company introduction speech given to new graduates at the C.C. Lemon Hall in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on the 9th (we'll ignore for now that Shibuya has a hall named after a beverage).

During a Q&A session at the event, Hino was asked if the studio plans on releasing new console titles as a publisher. Hino's response was that Level-5 signed on with DS because they thought the system was a perfect fit for releasing new titles. They're also researching consoles, however, and they even have unannounced PS3 and Wii titles.

Currently, Level-5's known upcoming console projects are White Knight Story 2 and Inazuma Eleven Break!. Break! is widely believed to be in development for Wii and, depending on how loosely Hino is using the terms "unannounced" could be the Wii title he's alluding to. White Knight has been formally announced for the PS3, but is not a Level-5 published game.

Level-5 also originally mentioned console plans for Ni no Kuni, but never clarified. Currently, the Studio Ghibli tie-up is DS-only.

I hope it's all of the above, even if Nintendo or SE has to publish 1 or more of them.

[broodwars]

Sounds to me like NBA Jam will have online multi(Yay!!) and possibly DLC(hmmmm) too?

I'm calling it now: the DLC will be classic jerseys/stadiums if they do it at all.  It's just too easy for EA to ignore.

[Stogi]

God I would buy a Wii immediately, white or black, if Studio Ghibli were to make a Wii game.

[Caliban]

Inazuma Eleven never came to the western world...

[Mop it up]

NBA Jam could be a fun online game. I hope it allows for more than one player per team, though.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I most positive that it will be a 4 player local game. 2 vs 2
But will it be a 4player online game too?
can we do it 3 local and 1 online? or any other combination to make up our teams?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo of America is having a Media Summit on Feb. 24th in SF
Nintendo of Europe is having a Media Summit on Feb. 25th

NoA & NoE are practically having a Media summit at the same day.

Official Nintendo Magazine is teasing something BIG coming in the next issue
and I believe NP and another Nintendo magazine are also hyping something coming up real soon.

What does Nintendo have up their sleeves? Are their NDA's involved?
Is NWR gonna give me their press pass so I can represent them at the event in SF?
I don't have an answer to any of the questions that I just posed.... but I can say for all of you wondering where to get tickets to board the HYPE Train, the line starts here.

ALL ABOARD!!!!!


I'm expecting announcements of new games and release dates for Apr. - EWii3 2010

What already been announced?
02/22/10        Endless Oceanâ„¢: Blue World       Wii
03/14/10        Pokémonâ„¢ HeartGold Version       DS
03/14/10        Pokémonâ„¢ SoulSilver Version       DS
03/28/10        WarioWare D.I.Y.â„¢       DS
03/28/10        America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking       DS

So we are looking for dates on?
Metroid:Other M,
The Last Story (with a reveal?)
Xenoblade
Kirby Wii (it's still coming. Don't lose hope)
Zelda Wii (probably not till E3)
Zangeki no Reginleiv
Sin & Punishment 2
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (it's gonna have Sonic in it )
Disaster: Day of Crisis
DSi XL
Golden Sun DS
Vitality Sensor
Fatal Frame IV (now that there is a translation, they will bring it over )
F-Zero
Kid Icarus
Pikmin 3
Nintencats
Pilotwings Wii
WiiHD

[Peachylala]

Pikmin 3 is possible. All that development time has to have gone towards SOMETHING.

Kirby Wii... why won't you die?

[BlackNMild2k1]

When will the speculation end...?
Not today. Today it is strong.

This time coming from Disney:

Disney Shifting Focus to Wii/DS

During the company's investor call today, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about the company's current approach to the video game market when compared to the introduction of Disney Interactive Studios in 2007. In his answer, he noted that the company would be publishing fewer titles for "high-end" systems, but suggested that the company may soon be publishing Marvel-based titles to make up for the shift. The high-end consoles weren't named, but it's likely he was referring to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as he stated "Disney-branded games seem to perform better on the Wii and DS platforms."

I'll just say it out loud since I already know what you're thinking. Kingdom Hearts 3 coming to Wii.

[KDR_11k]

I hope it includes western dates for Zangeki.

[Stratos]

I want that train! What is that from, a movie?