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Colour me confused. As we all know, the Gamepad controller that forms the main gimmick of Nintendo’s Wii U console, incorporates with it an NFC Reader. Back when this was first announced, many of us assumed this would allow NFC-enabled toys, for example Skylanders figures, to work on the console without the need for a separate device (the Skylanders Portal, for example). Indeed, Nintendo even made numerous references to such functionality in a subsequent Nintendo Direct – but despite this; and even as Skylanders games continue to make a presence on Nintendo’s consoles and the 3DS, this ability simply hasn’t been utilised.
Why not? Surely Skylanders’ child-friendly nature, emphasis on collectivity and vast array of funny characters is a natural fit for Nintendo – so the company should be trying to support them as much as they can right? Well apparently, Nintendo was “confused” about the whole concept of Skylanders when they were first told about it – and that confusion led to them pulling out of a potentially lucrative deal, according to Fred Ford and Paul Reiche, co-founders of Skylanders developer Toys For Bob.
Speaking to the gaming website Polygon as part of a larger Skylanders feature, the two developers revealed that the company approached Nintendo to discuss Skylanders in the hopes of getting the company behind them during early development of their big toy-centric action game. They believed the title fit in with Nintendo’s own family-friendly image and childlike charm; and at one point even discussed combining Nintendo properties into the Skylanders game world – could you imagine Mario, Zelda or Samus standing beside Spyro and the other Skylanders? However, Nintendo appeared confused by the concept.
The company’s lack of understanding over what Skylanders was supposed to be and how they’d work with it, appears to have led to Nintendo deciding not to commit to the IP. To this day, Toys For Bob remain confused as to why Nintendo didn’t give them a chance. Said Reiche: “Clearly, they have got properties well suited to this world. Why it is that they didn’t rush in here will probably haunt them for the rest of their days.”
Indeed, Skylanders has gone on to sell millions of games and hundreds of millions of the individual figures over its relatively short lifespan; and now has three separate series. Whether you’d like to admit it or not, the franchise has become an enormous global success – a fact that must hit Nintendo hard given their recent financial woes. Perhaps this could be behind recent rumours that Nintendo may be looking into turning its own virtual, toy-based series, Pokémon Rumble, into an actual physical toy line? Of course, these are just rumours right now – but you gotta admit, it makes a ton of sense; and Nintendo do have a history of showing people how things should be done…
Hero Generations, the game dubbed “the five minute Civilization” has reached its funding goal on Kickstarter!
Dedicated listeners may remember that the creator of Hero Genreations, Scott Brodie, was a recent guest on the Indie Game Show. The game, which has you playing a hero who ages one year for every step he takes and must choose his path in life, be it fighter, builder or lover as he fosters a new generation to carry on has now reached full funding on Kickstarter. Hero Generations is now working towards meeting it’s stretch goals which include a Family Tree, Volcano Island and an advanced tier Tech Tree.
We at Sanitarium.fm wish Scott all the best, and will try to keep PredictedCyborg sedated until the game comes out, lest she damage herself or the studio bouncing off the walls in anticipation.
Earlier today the gaming world learned of the termination of long-time composer Martin O’Donnell from Bungie, via a tweet O’Donnell sent out from his Twitter account.
I’m saddened to say that Bungie’s board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.
O’Donnell has done work for the company since 1997, starting with the game Riven and eventually composing the music for a then-secret project which would become the first Halo game – Halo: Combat Evolved. He then joined the company in 2000, shortly before Microsoft acquired the company. O’Donnell has composed music for the Halo games all the way through to Halo: Reach, meaning he is responsible for some of the acknowledgedly awesome music heard throughout the series’ games. He had also been working on music for the upcoming game Destiny.
Bungie posted a message on their website acknowledging the composer’s leaving of their company and offering him a brief farewell.
“For more than a decade, Marty O’Donnell filled our worlds with unforgettable sounds and soundtracks, and left an indelible mark on our fans. Today, as friends, we say goodbye. We know that wherever his journey takes him, he will always have a bright and hopeful future.
We wish him luck in all his future endeavors.”
The reason for O’Donnell’s termination still remains unclear.
Child Of Light is an upcoming RPG from Ubisoft Montreal, utilizing the visually stunning UbiArt Framework.
The game looks stunning, and Ubisoft has just released a new trailer showcasing the world you will explore when the game launches on April 30th for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and PC.
By now most of you will have become aware that the creator of X-Com, Julian Gollop is on Kickstarter hoping to fund his new project Chaos Reborn. This is exciting mostly because the game will be the first one he has made for the PC in about a decade, having been working with Ubisoft to develop games for handheld platforms since then. So what made him change his mind about handhelds being the last stronghold for turn-based strategy gaming?
In an interview with PCGamesN Gollop said that he felt PC had become home to complicated 4X games and war shooters, not leaving a lot of room for the sort of turn-based game that he was interested in. On the other hand the DS had Fire Emblem and others games that he was a fan of, and so found himself working as an independent developer and publisher at Ubisoft Sofia, where his last game was Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars a 3DS launch title.
Of course, now that the X-Com reboot has been a success with the game and its DLC gaining popularity for the turn-based strategy game again Gollop has decided to return to PC with Chaos Reborn. He was also very positive about Unity, which already supports the browser based prototype of Chaos. “It has made this cross-platform development much, much more economical,” he says, hoping that Unity will allow for cross-platform play between PC and tablet versions of the game, commenting that the engine was becoming more of a platform in its own right in a sense.
The Kickstarter is still active and there’s still a little bit more needed to reach target so go give it a look and support it if you like turn-based games with a little luck thrown in for good measure.
