Industry Chatter 08.16.2011

Welcome back to Industry Chatter, the time of the week when we spill the beans on recent babblings of the gaming realm and its world wide web of gab. We feel it is our duty to shed our unique light on the subjects at hand and hope that, in the process, we tickle your fancies in one way or another. Because we love you that much.

Aonuma: Majora’s Mask 3D not an “Utter Impossibility.”

Much to the delight of most of the Nintendojo staff, the latest issue of Nintendo Power gave us all at least a glimmer of hope for a 3DS remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask with their exclusive interview with series mastermind, director and designer, Eiji Aonuma. Here are the relevant excerpts:

NP: After playing Ocarina of Time 3D, the next question that comes to mind is: Will we get a Majora’s Mask remake next?

A: Would you like to play such a remake?

NP: Well, yes!

A: It’s been 13 years since Ocarina of Time was originally released, and one of the big things that made this remake possible was that there was an outpour of emotions from people who said they would like to see this game done. We said we could do it in 3D, so we did. I think certainly if there was a similar output of emotion and clamor from fans for a remake of Majora’s Mask, it wouldn’t be an utter impossibility.

Thinking on it now, having a handheld Majora’s Mask where you could kind of just set things down on your own time – close it, set it aside and come back to it later – might be a gameplay element some fans will actually take to and might really appreciate. Especially considering how you really had to rush through the original game, in a sense.

We should all be thanking Nintendo Power for asking such good questions. Interviews can so often be meaningless and predictable, with the hosts asking their guests unspeakably lame questions such as favorite colors or lunches; but this one actually managed to pull out some nice content. And for that, I am truly grateful.

Interestingly enough, Aonuma’s off-hand mention of a possible remake has already birthed “Operation Moonfall” – an online petition aimed at the house that Mario built. This dream-led campaign almost instantaneously garnered over 10,000 signatures and is presently on a steady course to 25,000.

For a large portion of the interview with Aonuma, follow the red link road.

Sales Slump Not Just Affecting Nintendo

If you thought that the drought of new, playable video games was only bad for us Nintenfans, you can think again. The agonizing summer (or to be more precise, the month of July) has proven to be the worst for all the major companies and their overall sales of the last five years. While Xbox 360 has been the most lively of the bunch this year, its recent selection of games is leaving much to be desired– just like everyone else’s. This tragic decline should come as a wake-up call to Microsoft that releasing a new “mature shooting experience” (because we can’t just call them games) every month will not spare neither it nor Sony from the economic slump. Obviously, the promise of a next generation couldn’t be fulfilled any quicker for all sides of the table.

Source: NPD

Apple Tempting Mario

This may come as a shock at first, but the Walt Disney Corporation is hoping to take a bite out of Mario’s soul through its Apple subsidiary. With an uncontested resume of masterpiece titles and a high standard of quality embedded within every release, it is no wonder that an American company bent on world domination would be poking its nose around Nintendo’s alley.

The story starts out, oddly enough, with investors attempting to use Nintendo’s recent failures to convince the gaming juggernaut to cross over and develop software for the Dark Side Smartphones. Both company president Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto have made it clear in the past that Nintendo has no intentions of ever getting out of hardware as long as they are in charge. But are the two of them strong enough to resist an Apple so desirable? Let’s pray so.

Help us, freedom and sanity! You’re our only hope!

Source: Bloomberg

Sakurai Talks a Little More Smash

Beloved director Masahiro Sakurai recently sat down with NowGamer.com for an exclusive interview in which a few questions regarding Super Smash Bros. 4 were fortunately popped.

NG: You’re developing a new version of Smash Bros. for Wii U. How do you intend to take advantage of the console’s unique controller?

S: I will think about this once Kid Icarus is complete. But as it is a game of a competitive nature, I do not think that any one person should have an advantage.

NG: Smash Bros. Brawl was a complete experience. What can any sequel offer in addition to that game?

S: There are many things that can be improved upon even in Brawl. The director of each game is the same, but because I regularly change my team around after projects, we will be able to see how good the team is then.

NG: There can’t be many high-profile Nintendo characters left to add to Smash Bros. Who’s left that you’d like to include?

S: That is completely undecided, but it is true that Nintendo has not created many new characters lately.

Do you get the feeling that Sakurai doesn’t want to talk about a Smash Bros. sequel just yet? With Kid Icarus still waiting in the wings, it certainly isn’t difficult to imagine the pressure he must be facing each day with double duties.

Source: NowGamer

Gorilla Warfare Comes to an End

Hank Chien, master of arcade classic Donkey Kong, made his status final this past Sunday by beating out Dean Saglio at the Richie Knucklez arcade in New Jersey. But he’s not finished just yet. The new “King of Kong” will be heading back to his throne room later this week in a public attempt to one-up his own record score of 1,061,700.

A fistful of quarters never looked so good. For the arcade owner, that is.

Source: PRLog

The Big N Applies for Another Mysterious Patent

To add another entry into its long line of sudden (more-often-than-not abandoned) patents, Nintendo has just this week applied for a new one, described as a “massively single-player online game.” What exactly this entails is ours to speculate, but it could easily dissolve into nothingness like many of Nintendo’s other peculiar patents have in days past, with the Wii remote stuffed inside a teddy bear and the butt cushion being among the most memorable.

Source: GameSpot

Mark Seymour’s Words – PS Vita Will be “a Car Wreck.”

Sony probably isn’t too happy about industry veteran Matthew Seymour’s predictions regarding its next handheld platform. “With all due respect to Sony and Vita,” he told GamesIndustry.biz, “it’s a car wreck. And how about Xperia Play? I’d love to pull up the numbers on that.” The Heavy Iron president went on to state that the whole of gaming-only portable devices will be eaten alive by multipurpose ones unless there is a severe paradigm shift in the near future.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little conglomeration of hard-hitting headlines. If I can connect anything together out of this, it would be that the world of video games is a convoluted one– one where we must constantly consider every possible conjecture if we ever contend to conjure up the best possible conclusions. Okay, I’m going to stop now. But you catch my drift.