Industry Chatter 10.04.2011

Suda 51, Mega Man and the future of Silicon Knights in this week’s Industry Chatter.

By Andy Hoover. Posted 10/04/2011 15:00 Comment on this     ShareThis

Welcome to this week’s iteration of Industry Chatter, our weekly glance at the idle chatter, boisterous announcements, and suspicious speculation that gives us something to talk about between the actual news and the latest reviews. The last week has been a little on the quite side, but we still have a few tidbits to ponder and some insight from on of the industries more flamboyant developers.


Silicon Knights has Life Beyond X-Men

Eternal Darkness fans will be pleased to know that Silicon Knights is still going strong. Despite having its last two titles, Too Human and X-Men Destiny, turn out rather disappointing, the Canadian developer is excited for the future. CVG asked assistant director Julian Spillane about where the company was going next he responded, “I really wish I could talk about what’s next but all I can say is that it’s incredibly exciting!”


Is it too much to ask for Too Human 2?

Of course this doesn’t say much, but there is still much to consider. Silicon Knights initially proclaimed Too Human to be the first chapter in a trilogy, they created the long dormant Legacy of Kain, and of course Nintendo fans are still begging for a sequel to Eternal Darkness, though it is up to Nintendo to get that project off the ground. Also, the title Siren in the Maelstrom leaked out a couple years back, though no other details have managed to see the light of day. Regardless of what is coming next, Silicon Knights is well known for taking their sweet time developing games, so when you compound that with the complete lack of any other information all we have is one giant question mark that is likely to linger for quite a while.


Capcom Favors Mega Man TV Show over Movie

Moving onto the fine art of turning video games in television series, it appears as though Capcom is considering a new Mega Man series. Capcom’s Christian Svensson had this to say on the matter, “I’d think a TV format would work better myself. In any event, our licensing teams are in constant discussions with movie studios and TV production houses all over the world about such topics but nothing for me to report on that front.”


How about a series based on the original Mega Man?

The Blue Bomber has had made a fair share of television appearances in his time, starting with Captain N before moving onto a few series of his own. Personally, I find it kind of strange that Capcom would even talk about a new Mega Man TV show so shortly after killing off Mega Man Legends 3 — or maybe I’m just bitter still.


Suda 51 Talks About a Little Bit of Everything

Eurogamer had a very interesting discussion with Suda 51, the famously eccentric developer of the supremely bizzare No More Heroes. Grasshopper, Suda 51’s “Video Game Band” (or development team to you and me) has grown significantly over the last few years and is now at its busiest with nine titles in the pipeline ranging from big budget console releases to smaller downloadable offerings. To top it all off, every one of these games is apparently a new IP, which is rather strange in the sequel centric climate the industry currently lives in. Sadly this is a little worrying when you consider the fact that Grasshopper’s latest creation, Shadows of the Damned, launched to disappointing sales in every major market around the world.

Despite this emphasis on original ideas, Suda 51 all but confirmed that the No More Heroes franchise would be coming back sooner than later. “As far as No More Heroes is concerned I consider it one of the most important IPs we have at Grasshopper and hopefully we can announce something for this series next year.” said Suda 51, “I’m sure Travis is not having a good time being missed, with no announcement this year!”


Suda 51 made sure to save after finishing the interview.

Suda 51 took the opportunity to talk about the industry and what he has taken from other developers and how he is applying that within Grasshopper. One area where he praised western developers was in their focus on communicating with their fans to keep their latest titles fresh in consumer’s minds, citing Epic, Bungie, and Valve as great examples of this. As for his Japanese peers, Suda 51 used Level-5 as a great example to follow, they too were a relatively young company that started small but rapidly grew to become hugely successful, largely thanks to their recent work with the Dragon Quest franchise and the world wide popularity of their Professor Layton games. To wrap things up, Suda 51 once again teased the world with his promised collaboration with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, though all that could be said was that they were currently in the process of talking with publishers.


That’s all for now. Be sure to check back next week for inside buzz on the industry and hopefully some fun, baseless speculation. Have an opinion on the future of Silicon Knights or No More Heroes? (Or do you really just want a Mega Man TV series?) Let us know about it in the comments!

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