Industry Chatter: 07.14.2011

Developers are slowly revealing their true intentions towards Wii U, and 3D movies on Netflix may be on the way.

By James Stank. Posted 07/14/2011 16:00 2 Comments     ShareThis

Would you like some U with your Wii? The co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Gearbox, Brian Martel, recently spoke out on Nintendo’s next system, revealing some interesting information, while at the same time giving his own opinion on the console. Martel called Wii U a “cool stop gap” system, meaning it will be the last system of the current generation. “We’ve got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you’re going to see textures at a resolution that you haven’t seen on [the current] generation.” His last comment seems to officially confirm that the console is more powerful than anything available right now, yet calling Wii U a stop gap system also shows that Gearbox does not view it as a next generation device.

Another big name third party developer is also interested in Wii U; Crytek. Crytek is the company that created Crysis and Crysis 2, but they also own the creators of Timesplitters. In an interview with NowGamer, Crytek employees discussed the possibility of a hardcore market on Wii U. “I really hope so but I don’t think it’s a necessary part of their strategy. The Wii is great at the games people like playing on it. I’m not sure yet what Nintendo’s strategy might be for hardcore. I don’t know if we’ll see flagship core titles on that platform – as a fan of Nintendo I’d love to see it personally, but I also enjoy playing the non-core titles a great deal.” In other words, Crytek would like to make Wii U games but is taking a wait and see approach. As of right now, they don’t seem to really think that there will be a a hardcore market on the system. This is all speculation, as the system is a ways away, but now we are finally seeing developers not being so positive, unlike what we saw at E3.

Speaking of E3, do you remember that developer reel that Nintendo showed off, featuring many third party companies known for their hardcore games? Well Ken Levine, the Creative Director of Irrational Games certainly does. In the reel, he praised Wii U saying he felt Nintendo was going back to the hardcore. This led many to incorrectly believe that Irrational would be supporting Nintendo’s new console. Surprise, surprise, Irrational Games currently has no plans for Wii U at all. That’s not to say that they never will support Wii U, but rather that like Crytek, Irrational will most likely wait and see if there is a market for their types of games. Nintendo’s development reel was certainly a little deceiving.

Lastly, Nintendo may have inadvertently revealed Netflix’s plans to stream movies in full 3D. In Nintendo’s press release that revealed Netflix for 3DS, The new Netflix application for Nintendo 3DS displays movies and TV episodes in 2D on the system’s upper screen. Users will soon have access to an additional library of select movies that can be viewed in 3D without the need for special glasses.” Previously we had known of Nintendo’s own video service that would allow 3DS owners to view trailers and special content handpicked by Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo’s President of America, but this is the first we’ve heard of watching full movies through Netflix in 3D.

2 Responses to “Industry Chatter: 07.14.2011”

  • 1379 points
    xeacons says...

    Considering all the videos and trailers on the eShop are 2D, I didn’t think internet bandwidth could support 3D.

  • 0 points
    says...

    I really think some third parties are being cowardly about the Wii U. What are they expecting? Do they really think a market for hardcore mature games will spontaneously appear?

    If there are not a steady supply of mature games for any machine, why the hell would someone wanting mature games buy it?

    So what is their bold strategy for building a potentially significant new market? Let’s let other people take the risk and we can cower behind our awards.

    I think these, so-called “hardcore” developers should stop acting like frightened little girls and grow a pair.

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