Nightly News Roundup: 04.01.2011

Itoi and Iwata Discuss Future of Earthbound/Mother Series

In an interview for Japan’s BRUTUS magazine, Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata talked at length about the popular RPG series. The two reminisced a bit on the series’ inception, but much was said about what kind of future fans can expect.

While his fondness for the series has grown over the years, Itoi admitted that it is highly unlikely the series will ever see a fourth installment. Itoi believes the series finished off well enough with Mother 3, which is still unavailable in North America, so he has no plans of creating a new entry. However, he also revealed that he has objections with somebody else picking up where he left off so that he could experience the game as a player for a change.

Whether or not an a new entry is ever released, Itoi feels the spirit of the games lives on regardless. “The very lives you’re living now are MOTHER 4,” Itoi said, “Today we had lots of ridiculous thoughts, today we felt sadness, today we laughed a lot. That’s what I had set out to do within the world of those games.”

Source: Earthbound Central

THQ and Random House Reveal Plans to Partner Games and Books

Homefront, a PS3 and 360 FPS about a near future invasion of the US by North Korea, was recently launched with a companion novel to fill out the fiction of the game’s world. The two product were published by THQ and Random House respectively, and these two companies plan on continuing this approach.

The two groups will continue working together to create new transmedia IPs, shared universes for both print in gaming in which the player/reader can more thoroughly immerse themselves. Ideally, this partnership will propel each other’s products by expanding the audience and creating more complete products which could open the door for further crossovers into other media.

Source: THQ

Ubisoft Shows Great Confidence in 3DS

With four titles available launch and a handful more right around the corner, it has been quite clear that Ubisoft has major plans for 3DS. This has been further established by Damien Moret, Ubisoft’s brand development director.

In addition to its significant contribution to the system’s launch library, Moret revealed that 15 more titles are in development for the system, including Splinter Cell and the Driver reboot. Furthermore, Moret speculated that given the system’s wide array of features and Nintendo’s fan base, 3DS could prove more successful than the immensely popular DS.

Source: Now Gamer