During the Wii's illustrious time on the market, developer High Voltage was a studio known for bringing mature shooters to the console, filling a void left by Nintendo itself. With franchises like The Conduit series, and the eventually cancelled The Grinder - a dark shooter that was set to involve vampires and werewolves - under its belt, High Voltage caught the attention of Nintendo, landing a Wii U project deal that unfortunately never saw the light of day.
Shedding more light on the situation, DidYouKnowGaming? has uncovered some extra behind-the-scenes information surrounding the game, the studio involved, and ultimately why the game was cancelled. Nintendo reportedly called on High Voltage to create a family-friendly alternative in the shooter genre, pitching the idea of water guns (in a similar fashion to Splatoon) as an example. It was up to High Voltage to figure out the rest, and a group of roughly ten people were assigned to the project.
The idea born from this included robots that would be susceptible to blasts of water that could fry their circuits. Character designs took inspiration from Mega Man and the 2005 movie Robots, while one stage design featured many similarities to Super Mario Sunshine's Pinna Park - the theme park area.
It seems that water would have been a central mechanic throughout the entire game, with extra weapons also being designed that could use other liquids such as sewage and electrified water. The robots would have different shapes and sizes, multiplayer was being considered as an option - although the core game was the priority - and Nintendo seemed to be genuinely interested in the concepts put forth.
In 2011, a High Voltage employee leaked various information about the game's concept and the discussions going on between the studio and Nintendo to a singular press outlet. Nintendo asked High Voltage to find the leaker and ensure that there would be no further leaks, but - at the time, at least - High Voltage couldn't find the perpetrator. As a result, Nintendo felt it was unable to continue with the project, cancelling it after just a month in the works.
DidYouKnowGaming? has now found the leaker in question, and has discovered that they released the information due to being unhappy with working conditions at High Voltage. If you're interested in the topic, feel free to check out the full video below.
Would you have liked to see this game arrive on Wii U? Do you think it could have been a success? Tell us below.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 28
slow claps - what a shame, though, the concept sounded really interesting.
@NewAdvent well said.
Although I agree it’s petty to leak things and info. Not sure you should cancel a game because of leaks. Nowadays leaks are intentional to create a buzz.
The mentioning of Yoshi and Metroid by Nintendo amount to basically leaks as they gave so little info and just teased games that were years off.
So what if people knew a game was coming... that’s only going to build excitement.
Leaks will be common place.
When was the last time a massive game was announced and it was a complete surprise?
It hadn’t been leaked or teased.
All seems petty from all sides to me
I'm glad we've gotten Splatoon instead of this. Splatoon's become one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, next to Kirby and Pokémon.
All's well that ends well. Splatoon is by far one of the best new IPs in the last decade. I think Nintendo's biggest new IP since Pokemon. Not saying it's as big as that, but what IP between then and now can compare? SSB? Does that even count as a new IP? Not in my boom. It's a crossover series.
Well Nintendo didn't cancel as soon as the leak came out, they cancelled when the company was unable to do anything about it. They lost faith in the company to address in-house issues, seems fair to me to cancel a deal.
*Edit, was still an indecent act on behalf of the employee, but perhaps this shows the company was in a shambles. This is not a justification, but at least explains their motives.
While I’m happy we got Splatoon in the end, it would’ve been nice if this project saw the light of day as well. The Wii U needed all the games it could get!
the thing is I have been involved with large corporations doing deals and someone was talking to the press. the other company wanted to back out because they need total faith in you. if you don't have control of your staff it doesn't look good. the guy who did this was a selfish fool. if he was un happy. complain to HR, or even acas for instance in the UK (I'm sure other countries have similar firms to sort out industrial disputez)
or as mentioned get a new job. not ruin it for everyone. I'm glad we got solution but would rather it not be built on people losing jobs because one idiot had to have his moment in the spotlight
@NewAdvent Took the words right out of my mouth. It seems these days some people feel that walking away is never good enough they have to cause trouble for their own bloated smug ego.
I hope this person has since been blacklisted or at least put in a place where he/she would have to prove someone can trust him/her; cos if I was a hiring manager and knee this I’d tell him to walk cos no longer how good he/she is; its a sign I should have zero trust and faith in him/her.
@Heavyarms55 I'd say Animal Crossing has it beat. More games, bigger sales and a more recognizable brand.
Pikmin is quite popular among gamers, but doesn't really have a widespread appeal (only selling 1 tot 1.5 mil per game). Same goes for Xenoblade Chronicles.
Man, I didn't realize how rough High Voltage had it during that time.
I knew that both Tournament of Legends and Conduit 2 had sold much too poorly, and that The Grinder had been cancelled, but losing a Nintendo co-development project because of a leak from a disgruntled employee has got to sting.
Hats off though, they bit off more than they could chew back then, but they really put in a lot of solid work and made a bunch of stuff no-one else dared.
They should have sued this guy into a life-long debt, that would have taught him. What an idiot. It's probably the kind of useless type that lives according to the "if I can't have it, then you can't either" way of thinking.
It's exactly these types of people that continue to cause all kinds of problems all over the world in all kinds of situations, from minor altercations to some that can potentially be utterly catastrophic.
Ah.... at times like these, I really do miss Medieval laws...
Why didn't that employee who leak the information admitting he/she did it instead of cowardly lied when to he/she was spoken to the higher ups?
@PtM Well that employ had just put the whole company one foot into the grave.
@LaytonPuzzle27 They were most likely under an NDA, as part of their contract. So their company could've sued them into the stone age. Doesn't help that it led to Nintendo's deal falling through, which lost them a lot of potential profit.
So a disgruntled employee screwed over his coworkers with a dick move. If he was that unhappy then couldn't he have just quit? Sounds like the problem was him and not the company.
This is a lot more telling of Nintendo's behavior than anything else. What else would Nintendo do to falsify otherwise true rumors?
@NewAdvent: Agreed. You took the words right off my keyboard. As others have said, we got Splatoon in the end, but it's still interesting to contemplate how things would have been had the project moved forward.
Leaks are one of the reasons why we can't always have nice things.
@Stocksy "Nowadays leaks are intentional to create a buzz." That's not a leak, that's a controlled release of information. It may appear to be a leak from the outside, and that may be the intention, but when the company loses control of how information is released it can mean a total change in public perception. In some cases, that affects sales in a real way.
In a crowded marketplace like the games industry, timing to get the most positive attention and rise above the fray is incredibly important. Even with total control, companies get this wrong all the time. So, getting a handle on actual leaks is still a big thing.
It's a shame. I loved the Conduit games on the Wii and was just glad that a company tried to make a quality 3rd party game for the Wii.
A game about shooting water was canceled due to leaks.
Hahahahaha
It's pretty humorous seeing people talk so sure fire about situations that they clearly only know the surface of. All I'll say is this - dig a little into this company's history, tactics, and 'policies' to get a fuller story. Although this persons's actions maybe not have been the most professional, perhaps it was needed to let the company reflect a little on why it happened in the first place.
But, such is the internet with it's need to brandish pitchforks wildly...
Anyway, I'm glad Splatoon was the result of the ordeal. It's a wonderful game and series, and certainly helped with Wii U out.
So does anyone know if High Voltage studios has a Switch Dev kit? Hopefully, they can land another deal with Nintendo. This time with greater security.
@Akropolon Oh that's right, Animal Crossing is slightly younger than Pokemon, I forgot.
As much as I love Xenoblade, that's really Monolith Soft's IP. Sure Nintendo owns them right now, but that could always change.
@frogopus
Well like I said, it wasn't a professional way to handle that. Sure. So I generally agree with what you said.
Though, this isn't the first time this company has had issues like this. Not by a long shot. And it isn't a problem in that employees aren't voicing issues either...
Again, dig deeper.
@frogopus I think you may be missing what I'm saying. I'm not saying you aren't familiar with these aspects within the industry, nor am I condoning the person's actions, and I already stated I agreed with you on those regards... so I'm a little unsure why you keep bring those parts up again and again.
Though I have to say I am a bit surprised, given your familiarity with the industry, that you didn't do your research on sites that pertain more to employment within the industry - instead of just searching a gaming news website or performing a generic Google search.
To help avoid any more confusion and make it perfectly clear, all I am saying is this is not a one off case and I am hoping the company uses these situations to better reflect on their practices, and why these types of issues keep happening to them, to create a better environment for both the company and employees. I'm not trying to question another person's ability to understand work life balance, nor am I trying to promote doing actions like breaking NDAs. Simply put, I want it to be a learning experience for the company to improve (and perhaps the for the person who leaked too) and for others not to blindly side in a situation they know minimal information about.
I hope I have clarified enough.
@frogopus Excellent, because I do quite agree with what you were saying. Doing these kinds of antics is certainly not a good choice... but sometimes things just reach a breaking point when not handled properly.
Ah, sorry for any misdirection, though the information isn't as quite easily obtained. There are the Glass Door like sites, but as you said, they are typically a complaint playground. Though there is still some value in noting what common topics are touched on and the volume of the complaints, just as a review for anything online.
I don't have one direct source I could point out unfortunately. I mean, I wouldn't expect a company to happily allow this kind of information to be to easily compiled for quick viewing after all. However, it is out there - just a bit spread out.
I don't mean to be so indirect, but I'm also trying to not to get anyone in trouble or stir up anything further... I somewhat regret posting already. I was just really overcome by the fact that they had yet another employee related issue, this one far more public even.
I also have to admit I've had both direct and indirect experiences with this company and several former employees. So I have a rather unfair additional insight to this. And yes, I know anyone could say that they have had experiences like that, and I can't provide 'proof' as I don't want to ruin anonymity of myself or others. But if you're curious enough, I know you'll be able to find most, if not all, the information out there.
High Voltage is poop, so its good that it got canned.
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