Development News, Development Features

Time to get jealous?

In case you hadn't noticed, Microsoft lifted the lid on the Xbox One this week. The new system is the successor to the popular 360 console and will be getting plenty of support from the company's stable of internal developers — one of which is former Nintendo partner, Rare. The UK-based studio was purchased by Microsoft over...

"I've got to do something about this"

Last last year, Kotaku reported that Silicon Knights was on its last legs, crippled by mismanagement. The blame was laid squarely at the door of founder Denis Dyack, who has since left the company and joined Precursor Games — which is hard at work at the Wii U title Shadow of the Eternals. Dyack was accused...

Also planning a new 3DS game

Silicon Studio, the developer behind the recently confirmed-for-the-West title Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, also works in creating software tools and game engines for a variety of companies, including Nintendo and Sony. Two higher-ups at Silicon recently sat down with Siliconera t

Input began on the ground floor

Localization is often seen as a post-production task, but a new diary video for Animal Crossing: New Leaf shows that its cultural nuances were being considered well in the early stages of development. According to Reiko Ninomiya of Nintendo of America’s Treehouse division, she and other localizers began...

Hackers successfully emulate the controller on a PC

The developers responsible for the Dolphin emulator have successfully reverse-engineered the Wii U GamePad, shedding light on exactly how the piece of tech works. The hackers found that Nintendo is using custom protocols to beam information from the pad to the console (and back), which discounts...

Sign of the times?

As we're all painfully aware, DICE's Frostbite engine isn't coming to the Wii U — which means that owners of the console will be missing out on titles in the Battlefield and Star Wars series. The reason given is lack of power, which makes the move to develop Frostbite for "all major mobile platforms" all the more surprising...

That was quite a U-Turn

Last week, we reported that Insomniac CEO Ted Price had branded the Wii U "current gen" and stated that his studio wasn't working on any projects for the system. He should probably have added a "at the moment" to the end of that comment, because only a few days later, Price has changed his tune slightly. Speaking to...

Developer feels Nintendo needs to "establish" its digital presence, too

2D downloadable fighter Skullgirls would appear to be the ideal candidate for a Wii U eShop release. The brawler has already graced both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, and one would assume that making the leap to Nintendo's digital store front wouldn't take much...

Here we go again

Insomniac Games — the studio behind Ratchet And Clank, Resistance and Spyro — has a history of working on Sony systems, but has recently gone multi-platform with the forthcoming Fuse. However, the company has ruled out creating games for the Wii U. Speaking to IGN, Insomniac CEO Ted Price said: Wii-U is something I'd consider...

More positive news, then

According to a post on 4chan (the source alone may well set alarm bells ringing), Rockstar Games is not looking to support the Wii U in any meaningful way. The poster — who claims to be working on the next iteration of the official WWE game — had this to say: There's no plans to ever bring a WWE game to the Wii U...

Dev kits gathering dust, Nintendo hard to get in touch with

Just Cause developer Avalanche has revealed that its Wii U dev kits are gathering dust and that it has found Nintendo a difficult company to pin down. Speaking in an interview with Pressfire, Avalanche founder Christofer Sundberg had this to say when asked if he had any plans for...

"They have been very supportive of our endeavour"

Following the announcement of Eternal Darkness "spiritual successor" Shadow of the Eternals, many fans expressed concern regarding the game's link to the Silicon Knights' GameCube classic. If this was a true sequel — as the involvement of Denis Dyack would suggest — then why not call it Eternal...

"I intend to fight Ubisoft vigorously for my rights"

Patrice Désilets has been fired from Ubisoft less than two months after rejoining the company following the collapse of THQ. Désilets was one of the leading figures in the creation of the million-selling Assassin's Creed series, and departed Ubisoft in 2010 in order to take some time out from...

Dat "unprecedented relationship"

DICE's Johan Andersson has hinted that the company's future Star Wars titles won't be making their way to the Wii U. Speaking about the new publishing agreement between Disney and EA on Twitter, Andersson stated that the company's titles will be built using its Frostbite 3 game engine — which means that there's...

Maverick Hunter divided opinion internally

Recently we reported on Maverick Hunter, Capcom's abandoned Mega Man first-person shooter. The game — which was developed by former Retro staffers at Armature — was eventually cancelled following Keiji Inafune's departure from the company where he made his name. Since then, there's been a lot of...

Let's hope the game doesn't get a red card

Last month, we were given fresh details on Electronic Art's next installment in the FIFA franchise, FIFA 14; however, a Wii U version wasn't mentioned in the initial line-up. In the press release, EA did say that additional platforms would be announced in the coming months. When questioned by

The system appears to be secure

Nintendo has responded to claims by hacking group, Wiikey, that it's hacked the Wii U to play pirated, copied games. While Nintendo does acknowledge that it's aware of the reported hacking, the Wii U appears to still be secure. Responding to the circulating reports, Nintendo issued a statement to Eurogamer:...

Nyamyam authorised as Wii U developer

UK developer Nyamyam has exclusively confirmed to us that Tengami is coming to the Wii U eShop. The game is currently in development for the Apple iPad. The studio has issued us with this statement regarding the news: Last year we asked on Twitter whether you would like to see Tengami on the Wii U. The...

Counting down the days

Are you dying to know what Retro Studios is working on right now? Well you won't have to wait much longer, because Nintendo's Hiro Yamada has told Official Nintendo Magazine that the company will be lifting the lid on the new Wii U title soon. Retro moved to larger offices last year, presumably to enlarge its workforce for...