roboshort

Sounds like a somewhat toxic environment but not really oppressive. I've worked in environments like that.
Unfortunately, narcissistic people are likely to end up in leadership positions so toxic environments are commonplace

As somewhat of a consulation prize, at least it helps out their CV to have worked for such an accomplished studio.

@Rosalinho Thanks for the info. I read a little bit on it. Looks interesting. My takeaway now is that if the Nintendo doesn't have an EULA that states the software cannot be decompiled then the issue is a bit gray in terms of copyright violation.

@Darkcaptain3 I think maybe I wasn't clear enough. I meant to say that translation of the code without approval is probably a copyright violation. Also, the use of the characters in the game are almost certainly trademark violations even if they created new assets.

You raised a good point about Japanese law that I hadn't considered. My guess is this Ocarina of Time port would also be a violation of copyright and trademark law in the US, though.

Who knows what Nintendo will take action, though

You say this is legal. Did you get that from a lawyer or from the individuals behind the port? It sure doesn’t sound legal to me. What they are doing is translating, which is covered by copyright law. It’s NOT reverse engineering.

@Thoughts Front Mission is already getting remade.. Or are you referring to something more tactical?

@BenAV Last year had a number of interesting first party titles, but not many big first party releases. Most of the games were smaller titles, remasters or remakes. It might have had the largest number of first party titles of any year for the Switch, though.

@Mauzuri That's possible, but we do know Creatures is working on Detective Pikachu 2 but have not seen it yet. They could finally show it.

@jojobar HD2D has only been used for 4 games in 4 years, two of which are yet to be released and that’s overused?

@JakedaArbok I think Star Fox Zero could be made without the gamepad and Woolly World doesn’t need it at all. Not sure about Paper Mario. I hope they do give Star Fox Zero another chance

@RupeeClock I don’t mind it. In fact, I kind of like it. It’s fun getting new content.

@LordPieFace Yeah Brownie Brown works more as a studio that assists Nintendo's Tokyo studio, but that was probably understood when making the deal. I think they weren't developing their own IP at the time. They were just outsourced to develop games for IP of other companies.

There are counter examples.. like Monolithsoft is doing better under Nintendo. It has also become a more attractive destination because many employees get to work on Zelda as well. Next Level also appears to be doing well, though they are not developing their own IPs.

Babylon's Fall is likely to bomb though so they could be in somewhat of a bad position after that.

@Not_Soos I’ve only played Fire Emblem Warriors but it just took about 20 hours for me to beat and I’m not very fast. Not 100s of hours at all. But if you want to play it more there’s more content.., I imagine AOC is the same.

@Varkster I don’t think Mother 3 will generate much profit, but it will generate excitement from hardcore fans. That makes it a little harder to justify localization cause it is hard to estimate how much the excitement will impact Nintendo profits overall. I think they need to do things like that though.

@MajorTom I haven’t played any Pokémon games but Dragon Quest and Pokémon are far different games from what I can tell. One is an adventure game and the other is a collectathon. One is single player while the other is more geared more toward multiplayer. Not sure if it is s fair comparison.

@Rayquaza2510 2 years until the next system sounds okay to me which is what’s projected. This year is stacked so should tide people over. Typically the end of the lifespan does not coincide with the release of the next iteration. Usually it takes another 2 years unless demand has plummeted like the Wii or never existed like the WiiU. I think even the 3ds lasted a couple years after the Switch came out.

@nessisonett Degas paintings do not have copyright protection, though. Also, “decompiling” is equivalent to translation ( covered under copyright law) which would mean even the code is being copied. I don’t know intellectual property laws that well but this definitely seems to be a clear case of being on the wrong side of it both in terms of copyright and trademark laws if they distribute the game.

@Vincent294 Some people suffer from burnout more easily than others but 100 hour weeks will burn anyone out. Game development is definitely not a field for those who value leisure highly.

Japanese M&A’s lean toward the M while in the US they lean toward the A since Japanese culture is more cooperative than US culture. Sharp was sold to Foxconn a few years ago though. And companies like Rakuten, Cyberagent, Softbank, and even Recruit, which owns Indeed, are changing the climate in Japan.

@Royalblues Yeah. I hope they continue to put titles on Steam. Microsoft might be a little more cautious than most companies when it cones to antitrust suits because they actually faced one about 20 years ago and if i am not mistaken it was quite costly to them.

But my original point was that Sony is not their only direct competitor. I think people forget that XBox isn’t just a gaming console.

@Royalblues I have a really hard time imaginging Microsoft doesn't care about Steam with this purchase. Steam holds a large majority of the PC gaming market share. And this purchase should change that. With this purchase, Microsoft will now have Diablo, StarCraft, WarCraft, Elder Scrolls etc exclusive on their platform, all hugely popular on PC.

"Microsoft's direct fight is with Sony". You are forgetting Steam and Epic Games.

How much potential does Activision/Blizzard have? It seems to me like their properties have all peaked. Though it should help XBox Series X sales quite a bit.

@arekdougy I bought Tomb Raider on the Playstation back in the day. Think I didn’t make it past the first level.. maybe the second level. Playstation was pretty bad for true 3d polygon games. N64 was much better.

I remember people thought there’s no way it’ll even get close to the Wii’s 100 million but now it’s poised to beat the PS4 and the Gameboy and challenge the PS2 and DS.

@Dezzy70 I think think they probably learned from their mistake. The WiiU was a mess without a clear vision that the developers believed in (i still loved it though)

@Strafe The problem probably isn’t money as much as it is human resources. Game Freak probably just doesn’t have the human resources to develop something like BOTW or Xenoblade X. This title may be a step in the right direction though to develop their staff.

@anoyonmus I think the Switch is already way passed the Wii.

@NintendoWife Nintendo released a lot of titles last year but yeah, other

He’s a workaholic so if he’s not already working on something, he’ll probably be soon. Though maybe in a different capacity.

@Salnax I was a little surprised not to see games like Fortnite, Overcooked and Human Fall Flat as I think they are all quite popular in Japan… but maybe not as popular as i thought.

They had an interview with Miyamoto on the TV show. It was a pretty good show overall. I wasn’t really expecting BOTW to be number one.

@BlackenedHalo I think the reason why the sidequests end up being boring is the developers don't become immersed in the world unlike with games like Witcher 3, Disco Elysium, Divinity, etc. Sidequests are the main opportunity to really get to know the world the game inhabits.

If they are truly immersed in the world, I imagine they'll have more great sidequest ideas than they could possibly use.

@AstroTheGamosian I think adopting Fair Use policies is being debated in Japan now so my guess is it will be instituted in the next couple of years.

@Medic_Alert Drug use isn't common in Japan, though. So it's not even really a war. It is honestly, kinda nice, even though there are upsides to some drugs that are illegal in Japan.

The drug war was never really about stopping drug use anyway. It was about voter suppresion, military endeavors including war in Central and South America, among other things. It was just the precursor to the "War on Terror"

> Despite being powered by technology that, even back in 2017, could hardly be described as cutting-edge

The Tegra X1 was only two years old when the Switch dropped. It wasn’t really new tech but it wasn’t old either as this statement implies.

@SwitchForce As long as Nintendo is primarily an engineering company with a large work force they aren't going to be able to bring too many women in. The pool of women talent is just far too small. And Nintendo can select from top talent in Japan.

@Mr_Fox It's a game about politics. The setting seems suitable to me. It's not a fantasy adventure or anything.

Eh.. Them thinking this is legal is wishful thinking. Transpiled code is protected under copyright laws. This will get taken down.

@electrolite77 Great engineers are problem solvers who want to invent new technology. Dealing with old hardware can be just as much of an opportunity to do that.

Plus, Armature’s a rather middling developer, not exactly breaking any ground.

I wonder if he regrets his decision. Armature hasn’t really done much exciting.

@TheWingedAvenger It’s not a remake. It’s s sequel that was fairly well received.

But that’s possibly part of the problem. People perhaps didn’t know it was a new game.

What was the last good game Bethesda developed? Fallout 4? Hope Starfield will be good, though?

@anynamereally How do you figure it'd be a 7 for a "regular review"? It has an 87 on Metacritic so 90 is pretty on par with what others are giving it.

@120frames-please Metroid 5 is definitely a horror game. It has all the elements of good horror.

It’s far more a horror game than Luigi’s Mansion 3 or Dark Souls.

Did I miss something? No Metroid Dread?

@Tendogamerxxx As an artist and an engineer, I disagree. Constraints are not stifling. Constraints challenge ones creativity and lead to innovation.

Development was restarted before 1000 days ago. That was just the announcement. Retro had developed a prototype by the point of the announcement.

It’s a fairly large project with a lot of personalities. And unfortunately male dominated workplaces tend to be a little toxic

None of this sounds too bad to me, though.. like complaining about getting different directions from different supervisors. Sounds like an entry level employee

I think the following are essential for a good Metroidvania

• Well-designed map (that needs to be used)
• Good exploration and discovery
• Interesting locks and keys (these are power ups in Metroid) to uncover new areas

Don't think anything else is essential.

@Wesker There is a mod of Other M called Maxximum Edition that looks pretty good, though I haven't tried it. They took out the annoying elements.