Square Enix ‘Worried’ And ‘Humiliated’ Over Japanese Showings At E3 2011

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Eidos got a very good push at E3 2011, between Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution and especially Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The absence of games like Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII did not reflect well on the RPG giant, something they were painfully aware of.

“Because we merged with Eidos and had games like Tomb Raider, Deus and Hitman, as a company we were able to keep face, tweeted Koji Taguchi, a senior executive officer at Square Enix Holdings. But the decline in Japanese titles was almost humiliating. This has been a week where I worried daily about how we can fix this.”

Source: Andriasang {link no longer active}

Wii U Reveal Produced ‘Some Misunderstandings,’ Said Iwata

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Despite a fairly impressive appearance at E3, the revelation of the Wii U controller caused a sharp and noticeable decline in Nintendo’s stock. Upon reflection, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata thinks that they made some mistakes in presenting the Wii U.

“Because we put so much emphasis on the controller, there appeared to be some misunderstandings,” said Iwata. “We should have made more effort to explain how it works.”

One of the biggest misconceptions revolves around the fact that the controller is NOT, in fact, the console itself. “We haven’t made any kind of blunder, but I should have shown a single picture of the new console, then started talking about the controller,” said Iwata. “The console is not drastically different, and Wii U is about the controller. The console itself will be almost invisible.”

“There have been two groups of people writing about our announcement – those like the Evening Standard, who have been able to experience the Wii U, and those who have not, and are simply writing about it from wire stories and pictures. They cannot see how this can be a game changer,” added Iwata. “What Wii U will offer is very different, but I believe we have the strong potential to change the entire format of videogames and of entertainment.”

The problem for analysts may revolve around the fact that expectations for Nintendo after the Wii were unreasonable high. Mitsushige Akino, of Ichiyoshi Investment Management, said: “The product itself is not bad – market expectations have been far too high.”

Source: London Evening Standard {link no longer active}

THQ Not Annoyed At Wii U Similarities To uDraw

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Something many people in the industry notices about the Wii U’s design is the fact that it seemed evocative of one of the most successful third-party peripherals: the uDraw tablet from THQ. However, executive VP of THQ’s Kids, Family and Casual Games label Martin Good isn’t annoyed by the similarities.

“None of this is a surprise. As you know, we thought of it 18 months ago and released it last season, said Good. “We think we’re really on the front for it and well poised to exploit this because we’ve already been playing with the drawing mechanic and we’ve got a lot of game designs in the pipe. It’s only going to get better with that experience.

“That other thing that’s really interesting is that THQ never really went about being a peripheral manufacturer – that wasn’t our intent. But we had to do so to exploit this new gameplay opportunity and that broader market, he added. “The fact is we had to create our own peripherals including for 360 and PS3 to be able to play with that audience.”

Source: CVG

Kinect Will Find It’s Way Into All First-Party Titles Eventually

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Kinect is clearly a huge part of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 strategy going forward, given the primary place that the device has had during the company’s last two E3 press conferences. Eventually, Microsoft Game Studios head Phil Spencer indicates that Kinect will find its way into all first-party titles.

“It’s not a mandate that everything we do in first-party has to support Kinect right now,” said Spencer. “But I will say, specifically with voice, that there are some things that just seem to make navigating and playing games so much easier, that I would guess the answer will be yes in the end, that you’ll see all first-party games using some form of Kinect functionality.”

Citing voice control and head-tracking view support in Forza 4, Spencer added, “I think there’s some specific examples where Kinect makes everything better.”

Source: Kotaku

Microsoft Says Alan Wake Sequel Hasn’t Been Signed

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Remedy Entertainment recently said that they were working on their next project which was Alan Wake. However, Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer has denied that they’ve green-lit any such project.

“I think the stuff they’re doing now they wanted to incubate, Mattias and the team,” Spencer said. “They wanted to incubate internally. Like I said, I don’t think they’ve signed it with anybody.”

Despite saying that Alan Wake did not meet the company’s sales expectations, Spencer said, “I’d love to work with Remedy again. We have ongoing conversations with them.”

Source: Joystiq

Activision Bullish On Call Of Duty: Elite

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Activision pushed their Call of Duty: Elite service during E3 almost as hard as they did Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Along with providing exclusive tournaments, the service will provide a way to connect to similarly passionate games and track your in-game stats.

Perhaps another way to incentivize players to pay into the service is giving away DLC with the subscription fee. With the guaranteed annual income of $50-$60 from a subscription fee, Activision’s Beachhead studio product director Noah Heller said Elite is a great value adding, “You’ll do the math and it’ll be a slam dunk.”

Source: IndustryGamers {link no longer active}

Check In At 7-11 To Win A Trip To Outer Space

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In anticipation of the Spielberg/JJ Abrams sci-fi thrill ride Super 8, fans can use their mobile phone to check in at 7-Eleven for a chance to win a trip to space. Yes, outer space to experience a zero gravity flight. To enter, check-in with Foursquare at a 7-11 (be sure to “share with friends”) and unlock the special and follow the link to register and see if you are a winner. Every check-in who participates is entered to win a trip to space. Every 88th check-in who participates can win a free movie ticket and every 88,888th check-in can win a Zero-G Experience weightless flight. The more people that check in, the more chances there are to win and the 888,888th check-in. On the destination site for the promotion, the total number of check-ins, total movie tickets left to giveaway and total number of zero gravity flights are tracked and listed.