Miyamoto talks Wii HD, ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´, 3D visors

Has ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´ really been cancelled? Will Nintendo be the first company to bring 3D gaming to market? Is there any truth to the rumours about an HD-capable Wii? We at 3sat neues put those questions to game designer Shigeru Miyamoto himself.

My dear colleague Valentina just returned from London and an exclusive interview with Nintendo's chief designer, mainly about ´Wii Music´. Since we had a generous interview slot of 45 minutes, I was able to sneak in a few extra questions which some of you good people may be interested in.

---

First of all, Valentina asked him about whether Nintendo will bring some kind of 3D gaming device to market anytime soon.

Before the Wii launched, there were plenty of rumours about the console making use of augmented reality, perhaps by means of a visor. Nintendo pioneered this way back with the Virtual Boy. Will Nintendo be the first company to successfully implement 3D gaming? How long before this technology will take hold?

Nintendo is always trying to construct the framework in which we can provide... we can be as creative as possible in order to create as new entertainment as possible. And that's what Nintendo has been striving at and that's what Nintendo will be challenging itself once again in order to make unique entertainment opportunity.

But if I can just add my personal opinion: if the new environment requires the player to wear some goggle-style, I really don't have a good impression of that.

As you may remember, there were plenty of clues hinting at the use of augmented reality or similar technologies in future Nintendo consoles. It would appear that Nintendo is bullish about continuing to be the innovator in this industry.

---

We also asked Miyamoto about the status of ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´, which is rumoured to have been cancelled.

Whatever happened to ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´? Has it really been cancelled?

[says he is not part of the development team and really cannot comment] (...) What I can confirm here is that only when Nintendo can become almost certain of the timing of the launch we are able to make the relevant launch announcement of the software.

Here is the background to this story. Nintendo announced in May 2007 that the game would launch in Japan in 2007. But in July, Nintendo's E3 press kit no longer mentioned it.

Nintendo of America even confirmed that development had been delayed indefinitely. But bear in mind that the same can be said about ´Disaster: Day of Crisis´, which was also meant to be published in 2007 in Japan, according to the May 2007 list and also seemed to disappear subsequently. So it now seems that there is hope for ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´ yet.

---

We asked Miyamoto further about the rumoured Wii HD ("We are working in terms of the changes of technology all the time."). Also, we asked whether Nintendo was still committed to core games ("We are working on them.").

You can download the entire interview in English on November 9th via our podcast page.

Alternatively, you can watch the show in German at the following times:

Sunday, 9th of November, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 11th of November, 1:50 am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 13th of November, 1:30 pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)

In the meantime, I hope to be able to update this post with other interesting quotes from the 45-minute interview.

EDIT You can find the podcast right here. I will try to update the transcript in this entry soon.

Source: 3sat neues podcasts
Thanks to: Valentina's blog (German)

Hudson to announce new horror title for Wii

Videogame publisher Hudson Entertainment appears to be about to announce a new horror title for Wii. The name will be ´The Calling´ or something similar, an open directory on a server suggests, which belongs to a U.S. PR company working for the publisher.

Said directory contains three trailers showing in-game footage but no slates or superimposed text. The title can only be guessed by the directory they are in. The platform is evident only by the on-screen control scheme (showing the Wii's ´A´ and ´B´ buttons). Thanks to HereticPB from Nintendo Centrum for exclusively digging this up and alerting me to it.

The game's style appears to be more in the vein of a ´Fatal Frame´ rather than an action-oriented survival horror like ´Resident Evil´. Either way, this would bring the count of horror games on Wii up to 14. Of course, whether it's a Wii exclusive remains to be seen.

EDIT The directory has been removed from the server. I will probably have another update on this soon.

EDIT I had to reupload the three videos. Also, the entire directory http://www.clevercomm.com/Hudson/ has been purged. Other directories relating to Hudson still bear content but there is a chance that the publisher has cancelled its involvement with the PR company. I have contacted them and will have more on this soon.

EDIT Allegations have arisen that the videos may be fake. GoNintendo claims so in an update to their post:

The video and links to the video posted earlier have been removed due some potentially stolen and/or misleading information, which is not the kind of thing we condone, and not the kind of coverage we want to bring our audience.

The supposed link to a Hudson FTP or asset hub was faked, meaning the information was not hosted by them, their PR firm, etc. but instead by some devious third-party, making any videos and the rumour itself very suspect indeed. While the rumour parts remain, the video and related materials will not be available on our site, and we apologise for inadvertently participating in someone else’s mischievous online activities.

Now, I am unconvinced. The PR company is indeed working for Hudson and their other directories are just as accessible. Perhaps GoNintendo wanted to find an excuse for taking the content down or were even asked to discredit the content. Perhaps, though, their claims are true. Again, I will update this very soon and should be able to clear it all up.

EDIT GoNintendo has since retracted their above speculation. And Nintendo-Centrum has posted a clarification. I myself have been asked to remove the content but have requested more background information before any such action. Please stay tuned.

EDIT In yet another update to this story, YouTube has deleted the clips and, surprisingly, it seems that no videos remain available on the net. I still have access to copies stored locally but will not upload them again. If Hudson does not want them shown, I respect their decision. There is no reason to delete any other content in this article, since everyone else and their dog is writing about it.

Source: Nintendo Centrum, Clever Communications
Thanks to: Jason Alexander

Multiplatform horror title brings Unreal 3 engine to Wii

The still untitled multiplatform horror game by renowned developers Suda51 (´Killer7´, ´No More Heroes´) and Shinji Mikami (´Resident Evil´) is the one bringing Unreal 3 technology to Wii, Epic Games announced today. The game will be developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and will be published by Electronic Arts.

The new game is directed by innovative game designer Suda51 and produced by legendary Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

“Unreal Engine 3 is a powerful, easy-to-implement game engine that is helping the creative team at Grasshopper quickly bring our vision to life,” said Goichi Suda, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture. “The innovative tools and technology in Unreal Engine 3 help developers create games faster, easier and with less risk.”

“It’s an honor to work with Mikami-san and Suda-san on their next project,” said Jay Wilbur, vice president, Epic Games. “Grasshopper Manufacture is one of the most daring and innovative studios in the world, and we can’t wait to see what they’re able to do with Unreal Engine 3.

In November 2007, Epic president Mark Rein spoke about a licensee of Unreal 3 technology who was porting it to Wii. It would appear that he was speaking about this joint project.

Little else is known about the game. Gamasutra interviewed Suda51 and Mikami in August but no details were revealed.

Source: Epic Games
Thanks to: Gamasutra, Joystiq