“Help us stop this atrocity of a game from bearing the beloved Metroid franchise name and make Nintendo halt production on it.” — Quote from a fan petition with 12,000 signatures so far, regarding Nintendo’s upcoming Metroid Prime: Federation Force game for the 3DS.
Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week…
QUOTE | “There have been times in our past where Microsoft maybe has lost our way with PC gaming.” — Xbox head Phil Spencer, acknowledging past mistakes and pledging to support PC gamers more in the future in a variety of ways.
QUOTE | “Based on what I’ve seen to date, it’s not fun, and it’s not social. It’s just tech.” — Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime, talking about the current state of VR and why Nintendo isn’t offering something for VR now.
QUOTE | “We have an obligation to lead from the front and do new and cool and creative and innovative stuff.” — EA CEO Andrew Wilson, talking about why EA is trying to encourage more creativity among its employees.
QUOTE | “The relationship those games have with their audiences is less like what a typical entertainer has… and more like kind of the relationship that a tobacco company has with its customers.” — Gearbox president Randy Pitchford, talking along with other gaming luminaries about the state of games.
QUOTE | “We like to rest our IP in between releases because we believe that’s what keeps it fresh and permanent.” — Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, explaining why the company refuses to “annualize” its non-sports franchises, unlike other AAA publishers.
STAT | $US5.8 billion — Total amount of revenue mobile games had for 2014 in Japan, growing 18 per cent over the previous year according to Famitsu; console game revenue in Japan fell 13 per cent to $US3.2 billion in 2014.
QUOTE | “I was nervous to see the reaction from people. She’s a female lead character. That has always been the vision by the team, but we had a discussion. Is it risky to do a female character?” — Sony’s Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida, admitting that Sony was uncertain about going with a game that has a female protagonist.
STAT | #3 — Position of Fallout Shelter on the list of top-grossing games for iOS in the US and UK just a few days after its surprise launch; this displaces King Digital’s Candy Crush Saga from its place as one of the three top-grossing iOS games it’s held since December 2012.
QUOTE | “There are other products that sell a game for $US60 and then try to sell you a Season Pass for another $US40 on top… We said no, we don’t want to do that.” — IO Interactive studio head Hannes Seifert, talking about why the studio decided the new Hitman game will have no paid DLC.
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32 responses to “This Week In The Business: The Metroid Atrocity”
“We have an obligation to lead from the front and do new and cool and creative and innovative stuff.” — EA CEO Andrew Wilson, talking about why EA is trying to encourage more creativity among its employees.”
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Nothing makes me sadder than seeing that Federation Force petition. Let Next Level Games make it; it looks fun and original.
People have an issue with it using the Metroid name, they don’t have an issue with the game.
It’s not a religion, it’s a franchise. Everyone who signs a petition to stop nintendo from leveriging their own ip is an utter numpty.
Looks fun, and I like that it takes four people in big mech suits to achieve what samus does on her own.
The federation soldiers are doing it tough!
An issue with a name should spawn a petition to change the name, not to halt production -_-
“Help us stop this atrocity of a game from bearing the beloved Metroid franchise name and make Nintendo halt production on it.”
No they have a problem with the game too.
Here is the thing, Metroid games should have something to do with … METROIDS. if this game does then great, if not it should be called something else.
That does not mean this game has to feature Samus or Space Pirates or anything like that.
I am all for creative diversity in games and series, sometimes it works (Prime) othertimes it comes to a mixed bag (Other M).
They mentioned that there’s one level where at least a Metroid will appear (although it sounds like a pretty token effort, from the way they spelled it out), and Samus will make a brief appearance in the story. I absolutely feel like they should have the right to make the game regardless though. People have the right to not give a shit and avoid buying it if it’s such an issue for them, so it’s really only fair. People voting with their wallet is going to be a much more effective strategy than a petition that just comes off as petty and childish.
Just because you say that’s what they do doesn’t mean that’s what they should do. All it really needs to do is be set in the Metroid universe, and that’s what this is doing.
Kind of reminds me of Metroid Prime Hunters which didn’t feature Metroid Prime or Metroids.
Great game though.
ROFLMAO… my thoughts exactly!
And it did decently as a spin off as well and we didn’t have the same “ER MAH GAWD NO METROIDS! KEEL EET!” petition when it came out either.
That Metroids Bounty Hunters game from the early DS days says hello! 8D
I signed it. We wait long enough between Metroid releases as it is, but to have this thrown in the faces of fans is just an insult.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooo!
You’re a bad person and should feel bad.
Nope, not one little bit. Other M was a travesty, and this looks on track for the same. The Metroid IP deserves better than this.
I thought other m did really cool things with the camera control, had brilliantly quick gameplay compared to the prime games (harking back to 2D metroids), and generally had pretty kickass combat.
That it was written by a person with fists of ham hardly drops it to travesty.
But then i also really liked metroid hunters.
Wasn’t a fan of the pinball, it had weird physics (i WAS a fan of pokemon pinball, however).
Did you check out Mario Pinball Land? I never got around to that one, reviews at the time weren’t great and I didn’t really have the money to throw at it.
I quite liked Pokemon and Prime though, sunk tonnes of hours into it. The inclusion of the rumble pak made it more than worthwhile picking up though, it improves so many other games – wouldn’t want to play EBA or Space Invaders Extreme without it.
I didn’t like the story of Other M, I didn’t like some of the things it did but overall I enjoyed the game.
Other M was an excellent Metroid game, extending classic 2D Metroid gameplay into 3D space. It was just a giant steaming turd on the Metroid timeline.
I like my friend’s perspective on it, choosing to view it as a movie adaptation of the series 😛
Whatever your view of Other M, it was the last core release into the Metroid timeline…5 years ago. With no solid confirmation of works proceeding on another, it’s likely to be at least a year before we see an actual “Metroid” game released, and I suspect not until the new console makes an appearance.
It’s not that this game will necessarily be bad, but to pump resources into an offshoot of the series when they know how much the fans are clamouring for a new core title, it really irritates the community in a big way.
It was what, 8 or 9 years between Super Metroid and Fusion? And it’s been 11 years since the last F-Zero release. Five is nothing, suck it up 😛
The whole idea that this is somehow taking away from an “actual” Metroid release is bullshit, and anyone calling for it to be cancelled is just being childish. For all we know they have the next game in development by someone else in no state to be shown off yet.
If you don’t like this, then don’t buy it. Fine, have a cry that you didn’t get what you want, but calling for its cancellation is entirely uncalled for and getting you absolutely no sympathy, it just once again paints supposed “fans” as entitled immature brats.
(yes I am more than a little angry about this)
The petition is about gaining the attention of Nintendo. It’s a pity they called it what they did, but the effect will be the same.
Complaints are part of the system, and fans are making that known. They are free to do so, just as you are free to be a shitc*nt and insult people over the anonymous internet.
I’m not saying don’t complain. Metroid was for a long time my most favourite franchise (I think since then F-Zero has edged in and taken the crown – really know how to pick ’em, don’t I?), so I’m hanging out for a good mainline entry just as much as anyone else. I just completely do not agree with the calls for cancellation and the whole mob mentality of everyone just slamming this thing at every opportunity they get bombing the ratings on the videos and circulating that stupid petition, all because of two little words that were included in the title.
I feel terrible for the guys at Next Level Games, they make awesome stuff and don’t at all deserve the wave of hate that’s been whirling around the place since this game was revealed. Everyone needs to lay off and cool their god damn jets.
I do wish people would differentiate their angst with this situation. The argument for most of the rabid fan base (of which I am unfortunately one…can you tell?) is the lack of a core title on the horizon, but the anger directed against the developers (and Nintendo) is absolute. I think it was a poorly timed announcement myself. If it was announced at a Nintendo Direct outside of E3 I suspect it wouldn’t have cause much of a stir, but E3 still manages to raise expectations to an obscene level, and there was a lot of Metroid rumbling pre-E3.
I loved Other M. Right up there with the prime trilogy for me. They should make another one like it IMO 😛
They should. Just so long as it doesn’t screw with the timeline even more, and they don’t make you use the stupid sideways Wii remote again.
Wait, how did it screw with the timeline? It filled the very obvious hole between super and fusion.
It filled it with essentially the exact same story of Fusion, which completely undermines it. Especially since the big shock horror reveal is the same in both of them.
LITERALLY WORSE THAN HITLER
Did everyone forget about Metroid Prime Pinball and Metroid Prime Hunters? Just another game in a franchise. I’ll be picking it up because it looks fun, regardless of what it’s called.
Have you seen the treehouse live gameplay. It actually looks really good.
Everyone needs to calm the fuck down with petitions about everything.
A game sounds slightly different to the last one? YOU ARE SEVENTEEN HITLERS OH MY GOD SLAPPING US IN THE FACE.
The Pitchford comment is taken seriously out of context. He is talking about mobile games and specifically FTP models.
That specific article is a good, broad and interesting read. A bunch of gaming legends get together and discuss various topics. Read the whole thing, it is good.