NX (Rumour) Battle!

NX chatter is really starting to pick up again, Is it because Nintendo is entered that leaky period before reveal? Or is it because the Shareholders meeting is about a week away and Nintendo has to at least mention it for then? Seeing how long we waited so far... probably the second.

Anyway on to today's news and this is a bit interesting.

First up with have long time Nintendo "insider" Emily Rogers whose record is a bit spotty as she has in the past "read between the lines" to make predictions that have failed but has also tapped into good sources correctly predicting Paper Mario: Colour Splash.

So...Both this week and next week should be interesting.

— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) October 17, 2016

I believe this week is an important week for NX. Next week's investors meeting will answer more questions about NX. https://t.co/LuI9HKk1I8

— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) October 18, 2016

Which lines up with other sources over the last few weeks its possible she's simply repeating the Macquire and she's quick to point out To Nintendo Life's own Thomas Whitehead (who state a broken clock is right twice a day).

@ThomasBW84 I'll just say this. My teasing wasn't based on any past reports.

— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) October 17, 2016

However since then she has climbed down form her position after contacting other sources.

After speaking to some people, I'm not 100% convinced that news will happen this week. But I do have a software update if you're interested.

— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) October 19, 2016

So instead Ms Rogers offers us a possible glimpse into a new IP from Nintendo, which is apparently "not like Wii Sports"

New IP coming to NX from one of Nintendo's teams in Japan. Described as weird, fun and crazy. "Nintendo doesn't have another game like this"

— Emily Rogers (@ArcadeGirl64) October 19, 2016

However! Dr. Serkan Toto an game industry consultant at of Kantan-Games, who has been pretty good in the past doesn't believe we'll the NX this week, whilst also confirming DNeA is doing the grunt work on Super Mario Run (which currently has 20 million notifications) whilst Nintendo handles direction and level design.

3) No trolling intended+take this one with a big grain of salt, but I was told not to expect a NX reveal this week. Might be wrong! //end

— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) October 18, 2016

Whilst he's certain on his source for Super Mario Run but his NX source is apparently a bit shakier.

"It is unlikely—though not impossible—that the company would talk about the NX this week via online presentations." https://t.co/12NVy7apsZ

— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) October 19, 2016

Dr. Serkan Toto is certain Nintendo will talk about the NX next week but they would HAVE to because it's their share holders meetings.

Abe's Take
Come on Nintendo it is time to show your hand, everyone else has checked and has patiently waited to see what you have. Today we've had two people claimed opposing things but then backed down from their positions leaving us... here. Again.

CONFIRMED: RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2!

Looks like Rockstar has finally ended it light teasing and is at least telling us whats going on. Introducing....

Yep Red Dead Redemption 2, apprently the third entry (yes third) is real and is coming out Autumn/Fall 2017.

Acording to the annoucement Red Dead Redemption 2 will be...

An epic tale of life in America’s unforgiving heartland, the game's vast and atmospheric world will also provide the foundation for a brand new online multiplayer experience.

which all sounds great luckily we'll be able to SEE IT on Thursday the 20th of October when Rockstar releases an trailer for the new game. Whats interesting (and concerning to PC fans) is that Rockstar have only confirmed RDR2 for X1/PS4  and not for PC, Lets hope that this follows GTA V's path of releasing a year later and not the path of RDR1 which never did launch on PC.

Here's hoping Red Dead Redemption 2 makes use of the PS4 Pro and Xbox - Scorpio.

Abe's Take

Sounds exciting and we cant wait to see it on Thursday, I must stress how excited I am for it. However I personally an worried about the "brand new online multiplayer experience" as GTA Online was sold as a "persistent city" and had previews of player races being interrupted by another players mission's cop chase. When the reality was the city was an unchanging lobby with some activities and everything else running in a separate instance. For reference Day Z, Rust, Ark and Minecraft have persistent worlds, GTA Online (and Destiny) had consistent worlds.

Of cause that being said they never stopped with the free content for GTA Online and the single player was great.

Rockstar Registers RDO

Well this is interesting. After two days of direct but wordless teasing Rockstar has registered a new domain name and it certainly connects to an new Red Dead title.

You may want to sit down for this but trust us don't panic right away. Right ready?

The domain is for Red Dead Online. Right stop right now and move your hand away from the pitch forks and torches. I know the rather good (and well updated) Online mode to GTA gets a lot of anger from fans who desperately want some single player DLC. However the RDR's multiplayer mode was fantastic and received an fair amount of DLC alongside the amazing Undead Nightmare.



Of cause we'll be the first inline with our flaming pitchforks if its the ONLY part of this series of teases. Now as an expansion to GTA Online that comes as part of an remaster or an follow up Red Dead Online could certainly be a worth while addition, though that might have something to do with the humorous idea of fleecing people of their micro-transaction bought cash via an "friendly" game of poker. 

Abe's Take
With this simple teases its nice to have something a little more detailed even if its just a web address. Rumour has it we'll be seeing a younger John Marston this Friday in a reveal trailer.

Hmm another rumour about a reveal this week... interesting (we are not suggesting RDR will come to the NX because life is never that fair)

United Front Games Shuts Down

Today's first story is a sad one. The rather great United Front Games (Sleeping Dogs, ModNation Racers) has closed. Leaving us with out an Sleeping Dogs.

The developer had an uneven history the ModNation Racers series for example was realtively poor but Sleeping Dogs was an underappreciated gem that whilst short gave GTA a run for its money. The team even worked on the Xbox One version of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

We loved Sleeping Dogs when we reviewed it and we loved it some more when we played the remaster. It even compelled our often silent partner Himaru to chime in (still waiting on that first article BTW). Its a shame the dev's tried experimenting with an multiplayer exclusive follow up, whilst I applaud the attempt at trying something new, we at GK-UK felt it was to early to try "mixing things up" with the franchise. United Front Games has pulled their latest early access title SMASH+GRAB from steam.

If you haven't played Sleeping Dogs we highly recommend picking it up, Its currently only £10.80 on Amazon 

Abe's Take.
Its a damn shame. These guys had such potential. We at GKUK wish them all the luck in the world in their future endeavours and hope we hear from them soon

RUMOUR: Beyond Good and Evil details

A while ago there was story on Destructoid that Beyond Good & Evil would be getting a follow up and it would be NX exclusive. This obviously caused some upset with X1 and PS4 fans but also apparently Ubisoft who ask Destructoid to take the article down, something you don't do if the article is inaccurate.

UPDATE: We made a mistake regarding the rumoured launch year, the article has been corrected.

ORIGINAL STORY: Well since then not only has Ubisoft confirmed the game is actually in pre-production but its creator Michel Ancel (Rayman) has been releasing concept art for the follow up.

 

Well today the original author of that Destructoid article, Laura Kate Dale is back with even more information and reconfirms (via a seperate source) that the new game will infact be an NX exclusive. Dale's sources all so say the new game isn't actually a sequel but a semi reboot, prequel and sequel... thing, which at first seems confusing but it seems they want to use it to relaunch the franchise.

"According to our source, the currently planned direction for the game is that it will partially retell Jade's origin tale from Beyond Good & Evil, flesh out Peyj's backstory, then continue to extrapolate on the ending of the original game. The intention is that players who have not played the original will be able to jump into the new game, which will feature a subtitle rather than a number at the end of its title, and understand both who Jade is and what drives Pey'j. It also seeks to provide closure to fans of the original wondering what the cliffhanger at the end meant for the series' ongoing plot.

While many existing fans of the series may be upset about the new game not being a direct sequel, the idea of modernising the original tale and fleshing out the world while continuing the story beyond where it once ended offers the series a better chance of an ongoing life than it previously had."

Dale's source also says that Beyond Good & Evil will be present at the NX reveal with an CGI trailer. If recent chatter is to believed should be this week. According to this rumour NX owners should be playing the subtitled Beyond Good & Evil summer 2018.

Abe's Take
This wouldn't be the first Ubisoft "hardcore" exclusive for Nintendo (Zombi U) or the first time an multi-format game got an Nintendo exclusive sequel (Bayonetta 2). It would at least make more sense this being Nintendo exclusive as the original title was warmly received on the GameCube but I suspect there will be plenty of backlash.

Another Red Dead Redemption Tease

Well this is just getting mean Rockstar, yesterday you teases us with a basic red splash with a black logo and now this!



Yep that looks pretty Red Dead Redemption-like to me. Hopefully Rockstar releasing these teases so quickly means an announcement it soon... Tomorrow would be a good day for a teaser. HINT HINT!

Not really sure what to add here other than please let there be an co-op mode as well! Something along the lines of FarCry 4 where the side missions and world activities was available for two players whilst the story was kept strictly single player. I wounder if this game comes with Red Dead Online (like GTA Online) the first game's multiplayer mode was an stepping stone for GTA V's offering.

Abe's Take
Finally an new Red Dead! (Don't make me a liar Rockstar)

NX Reveal Soon? Also Some Rumour Round Up

Yep its time for more NX chatter... we know we're rather bored of it at this point too but since MS is being ultra vague about Scorpio and the PS4-Pro is kinda disappointing, the NX is the only mystery hardware we have ahead of us. Hey! At least we're not digging up old forum posts, Harassing Zelda Williams, or talking about mysterious (and evidence free) Miyamoto sightings at Universal Studios.

Update: Turns out I missed more details from the Gameblog rumour, jump to the bottom to see the updated list.

Original Story: So onto today's chatter. Wall Street Journal's technology reporter Takashi Mochizuki believes that NX details are on their way.

Speculation is Nintendo would unveil NX details in coming week. I guess all we can do is just wait. No announcement from company yet.

— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 16, 2016

As you can see Mr Mochizuki is only relaying speculation, however he used this in the past and was right about Nintendo ending the Wii U's production in 2016. It stands to reason that we should hear about the NX soon other sources such as an damming report from Macquire Group, an investment banking firm (downgrading Nintendo's status) claiming details was coming (then) 'next week' and of cause Nintendo has an shareholders meeting on the 27th of this month. It would be very hard to ease the concerns of investors with Super Mario Run; which is exclusive to half the mobile base and will probably be skipping China (estimated to be 60% of the mobile gaming market by Macquire). 

There is also been chatter for a while that Nintendo will reveal the NX in a special direct on the 21st which just so happens to be this week, before the Nintendo shareholders briefing and the 5th, and the anniversary of the first ever Nintendo Direct. Boy is there going to be a lot of red faces if there is still no NX by next Monday.

Rumour Round Up

Hey Link.... Wait a minute!?

First up we have developer FDG Entertainment confirming their Wind Waker inspired mobile game Oceanhorn (now an enhanced version is on X1 and PS4) is coming to PS Vita and 'A Nintendo console'. Its unclear if the dev has an NX kit or if they just want to port their game to it whenever it arrives.

Next up with an unnamed retailer claims to be leaking various details about the NX. Here's their wide range of information in handy bullet point form.

Marketing

• “Interact with your game on the go.” phrase seen on a poster.
• Strong co-branding effort with a Mario launch title.
• Console is currently set to launch with least 4 titles on deck (assumed Nintendo titles).
• Stores should be receiving demo units around February.
• Base price point is sitting at $299.99 *

Bundle

• The NX is set to have a bundle but the contents of this bundle is currently unknown however its price is currently $399.99 * (Falls line with the price range by Macquire) 

Packaging

• The packaging for the NX will be slightly larger than the Wii U’s packaging.
• The packaging is relatively clean and simple and is similar to the Wii U in terms of package design.
• The color scheme for the packaging is white and blue (compared to the Wii U’s blue and black).
• The packaging seems to be an prototype as it still says “NX” however there is still no indication if this is a placeholder or the final name and he areas of the packaging that would usually depict the hardware were blurred by Nintendo in attempt to keep it hidden.

Features and Specs

• Games will be on cartridges (heard this before)
• 4k streaming has been mentioned. – What this likely means is playback of content such as Netflix, etc. Not gameplay. (heard this before)
• 1080p and 60fps are being used by the marketing teams in relation to gameplay on to the console portion. I’ve heard unconfirmed rumblings of 900p for the infamous hybrid part of the device.(hey this too!)

Next up we have an report from Gameblog.fr who has been right AND WRONG before. They mostly reported old details we've heard before and then added some extra to it, which hey is here.

• “Sure about 20 games in development” Their sources are currently developing on the platform and have devkits 
• “You’ll be able to verify these leaks very soon” but not aware of the actual reveal date. 
• Nintendo hasn’t shared all of the NX “gimmicks” with their dev yet Hybrid confirmed but not the only “surprise” 
• Confirmed there are detachable controllers 
• No real dock where you plug the handheld, but a wireless ‘dongle’ 
• Upscaling for the TV, The handheld game is the same as the “docked” game Games look good on the handheld screen (780 – 900p), about PS4 level Ports should be easy despite the different architecture 
• Very positive feedback on the dev tools 
• Breath of the Wild looks nicer on NX 
• Smartphone connectivity maybe possible 
• VR not out of the question but first tests aren’t satisfying. 
• Lots of remasters planned (Skyward Sword, MK8, Splatoon, Smash 4, N64 and Wii games) 
• FFXV and FFVII Remake are coming to NX 
• Platinum Games and Capcom are in. (PLEASE be Monster Hunter, Street Fighter and Bayonetta) 
• Ubisoft with BG&E 2 discussed but not confirmed, Splinter Cell and a Yoshi / Rabbid Rabbits crossover being discussed too

Abe's Take
SHOW US THE THING! Mainly because I want to see it but also I'm tired of reporting on these rumours.

I would imagine if Nintendo doesn't reveal the NX before their meeting on the 27th then its possible it wont be till after Christmas.