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[Blackbird|]

If nintendo really droped pilotwings,i hope the game leaks someday

 

[Cosmonaut X]

A new Rogue Squadron and Pilotwings would make Nintendo's holiday a whole lot better. Release them already!

I also don't understand why Nintendo hasn't bought Factor 5 yet. They must be a bargain at the moment and despite the failure of LAIR, the studio has a good track record.

Because they're wary of getting involved with second party studios after their experiences in the N64/GCN era? Or because something obviously went south at the company when all of this happened, and the ever-so-slightly dodgy way they seem to have tried to continue on business might be a big warning sign for a company looking to invest in a new studio? And does the studio even have any significant talent left now?

 

[AceBandage]

If nintendo really droped pilotwings,i hope the game leaks someday

A Nintendo owned game leak?

Anyway, it's a real shame that Lucas and Nintendo couldn't trust Factor 5, I'd have loved to see both these games.

 

[Taurus]

A new Rogue Squadron and Pilotwings would make Nintendo's holiday a whole lot better. Release them already!

I also don't understand why Nintendo hasn't bought Factor 5 yet. They must be a bargain at the moment and despite the failure of LAIR, the studio has a good track record.

I would support this move by buying one copy of Pilotwings Wii and one copy of Rogue Squadron Trilogy.

 

[AceBandage]

I would support this move by buying one copy of Pilotwings Wii and one copy of Rogue Squadron Trilogy.

I'd buy the game (given that they were actually good), but I don't see any benefit to Nintendo buying Factor 5 at this point.
They're a shell of a company, and have more debt than they're worth.

 

[Blackbird|]

A Nintendo owned game leak?

Anyway, it's a real shame that Lucas and Nintendo couldn't trust Factor 5, I'd have loved to see both these games.

"-Unannounced Wii port of AAA 360/PS3-Game (cancelled), Electronic Arts Partners
- Unannounced Wii game (for release 2009), publisher non-disclosed
- Unannounced Wii game (for release 2009), publisher pending''

Only one of the games,probably pilotwings,lost the publisher,rogue squadron still coming,and looks like they removing the pilotwings brand from the game and turning in a generic flying game for another publisher

I'd buy the game (given that they were actually good), but I don't see any benefit to Nintendo buying Factor 5 at this point.
They're a shell of a company, and have more debt than they're worth.

Yes,they have like 10 employers now,those 2 games are the last large scale projects we gonna see from factor 5 for the next 3 or 4 years

 

[[Nintex]]

Because they're wary of getting involved with second party studios after their experiences in the N64/GCN era? Or because something obviously went south at the company when all of this happened, and the ever-so-slightly dodgy way they seem to have tried to continue on business might be a big warning sign for a company looking to invest in a new studio? And does the studio even have any significant talent left now?

They should've done it earlier...

But most people are usually 'connected' to their company of old. If Nintendo just bought the remaining parts of White Harvest LLC/Factor 5 and all that and their long time employees had a chance to return I'm sure they would gladly take that opportunity. Not to mention that lay-offs are happening everywhere and there's talent up for grabs.

I also don't understand why Nintendo dropped Pilotwings, it seems that US/EU developers get the shaft while Nintendo Japan churns out shit like Wii Music and funds vaporware like Dynamic Slash and Cosmic Walker.

 

[radioheadrule83]

They'd be better letting everything go bust and picking up any attractive employees, assets and licenses in an outfit of their own as it all goes down. Let the administrators handle the debt.

A new Rogue Squadron and Pilotwings would make Nintendo's holiday a whole lot better. Release them already!

This is very true. I'm gonna be happy with NSMB and stuff, but its hard to argue that it wouldn't be improved a great deal by the presence of either title.

 

[[Nintex]]

This is very true. I'm gonna be happy with NSMB and stuff, but its hard to argue that it wouldn't be improved a great deal by the presence of either title.

I also don't think that the recent shitstorm at Factor 5 will affect either Nintendo or the games. Pilotwings seems to be aimed at casual players and they obviously have no idea of the development troubles. Star Wars fans will buy anything and there's probably alot of former GameCube owners who'd like a sequel too. Unless the games are total shit I see no reason not to publish them.

 

[Razien]

It is normal to hear that every month now.
When they actually launch a game is when I'll be surprised.

 

[radioheadrule83]

OT but Razien, is that avatar Kirby after having consumed and spat out Travis Touchdown?
cos its awesome if so

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

I think that Nintendo might release Pilotwings next year at the same time and in the same way they announced Exite Bots, that's if they're willing to release it.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

Like i said in another thread, i fking hate this generation.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the bussiness model for this industry has been fundamentally broken for some time (gens) and the high-risk HD factor was just a way of exposing it on a massive scale.
That, and the financial crisis.

 

[Haunted]

In February 2009, WhiteHarvest LLC and Factor 5 GmbH pulled another coup: Electronic Arts contracted them for a third Wii title. Despite other reports, this was not a conversion of their cancelled PS3/Xbox 360 title Superman. It was a Wii conversion of Double Fine Productions' Brütal Legend.

whaaat?

 

[SecretBonusPoint]

That is an impressive level of failure as this dying company claws and scratches at everything on it's way down. GRiN and Factor 5 have provided stark examples of how not to run a games company.

 

[Datschge]

A Nintendo owned game leak?

Star Fox 2 (which of course took 7 years between the planned release and the last build to be leaked).

 

[Fourth Storm]

That is an impressive level of failure as this dying company claws and scratches at everything on it's way down. GRiN and Factor 5 have provided stark examples of how not to run a games company.

Tell me about it...seems they bit off more than they could chew with the Brutal Legend port. Damn shame.

Seems Nintendo/LucasArts were never confident enough in their respective projects to even announce those titles. Hopefully, they have rights to those games and can get somebody to finish off whatever needs to be done. Those two games would be great assets to the Wii library.

 

[Hero of Legend]

I assumed that EA Montreal was in charge of the port as they're EA's Nintendo team as I think EA Montreal even called themselves that.

Ridiculous to expect a Wii port to release at the same time as the other versions. :/

 

[Mashing]

Right, their expectations of Brutal Legend on Wii were not realistic. I can't blame Factor 5 for that (although I agree, their shady business practices exacerbated the problem).

 

[topramen]

so whats the chances we will actually see either of these games/which one is more likely at this point.

I'm assuming nintendo dropped pilotwings, but Lucasarts is still holding on to rogue squadron?



Where the hell is that Julian guy in all of this???

 

[Vagabundo]

Seems like a complete mess; I can see why Nintendo didn't scoop them up when this house of cards started to fold.

As one poster said they are probably waiting for the dust to settle and they might buy up the scraps.

Still, fingers crossed for those mostly finished Wii games.

Nintendo; leaves luck to heaven.

 

[scitek]

so whats the chances we will actually see either of these games/which one is more likely at this point

I'd say the Rogue Squadron game is more likely to be seen. Not saying the chances are good, though.

 

[DDayton]

Someone should compile a list of all the development studios that have been shuttered since the beginning of this "generation." It's really getting absurd.

 

[Nirolak]

I assumed that EA Montreal was in charge of the port as they're EA's Nintendo team as I think EA Montreal even called themselves that.

Ridiculous to expect a Wii port to release at the same time as the other versions. :/

While they are the Nintendo team, a lot of their resources are actually heading into Army of Two II also, so they're probably rather strapped for people right now.

 

[batbeg]

While they are the Nintendo team, a lot of their resources are actually heading into Army of Two II also, so they're probably rather strapped for people right now.

Is this going to be the actual title? Just think of all the directions they could go, though! Army of Four, Army of 2 Again, Too Army Too Two, Army of Two: Two Harder.

 

[Jocchan]

Is this going to be the actual title? Just think of all the directions they could go, though! Army of Four, Army of 2 Again, Too Army Too Two, Army of Two: Two Harder.

Army of Choo Choo. Set on a train. On rails.

 

[Shiggy]

The future of Factor 5 may not look bright. But Moller is actively trying to find new projects for his studio. He wants to establish the recently founded Factor 5 Media Productions GmbH as a new German development studio which is no longer dependent on an US branch. Best of luck!

This may sound kind of misleading. Factor 5 GmbH is concentrating on outsourcing & research now. If they want to work on a game, they will have to cooperate with another studio. In most recent times this was WhiteHarvest LLC.
It would be a shame to never see their technology implemented in a Wii game.

 

[Mario]

Someone should compile a list of all the development studios that have been shuttered since the beginning of this "generation." It's really getting absurd.

Here is an incomplete list with entries I think are correct from 2007 to get you started

BottleRocket
Castaway Entertainment
EA Chicago (EA)
Ensemble (MS)
Factor 5 US
FASA (MS)
Fizz Factor (Foundation 9 group)
Flagship Studios
FuzzyEyes - not sure on this one
GRiN
Humannature Studio (Nexon)
Ironlore
Locomotive Games (THQ)
Pandemic Australia (EA)
Paradigm Entertainment (THQ)
Pseudo Interactive
Sandblast Games (THQ)
Shaba Games (Activision)
Stormfront Studios
Transmission Games
Underground Development/Z-Axis(Activision)
Vicarious Visions California (Activision)


Red Tibe, Auran, and 3D Realms I think have all been reduced to holding companies with just a skeleton crew and sales staff.

Publisher closures include Brash, Empire, Red Mile Entertainment, and Midway (the latter closed Aces Game Studio, Blacksite Studio and Midway Austin in late 2008 through early 2009).


That sure is a lot of lost jobs, not to mention all the other layoffs from studios and publishers still operating

 

[MidnightScott]

I've never played Pilotwings, are they are on the Virtual Console yet? I've seen video of them and they look awesome. I loved the airplane part of Wii Sports Resort.

 

[evilromero]

This is strange. If the games were truly done I'm willing to be Nintendo would have had one of those as a Fall release. There is no way they'd sit on that with only New Mario Wii and Wii Fit Plus as their major titles.

Also, I can only imagine how awesome a Factor 5 Pilotwings would look. My god. What the effing fuck is happening?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

This is strange. If the games were truly done I'm willing to be Nintendo would have had one of those as a Fall release. There is no way they'd sit on that with only New Mario Wii and Wii Fit Plus as their major titles.

There's no way they'd sit on a game when their only major titles are... sequels to some of their biggest successes of the decade?

 

[evilromero]

There's no way they'd sit on a game when their only major titles are... sequels to some of their biggest successes of the decade?

One game is directed at a very specific audience (Wii Fit) while the other is a cross-over title of sorts (Mario). Pilotwings would tap into the Metroid/Zelda crowd (we're still fucking here believe it or not).

 

[Shiggy]

This is strange. If the games were truly done I'm willing to be Nintendo would have had one of those as a Fall release. There is no way they'd sit on that with only New Mario Wii and Wii Fit Plus as their major titles.

The last official thing we have heard was in mid-July when they confirmed that their EA title was cancelled but that their two other games were to see a release this year. As they have neither been announced nor anything else has happened, nobody (probably except for falafelkid - but he won't tell us) knows what is going on.

 

[AceBandage]

More than likely, the games aren't as "finished" as Factor 5 is saying, and Nintendo/Lucas Arts is not interested.

 

[cuyahoga]

Underground Development/Z-Axis(Activision)

Somehow, they did not close and actually made Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

 

[EatChildren]

There's no way they'd sit on a game when their only major titles are... sequels to some of their biggest successes of the decade?

Nintendo are quite happy to deny the rest of the world Fatal Frame IV (despite every other entry coming over and it being the best selling in Japan), to the US Disaster, and PAL land ExciteBots.

They could be sitting on a goldmine of finished games and would still totally ignore them.

 

[Mario]

Somehow, they did not close and actually made Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

Thanks. Was going by this report which had an Activision confirmation. Last minute change of heart or studio reformed perhaps? Updated list below.

Edit: Wikipedia info on Underground

"On April 19, 2008, parent company Activision announced that the studio would close after completing development on the PlayStation 3 version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.[2] However, the studio remained open and moved to a new office in the Redwood Shores area of Redwood City, California[3] in February of 2009."



Here is an incomplete list with entries I think are correct from 2007

BottleRocket
Castaway Entertainment
EA Chicago (EA)
Ensemble (MS)
Factor 5 US
FASA (MS)
Fizz Factor (Foundation 9 group)
Flagship Studios
FuzzyEyes - not sure on this one
Gamelab
GRiN
Humannature Studio (Nexon)
Ironlore
Locomotive Games (THQ)
Pandemic Australia (EA)
Paradigm Entertainment (THQ)
Pivotal Games
Pseudo Interactive
Sandblast Games (THQ)
Shaba Games (Activision)
Stormfront Studios
Transmission Games
Vicarious Visions California (Activision)


Red Tibe, Auran, and 3D Realms I think have all been reduced to holding companies with just a skeleton crew and sales staff.

Publisher closures include Brash, Empire, Red Mile Entertainment, and Midway (the latter closed Aces Game Studio, Blacksite Studio and Midway Austin in late 2008 through early 2009).


Edit: added some more

 

[Shiggy]

Don't know whether anyone is still interested now that the US division has entirely closed down as of August. They were unable to find a new investor due to debts and so on - the situation of Bottlerocket was similar to a certain extent. Both had publishers interested in letting them do projects but were afraid that the studios would take all the money to pay off debts and then shut down.

So here's a Factor 5 Germany leaflet informing about what they are able to do. Please note that some things are outdated as it was published shortly after their EA port was cancelled. So WhiteHarvest was still hoping for a new project.

Middleware Development / Porting
 MusyX Audio System (Nintendo)
 DivX for Wii/Gamecube (Nintendo)
 Xaitment AI System Console Port
 Undisclosed Collision / Physics Solution

Factor 5 R&D
 Located in Cologne / Germany
 Game and technology R&D
 Restructuring 2009 for
 Service Providing
 Contracting
 Outsourcing
 Technology Teaching

Experience
 Availability of Senior Game Console
Engineers
 Doing Console Games for over 20 years
 Experienced in all low- and high-level
game development tasks and
optimizations

Technology Development
 Research
 Engine Porting and Optimization
 SDK and API Design
 Memory Systems / Data Structures
 Physics / Collision
 Data Path and Resource Management

Some Tech Highlights
 WII: Virtual Memory System
Automatically reordered memory page backup via MEM1 and MEM2 based on access pattern and swap to NAND, according to lot-check requirements!
 Physics
Fast velocity-based constraint solver w. improved poststabilization and full manifold contact handling using high-quality friction model (PS3/SPU capable)
 Collision
Independent of physics, fast optimized basic prims, meshes and numerical robust GJK and convex cast.
 WII: Rendering
State-of-the-Art rendering techniques with light scattering, ambient occlusion and rim lighting, streaming landscape.
 Build System
Scons based, all-platform build environment and project creation.

Game Porting and Prototyping
 Game and Game Engine
 PC to Console
 Console to Console
 Handhelds
 Multi-platform Development
 Middleware Porting and Optimizing
 Prototyping and checking if port is possible

Available Technology
 Lot-check approved game engine for
Wii/360/PS3 from full-features game titles.
 Middleware free
 All current console development kits
present

Middleware Knowledge
 Havok, Ageia
 Xaitment, Kynapse
 DivX
 MusyX

Remote Development
 Working with our US friends for 10 years now (LucasArts, Munkyfun, Nintendo, EA Research)
 Communication via Polycom, ooVoo, WebEx, Skype.
 Our Experience: “Documentation often better in remote structures”

Factor 5Worldwide
 Distributed Development Structure
 Dynamic Allocation of Resources
 Content or Additonal Programming
 Game Design
 Art Creation
 Level Design
 Sound / Audio

Full-featured Game Development
 Highly scalable development team size
 Partnership with www.thelightworks.com
 Or in cooperation with any other developer