Feb 23

GDC 08 Coverage

Tag: Nintendo NewsPrattP @ 6:07 pm

Well, the Game Developer’s Conference for 2008 came to a close yesterday, and with it came a huge level of conspiracy and speculation over what information for 2008 would be divulged. Full coverage inside…


It pains me to report that Nintendo’s news was very scarce, and mainly applied to the US (the other news being the explanation of their brilliance in regards to the creation of Wii Fit).

Some little announcements slipped through, but not from Nintendo themselves. The only thing from Nintendo was this bad news. Disappointing indeed, with Nintendo priding themselves on having a free online service, which now may soon become a thing of the past. Let’s hope not.

Another spot of news was from none other than Electronic Arts (EA) in regards to their upcoming game Boom Blox, labelled a must-have Wii game for 2008 (by EA). EA’s Casual Entertainment Label announced Boom Blox as being the first game developed in collaboration between EA and director and producer, Steven Spielberg. The game features over three hundred levels, a variety of activities, a cast of over thirty wacky characters, and an easy-to-use in-game editor that allows players to express their creativity. Boom Blox will be available in May 2008 for the Wii.

“I am a gamer myself, and I really wanted to create a video game that I could play with my kids,” said Steven Spielberg. “Boom Blox features an enormous amount of fun challenges and cool scenarios for kids to solve or even for you to master.”

This sounds pretty awesome. Watch out for a review on the site soon.

Last, but definitely not least by a long shot, at his address at the Game Developers Conference, Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama has announced that Nintendo is working toward getting downloadable content available on the Wii. Aoyama says that you will be able to use Wii Points to purchase this new content, whether it is for a WiiWare game or a disk based game. The add-on contents for disc games would be purchased within the game, but the method for WiiWare was not revealed. Nintendo has been missing DLC in many games where the 360 or PS3 counterpart have, with Guitar Hero III being a major example. It begs the question though: where are we going to put these downloads? No specific date has been announced for this feature as of yet.

So that’s pretty much all the news. Here’s to a bigger and better (maybe more Nintendo focused) GDC next year.

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