Makers of The Conduit to become 2nd party Nintendo developer at PAX?
Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 9:54am by Jack
Chalk this one up to coincidence and an over-active imagination on my part, but there’s an inkling of a possibility that the makers of The Conduit, that hyped FPS for the Wii without a publisher, might have a little coup up their sleeves for the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo.
But first a word or warning: This post is entirely comprised of back channel speculation on the part of Infendo editors in our highly secure Infendo Compound (read: Gmail).
With that out of the way, we ask: Is High Voltage ready to announce that Nintendo will take on The Conduit and make High Voltage a 2nd party developer at PAX? Here’s what we know so far:
Yesterday, we received a press release from High Voltage inviting us to “play and review” The Conduit at PAX 2008. Not a surprise, really. With 40,000+ passionate video game-loving people of all stripes expected to attend the show, High Voltage would be stupid NOT to try and get the game in front of every single one of them (and the press). The key phrase in the image below is “Nintendo booth.”
Exhibit two is from Infendo contributing writer Jake, who talked with Nintendo’s office in New York City about their PAX plans.
“Just had a short email transaction with Nintendo’s offices in New York in which I got a confirmation of a Nintendo showing at PAX 2008. I had previously said that Nintendo was done with large public gaming presentations for 2008, but I stand corrected. The lady is double checking whether or not they will be at Leipzig, but things look doubtful,” he said.
It’s something, but definitely not a confirmation of anything other than Nintendo will have a booth at PAX. Wii Music, Wario and Animal Crossing are all good odds on favorites for the show (they’d all be safe titles, low risk), but Nintendo may very well bow to the complaints it received following E3 and… wait for it… show off its valuable new FPS property in The Conduit.
The revelation, if true, shows that Nintendo was not being entirely truthful about future shows and showing off games to close out 2008. If we use that misdirection as a platform, then perhaps they have had second thoughts about announcing any new games during the rest of 2008, and will go back on that promise as well. This would also play into their new prime directive of not announcing games until a few weeks or months before their release date.
I can think of no better (confirmed by Nintendo) title that would silence the remaining naysayers and further expand their portfolio than The Conduit. It’s entirely new IP (addresses “new franchises, Nintendo!” complaint), it’s a serious FPS (”more mature games on Nintendo systems!”), and it’s not first party (”having too many first party games on your console is bad!”). Please note, that by listing these “complaints,” I am in no way admitting that I believe they ever had any real merit. I list them in the spirit of openness.
It’s a stretch, sure, and like I said this is speculation on our part, but the pieces, at least from a distance, seem like they could fit. What say you? Does Nintendo play it safe at PAX, or will it deliver a semi-Megaton and surprise us all?
August 15th, 2008 at 10:19 am
This would be GREAT news if it comes to pass. Regular mainstream media attention will be minimal at PAX… so if Nintendo does have more “hardcore” games to show off, it would be a suitable venue.
I think I said before, if we get some big announcements at PAX, we have our new E3, folks.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I’m somewhat intrigued, because it is specifically the Nintendo Booth, as opposed to the cafeteria at E3.
I’m still skeptical, though; they may have just rented space from Nintendo’s booth, since they weren’t going to show much(LOL).
August 15th, 2008 at 11:23 am
hmm a new 2nd party company that would b good and the conduit looks fun
not sure if they will show anything else new though i hope they do though
August 15th, 2008 at 11:26 am
That’d be interesting. It seems totally possible as Nintendo seems to be the only company that actually invests time and money into Wii development rather than just talking about it.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
great news! this means we’re one step closer to getting our grubby little paws on it. yay for optimism!
August 15th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Well some of us knew about Nintendo being at PAX looong ago. In my case a floorplan from Kotaku posted quite a while ago, dunno why it’s a surprise.
Anyway, I’m not expecting much out of Nintendo, at least the masses will be able to play these games and build up hypw if they’re good. I’m sure the conduit will impress though I’m more looking forward to things lik Guitar Hero or Rockband (it’d be sweet if they could demo a Wii version but it’ll likely stay a 360 only deal because that game has to be out first).
August 15th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I just talked to a few of my friends at NOA that might be in the know about this sort of thing, and they said they hadn’t heard anything. So either this is bunk, they’re BSing me, or they’re not in the loop on this. I’m going to take this with a grain of salt, for now, but I hope it’s true.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
If anything, I think Nintendo might be publishing this for them, which would explain the booth space. But i doubt they will really come under Nintendo’s wing as a 2nd party. HVS just isn’t up to the same quality as Retro and other 2nd parties. Their entire back catalog is crap, and Conduit could still be hit or miss at this point. It surely won’t be as good as MP3, and do you really see Nintendo taking a step backwards in quality?
August 15th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
@dubnobasswithmyheadman: No, not really
I guess I can see them saying to HV, “you can have some space in our tent, and hopefully some of our mojo will rub off on ya.”
Then they’ll tussle their hair and go swim in their money vault, not caring one way or another if Conduit succeeds.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
@dubnobasswithmyheadman: Well in all fairness, most of HVS’ games have been licensed stuff. You can only do so much with a licensed title. But this is an original IP and most of their original IPs have been pretty decent.
August 15th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I’ll let you know about it when I see it….anyone else besides me going to PAX?
August 15th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
nintendo does not, and will never bow down to complaints from idiots in the gaming press or whiney online people who are unhappy just because they didnt get what they expected.
Nintendo has already said in press releases and interviews that E3 was their new casual venue because its such a large media gathering, and core fans dont need the media to keep up with gaming, they get all their news online.
They did not say they would never show core titles ever again at any large venue, and have in fact said they would choose the right events for the right games.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Retro sucked before nintendo I mean really hard too. High voltage started kicking ass before and they’ve never been in trouble and who else could make metroid with normal maps! It would be a stupid sweet move if true. They would be nintendos epic over here. Nintendo would learn some new tricks also and that would put them on the level about motion plus also.
Hey but don’t get your hopes up. High voltage could make a lot of money off of this game with the right publisher deal. Hey nintendo could be that publisher though. What better publisher than the one that owns nintendo power?
August 16th, 2008 at 12:09 am
I’m heading to PAX, and I’m looking forward to trying it out!
Hopefully this turns out to be true.