A new title under the name of Winter was announced today by developer n-Space (Call of Duty DS, Geist). The survival-horror is aimed at the more adult crowd, akin to something like MadWorld or Cursed Mountain.
The game had been hinted at and was the point of much speculation for months, touted by the IGN Nintendo team as “the dark game”, and today they finally made good on their word and posted it to IGN’s front page.
The accompanying footage showcases the game running on Wi hardware, in real time. Perhaps most impressive of all though, is the fact that the said demo was created by the team in a little over 6 weeks.
So, it’s all sounding very nice, yes? Well, it would be if it weren’t for the fact that the game doesn’t yet have a publisher. But fear not, n-Space have said that if the demand is there, and a publisher is willing to snap the title up, they still have every intention of getting the game to retail.
In an attempt to attract a would-be developer, Wii fan Ryan Delbage has created a petition (we know, we know), and, despite the fact that it was only published a matter of hours ago, it’s got over 1,000 signatures to its name.
On this petition, you’ll find the names of many well-respected and highly-regarded figures, including GoNintendo’s Kevin Cassidy, IGN’s Matt Cassamassina, and OWiiLY’s illustrious Rory Cocker.
Matt had this to say –
I’m glad to see that you’re as psyched about the title as I’ve been for months and months. Perhaps the time is finally right for publishers to remove their heads from their asses and help broaden the Wii demographic beyond the perceived market of mini-game-fest-loving casuals. The hardcore that grew up playing Mario, Metroid and Zelda still exists — we’re all just waiting for the right games to throw our support behind. At any rate, yes, I’m completely down to use IGN’s influence to back Winter in the same way we hyped The Conduit and tried desperately to get people to pay attention to Zack & Wiki.
Whilst we found Matt’s casual/hardcore perception comment pain-stakingly cringe inducing, we fully agree with his approach; this game deserves to make it to retail.
Kevin Cassidy posted this on GoNintendo:
This is the title that doesn’t have a publisher. This is the new game that GoNintendo and its readers are going to help get a publisher…I’m ready to do all I can.
Whilst it’s good to see the Nintendo fanbase coming together like this in the name of solid, 3rd party software, I’m slightly worried; what if n-Space continue to develop the game for another year or two, go to the work of getting a publisher, release the game in all territories, sit back and watch it fall flat on its face.
When things like this happen, it almost breaks my heart (in a manly way). I look at Clover’s Okami, I look at Monolith Soft’s Disaster: Day of Crisis – one of which was a solid, unique diversion, and one that was an absolutely sensational masterpiece of modern gaming – I see the hard work and dedication these teams put into their titles, and then I see them being thwarted in the charts by quick cash-ins, all of which are put to shame by efforts such as Okami and Disaster. It’s truly a crying shame.
The game is very early in development; 6 weeks in, in fact, and it’s already looking pretty nice. It’s no show-stopper, but with a competent budget and development time, it definitely could be. Original games like this should be supported.
It looks like there is a market for this game, and with the right advertising, it could easily make a tidy profit for n-Space and the publisher, assuming it gains an adequate fanbase, and with Matt and Kevin on board, I’m sure it will; just look at The Conduit and The House of the Dead: OVERKILL.
SEGA? Where are you?
Trailer (What’s with the Lord of the Rings music?)
Petition
–Rory–
O WiiLY? 