I Hope You Weren't Wanting A New F-Zero....

[Conando]

Because history often repeats itself. It's a genre that's never been overly popular, made by a company that doesn't seem to be that overly popular with the "hardcore" scene. It could, in theory, sell to a dedicated base (and does seem to). However, Nintendo has deemed that not worth exploring at this time, because apparently they need money right now? I don't know, the 3DS launch was a disaster that they still haven't fully recovered from, and the Wii U is still performing very poorly.

[MegasonicZX]

Incidentally, I'm okay with not innovating on games as long as they stand very well in their own right without directly facelifting past titles. Not all games are great simply because they're a mind-blowing experience never before seen in the industry. I still love Mario games since their quality threshold is pretty high even today. This is why I and others want a new F-Zero game. There's no reason why it has to reinvent the wheel; GX was a much polished version of X and a lot of people would really like to have a new game that takes advantage of HD graphics and online play. Can you imagine online races with 30 people wrecking each others' shit?

I mean even 3D Land which is one of my favorite Mario titles and has totally wonderful, unique levels didn't innovate, simply because it didn't have to. So yes, Miyamoto's statements here are utterly daft.

Yeah, I guess once you think about it the game really doesn't need anything new to really help it, but your right an online would definitely bring in a lot of money and a lot more players at the same time.

[Conando]

I'm definitely not arguing that Miyamoto wasn't being an ass. He SHOULD have said what he actually meant...unless that is actually what he meant. If so...

 

...Wat.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Super Mario

[Brother Earl]

Man, I've been dying for a new F-Zero game since GX.

There's no need for any outrageous gimmicks or other crap. GX was just plan awesome as it is. Do it again with new tracks, and online play. I'll buy it new.

[Patticus]

Because history often repeats itself. It's a genre that's never been overly popular, made by a company that doesn't seem to be that overly popular with the "hardcore" scene. It could, in theory, sell to a dedicated base (and does seem to). However, Nintendo has deemed that not worth exploring at this time, because apparently they need money right now? I don't know, the 3DS launch was a disaster that they still haven't fully recovered from, and the Wii U is still performing very poorly.

 

Need For Speed seems to be doing pretty well for itself nowadays, so does Grid, and Burnout was big for a long time. Plus, Wipeout's demise has left a gaping hole in the market for an arcadey futuristic racing series, so long as it's marketed well enough.

[Conando]

F-Zero is not those types of games, it's more like WipeOut...which is dead. So yeah, that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence on Nintendo ever changing their decision on this.

[Patticus]

They're all arcadey racers, so yes, it is exactly those sorts of games, albeit in a different setting to "generic contemporary American locality."

 

And Wipeout's death took place when Sony Liverpool, formerly known as Psygnosis, long-time industry veterans and legends, were closed down last year. They did a lot of work on the Vita, and their games were critical to the success of the PS1 and 2. That has left a lot of gamers without an alternative series to latch on to. The same is true of there being no F-Zero for a decade; its fans (and there are many) have nothing to go on. Do you see what I'm getting at here? Even if F-Zero only has niche appeal (which doesn't have to be the case), there's a sizable group of people out there who would buy a Wii U for something just like this. Not "this, and those games too," just this.

[Conando]

Not entirely sure of that due to the image Nintendo has, but if WipeOut died due to reasons other than poor sales it raises my confidence in Nintendo returning to the series at some point. They weren't going to do it now, though. I know that's aggravating to some, but with all the shit they got themselves in it would have been more than a normal risk. Now, if they continue to pump out 3D World sequels AFTER the Wii U picks up, then we got a problem. They didn't do that with 3DS, though.

 

Though, I will ask if you have played F-Zero before. Though it's in the same genre as NFS, it's pretty much nothing like it. I assume you did since you created the topic. It's a really fun series, I'll give it that, and there's not much to match it.

Edited June 21, 2013 by King Of Awesome

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Well, if we want to show that theres enough demand, maybe we should make a petition, If we show enough support, usualy has a good chance of working

[Conando]

Pft, Nintendo barely did anything over Project Rainfall. The US got Xenoblade Chronicles for a month.

[JezMM]

Alas I'm pressed for time and off on holiday, so I'll just amend my comment by saying to me touches like the Mario suits did innovate.  Gold Mario is not just Fire Mario but different If you're as into platforming as much as I am and appreciate the new situations and puzzles it creates.

 

But I agree that F-Zero does not NEED to innovate.  I'm just trying to decipher the good in Miyamoto's comment.

 

 

Frankly I kinda hate this blame culture where people need to get angry at someone instead of just appreciating that all games are a massive team effort and sometimes the team doesn't cater to your particular tastes on a game or that people who are content with a game you disliked have low standards.

 

 

This isn't aimed at anyone in particular, it's just a general air and impression I get from lots of opinions combined.

[Tornado]

Wipeout 2048 sold like shit because it was a Vita game. It has nothing to do with why Studio Liverpool was shut down (that was because Sony was reorganizing all of their studios to drop costs, and with Sony losing the Formula 1 licence to Codemasters there wasn't any reason to keep the studio open for one game), and they were in fact working on another Wipeout game for the PS4 launch when the studio was shuttered (which was 6 months after the Vita game bombed).

[Conando]

Well, then maybe F-Zero should make a return on 3DS first...

[Patticus]

Nintendo could probably adapt F-Zero X to the 3DS with few problems and at much less cost than a new FZU version, which would please X fans no end and provide an interesting test case for possible future games, although I would prefer an all-new title in the X/GX mold.

[Conando]

Just make a remake of X and actually give it online rather than being lame and pulling a Star Fox 3D. It'd go a lot further with fans.

[Carbo]

The issue with asking Miyamoto whether or not "x" game will make an appearance is that as a general producer his influence has waned quite well passed the point of where anything he has to say on a subject is considerable beyond general advice. It's like when people threw a massive shitfit over Miyamoto recommending Intelligent Systems to focus on existing Mario characters in Sticker Star when really that advice was twisted into meaning "let's only use Toads as NPCs and not have any interesting towns or levels", and people would still lynch Miyamoto for that recommendation even though most people like to forget that Intelligent Systems have been incredibly lazy with the game and the series since Super Paper Mario which was completely devoid of interesting ideas or exciting new characters that weren't Photoshop Geometry cutouts.

Nintendo's already prepared for Miyamoto's retirement in years because of them generally downsizing his involvement and influence. He's only involved intimately in terms of smaller teams and it's with one of them that he was responsible for Pikmin 3 - which he's been working for a ton of years now simply because the team he's been doing it with has been comparatively small. Most of his focus has been purely on that, and the last thing he actually did before that? Pretty sure it was Wii Music.

Miyamoto hasn't been involved with F-Zero for over ten years, and contrary to a lot of people's imaginations, GX was not the last game in the series. It saw two GBA games after it but both games bombed spectacularly - and this was on a platform that was actually popular at the time. There's no lack of precedence in people claiming that it's not being made simply for sales purposes and I don't think anyone's necessarily denying that it's a bad idea to have the game. But when people start throwing the Mario Kart and NSMB series at Miyamoto as if it's some sort of "retort" to the point he was making, i.e that "he'd love to make one if he can come up with new ideas for it", it's not only a gross misinterpretation of what he's actually saying but it's also a flawed one because besides acting as a producer his involvement in those titles mean very little. Miyamoto's mantra has always been that he doesn't want to sit on rehashes when he's making games, and as far as that goes he's sort of lived up to his word. Jez already went through this, because Mario has easily brought new concepts despite that. Let's not forget either that despite debuting in the sixth gen, Pikmin 3 can be considered a franchise revival as well. It's been eons since we've seen Pikmin, the same amount of years since the last F-Zero, and there's a bunch of new things being added onto that, hence why he personally decided to make that game. If he wants to make a new F-Zero, he would personally feel like it'd have to evolve and not just be a rehash of GX. We should always expect more from it, really. Frankly I'd be disappointed if all the next F-Zero would do is rest on it's laurels and just be the same old because that would make it no better than the countless NSMB rehashes. In fact, trivializing and resting too much on things of past is exactly what murdered Metroid Other M in terms of game play.

Could Nintendo make a new F-Zero work? Absolutely. But stop pretending as if Miyamoto is the be-all end-all when he hasn't been anything remotely resembling that since 2004, and that him necessarily saying this is a bad thing. In fact it doesn't even need to be him making the game. Nintendo is far from short of talent in terms producers and developers, a majority of which could easily want to make an F-Zero game if it came down to it or even if they want to, and who's to say that Miyamoto won't come up with a few ideas?

[Patticus]

Miyamoto is the manager of Nintendo's development teams, so I would think that he does have a significant say in deciding which games get to be made. It is true he hasn't really been involved in game development or designing games himself for a long time, but he does oversee their production, and ensures that the games are up to Nintendo's exacting standards.

[Carbo]

Miyamoto is the manager of Nintendo's development teams, so I would think that he does have a significant say in deciding which games get to be made. It is true he hasn't really been involved in game development or designing games himself for a long time, but he does oversee their production, and ensures that the games are up to Nintendo's exacting standards.

*Newer/younger/smaller development teams. That's where most of his management is felt. In any other scenario he's pretty much the Stan Lee of Nintendo.

[Shade Vortex]

If Nintendo doesn't want to throw F-Zero fans a bone, sell the goddamn IP to SEGA. They did an amazing job on F-Zero GX: I believe that to be the best F-Zero game I've played, and -SEGA- made it! They're good at speed-centric games- just look at the Sonic franchise! And I have a feeling that they'd actually WANT to develop F-Zero games again. GX may not have sold amazingly well, but it certainly sold better than the GBA F-Zero games!

[EuroMIX]

I don't think that Sega is really in any position to be buying new IP's, and if they did, I think they'd rather take something like Mario that is guaranteed to sell over something like F-Zero, and even then it probably wouldn't work due to being way out of their price range. We also don't know if the Sega of today even has the time or talent to produce what they did back then with the series.

 

Then again, if this temporary Sonic deal goes well and Nintendo and Sega become closer as a result, maybe the former may allow the latter to produce one under their supervision or something...

[Milo]

I don't see how selling the F-Zero IP to Sega of all publishers is going to make things any better. Like Nintendo they have a sizable bookshelf of IPs they no longer use, and their financial situation has left them to focus primarily on -all four- of their most profitable franchises. Even if they did greenlight a new game either by obtaining the F-Zero IP or got permission from Nintendo, don't expect them to actually advertise it well, let alone advertise it at all.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Gabe

[Shade Vortex]

And yet they recently bought an entire company from THQ's sale, Relic, for 26 million dollars, so that they could have Company of Heroes games. I don't know how much F-Zero would be worth, but SEGA is not as financially fucked as most people seem to think these days.
 

Also Euromix, we both know Nintendo would never sell Mario until they went out of business, and if it did come to that, the price would effectively be priceless- well out of any sane company's price range. On the other hand, Nintendo doesn't seem to care as much about some of their IPs, like Star Fox, F-Zero and recently Metroid.

 

I for one believe SEGA does have talented developers (at least the current Sonic Team- Colors' devs and Unleashed/Gens devs), but time is another thing- they are focusing on things that sell well (Sonic, Licensed IPs like Aliens and Football manager), so yes, it would be odd for them to buy F-Zero based on its track record. Amusement Vision (aka Sega's Consumer R&D Division, which Sonic Team and the Mario and Sonic devs are also part of), the devs of F-Zero GX, make the newer Shining Force and Yakuza games, I believe

 

Doesn't change the fact that I feel SEGA would do the series the most justice. You can consider it my personal fantasy, a pipe dream that even I realize is unlikely and will probably never happen.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Shade Vortex

[Carbo]

And yet they recently bought an entire company from THQ's sale, Relic, for 26 million dollars, so that they could have Company of Heroes games. I don't know how much F-Zero would be worth, but SEGA is not as financially fucked as most people seem to think these days.

A company with IP talent that Sega can integrate to one of their most popular venues which is PC strategy game digital distribution versus a niche IP that Nintendo could only manage to sell about 600k copies with which under Sega's situation is the worst thing they could ask for right now.

Totally the same situation.

[Rinzler]

It's only been three years since the last Metroid game. Jeez.

[Patticus]

Perhaps now is simply not the right time for an F-Zero game, as it's clearly not the big system-seller the console needs right now. Hopefully, once this year's raft of first and second-party content is out, maybe X and other early 2014 projected releases too, sales will pick up enough to justify more "vanity" projects (games which do not sell systems, which are intended to please the core audience) like this. Still, it wouldn't hurt to gear up development of it soon and release it in 2015 or 16, when sales will either be up enough to justify it, or they'll be down enough for Nintendo to give up on the Wii Fit audience for the rest of the generation.