Time to get to the bottom of these cases, with the honorable Judge J. Messer presiding.
It seems all anyone can talk about as of late is the goings-on within the next-gen console war, namely Microsoft’s reduced pricing. This move allowed them to snatch a much needed win away from their rival Sony during the tail-end of 2014. However, there seems to be a lot brewing on the Nintendo front as well, which is going unnoticed. The Wii U will likely receive a significant sales bump due to the holidays (as it typically does well among seasonal gift givers), but there may be other big plans which are secretly percolating behind the scenes. Here are three of the biggest we’ve heard this week from Shigeru Miyamoto himself, as we attempt to separate fact from fiction.
Will a new Super Mario Bros. film actually happen?
After the recent hacking scandal resulted in several private emails between top-level Sony executives to be made public, we now learn there are serious talks of rebooting another film starring everyone’s favorite little plumber. When recently asked if the rumors were true, Miyamoto neither confirmed nor denied them. In fact, he revealed these kinds of pitches are quite common around their offices. “I heard something about that this morning. What’s interesting is that over the past 20 years, people come to us on a fairly regular basis about creating “Mario” movies. There are times that those ideas end right when they bring them to us, and other times we’ll listen to presentations. It’s not very unusual, and it’s something we’ve been doing for a very long time. I don’t particularly have a vision that the next iteration of “Mario” is going to be in film.” He states.
Verdict = FACT
[I can totally see someone in Hollywood being stupid enough to make this movie, as everything they do is motivated by cash. Ironically, that’s the last thing they’ll make if they green-light this debacle.]
Have we seen the last of Mario as a playable character?
During a recent interview with the Associated Press, Miyamoto compared his icon to that of Disney’s Mickey Mouse (and how these staples have evolved over the years). What he said next worried many Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants, as it led some to believe Mario may be taking a brief hiatus for the next few years. “Since we first created Mario, people have compared him to Mickey Mouse. I’ve always said Mickey Mouse evolved with each evolution in animation. You saw Mickey Mouse each step of the way. From early on, I wanted Mario to be that character in the digital world, so that with each digital evolution, he was there to usher in the next era. I think that maybe when we release the next hardware system, you can look forward to seeing Mario take on a new role….” Miyamoto teases.
Verdict = FICTION .
[Although Nintendo is apparently in the earliest stages of design regarding their next console (see our entry below for more on that), I can’t see their golden goose being completely shelved in the meantime. I predict you’ll learn of a new Mario property coming to the market very soon, perhaps at E3 in June.]
Nintendo is developing not just one, but multiple consoles!
Even though many would consider the Wii U far too young for Nintendo to already be turning their attentions elsewhere, that’s apparently not stopping those at R&D from planting the seeds in preparation. According to Miyamoto, their team is still focused on supporting the Wii U with a killer line-up of software, but simultaneously “… has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems. While we’re busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.”
Verdict = HUNG JURY
[I can’t exactly call this rumor fiction, as confirmation is coming right from the horse’s mouth here. What I do dispute is his logic. I have to believe that no one at Nintendo is stupid enough to look at the struggles they’ve had moving the Wii U since its debut and think a viable solution is to churn out even more hardware. And we’re not talkin’ about a singular piece of new tech, but perhaps several! Even the DS market can’t sustain that level of oversaturation, so I assume this talk will be ratcheted down to dull roar in the future.]
We’ll bring you more on these and other Nintendo developments as CheatCC learns more in 2015. On a related note, I made it through that entire courtroom-themed article without making any references to Matlock, Judge Judy or screaming “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH” even once. The amount of self-control that took was astronomical. I’m actually fairly proud of myself!