http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/851/851287p1.html

discuss.

Update: Factor 5 Wii Project
Company president Julian Eggebrecht sheds new light on the anticipated title.
by Matt Casamassina
US, February 11, 2008 - A short while ago Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht confirmed to IGN Wii that the developer, best known for its Star Wars Rogue Squadron titles, had at least one new project underway for Nintendo's Wii console. At DICE 2008 in Las Vegas last week, Eggebrecht shed some light on the mystery game.

The San Rafael-based developer has always been known for getting the most technically out of the consoles it works on and it looks like it will endeavor to use all of Wii's horsepower, too.

"We want to push the hardware. I think for us it's relatively easy for us to push the hardware. It inherently comes. But a lot of it is about exploiting the uniqueness of the Wii. I mean, on the graphical side, we're going to try and do everything to outdo everything else on the platform, the same as we did for the Star Wars games back on the GameCube," said Eggebrecht. "But one of our main focuses is the innovation around the controls. Everybody is always talking about the motion control, but I think people are overplaying that a bit. I really, really love the pointing aspect of the remote. Although we're going to use everything for what we have in development, I think the pointing stuff is probably the biggest innovation which we're working on right now."

Asked about the Wii game's state of completion, Eggebrecht responded: "We're pretty much at a state where we're almost done with the engine. At the same time, we've also been working on content quite a bit because we had enough running very quickly on the platform that we were able to. But the biggest milestone or mark right now is that we're almost done with the engine and it does everything that the PS3 did and then some, quite frankly. So we're pretty happy with that.

"It's not just what a lot of people were expecting. 'Oh, we're going to cash in on what we had from Rebel Strike.' Which we actually also did. That was a fun experience just to bring that game over and play it on Wii. Nevertheless, we said, well, weighing the pros and cons, why don't we do something completely new based on all the experience we had back then? So, that's almost done."

Before it began development on Lair for PS3, Factor 5 was linked to create Pilot Wings for Nintendo's then-codenamed Revolution system. What ever happened to the project and has Eggebrecht given up on the idea of creating a similar flying game?

"We'd never give up on the idea of making a flying game. Maybe a pure flight game, I don't know about that because it limits you a little bit. Flight can be involved, though -- our engine is strong around it. If it lends itself and the game design to it, it certainly can be an element.

"What happened back then. It was 2004 and I think, quite frankly, it came down to us wanting and needing to move on to the next-generation consoles. Nintendo at that point in time hadn't made up their mind, and I don't blame them, what the next-generation for them meant. We, of course, assumed that it was going to be something in the same vein of Microsoft and Sony, so we were kind of prodding and pushing them a little bit. We were saying, 'Come on guys. The road is pretty obvious. Why don't we get going on developing something in that vein because we all know where it's going to lead?' And they -- now in hindsight, of course, I know why -- but they always told us, 'No, why don't you keep it down? Don't think about 10 million polygons more. We're trying to figure something out here.' It was very mysterious throughout the year. Quite frankly, simple business matters happened. We had to run a studio, we had to pay people. And we had to jump onto something. That something at the time was basically the other upcoming consoles. Those guys were very aggressive as partners and at the time we didn't want to lay off anybody, and we needed the cash. So we happily went along with that also expected that sooner or later we could translate it back to whatever Nintendo came up with. Of course, we were blown away when they said, 'This is it, by the way,' which happened way later. So that's I think also why there were never any hard feelings. I think Nintendo knew what was going on with us and that to a certain degree that the time lapse forced us into how things happened. We never, ever had any bad break up, or anything like that. Which is also the case with Sony, by the way. We love the guys at Sony. So if we have another game which we want to work on with them, we would love to and I don't see any reason why not. Things there are a little overhyped on the Internet where people basically think that we all spit into each others' faces, which isn't the case at all."

Journey backward into Factor 5's history and you will eventually find the Turrican franchise, which will, it seems, be making a comeback, both on Virtual Console and perhaps as an all-new game -- most likely for PS3 or Xbox 360.

"You probably have seen the ESRB Wii ratings. There was quite a bit news going around that last year for Wii, which obviously means Virtual Console. So there might be something brewing there and we hope very, very soon there will be something there," said Eggebrecht. "And in general, what we have working on internally is thinking about how to bring that into 3D. I mean, taking a close look certainly at Metroid -- at what these guys did. Taking a close look at other old franchises from the 2D days which were brought into the future. I don't think we're at a point yet where it's full-blown and we're one-hundred percent set in a direction and everybody on the team is certain that this is the way it should go, but we're making headway. It will come back. It's definitely coming back in the old incarnations -- don't worry about that. But I also think that we will bring it into the future pretty soon."

Does Eggebrecht have any final words for Nintendo fans anticipating the company's Wii project? You et.

"Whatever we're working on will at least blow you away in a lot of the technical aspects. We're really trying to do everything to squeeze the maximum out of the machine," he said. "I'm also hoping we're going to pay respect to what the console is all about, which is the innovation in terms of controls, in terms of accessibility, new experiences, things like that. We're really, really trying hard. I hope it's going to pay off. In terms of what we're working on; is it for third-party publishers, is it for a Nintendo first-party, what title is it? I won't give you a clue."

Lazy b'stard OkeyDokey LOL.

I like how they say they are going to out-do everything else, sounds like they are gonna make a AAA game.

Ooo mysterious, I'm certainly interested on what this might be.

Wicked--though what do you think he meant when he said that the engine was running even better on Wii than it was on PS3? Surely he didn't mean the graphics engine?

the people too lazy to click on links are the lazy bastards :)

sounds awsome, I guess we are gonna see what the Wii can really do...

Factor 5 can make a fortune licensing out a powerful wii engine for all the late/crappy developers who are trying to make a game on the wii. Cuts down a bit on the PS2 era graphics shovelware at least.

What I think he was saying is that the Wii engine does all of the same special effects at the PS3 engine. That does not mean it is pushing the same amount of polygons or that the effects and textures are of the same quality.