Blue section:

Don't brush aside the facts about Rare and Silicon Knights. With Nintendo, their games were excellent. Subtract Nintendo from the equation and the games of both have taken a notable PLUNGE in quality.

Don't you remember early screens of Metroid Prime which were given extremely negative press? After that, Nintendo cracked down on them, demanded their other project be cancelled, and that they focus all their resources toward MP.

This is a company Nintendo purchased because NINTENDO ITSELF saw the potential in them, and yet they still needed to pound some sense into them in order to get the desired results.

Nibris doesn't have the wise, time-hardened hand of Nintendo to guide it. This, coupled with the fact that you don't see Nintendo running out to buy their company because of the potential Nintendo sees in them and I see no reason why Nibris should be grouped into the same category with Retro, especially with Rare and SK floundering and failing without Nintendo's guidance.

Nirbis won't have Miyamoto there to tell them how to better manage their resources or that their game isn't up to snuff.

Green Section:

Unless Nibris has SERIOUSLY revised their earlier hype (which would be an excellent idea on their part) then Sadness doesn't compare to Braid because Braid is roughly a fifth as ambitious as Sadness.

Do you honestly think Sadness has been in development this whole time? Nibris didn't even acquire licensed dev status until somewhat recently, and if you're a programmer, you know what a horrible idea it is to write code without proper specs in hand.

So 20 hours of gameplay + 10 different endings + motion-based gameplay concepts + proper atmosphere = no big deal to you?

I don't know how to say this without coming off as being rude, but the development of a game with all of this, is a big fucking deal.

The last game that offered me 20 hours of gameplay that didn't drag and get boring was Twilight Princess, and it had a very linear story path, its motion controls were limited, it spent close to 5 years in development and had one of the very best and experienced teams creating it.

And while I liked it fine, many call it one of the worst Zeldas in the series.

It's criteria like this which makes any hope Sadness has of not being terrible statistically irrelevant.

Red Section:

Yeah, Nintendo isn't revoking developer licenses over this, but what's so illogical about suggesting that they don't like it?

Again, this is the company that told Miyamoto to cease discussing his HOBBIES for fear of having an idea stolen, and need I remind you that Nintendo hunts software pirates with an impressive viciousness.

Like I mentioned in my previous reply, they're quite sensitive about proprietary information.

SB, Twestern just completely debunked your dev kit theory. On top of that, Gnizmo is correct. The units are not labeled for resale. There is no first right to ownership or first-sale doctrine applicable (look it up).

As for the two issues you mentioned - piracy and the gag order on Miyamoto's hobbies - neither applies to this issue for the fact that both of those circumstances you mentioned are monetary circumstances. Both cost, or could cost, millions of dollars in revenue and profit while the public viewing of a Wii development kit of test kit does not have the same financial stigma.

As far as Nintendo directly saying anything about studios publicly showing their dev kits, it's more to the fact that they don't want devs/pubs releasing detailed information regarding them. If your kit happens to make an appearance during a video interview, big deal but don't go making it the focus of the interview.

>

...and this suggests that Sadness won't be terrible...how?

Look, about the devkit thing: I've emailed my Nintendo rep. Let's see what he says on the matter.

Now, on the subject at hand, Mr. Sean Malstrom has some advice for Nibris...

"I think a good lesson for a young developer today, or anyone in any endeavor, is to shun the ‘prestige’. All your attention and focus should go to the experience, to the game. There is this belief (probably from some marketing department) that constant interviews, constantly putting your face in front of a camera, and making ‘commentaries’ is necessary to properly ‘hype the game up’. What is hype but expectation? And when expectations are high, decent games can fall hard. I’ve seen hype destroy more games in a backlash than have built them up. But the major risk is that the developer begins to believe his own hype. When people are trying to interview you and you see your name and picture in headlines, you begin to be impressed with yourself. “Gosh, I am important.” And one’s attitude changes. As the attitude changes, so does the product. Instead of the developer being customer orientated, he or she becomes product orientated. What does this mean? For an example, the PS3 wasproduct orientated while the Wii was customer orientated."

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/thirst-for-prestige-shows-an-over-riped-industry/

Emphasis mine.

Also, on the subject of the video being fake, what stands out the most to me is the position of the NDEV on top of the TV: there's no good reason for the NDEV to be there. The NDEV has a number of cords which need to be connected directly to a PC and only 2 that need to be connected to a TV. Furthermore, the NDEV is in a precarious location where it could fall pretty easily.

No, this reeks to me of Nibris wanting to say "Hey, look, we have an NDEV!" due to the unnatural location of the unit itself. It ought to be either on a desk or sitting atop the PC it's connected to. Whether or not the video on the TV is real is anyone's guess.

There's also the fact that they're using the age-old trick of shooting off-screen video so it's hard to tell what's actually on the screen.

Then, there's the fact that I'm QUITE certain Nibris would know in a heartbeat who "snuck" this video as soon as they saw it and either sue them (if there was an NDA) or at least never invite them back again.

Really, unless they're parading busloads of students through their office, they should only have to say:

"Where was this shot from?"

"Looks like right here."

"Then it was _____ because _____ was standing right there the other day when I was demoing this!"

Really, all signs point to fake or intentionally done poorly to mask the game's graphical ugliness.

I guess it is still alive.

SB, do you not understand what "leaked footage" means? Do you honestly think they'd pass that off as "official footage"?

Do you have a personal or vested interest in seeing them fail or be proven fake because you're quite adamant for both while reaching deeply into conjecture to validate your claims.

1. These are the same guys who declared that they were a licensed Wii dev 2 YEARS before the fact, used art against the will of the artist as concept art for yet ANOTHER game on their laundry list they have in "development" and have otherwise spent this entire time jerking the Nintendo community around to hype a game which may not even see release.

Would I put it past these guys to pull a stunt like this in the interest of building hype? If they're willing to declare something concept art for a game when it, in fact, was just another piece in an artist's portfolio, why would I put ANYTHING past this ridiculous clownshow of a developer?

2. I want them to either shit or get off the pot, not string players along for another 3 years to an inevitable horrible disappointment. I'm sick of hearing about them and I'm even more sick of the fact that I've had news sites not post news I've sent them about up and coming indie devs because "We don't want to be suckered by another Nibris". It's one thing to be an assclown of a developer like Akklaim was, but it's entirely another to spread that negative perception to other developers because they fall under the general heading of "indie dev".

Nibris is like the bad fart in the room that won't dissipate. They need to either release a damn game and stop hyping it until they're within a month of release, or vanish like the Phantom and Starcraft Ghost before it.