Is Kojima Productions About to be Given the Keys to the Silent Hill Franchise?
Will KojiPro be enough to fill the hole?
Several months ago long-time Metal Gear director, Hideo Kojima, mentioned that it would be interesting to work on a Silent Hill game, a seemingly throw-away comment that was immediately disregarded by all but the most retardedly optimistic Silent Hill fanboys, on account of the fact that Kojima has been unsuccessfully attempting to flee the Metal Gear franchise for years now, all to no avail. This week however Kojima has revealed that after making his previous comments about the Silent Hill series he actually received a call from Konami’s president expressing interest in seeing Kojima Productions attempt to rehabilitate the ailing franchise.
“In the past I’ve mentioned Silent Hill in interviews, and as a result of that the president of Konami rung me up and said he’d like me to make the next Silent Hill. Honestly I’m kind of a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror movies, so I’m not confident I can do it. At the same time, there’s a certain type of horror that only people who are scared of can create, so maybe it’s something I can do. That said, I think Silent Hill has a certain atmosphere. I think it has to continue, and I’d love to help it continue, and if I can help it by supervising or lending the technology of the Fox engine, then I’d love to participate in that respect.”
This prospect has been met with unmitigated hope by many, yet has also been greeted with scepticism by some who think that Kojima’s storytelling methods are too unsubtle for the Silent Hill series. It stands to be said that Kojima’s reverence for genre film is such that he could potentially pull off a successful horror project through his keen eye for detail; and it is not as though he could actually leave the franchise in a worse state than when he found it. Moreover, something that appears to be lost on Kojima’s detractors is that he is not even likely to helm the project.
Hideo Kojima currently has the director of Silent Hill 3, Kazuhide Nakazawa, and the drama-director of Silent Hill 2 and director and scenario writer of Silent Hill 4, Suguru Murakoshi, working under him at Kojima Productions. Meanwhile the co-writer of Silent Hill and scenario writer for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, Hiroyuki Owaku, is currently being poorly misused by Konami, being made to write scenarios for school girl oriented phone apps; so he would more than likely be grateful for a promotion to Kojima Productions. That being said, Kojima may simply be alluding to the fact that he will just rubber-stamp the next Silent Hill game in much the same way as he did for the Castlevania series, in which case his involvement will be essentially meaningless.
Nintendo Is Attempting to Drive Wii U Demand Through Artificial Scarcity
Is history about to repeat itself?
Nintendo’s Wii U console has only been available to pre-order for a few short weeks, yet in that time we first saw Gamestop close pre-orders for the basic package, followed shortly thereafter by the same for the premium console bundle – forcing consumers to sign on to a waiting list if they wish to purchase a Wii U. Nintendo fanboys have been pointing to this state of affairs as proof that there is a high demand for the Wii U, yet more seasoned thinkers have this week speculated that Nintendo has deliberately stymied the number of consoles that will be available at the system’s launch in order to create the perception that the system is in high demand, which will in turn increase consumer demand for the hardware. If consumers begin to view the Wii U stock as a finite resource which, once found, might not be easily tracked down again, then they will be quicker to make an impulse purchase, and less inclined to rationally consider the system’s price-point.
The dated hardware of Nintendo’s newest console has had (and will have) ample time to produce a surfeit of units for launch, meaning that supply is being deliberately restricted in an effort to ensure that retail outlets do not have much in the way of Wii U stock beyond that which can be seen on shelves. Interest in the console was middling-to-low before pre-orders were opened up, so there is little reason to think that the Wii U being “sold out!!!” really constitutes much in the way of explosive sales.
In fact it is quite likely that Nintendo started by initially allocating several hundred thousand consoles to large retail chains, and will then release more to them on a weekly basis, at which point interested parties will gradually be allocated a console from a waiting list. It is anyone’s guess as to whether this method will pay off once again for Nintendo, yet it does seem a little bit dubious as to whether the tablet controller will be able to capture public attention in quite the same way as their obnoxious waggle-mote was able to do for the Wii. That said, all it takes is for Oprah to open her awful mouth for the unit to take on a life of its own.
Notch Is Refusing to Have Minecraft Certified for Sale on Windows 8
Notch and Valve stand together on this issue.
Open operating system proponent and Minecraft developer, Markuss ‘Notch’ Persson, has this week made news by refusing Microsoft’s offer to assist him in getting Minecraft certified for Windows 8. In previous weeks Notch has joined Gabe Newell in decrying Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 8 operating system due to the fact that it seeks to put fetters on the openness of the Windows OS environment, largely, one suspects, due to Microsoft’s hunger to seize hold of a steady stream of licensing fees.
The story broke over Twitter, with Notch tweeting: “Got an email from Microsoft, wanting to help ‘certify’ Minecraft for Win 8. I told them to stop trying to ruin the PC as an open platform .. I’d rather have Minecraft not run on Win 8 at all than to play along. Maybe we can convince a few people not to switch to Win 8 that way.”
Reaction to Notch and Gabe’s stand against Windows 8 seems rather mixed at present, with some gamers harbouring concerns for the operating system while others are mocking vocal opponents like Notch for being hysterical drama queens. At any rate, one worries that history will ultimately see these principled naysayers vindicated, and wonders what will happen to the PC gaming ecosystem when Microsoft is charging $40,000 to certify a patch.
