Nintendo Announces New Development Studio
Posted on 18. Feb, 2009 by hiphopgamer in Real Talk with the HipHopGamer
Nintendo has announced the formation of a new development outfit, known as Project Sora, and has spoke of a “special project” currently underway.
Sora will be headed up by Masahiro Sakurai, the lead designer of Super Smash Bros Brawl and the man behind Nintendo’s Kirby.
According to a translation from news site Andriasang, the Nintendo subsidiary is located in Tokyo’s Idabashi district, and had officially formed on January 22. Reports claim that the studio will have a group of thirty, and the capital of just over $2 million, of which Nintendo has provided around 72 percent of that sum.
Sora’s new website states that “the thoughts of game designer Masahiro Sakurai and Nintendo have become one, and a new project has started. In order to expand what can be offered to the world through games, we will have Nintendo’s full cooperation and make something that Nintendo could not do on its own.”
In regards to Project Sora’s new title, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says it will not be a Smash Bros game, but “a new experiment, both for Mr. Sakurai and for Nintendo.”
“We’ve started a special project,” adds Sakurai. “We’re not sure how it will sell or if it will be accepted. Our goal is not just to make a single game. We can promise that you’ll be able to experience something different.”
The development outfit is currently hiring, though it is unclear if this is to fill the developer’s proposed thirty-man capacity or to spread it outwards.
Edge reported last week that Nintendo had spent some $141 million on a 40K-square-meter lot that will be home to a new R&D facility. It is not precisely clear if the Idabashi studio is the outcome of that investment.
Neither Nintendo or Sora clarified which platform the new studio will be working on.
SOURCE – http://www.edge-online.com/news/nintendo-announces-new-development-studio
