Nintendo of America has confirmed that they are actually publishing Devil's Third for North America, to be released Q4 2015, both retail and digital. As well, it was announced that Valhalla Game Studios would be creating a PC port of the game that will be a "free-to-start" multiplayer mode tailored to the PC experience.

Source

You may be wondering why half of this is news, seeing as Devil's Third is launching next month in other major regions for the Wii U. Well for those that may not know, I've been following this very carefully from the first major rumor that Nintendo of America had no intention of bringing the game to North America themselves. The story goes a little bit like this:

On July 9th, Unseen64 Tamaki posted a video concerning the fact that Nintendo of America had decided to drop Devil's Third in North America. They mentioned that another publisher would likely pick it up, but they didn't know who. At the time, it was an unconfirmed report, little more than a rumor, that is until July 10th when Siliconera confirmed it. They informed their readers that a company familiar to them would be publishing the game instead. This information spread quickly and was met with a surprising amount of criticism. Believing these reports was relatively justified as well due to the fact that Nintendo:

- Didn't bring Devil's Third to E3 2015 despite highlighting it at E3 2014
- Hadn't gotten the game rated by the ESRB when other regions were announcing release dates
- Pulled Devil's Third from the future releases section of the eShop

Finally, on July 11th, two days after most people believed Devil's Third was dropped by Nintendo of America, and long after people had said more than their share of choice words regarding Nintendo's practices with mature titles, a Tweet was posted that contradicted all the information anybody had, but still failed to show any real commitment to the title. Then, once again, silence from everybody involved until July 15th, when preview impressions started rolling out. To keep it short, previews were far from favorable. Reactions largely did a total 180 compared to the upset before, with conversation shifting to just how bad the game seems to be rather than how terrible Nintendo of America was for potentially handing the game off to a different publisher.

To top things off, there was one more report on July 15th that said Nintendo was torn between publishing the game or letting XSEED publish it instead, apparently due to all the backlash from people during those first two days of information spreading. Most of it was a reasonable assumption at worst, but it did line up nicely with the Siliconera report. It didn't quite ignite the fury of others that the initial reports did, likely due to the negative preview buzz that had already made the rounds, but it still left some reasonable doubt that perhaps Nintendo of America really was backing out.

Now, on July 20th, after nine days of silence from Nintendo of America, they've confirmed the game is coming to North America, despite all the amazingly bad press the game has gotten from previewers. The nonspecific release date indicates that they weren't at all prepared to publish and distribute this game, made all the more obvious when you consider that the Japanese and European releases are coming in August. With that said, it can be safely assumed all the information on this roller coaster of a journey has been entirely accurate. Whether Nintendo of America made the right choice or not, it's hard to say.

To give some idea of how other Nintendo branches are treating this game:
Nintendo of Europe didn't push for the regular language options, instead only securing English and French.
Nintendo of Japan is exclusively distributing the game through Amazon.

It's clear that no Nintendo branch is confident in the game, which makes it all the more interesting that Nintendo of America has opted to publish the game at all.

Overall, this has been very interesting to watch unfold. Even if the game ends up being a total flop, at least it has made for an entertaining story this past week and a half.

 

[RevPokemon]

Heh who cares at this point? It's gotten into that Duke Nukem kinda feel of all the delays and changes.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Can't wait for Jim Sterling and Zero Punctuation to skin Devil's Third. lol

Itagaki shouldn't have butt in with his damage control now his reputation is partially damaged as he's no longer that reliable. Anyway, the DoA series has lost its charm ever since 5.

 

[RevPokemon]

Can't wait for Jim Sterling and Zero Punctuation to skin Devil's Third. lol

Itagaki shouldn't have butt in with his damage control now his reputation is partially damaged as he's no longer that reliable. Anyway, the DoA series has lost its charm ever since 5.

Hell many great designers have made a bad game but still I doubt his reputation will be tarnished when this game was dead on arrival since Nintendo got the rights for it and he has done other things that would hurt it.

 

[Nathan Drake]

I opted to leave the Itagaki bits out, but he really has not helped at all. A lot of what he has said gives the impression that he has barely been a part of the development process of the game. I think the worst part was when he told people the game had been improved from E3 2014 in a big way, then previewers actually got the game and discovered he was lying.

Hell many great designers have made a bad game but still I doubt his reputation will be tarnished when this game was dead on arrival since Nintendo got the rights for it and he has done other things that would hurt it.

Oh, maybe you haven't seen his form of damage control, which is more just him being upset that people don't like his game.

He claims that Devil's Third uses all of the Wii U's power and runs at a stable 30 FPS. Let's not forget this gem:

At some point he also claimed that the game had been vastly improved since E3 2014 before previewers had a chance to share their thoughts about the game. Instead people saw a product that showed no improvement, much less anything significant. If you Google him related to Devil's Third, he has handled this situation horribly and would have been far better off remaining silent. At best he just comes across as silly, and at worst he comes across as a highly unprofessional liar.

 

[RevPokemon]

I opted to leave the Itagaki bits out, but he really has not helped at all. A lot of what he has said gives the impression that he has barely been a part of the development process of the game. I think the worst part was when he told people the game had been improved from E3 2014 in a big way, then previewers actually got the game and discovered he was lying.

Oh, maybe you haven't seen his form of damage control, which is more just him being upset that people don't like his game.

He claims that Devil's Third uses all of the Wii U's power and runs at a stable 30 FPS. Let's not forget this gem:

At some point he also claimed that the game had been vastly improved since E3 2014 before previewers had a chance to share their thoughts about the game. Instead people saw a product that showed no improvement, much less anything significant. If you Google him related to Devil's Third, he has handled this situation horribly and would have been far better off remaining silent. At best he just comes across as silly, and at worst he comes across as a highly unprofessional liar.

I know but IMO the game isn't hurting his legacy his attitude of acting like a prick about if is what is hurting him (by god he is the video game dev form of Trump!)

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Moral of the story is 3rd Party Wii U exclusives will always go multi-plat.

 

[RevPokemon]

Moral of the story is 3rd Party Wii U exclusives will always go multi-plat.

Well it was that way with the wii too with no more heroes, NBA jam, and a few other games too

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Moral of the story is 3rd Party Wii U exclusives will always go multi-plat.

Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101 need to go multiplat too.

Even that piece of shit that is ZombiU is getting a re-release on PS4 and Xbox One as it seems.

 

[RevPokemon]

Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101 need to go multiplat too.

I doubt 101 probably could never happen due to the rights Nintendo has on it, at best you could get would be a spiritual successor platinum games.

B2 also would never happen since it was only really made thanks to Nintendo and its creator says its up to Nintendo which is suicide to B2 on PS4.

Anyway I agree I would love for Lego city undercover on PC, 4k with expansions and dlc and new levels but that ain't happening

 

[WiiCube_2013]

I doubt 101 probably could never happen due to the rights Nintendo has on it, at best you could get would be a spiritual successor platinum games.

B2 also would never happen since it was only really made thanks to Nintendo and its creator says its up to Nintendo which is suicide to B2 on PS4.

Anyway I agree I would love for Lego city undercover on PC, 4k with expansions and dlc and new levels but that ain't happening

Bayonetta 2 was funded by Nintendo but wouldn't it be a better idea to release on other platforms that actually sell? I dunno, it's just an idea.

 

[RevPokemon]

Bayonetta 2 was funded by Nintendo but wouldn't it be a better idea to release on other platforms that actually sell? I dunno, it's just an idea.

It would be but the issue would be if Nintendo had rights for the game which would stop a port. I mean it's a good idea just not likely to happen since Nintendo doesn't want their games(or games they have rights on) to be on other consoles.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

It would be but the issue would be if Nintendo had rights for the game which would stop a port. I mean it's a good idea just not likely to happen since Nintendo doesn't want their games(or games they have rights on) to be on other consoles.

They didn't start the Bayonetta franchise so what they did was fund it but if they'd really want to support it, they should make it multiplat. Maybe the new Nintendo will do as such or they'll unfortunately stick to the Iwataisms.

 

[RevPokemon]

They didn't start the Bayonetta franchise so what they did was fund it but if they'd really want to support it, they should make it multiplat. Maybe the new Nintendo will do as such or they'll unfortunately stick to the Iwataisms.

Well the franchise could be multiple plat but this specific game , Nintendo has some rights on. Ultimately sure a multiple plat would be good for the Franchise but for B2 it would be retarded for Nintendo to let B2 on other platforms as it takes away business from them (remember how MS/Rare refuses to let old Rare/Nintendo games on Vc? Kinda the situation with B2 is like that)

 

[grossaffe]

I think people are really diluting the Duke Nukem Forever development time reference. 5 years of development or whatever is nowhere approaching Duke's 15 year development.

 

[Hells Malice]

Never heard of it before, just watched some gameplay and it looks pretty awful.

They didn't start the Bayonetta franchise so what they did was fund it but if they'd really want to support it, they should make it multiplat. Maybe the new Nintendo will do as such or they'll unfortunately stick to the Iwataisms.

Why would they fund a game to sell on other consoles? That's fucking stupid. They did it to finally get a good game people might want a Wii U for.

 

[Foxi4]

Why would they fund a game to sell on other consoles? That's fucking stupid. They did it to finally get a good game people might want a Wii U for.

Shame that they picked a niche game that didn't even sell well on consoles that were successful, I'm not quite sure if their faith was well-placed.

As for Devil's Third, I may pick it up for the Wii U, but primarily because there's nothing else coming out for the system, not because I'm terribly interested. This game has the aura of "The Conduit", AKA "look, we have mature games too!", and that usually means that the product in question is competently made, but ultimately unoriginal and boring.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Why would they fund a game to sell on other consoles? That's fucking stupid. They did it to finally get a good game people might want a Wii U for.

Didn't Bayonetta 2 not really sell all that much as they hoped for? Just make it multiplat and it'll sell a whole lot more. B2 is a game I'd like to see on other consoles instead of just the usual HD remaster this and that.

 

[RevPokemon]

Didn't Bayonetta 2 not really sell all that much as they hoped for? Just make it multiplat and it'll sell a whole lot more. B2 is a game I'd like to see on other consoles instead of just the usual HD remaster this and that.

To be honest that does not matter at all when Nintendo does not want a game they have rights on to appear on a competitor's console which makes perfect sense.

 

[Captain_N]

lol yeah ...uses All the Wii U's power my ass. I could write a for loop that runs the cpu cores at 100%