Partnerships Page 2
Mobile 21
Future Potential: Unknown
Game Boy Advance was officialy announced on October 7, 1999 and along with the announcement, the news that a joint company between Konami and Nintendo would be formed to utilize the link-up abilities of the Game Boy Advance and GameCube. The new company, named Mobile 21, was created to develop exclusive content for the Nintendo GameCube that would also take advantage of the connection capability between Game Boy Advance. Initial staff members of Mobile 21 came from both Nintendo and Konami, totaling 70 in the end. Three years later and only a few obscure Game Boy Advance games have trickled out of the company.
What they are doing now is anyone's guess.
Camelot Software Planning
Future Potential: Excellent
Established in 1994, this highly talented development studio has created some of the most addictive titles in gaming history. Before partnering with Nintendo to produce Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, Camelot put together the Shining series on Sega Saturn and the popular Hot Shots Golf for PlayStation. The company is headed up by Hiroyuki Takahashi, President of Camelot, and his brother and Vice President, Syuogo Takahashi.
For GameCube, Camelot has planned Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, and even an RPG. In January of 2001, in an interview with Japan's 64 Dream magazine, Camelot Software Planning's Takahashi brothers said that as soon as they finished the Game Boy Advance RPG Golden Sun, they would commence work on a GameCube RPG.
Thanks to Camelot, excitement is guaranteed to fill the next few years of gaming.
Retro Studios
Future Potential: Excellent
Retro Studios was established on December 1, 1998 by Jeff Spangenberg in Austin, Texas. Nintendo funded the creation of a state-of-the-art facility for Retro Studios, which contained Austin's first local motion-capture equipment and in-house recording studio.
During the early days, Retro Studios went through some hard times. A lack of direction and leadership were to blame. On May 02, 2002, Nintendo announced its purchase of Retro Studios.
Nintendo purchased the remaining 55 million shares for a sum of $1 million. Previously Nintendo owned 15 million shares, a 21.4% stake in the company, with the majority ownership being held by Jeff Spangenberg.
Retro Studios, formerly owned by Spangenberg, became a wholly owned Nintendo subsidiary. Retro Studios had a number of games in development however all were tabled in order to divert full resources towards Metroid Prime.
The 40-member development recently completed work on Metroid Prime. It has been confirmed that a sequel to Metroid Prime is already underway.
If the quality of Metroid Prime is any indication, in the coming years Retro Studios is set to bloom into a vibrant game developer.
NDCube
Future Potential: Good
In February of 2000, Nintendo announced that they had entered a joint partnership with Japan's top advertising agency, Dentsu Inc., in order to form a new company that would focus on game development, primarily for the Game Boy Advance. NDCube is owned 78% in part by Nintendo, 13.3% by Dentsu, and 8.7% by various shareholders. NDCube developed the licensed F-Zero Advance for Game Boy Advance and the soon to be released Tube Sliders for GameCube. While Tube Slider will be published by NEC, it's been said that the game was originally intended to be F-Zero. The franchise was removed however, when Nintendo gave the license to Sega's Amusement Vision.
NDCube appears to be stagnant at the moment. Await game announcements for either Game Boy Advance or GameCube.
Brownie Brown
Future Potential: Poor
Headquartered in Tokyo, Brownie Brown (Named after brownies, the small fairies of Scottish folklore who work while people sleep), was established on June 30, 2000, by NCL with the intention of developing for the Game Boy Advance. Brownie Brown consists of ex-Square staffers (Kameoka Shinichi, Kouiji Tsuda, Tomoki Anazawa, and Noboyuki Inoue) who took part in the creation of the award-winning Secret of Mana. The talented group approached Nintendo after resigning their positions with Square Ltd. Nintendo has since provided additional staff, funding, as well as an NCL chairman to supervise the operations of Brownie Brown. Their first game for the Game Boy Advance released only in Japan was called Magical Vacation.
Magical Vaction was never released in North America. In December of 2003, Sword of Mana was released in North America. The game was developed by Brownie Brown in collaboration with Square Enix's Game Designers Studio and funded by Yamauchi's Q Fund.
It's speculated that Brownie Brown is developing a software title for GameCube. The support of its release by Nintendo of America would largely depend on the type of game it is.
Triforce
Future Potential: Good
Triforce is the next-generation arcade hardware conceived from a business alliance between Sega, Namco, and Nintendo. For a thorough look at this, read N-Sider.com's Triforce Profile.
Out of the Triforce announcement, Nintendo and Sega's Amusement Vision will collaborate to develop F-Zero video game titles for the Triforce arcade board and the Nintendo GameCube. While Amusement Vision will be responsible for the bulk of the game's development, Nintendo EAD execs including Shigeru Miyamoto, Takaya Imamura, and Isshin Shimizu, will take on leading roles.
In another Triforce software announcement on May 2002, Namco announced it would be working on a true update to the Starfox series tentatively called Starfox Armada.
Starfox Armada is being developed by the team behind the Ace Combat series which appeared on PlayStation and PlayStation 2. The project manager, Atsushi Shiozawa, who was responsible for Ace Combat 4 will be participating in the Starfox development.
The Triforce's potential is considered infinite, however continued development support remains to be seen.