Late Night Consoling

During a Game Developer Conference session entitled "Punk is Not Dead," Grasshopper Manufacture founder and Killer7 (PS2, GCN) director Goichi Suda spoke on his personal design goals, the importance of working with good producers when developing risky games, and the past and future of his studio. Suda stated that he currently has three games planned for development on Wii. The first, an sword-centric open-world action game entitled No More Heroes, is expected to be released this year. Late last year, it was revealed that Grasshopper has "another secret Wii title" in development. No details were divulged regarding the third Wii project mentioned today. Speaking to sources close to major publishers, Shacknews learned during the Game Developers Conference that Grasshopper is currently in talks with publishers over at least one of its unannounced projects.

Suda also announced that Grasshopper's first game, a PlayStation adventure game entitled The Silver Case and released only in Japan in 1999, is being ported to Nintendo DS along with a previously mobile phone-only followup to the game entitled The Silver Case "Ward 25." There are not yet any confirmed plans for North American or European localizations of The Silver Case, though Suda expressed his hope that Western releases would occur. The designer has on many occasions noted his desire to appeal to Western markets; Killer7 saw greater critical and commercial success in the Western world than in Japan, and Suda has stated that No More Heroes is intended to further appeal to Western audiences.

IGN reports Warhawk (PS3) director Dylan Jobe mentioned the possibility of a public beta for Incognito's upcoming multiplayer-only offering. Elaborating, Jobe believes an open beta would both expand the game's appeal and help the studio in stress-testing servers. Warhawk is currently set for a fall 2007 release.

During a postmortem presentation on the PSP's cheery LocoRoco, director Tsutomu Kuono dropped several hints about a theoretical sequel that seemed to indicate a PlayStation 3 version is in the works. According to Kuono, his hopes for a new LocoRoco involve more advanced artificial intelligence, use of physics-based calculations and a new control method. Unfortunately, Kuono could not say if this was indeed a reference to the PS3's motion-sensitive Sixaxis controller.

Earlier this week, Sony released a screenshot of PlayStation Home that also suggested LocoRoco was on its way to the PS3, with a LocoRoco display appearing alongside other PS3 games like Guerrilla Games's Killzone and thatgamecompany's flOw.

The Behemoth's Dan Paladin revealed to Joystiq that the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade beat 'em up Castle Crashers has "about a year of development left," leaving little hope for a 2007 release. Paladin went on to explain that Microsoft's recent loosening of size restrictions on Xbox Live Arcade games inspired the studio to add even more content for its sophomore XBLA effort. The Behemoth's first XBLA game, Alien Hominid HD, was released just last week on February 28.

BusinessWeek let it slip that Mercenaries 2: World in Flames developer Pandemic Studios is also working on a Wii title that "could attract younger players." Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman went on to state that, before the Wii, the video game industry lacked the innovative experience of platforms like MySpace, adding that "the Wii does something new, and draws people back in."

The first map pack for Capcom's Xbox 360 shooter Lost Planet is now available from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Including two maps, Radar Field and Island 902, the set sells for 400 Microsoft Points ($5).

1UP has a summary of director Eiji Aonuma's interesting discussion on the evolution of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

That Game Company discusses how flOw almost ended up on Wii over at Joystiq.