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Company: Nintendo
subdirectory_arrow_right Namco (Company), Monolith Soft (Company)
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Monolith Soft was originally owned by Namco, but their relationship took a negative turn after Masaya Nakamura stepped down as president of Namco in 2002, three years prior to the company's merger with Bandai. As the company underwent changes, Monolith Soft felt that they were being given less creative freedom due to the newly-created Bandai Namco being less willing to take creative risks. They received consultation from Nintendo executive director Shinji Hatano, who advised them to continue making innovative projects. This inspired Monolith Soft to break away from Bandai Namco in favor of becoming a Nintendo subsidiary: Monolith Soft was allowed creative freedom in exchange for developing software exclusively for Nintendo platforms.

Initially, Nintendo had acquired an 80% share of the company, while Bandai Namco retained 16% of the company and remained as a development partner in part to strengthen their relationship with Nintendo. The remaining 4% was divided between the company's founders: Tetsuya Takahashi, Hirohide Sugiura, and Yasuyuki Honne. However, by April 2011, Nintendo had acquired the remaining 400 shares from Bandai Namco, granting them 96% ownership of Monolith Soft. The acquisition as a whole was notable for contrasting Nintendo's previous approach of not taking part in mergers and acquisitions of other companies. In a statement on the matter, former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated:

"When we say we do not do M&A, there are always exceptions, so let me explain about it. We have never said that we will never do M&A in any situation. Actually, we are not against M&A if Nintendo can absorb the real value of the company. However, in most cases, the value of software developing companies is attached to its people, not the company, which is merely a vessel for its people. So, when we purchase a company, we can purchase the vessel, but we cannot necessarily purchase the contents. Even if we should compete with others to purchase a software company, although we might be able to increase the sheer number of our developers and to gain a short-term result, we do not think it will do good for us in the long run. We have been repeatedly saying that we will not do that kind of M&A.
In the case of Monolith Software, Mr. Sugiura, the president, and Nintendo have a long-term relationship. How Mr. Sugiura thinks is close to how Nintendo thinks. The software Mr. Sugiura would like to create is in line with what Nintendo would like to have for its platform. So, we thought that Nintendo should support this idea, and we decided to take action.
If certain conditions are met, we may do the same thing in the future (M&A). However, we will be very careful and selective, so that we will only partner with people with whom Nintendo can create a long-term working relationship."
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, General, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month February 29, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Kameo: Elements of Power
Kameo: Elements of Power (2005)
subdirectory_arrow_right Kameo: Elements of Power (Game)
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Attachment In its early stages, when it was a GameCube title being published by Nintendo, Kameo was meant to be a Pokémon-style game where the player could collect hundreds of baby creatures and nurture them to adulthood, utilizing their unique abilities. However, when the game's development was shuffled over to the Xbox platform as a result of Microsoft's purchase of Rare in late 2002, it was decided somewhere along the way to retool the game in an attempt to make it fit the new Xbox demographic, removing the Pokémon aspect and repurposing some of the monsters as additional forms that the protagonist Kameo could take on. In light of this, Rare had also attempted to disguise the fact that Kameo herself was a fairy, as they felt that fairies were too soft for the Xbox demographic, by repositioning her as more of an elf.

It was a direction that creative director George Andreas felt was fruitless in hindsight, and he ultimately now believes that the game should have just been scrapped entirely.
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Acquisition, Development, Early Idea, Inspiration
person Dinoman96 calendar_month January 27, 2024
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Footage of GCN Kameo showcasing the Pokemon-esque mechanics:
https://youtu.be/juVEpxhUk-Q?t=11

Retro Gamer interview with Phil Tossell:
https://issuu.com/roylazarovich/docs/retro_gamer_122

Eurogamer article on Andreas lamenting over Kameo:
https://www.eurogamer.net/rare-we-should-have-scrapped-kameo
Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories
Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (2018)
subdirectory_arrow_right Steambot Chronicles (Game), Poncotsu Roman Daikatsugeki Bumpy Trot 2 (Game), Irem Software Engineering Co. (Company), Granzella (Company), Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (Collection)
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In the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Irem Software Engineering was forced to cancel the majority of its video game projects, most notably Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories and a sequel to Steambot Chronicles titled "Poncotsu Roman Daikatsugeki Bumpy Trot 2". They then refocused their resources into the slot-machine and pachinko industry, which they were initially a part of prior to becoming a video game company. This lead numerous Irem designers (including producer Kazuma Kujo) to form a new company called Granzella to continue creating video games: notably, they acquired the IP rights to the Disaster Report series and revived Disaster Report 4. Additionally, while no longer involved in the development or release of new games, Irem is still involved in the games industry via licensing their IPs to other companies.
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Acquisition, Cancelled Release, Copyright, Corporate Affairs, Development, General, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month January 6, 2024
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Star Fox Adventures
Star Fox Adventures (2002)
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Attachment In an interview with Phil Tossell (the lead software engineer for Star Fox Adventures) within an issue of Retro Gamer, he admitted the development team thought the game may have never actually even been released because of the impending Microsoft buyout.
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Acquisition, Development, General
person Dinoman96 calendar_month December 19, 2023
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Taiko no Tatsujin Arcade
Taiko no Tatsujin Arcade (2001)
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On April Fools Day, 2021, Taiko no Tatsujin's Twitter Account posted a QR Code, along with a foreboding conversation between Don-Chan and Ka-Chan. By scanning this QR Code on a compatible Arcade Cabinet, the unique song "彁" (pronounced "Ka") by composer LeaF is unlocked. A harder Hidden Oni difficulty was distributed via QR Code the next year on the same day. The song is notable for a few reasons:

• "彁" is currently the only song in the game that is unlocked through scanning a QR Code; all other Codes provide cosmetic options for Don-Chan. Likewise, the song is added to a genre folder separate from the rest of the game's music, labeled as "Hidden Data", with the subtitle translating to "That's No Good".

• The name of the song technically does not exist. "彁" is a "Ghost Character", a character that exists in Unicode, but does not anywhere else. While other Ghost Characters have some sort of explanation for their existence, "彁" has no definitive source. Its pronounciation of "Ka" was provided by LeaF herself, as the character otherwise has none.

• Upon selecting the song's Hidden Oni chart, a unique transition effect plays with glitchy effects. No other song in the game has a unique animation for going from Oni to Hidden Oni difficulty.

• The Hidden Oni Chart is considered one of the hardest songs in the series. This is attributed to a heavy utilization of multiple scrolling speeds and polyrhythmic patterns. Only one individual is known to have full comboed it when it first debuted.
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Acquisition, April Fools, Bonus Content, Difficulty, Etymology, Music
person aa1205 calendar_month December 15, 2023
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Yakuza 5
Yakuza 5 (2012)
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The Tsukimono area in Yakuza 5 features an ice sculpture of Hatsune Miku, a virtual idol likeness owned by Crypton Future Media and licensed out to Sega for video game appearences. Although this might be coincidental rather than an intentional reference, Crypton is located in Sapporo, the same city as Tsukimono.
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Acquisition, Adaptation, Cameo, Character Design, Coincidence, Easter Egg, Mascot
person Kirby Inhales Jotaro calendar_month November 27, 2023
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Neopets Browser
Neopets Browser (1999)
subdirectory_arrow_right World of Neopia, Inc. (Company)
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On July 17, 2023, Neopets was purchased from NetDragon through a management buyout deal by Dominic Law, the Neopets Chief Metaverse Officer and former Director of New Markets at both NetDragon and Cherrypicks. This lead to the formation of "World of Neopia, Inc.", a company comprised of team members from both Neopets and Neopets Metaverse, with Law serving as CEO. As part of this, it was announced that Neopets had received $4 million in investment money in early 2023, with additional funding from the management buyout equipping World of Neopia, Inc. to make "meaningful changes in pursuit of a Neopian renaissance." These changes include revamping the homepage and creating the 2024 mobile game "World of Neopets".
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, Development, General, Real Life, Website
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month November 24, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Company: Atari SA
subdirectory_arrow_right Infogrames Entertainment SA (Company)
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Attachment In 2001, Infogrames Entertainment SA produced a corporate anthem entitled "Infogrames Rocks My World", which was used at industry events starting with E3 2001 as part of a heavy marketing push to promote their slate of IPs after a series of acquisitions throughout the 1990s. According to YouTuber Larry Bundy Jr. during a video researching the development and release controversies surrounding the game Driv3r, Infogrames' public relations division reportedly spent $50,000 creating the song, but due to the song being relentlessly mocked following its reveal, everyone involved with the song's production was reportedly fired. While Bundy also claimed that the song was first leaked to the Internet by a disgruntled Driv3r developer in 2004, the song was actually distributed by Infogrames to other gaming news outlets as part of digital press kits. The earliest known upload of the song appears to be by software developer Phil Bak to his personal website sometime during or immediately after E3 2001 in May, and the earliest known surviving upload is through a 2001 IGN article covering Infogrames' Gamers' Day press event in August. The song was later uploaded to ZDNET in 2002 on a special article ranking it at #9 on a list of their Top 20 Corporate IT Anthems.
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Acquisition, Advertisement/Commercial, Corporate Affairs, Music, Rumor, Trade Show
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month November 21, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Infogrames Entertainment SA's PR department - "Infogrames Rocks My World":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEQOv2g0JA#t=1041

Larry Bundy Jr. video on Driv3r development and release controversies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEQOv2g0JA

3000 AD forum post of the Phil Bak link to the song days after E3 2001:
https://www.3000ad.com/forum/topic/7001147-infogrames-e3-theme-song/

2001 IGN article and embedded link to the song:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/08/08/infogrames-state-of-the-union-at-gamers-day
https://pcmedia.ign.com/media/news/sound/infogrames.mp3

2002 ZDNET Top 20 IT Anthems archived article:
https://web.archive.org/web/20021004141104/http://www.zdnet.co.uk/specials/2002/it-anthems/
Elf Bowling 1 & 2
Elf Bowling 1 & 2 (2005)
subdirectory_arrow_right Blockdot (Company), NStorm, Inc. (Company), Elf Bowling (Collection)
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The Elf Bowling series has been the subject of multiple bizarre and unprofessional Wikipedia edits by individuals involved with the franchise, something considered poor conduct on the website.

Elf Bowling co-creator Dan "Ferg" Ferguson created a Wikipedia article under the name "Itzaferg" and inserted self-aggrandizing information about his history with the franchise to its page, as well as adding articles that were soon deleted for his company Blockdot and its lesser known, non-Elf Bowling works.

After this, Matthew Lichtenwalter, who bought the rights to Elf Bowling in 2001, attempted to claim that the portable compilation, Elf Bowling 1 & 2 was "unauthorized" using Wikipedia as a platform, writing a signed quote from himself on the Wikipedia mainpage for Elf Bowling, as well as saying that he "created the series [after]" he bought it out.

"The DS and GBA versions were not approved or authorized by NStorm and were extremely poor copies of the code and art by original creators Ferguson and Bielinski. Myself, along with millions of fans all over the world loved the original artwork of Ferguson in all its pixelized glory and this unauthorized release caused sever [sic] harm to the brand that took several years to recover from." ~ Matthew Lichtenwalter, Commotion Interactive

It seems highly unlikely that the Elf Bowling ports were actually unauthorized, as no legal action was taken, nor did any of the developers or publishers of the release attempt to hide their work on it at any point.
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Acquisition, Copyright, Corporate Affairs, Plagiarism, Social Media, Website
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 18, 2023
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Bomb Jack II
Bomb Jack II (1986)
subdirectory_arrow_right ThunderCats: The Lost Eye of Thundera (Game), Beyond the Ice Palace (Game), ThunderCats (Franchise), Ghosts 'n Goblins (Franchise), Paradise Software (Company), FTL Games (Company)
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Attachment When Elite Software obtained the license to make a video game based on the ThunderCats cartoon, they were unsure if they would be able to complete the game in time for Christmas, and as such outsourced a second ThunderCats game to Paradise Software. Neither game could be finished before the deadline, and as such Elite instead attained the rights to a near-finished game titled Samurai Dawn by FTL Games and released it as ThunderCats: The Lost Eye of Thundera.

Elite's in-house ThunderCats game got pitched to Capcom as a sequel to Ghosts 'n Goblins, but was not picked up due to Ghouls 'n Ghosts being in development at the time. It would be released as an original IP, simply titled Beyond the Ice Palace, featuring a character who in certain versions of the game resembles Lion-O.

Paradise Software's ThunderCats game remains shrouded in mystery, but it seems incredibly likely that the game was released as Bomb Jack II, owing to the C64 version of the game including a rendition of the ThunderCats theme song (stolen music being somewhat of a tradition for the Bomb Jack franchise), not featuring any bombs, and having a protagonist that more closely resembles Lion-O than Bomb Jack.
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Acquisition, Adaptation, Cancelled Release, Character Design, Crunch/Overwork, Plagiarism, Reskin, Theory, Unreleased Content, Unsolved Mystery, Unused Character
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 16, 2023
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Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man (1982)
subdirectory_arrow_right Pac 'n Roll (Game), Pac-Land (Game), Pac-Man Museum+ (Game), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Game), Pac-Man World Re-Pac (Game), Pac-Man (Franchise), General Computer Corporation (GCC) (Company), AtGames (Company), Ms. Pac-Man (Collection)
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Attachment In 2019, AtGames, a company specializing in replica microconsoles containing compilations of retro or retro-styled games, acquired a portion of the rights to Ms. Pac-Man from General Computer Corporation, the company that made the original Ms. Pac-Man game for Midway and Namco - this led to a lawsuit over the IP, with an undisclosed turnout. After this, Ms. Pac-Man would begin to disappear from Pac-Man games, implying that AtGames won the case, with Ms. Pac being replaced by a character named Pac-Mom, who has a visual design resembling Ms. Pac-Man's mother from Pac 'N Roll.

Pac-Mom first appeared in the Arcade Archives release of Pac-Land through graphical modification to the original ROM, and would then be named for the first time in Pac-Man Museum+ alongside modifications to other games that originally featured Ms. Pac-Man such as Pac-in-Time, and would appear again in Pac-Man World: Re-Pac in place of Ms. Pac-Man.

Ms. Pac-Man's final appearance in an original title would be on the Pac-Land stage in 2018's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
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Acquisition, Character Design, Corporate Affairs, Legal Affairs, Name Change, Unused Character, Version Difference
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 15, 2023
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Banjo-Pilot
Banjo-Pilot (2005)
subdirectory_arrow_right Diddy Kong Pilot (Game)
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Attachment Expresso the Ostrich from Donkey Kong Country appears as a cameo in Banjo-Pilot - this seems to be an accidental leftover from the game's cancelled iteration as Diddy Kong Pilot, as Nintendo is not mentioned whatsoever in the copyright info for Banjo-Pilot beyond simply licensing the game for its platforms.
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Acquisition, Cameo, Cancelled Release, Leftover, Mistake, Reskin
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 8, 2023
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Tank
Tank (1974)
subdirectory_arrow_right Kee Games (Company), Atari (Company)
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Attachment Most geographic areas had two arcade video game distributors in the 1970s. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell tried to sign exclusive deals with as many of these distributors as possible, and then got his neighbor, Joe Keenan, to run a second studio known as Kee Games (named after Keenan, who led the company), which would sign an exclusive deal with the other distributor in the area, selling clones of Atari games with minor alterations. Bushnell would then move Atari workers into Kee Games - to avoid signaling that Kee has ties to Atari, Nolan Bushnell would release a fake press release condemning Kee for supposedly stealing staff. Eventually, Kee would release its first unique game, Tank!, which proved to be more popular than any of Atari's original games at the time, leading Kee to be officially merged into Atari in 1974 as Atari no longer needed exclusivity deals. Kee Games would be closed by Warner Telecommunications in 1978.
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, Hoax
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 4, 2023
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GameDeveloper article on the history of Atari:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-history-of-atari-1971-1977

Everything2 entry on Kee Games:
https://everything2.com/title/Kee+Games
Star Fox Adventures
Star Fox Adventures (2002)
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Attachment Star Fox Adventures features many smaller, transitional puzzle areas between the main areas, obviously a way for the game to mask loading times to create the illusion of a seamless world. This is primarily noticeable on the mainland Dinosaur Planet itself.

One of these transitional areas, within CloudRunner Fortress, was cut between the E3 2002 kiosk and the final game, presumably because of time constraints with the impending Microsoft buyout in September 2002. It was meant to bridge the top CloudRunner Fortress map with the area where Fox would have to race against the SharpClaws on the jetbikes to acquire the area's SpellStone. Fox would enter by climbing down a series of ladders and then run through a storage room of some kind with conveyor belts, and then from there he'd encounter General Scales and some SharpClaw who are trying to steal the SpellStone.

This was scrapped in the final game, where Fox instead falls down a long ladder through a cutscene and, then after cutting to black, is then rather awkwardly plopped right in the middle of the room prior to where he encounters General Scales and the SharpClaw.
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, Demo, Development, Early Idea, Unused Content
person Dinoman96 calendar_month November 2, 2023
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The scrapped transitional area seen the E3 2002 kiosk: https://youtu.be/u8AR70WOTnY?t=1137

The final game where Fox instead enters cutscene hell: https://youtu.be/6MSye_MvghQ?t=1
Star Fox Adventures
Star Fox Adventures (2002)
subdirectory_arrow_right Dinosaur Planet (Game)
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Attachment DarkIce Mines, the first SpellStone area in Star Fox Adventures, was another area that was more complex in design in earlier iterations of the game than in comparison to the final release. The leaked December 2000 build of Dinosaur Planet showed that DarkIce Mines was meant to have an extra set of puzzle rooms on the right side of the map that would wound up connecting back to the waterfall room. These extra areas were also present in the E3 2002 kiosk for Star Fox Adventures, suggesting that they were very late cuts, very likely as the development team was being crunched to get the game out in time of the Microsoft buyout in late 2002, similar to what happened with Dragon Rock.
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, Crunch/Overwork, Demo, Development, Early Idea, Unused Content
person Dinoman96 calendar_month November 2, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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DarkIce Mines beta maps:
https://twitter.com/storyofsauria/status/1354955448630259717

Star Fox Adventures kiosk demo - DarkIce Mines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajFW8ikaoCk

Dinosaur Planet - DarkIce Mines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAP3HDW8Khc&t=1570s
Company: iQue
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Originally, iQue was founded as a joint venture between Nintendo and Taiwanese-American technologist Wei Yen as a Chinese video game console manufacturing company. However, by 2013 the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nintendo, and in 2019 they began hiring for developers, programmers and testers, indicating that they were transitioning into a development company to support games made by Nintendo EPD.
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, General, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month October 16, 2023
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Star Fox: Assault
Star Fox: Assault (2005)
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Most of the music heard throughout the game are tracks from Star Fox 64 redone in higher quality. The one noticeable exception is Fortuna, which is a heavily orchestrated original track. No Star Fox Adventures music was reused however, despite the Walled City returning and despite Nintendo owning the rights to that game's soundtrack following Microsoft's acquisition of Rare.
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Acquisition, Music
person CuriousUserX90 calendar_month October 5, 2014
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Star Fox: Assault - Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9naJ4i6fO8

Star Fox 64 - Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzwgztv3oCQ

[All below links submitted by Dinoman96]

Star Fox SNES - Fortuna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JXJlj_0dkg

Star Fox Assault - Fortuna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZz_qCRuFYc

Rare Scribes - July 11th, 2003:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-july-11th-2003/
Company: Rare
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According to former Rareware employee Chris Seavor, when the company was purchased by Microsoft, a number of the Microsoft executives thought that they had the rights to Donkey Kong until Rare corrected them.
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Acquisition, General, Real Life
person TheGamingGod48 calendar_month January 30, 2014
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