Any chance this game will get a sequel?

[okey]

Sorry I guess my picture of game development is stuck in 1989

Would you trust Sakamoto with Metroid at this point? Sure, Rhythm Heaven is great, and it looks like that'll be on Wii U. But for Metroid, he'd have a hard time to regain the audience's trust, even with a retcon. So I imagine someone else is going to take over the series if there wasn't some kind of a plan.

Gonna try to answer this but it's tough because I don't know what his reaction to Other M's reception is.

Pretty much everything about Other M boils down to good idea bad execution so if the guy is taking notes on all the things he got wrong then the answer is yes. Spend more time on level design, get an editor and some story consultants, come up with new items and gameplay mechanics, drop the first person stuff and an Other M 2 could be really good.

[ddddd]

I wonder, how many people outside Metroid fansites (i.e. the majority) know that team ninja had any involvement in Other M, I predict 5 people and 4 of them were told by the other, developers hardly get noticed for their works, good or bad.

As far as Ive seen, oh yes they know, people also tend to give them more credit/bash on stuffs they had nothing to do with.

[kronoridley]

Would you trust Sakamoto with Metroid at this point? Sure, Rhythm Heaven is great, and it looks like that'll be on Wii U. But for Metroid, he'd have a hard time to regain the audience's trust, even with a retcon. So I imagine someone else is going to take over the series if there wasn't some kind of a plan.

After playing Dead or Alive: Dimensions' chronicle mode, I can safely say that most, if not all, of the games problems (outside of gameplay) was Team Ninja's fault. The directing style in Other M is very similar to the one in DOA:D, only a LOT better, and I am guessing that was due to Sakamoto's involvement, considering how DOA was done by Team Ninja alone. So yes, I do trust him. I just hope he doesn't let anyone else handle his work from now on.

[ddddd]

Sakamoto served as producer and scenario designer, and main design was done by three designers from the Game Boy Advance titles of the series, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. Team Ninja took charge of the programming and 3D modeling, and D-Rockets handled the CG cutscenes.

Sure, wikipedia is not reliable every time, but outside of this, I dont know how much more the Team Ninja guys are to reference for other m's errors or acomplishments.

[KingBroly]

Would you trust Sakamoto with Metroid at this point? Sure, Rhythm Heaven is great, and it looks like that'll be on Wii U. But for Metroid, he'd have a hard time to regain the audience's trust, even with a retcon. So I imagine someone else is going to take over the series if there wasn't some kind of a plan.

After playing Dead or Alive: Dimensions' chronicle mode, I can safely say that most, if not all, of the games problems (outside of gameplay) was Team Ninja's fault. The directing style in Other M is very similar to the one in DOA:D, only a LOT better, and I am guessing that was due to Sakamoto's involvement, considering how DOA was done by Team Ninja alone. So yes, I do trust him. I just hope he doesn't let anyone else handle his work from now on.

Then why hasn't Nintendo fired back at Team Ninja if that was the case? I mean...I know why Team Ninja took a shot at Other M's story, saying it was Sakamoto's work, not theirs. It was total PR, because their stories...not exactly rocket science. Nintendo hasn't said a damn thing about that game or its' story other than Reggie's 'we don't know why it didn't sell.'

Also, if you played DOA:D, you would know that Samus' character model (physique) and animations (outside of gun shooting) were just ripped from DOA and Ninja Gaiden. Almost every animation Samus had was completely half-assed. I can't say the same about enemies since when I play Ninja Gaiden they're dead before they can do anything against me.

[Fission]

Sakamoto served as producer and scenario designer, and main design was done by three designers from the Game Boy Advance titles of the series, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. Team Ninja took charge of the programming and 3D modeling, and D-Rockets handled the CG cutscenes.

One question. Who or what people were responsible for the game being as linear as it was? Those three designers from Fusion/Zero Mission? Sakamoto? Team Ninja?

[KingBroly]

That probably happened because the game switched from 2D to 3D supposedly. You know that door that was closed at the bottom of the first elevator shaft? Probably had Sectors 4, 5 and 6 behind them at one point. If we're to believe it was in-line with Fusion.

[kronoridley]

Would you trust Sakamoto with Metroid at this point? Sure, Rhythm Heaven is great, and it looks like that'll be on Wii U. But for Metroid, he'd have a hard time to regain the audience's trust, even with a retcon. So I imagine someone else is going to take over the series if there wasn't some kind of a plan.

After playing Dead or Alive: Dimensions' chronicle mode, I can safely say that most, if not all, of the games problems (outside of gameplay) was Team Ninja's fault. The directing style in Other M is very similar to the one in DOA:D, only a LOT better, and I am guessing that was due to Sakamoto's involvement, considering how DOA was done by Team Ninja alone. So yes, I do trust him. I just hope he doesn't let anyone else handle his work from now on.

Then why hasn't Nintendo fired back at Team Ninja if that was the case? I mean...I know why Team Ninja took a shot at Other M's story, saying it was Sakamoto's work, not theirs. It was total PR, because their stories...not exactly rocket science. Nintendo hasn't said a damn thing about that game or its' story other than Reggie's 'we don't know why it didn't sell.'

I think Sakamoto was so put down by the overly-negative reviews (and by that I don't mean the we're generally negative. I mean they were a lot more negative than they should have been), that he didn't care what anyone would say anymore. Besides, I don't recall Nintendo ever "firing back".

Also, while the way she moves actually does look like a DOA character now that I think of it, they made a VERY obvious change to her "physics" compared to DOA characters.

[ddddd]

Sakamoto served as producer and scenario designer, and main design was done by three designers from the Game Boy Advance titles of the series, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. Team Ninja took charge of the programming and 3D modeling, and D-Rockets handled the CG cutscenes.

One question. Who or what people were responsible for the game being as linear as it was? Those three designers from Fusion/Zero Mission? Sakamoto? Team Ninja?

Im expecting that it was someone from nintendo, but only because it goes along with his hand-holding vision of the game.
But I wasn't there so is nothing more than a guess...

[KingBroly]

So...it was made for babies?



Anyway, I think they know they screwed up Other M before its' release. So that's why we probably won't get a "sequel" or continuation of this story, at least anytime soon. I say this because of the US Commercial. It acknowledges the most controversial scene in the game, presenting it with proper context and meaning in the first 5 seconds.

Still makes me wonder why they released it though.

[okey]

How much did Other M sell, like 800k worldwide? Yeah that's low but I'm pretty sure that was enough to at least cover development costs. Compare that to being millions of dollars in the hole if you just canceled it. Other M was not a cheap game to make.

[KingBroly]

I know it didn't sell through the initial 500k shipment in the US, and in the UK it started out at like...33 then dropped out. I'm thinking it was 150k+ in the US, 60k in Japan, then 150k in EU, so not a lot. There are A LOT of copies still on shelves. Check out your local Best Buy and you'll probably see 20-30 copies of the game on shelves, minimum. All at $50. They didn't move when they lowered it to $20, either.

I don't know if Other M made its' dev costs back, but I'm pretty sure they cheaped out on the localization and voice actors/actresses (Not 1 of the main people in the English version worked on any game before Other M; I kinda doubt they've gotten work since then, either).

The problem for the next Metroid game is getting retailers to stock copies because Other M bombed. While eating the entire dev costs would've been a blow in the short run, it would've been better in the long run because of that. Retailers will say 'well, your last version of this didn't sell because it sucked, so I'm not going to stock as many copies this time because we got burned.' So in order to ensure that it's stocked at the same (or greater numbers) as Other M, they'd have to make it a console launch because it'd be pegged as the system seller. It'd also show Nintendo's confidence in the brand.

[lexmetroid]

It's evident that some don't like the game; but it's misleading to make assertions that the game sold less than it actually did. Other M was the 9th best selling game for the month of September 2010, and sold 173,000 units in that timeframe in North America alone, as reported by NPD.

Furthermore, Media-Create listed Other M as the 13th best selling game for Wii in Japan for 2010, at 71,410 units.

And, since Reggie himself stated that Other M was nearing 500,000 copies sold in North America alone in November of last year, it's safe to assume that Other M has surpassed that mark by now, especially since Other M managed to make its way in to the top 100 several times on sites like Amazon when put on sale earlier this year.

Comparing it to Metroid Prime 2, which sold about 800,000 worldwide (see this IGN article, 2nd to last paragraph), I'd say that while Other M certainly didn't sell as well as Nintendo had hoped, it seemed to be in line with other games in the series, and not this terrible flop that everyone makes it out to be.

[KingBroly]

My numbers were a guess, plain and simple, as I stated. Other M didn't pass 500k in the US, that much we know for certain (Well, I don't know, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say retailers didn't get a 2nd major shipment). Those copies are still on shelves. Retailers do not like a lot of copies of games sitting on their shelves, because they're eating money. Retailers will think twice about stocking another Metroid game from Nintendo because of it, since saying 'the Wii was dying' isn't an excuse since games like Kirby's Epic Yarn, Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and inevitably Skyward Sword all sold better and reviewed better Other M.

And why is that? Because review scores were about 10 points lower than expectations were for the aggregate score*, in addition to the controversy about sexism, how the MAIN character is treated, how it was sold (the story) and how that part inevitably was the biggest deterrent because of claims of lazy writing, poor voice acting/dialog, etc. just in addition to every other little thing being nitpicked to death.

* - This is a complete guess for the aggregate expectation

[Caleb89sw]

The problem for the next Metroid game is getting retailers to stock copies because Other M bombed. While eating the entire dev costs would've been a blow in the short run, it would've been better in the long run because of that. Retailers will say 'well, your last version of this didn't sell because it sucked, so I'm not going to stock as many copies this time because we got burned.'

Well, what you're saying does make sense, but I'm not sure if that'll be the case with just any Metroid game on the horizon. As much as I hate to say it, I think the best thing Nintendo can do is get Retro to make Prime 4. The Prime series is already popular among western gamers, so it more than likely wouldn't have the polarizing effect Other M had and it ended on a cliff-hanger anyway, so it's not out of the question. It's not like I wouldn't like to see another Prime. If it's anything like Prime 3, I would throughly support it. However, I would prefer to see Nintendo finally make a sequel to Fusion first.