Shadowbane dev studio to create MMO for the Wii

by Akela Talamasca Apr 22nd 2008 at 9:30AM

Filed under: At a glance, Game mechanics, New titles, News items, Shadowbane, Consoles

Here's a weird Venn diagram for you: those of you who remember Shadowbane with fondness and also love the Nintendo Wii will be totally excited about this piece of news. Stray Bullet, the Austin, Texas MMO developer, have announced that they're working on a new MMO. At the same time, they've posted a few openings on Gamasutra's JobSeeker board, one for a Senior Programmer for an un-named Wii project, and the other for a Gameplay Programmer for an MMO project. Neither posting mentions the other, but chances are, they're for the same project.

Really, there's no bad time for wild speculation, so let's get the ball rolling! We're envisioning, obviously enough, actual hack and slash combat with the nunchuk and wiimote. Maybe crafting might take on a whole new dimension with the use of the motion-sensing abilities of the Wii. Maybe it'll be a massively Mii experience! Whatever's coming down the pike, we'll keep our ears to the ground for more info. With this on the way, can the Animal Crossing MMO be far behind? Hey ... what're the odds that this is the Animal Crossing MMO?

Tags: animal-crossing, gamasutra, gameplay-programmer, hack-and-slash, job-seeker, mii, nintendo, nunchuk, senior-programmer, shadowbane, stray-bullet, venn-diagram, wii, wiimote

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

koehler83 said on 11:09AM 4-22-2008

Pokemon MMO ftw!

We already know how the game would play.. they're just too stupid to cash in on it.

Everyone is a trainer.. everyone competes to be the champion..

You could even use the Wii Remote to throw and retrieve pokeballs!

DO IT!

Bob said on 12:35PM 4-22-2008

It has already been announced in multiple places by nintendo that there would be no AC mmo :(

Ghen said on 2:04PM 4-22-2008

Shadowbane was a joke and most games on the wii are a joke.

perfect fit IMO.

Daerim said on 2:43PM 4-22-2008

Well, we know that Stray Bullet's new MMO is going to be a "Future Fantasy", as they describe it. It is, theoretically at least (they haven't told us anything, really), going to be released on the PC as well, so I wouldn't guess that its the same project.

Stray Bullet has ties with Ubisoft and Red Storm, though, so maybe the Tom Clancy games are coming to the Wii. How's that for some wild speculation?

Slogo said on 2:44PM 4-22-2008

I call shenanigans. It'd take quite a lot of guts to release a full fledged MMORPG for a system without a viable hard drive. Given their press release talking about things like, "..and is looking outside the MMO genre to strategy and tactical games for inspiration..." we know we aren't getting simply a persistent world game but something with combat. This would also fit into building upon what they learned from SB.

As for SB being complete crap...
-It is/was very buggy
-The world was relatively simply and bland
-The PvE game was pure grind and nothing else

That's all true but...
-SB has some of the best/most interesting races out of any MMORPG. Birdmen, Minotaurs (before DAOC had them), Centaurs, Vampires, Demonmen, etc.) all with unique abilities and strengths that actually matter and were balanced by a race-creation cost
-SB has some of the best/most interesting classes out of any MMORPG. Mage Assassins, Scouts (with high run speed, tracking, and detect invisiblity), and Templars (Tank Type with health/stamina drains and the ability to turn into an angelic being) are just a few of the interesting classes available to players.
-SB has some of the best character customization (not looks but in play) out of any MMORPG. There's a wealth of skills available to each player and disciplines and runes add even more (you can be an fist fighting healer class, a Crossbow wielding warrior in full plate, a Thief capable of turning into a rat, and so on). Even after the game has been out for so long there's still tons of builds for each class and the same class can play like night and day based on how you build it.
-SB was one of the first MMORPGs to feature some form of flying (granted it's like running around but just 50 feet off the ground but still)
-SB was one of the first MMORPGs to feature buildable/destructable cities.

So while you may say SB sucks, and it does for a lot of the core game mechanics, bugs, and lackluster PvE, it's a game of failed potential more than anything. The core concepts of the game were way ahead of their time and their class system is top notch.

If people involved with SB are making another MMORPG that's going to build on the core concepts (RE: good parts) of SB then sign me up because it could very well be a winner with the proper funding, team and support.