Fellow RumorReporter Faithful. It is with utmost sadness and grief that we report that Bruce has passed on. He had died last night due to heart disease complications in Queens, New York.

His rememberance will never be forgotten in the RR and AMN communities, and we can only look back at his accomplishments and hard-work. In turn, RumorReporter will continue to live on, internally within the Advanced Media Network. All game rumors will now be reported on the upcoming Kombo.com. Again we ask that you take this moment of anguish to pray for Bruce and his family.

- The Advanced Media Network Executive Staff

I just got word from a third-party developer that it currently has plans to announce a fitness-type game for the Wii using its own peripheral soon (Not the Wii Balance Board). The disc-based game has been rumored around Japan, but will be confirmed for the U.S.  It is NOT a Wii Ware game. I could have more details on this by next week. According to my source, more developers are starting to follow suit. Stay tuned.

Update: Here’s the game (announced two months ago):

http://www.nwiizone.com/nintendo-wii/nwii/ family-ski-wii-announced-by-namco-first-images/ 

Wii Ski!

In a few days, we’ll have more word on details in a Japanese magazine called Koro Koro. The latest issue goes on sale in Japan on the 14th, with my tipsters telling me that very intriguing Smash Bros. Brawl news is imminent. A new mode? Probably not. But a guess of a new character wouldn’t be too far off.

With all of the optimistic Smash Bros. Brawl news lately… anything can happen.

I spoke with President and CEO of Hudson Entertainment, John Greiner, yesterday about the company’s plans for 2008. Here’s a few interesting tidbits from our conversation:

- Hudson Mobile fired half of its employees recently because of cuts needed for Porting and QA Department costs. There were simply too many SKUs to handle at one time.

- Adventure Island could soon be making a comeback. The series is being revisited for potential next-generation projects… that’s right, “projects.” Whether this is a console or portable offering remains to be seen. The comeback game(s) isn’t being developed yet, but ideas have definitely been tossed around very recently.

- Hudson plans to unveil a brand new next-generation title next January. Although I’ve already played it and can’t talk about it yet, the game will appeal to all ages with its variability and quick replay-value.

- Bomberman Land for Wii is still scheduled for late January release, and although the game features multiplayer, will not include Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection capabilities. This is because Nintendo “hasn’t allowed third-parties” to do anything yet in terms of online play, according to Greiner. But how about EA? Activision? They already have online games for the Wii.

- Mobile gaming will see a large increase in revenue and interest within the next couple of years.

I can’t put anything more on this at the moment, but I’m sure if you check AMN within the next several weeks, a few details should be flowing out.

Two huge 80’s cartoon franchises are making the move to the video-game scene.

We’ll be hearing more about this next week for sure (screenshots by the end of the year for sure):

Ghostbusters for the PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, PC and… Wii

- The game will be fully supported by fellow actors Harold Ramis (Egon), Dan Aykroyd (Ray), and Bill Murray (Peter)

- Source: Billy Berghammer of Game Informer Online, who also revealed the December issue of Game Informer having the exclusive scoop.

GI Joe for next-generation consoles (by EA).

- Not much known about this yet, but the game is already being talked about by numerous sources of mine who work at EA.

More to come soon!

Hey Bruce,

Glad to see you’re back in action after a bit of a break. What’s gaming without a few rumours, eh? So, recently you pretty much asked for readers to send in hard questions, and I’m guessing that’s exactly what most of us are going to do. The gloves are really off now.

Here’s my question: What exactly is the deal with Monolithsoft and Nintendo? At this point, all we know is that Monolith is now a second-party developer and that they’re working on Disaster: Day of Crisis for the Wii, and a DS game as well. Now, anyone would think that Nintendo acquiring the studio means Day of Crisis is turning out to be one hell of a game. However, the chaps down at NeoGAF had other theories to present.

To make a long story short, this is what they believe:

* Yasumi Matsuno, the Director of Final Fantasy XII left Square Enix.
* Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been pushing for a role-playing game that rivals Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy
* Matsuno landed up at Nintendo.
* He worked with Entertainment Analysis & Development for 8 months.
* Soon, Matsuno pitched a role-playing game tech demo to Nintendo.
* Iwata loved it, but Matsuno had no team of his own at the Big N.
* Nintendo acquired Monolith to provide Matsuno with his own team.

Sounds far-fetched doesn’t it? I’m not ready to believe Matsuno would walk out from Square and next thing you know, he just happens to land up with Miyamoto’s team. Obviously, it would be mindblowing if anyone could confirm if this is true, but hey; that’s where you come in, right? Right?

– Ishaan Sahdev

Writer / Editor:
http://www.games.net/
http://flamewaradvance.blogspot.com/

News Editor, Reviewer:
http://www.manganews.net/

Bruce’s Take:

Interesting you ask this, because it’s been something that I’ve been dodging to answer for a while now. Not because of the subject, but because so many things weren’t as clear when Monolith had just been picked up by Nintendo from Namco Bandai.

This is what I hear, with the source being a former producer at Namco Bandai who had caught wind of some of Matsuno’s developments. Unforunately, that producer no longer works for the company and now works for a certain San Francisco-based gaming mammoth. Still, his reports on this have been recent tinkerings of rumors brought to the table with numerous publications and forums aiming to judge their validity.

Here’s what I was told:

- Yasumi Matsuno left Square-Enix because the guy’s an opportunist. After seeing potential with the Wii, the former FFXII director decided to aim towards a brand-new, non-linear RPG project.

- Many sources have claimed the project to be Vision Red, a rumored Square-Enix RPG “apparently” shown at E3 2007. That is not the case, and the original post is clearly fictional based on its written structure.

- Some sources have claimed it to be Baten Kaitos 3, but this isn’t the case, even though I know for a fact that the game is already in its beginning stages.

- Disaster: Day of Crisis was delayed for a reason. The game will use the familiar “quick-press” Resident Evil 4 quick-reaction system to further immerse the player with a sense of danger and urgency. The game will release sometime in 2008, but it will definitely be before Matsuno’s actual new IP is announced. This is to test the waters towards interest of Disaster’s type of gameplay, which the new IP hopes to mimic in a more advanced way.

- Matsuno interest in the Wii is simple: “He wants to stress gameplay controls living up to high-quality, immersive environments.”

- So where does this leave us with the rumored Matsuno “Final Fantasy Killer?”

The new IP, at least in its design stages stressed the following elements of a brand-new RPG franchise aimed at a late-2008 announcement:

- A fully-immersive non-linear action-RPG set in a brand, new fantasy world which stresses the continuity of gameplay progression through team work and motion-controlling movements, mimicking interactions with objects and environments in the world. The game will be played in real-time, unlike Matsuno’s previous turn-based projects (Ogre Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story)

- The game is not currently planned for an expansion with real-time online multiplayer (MMO), but offline multiplayer gameplay is heavily stressed. “Imagine Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GameCube) with a 3D environment.”

- Definite Wii Connect 24 support with brand new worlds to explore and interacting with other players.

- Being developed by Monolith Soft and Matsuno with Iwata and Miyamoto’s supervision possibly.

- Clearly obvious: Will be Nintendo Wii’s direct competitor to the PS3’s Final Fantasy XIII releases.

- If all goes well, will be planned as a series for the Wii and differentiate the system’s low reputation for RPGs on the console. A DS version is also in the planning stages simultaneously.

- So when will gamers be able to hear more? It’s hard to tell given even Disaster’s shaky release date, but expect GDC 08 to have more rumblings of Matsuno’s involvement with his Wii project.

And that just about does it for the first edition of the new Ask Bruce feature. As always, send your pending investigative reports/questions to bruce@rumorreporter.com.

Send in your question for the new Ask Bruce segment by Monday night. I will pick one and update again with an answer during the weekend.

Dear Rumor Reporter Faithful, 

Alright - there’s been no surprise that content on the site hasn’t been up to par to some expectations the last couple of months. The fact of the matter is… I’ve been in and out of the country: France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, New York, the Philippines, and London.

I have a few cool things I could’ve reported on, but they weren’t quite the trustworthy sources that I had thought them to be. So here’s what I’m going to do with the “Ask Bruce” format.

FOR THE RUMOR REPORTER FAITHFUL:

1.) Send in ONE industry or technical-related question every two weeks. I will NOT accept e-mails with more than one question at a time period of two weeks. Take your time and think each of these through.

2.) Find leads to back-up some of your investigative reports. Links, images, previous reports and more. If you do find some solid and potentially credible information…

WHAT I WILL DO:

1.) Every two weeks, or at the very least every month, I will hand-pick (with the help of some of my online assistants) ONE emailed question sent to the bruce@rumorreporter.com email. Before answering the question the best way I can, I will do the investigative work for you. Priority on the selected questions will be based on:

a.) Media (Images or Video to back up your claim)

b.) Verifiable Source(s)

c.) Sender Community Reputation

d.) Highly educated and hypothetic guess strength

2.) When the question is answered on the site, it will be done in a brand-new form that should clarify anything and everything that I have uncovered or currently know about the topic - barring any NDAs of course.

Let’s see how this works for the time being, as I think it might inspire some of you to get creative with some of your questions. Let’s think of the big picture here… so do your homework and stay current!

I can’t wait to see the responses.

- Bruce Kelly

I just came back from a long trek to the E for All Expo in Los Angeles and was able to sit down on an AMN interview with some of Nintendo’s PR specialists. Even VP Perrin Kaplan stopped by for a minute.

When we asked about Reggie’s apparent “September” surprise, there was clearly some careful tinkering of words by several of Nintendo’s PR big-wigs. A representative clearly said that he would not comment on the situation, and even when asked whether or not the “surprise” had happened yet, the response was a clear “I just can’t say anything on that at this point in time.”

Even more interesting, I put aside an anonymous Nintendo employee asking more about the Nintendo.com forums, and when they would come back. The response:

“We’re making the NSider Forums as best as they can possibly be, and we’re doing the best we can to show you guys something by early next year. It’s still in the works, but you’ll like what you see.”

Will it have any affect on the Wii’s channel menu? A new channel perhaps? It remains to be seen, but I have a feeling that this has something to do with the already-announced DS Demo Channel.

Would you?