Winter

Quick article. Just wanted to give my two cents on Winter. -Kyle

As you probably know we recently got info on IGN's "dark game" known as Winter. (If you don't know, check out IGN's interview here and footage of the game here.) Basically Winter's a survival horror game developed by n-Space (the developers behind games like Geist for the GameCube and the Call of Duty games for the DS). Development has halted due to lack of interest publishers. The devs said that their game was met with praise yet publishers left uninterested because of two key factors: that it was a new IP and that it was a survival horror game on what they deemed the "kids" console, the Wii.

IGN finally showed off the game through a trailer and an interview, and I really love what I see. The game looks to be a really entertaining and really creepy survival horror game. From the footage that was released, just about everything in the environment you can interact with. In some of the levels you'll be just trying to survive by staying warm which can lead to starting fires, turning on vehicles, and climbing in dead animals carcases for warmth (ala Han Solo, The Empire Strikes Back). The footage also showed some pretty impressive graphics for the Wii. And the demo they made up took them six weeks. Think of what they could do in a regular development cycle of around two years?

Unfortunately development has currently halted. But I'm hoping Winter goes along the same route as the Conduit, that is, it gets a lot of interest online, alerting publishers, and eventually gets published. As far as publishers go, I can see SEGA picking this one up. As they did for the Conduit and how they're supporting the Wii with similar, core games like MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill. It would also be an excellent title for Nintendo to publish, seeing as they're hardcore releases have been relatively thin in North America as of late. (Where's Fatal Frame 4? Or Disaster: Day of Crisis? Come on NOA.)

I really hope this game gets published. The Wii needs more games like this. At least some people are doing what they can. GoNintendo's Kevin Cassidy and IGN's Nintendo team, along with several other sites are going to do all they can in trying to get this game a publisher and get it released. It's nice to see IGN's Nintendo team interested, seeing as what they've done with other third-party Wii games, particularly Zack & Wiki and the Conduit. Plus you can sign a petition that currently has over 600 signatures here. Online petitions may not always be the most effective things, but it could help. I really hope we can get Winter published. It’s efforts like these that need to be rewarded.

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...