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Discussion What was the original source of the 2D Donkey Kong rumor?

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KremlingKuthroat said:
I've been lurking on this thread. I'm a regular at DK Vine and registered on Famiboards just to share a few details that I'm privy to.

First of all, Hyle has mentioned multiple times that his sources on the EPD game mentioned that development on this EPD game began around late 2017-early 2018 so that lines up with what's being said here. The whole "Nintendo making a DK game with the Mario Odyssey team" is a misnomer. This is a NEW EPD team allegedly. Meaning this team isn't taking away from mainline Mario games and vice versa for DK. It's not a DK or Mario situation. The clickbaity articles titled, "The Mario Odyssey team is working on DK" is what's causing this confusion. TLDR; rest easy Mario fans. No one's taking away or postponing 3D Mario.

With that being said, allegedly this new team is younger EPD staff that are huge fans of DK and were excited about the opportunity to work on DK. The devs behind this game probably worked on Mario Odyssey, hence all the references to DK in that game, especially in New Donk City. Some members of the DK Vine forum corroborated that VV was working on a 3D DK game before it got cancelled, and they mentioned Pauline having a bigger role, so I'm going to believe these rumors since I've heard it from so many people.

Lastly, with DK and crew's major presence in the Mario film, a rumored spin off film, and massive theme park expansions, it's obvious that Nintendo is positioning DK to be an A-list franchise again. You don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars into a dead IP. The only thing missing is the game announcement. It's possible they're holding off the game reveal until they announce their next platform, but I'm so over speculating about the next Nintendo Switch. I've been hearing about the Switch Pro since 2018 and that turned out to be a big waste of time since nothing materialized unless you want to count the OLED. DK's next adventure will most likely be announced in the next 6-12 months imo. It's hard to be patient, but we'll have to be patient
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Ooh so it's allegedly a new EPD team? The stakes rise and the plot thickens
 
Leo said:
Ooh so it's allegedly a new EPD team? The stakes rise and the plot thickens
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Hyle of DK Vine claims that he was "lead to believe" it'll be a new team that's purpose is to be the new dedicated team for DK. This team was allegedly formed from Miyamoto and younger EPD staff that grew up with the Country games so K. Rool and other Rare elements may be making a grand return. I can't necessarily confirm that, but that's what I've heard.

DK also has a new brand management team believe it or not. When being interviewed about the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, the Director of the game mentioned that they consulted with a "The DK IP team", and he referred to them as a "new team" back in 2018. Here's the video: http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?showtopic=14021
 
A dedicated DK development team at EPD is what my dreams are made of.

KremlingKuthroat said:
Hyle of DK Vine claims that he was "lead to believe" it'll be a new team that's purpose is to be the new dedicated team for DK. This team was allegedly formed from Miyamoto and younger EPD staff that grew up with the Country games so K. Rool and other Rare elements may be making a grand return. I can't necessarily confirm that, but that's what I've heard.

DK also has a new brand management team believe it or not. When being interviewed about the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, the Director of the game mentioned that they consulted with a "The DK IP team", and he referred to them as a "new team" back in 2018. Here's the video: http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?showtopic=14021
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oh damn. he probably was not supposed to mention that hahaha. okay this all is starting to make sense.

agreed wholeheartedly about the DK resurgence through the movie and theme parks. they're 100% pushing DK again.
 
I think another thing to keep in mind is that I'm pretty convinced that the cancelled VV game was a 3D platformer. I've heard from multiple sources that it was definitely 3D. So I can safely assume that there was a 3D DK that was canned and apparently Miyamoto loved a lot of aspects about it.

The project moving to EPD in 2017-2018 sounds about right. My hunch is that a good portion of the Mario Odyssey team switched to this DK team after Odyssey released and Nintendo re-staffed the Odyssey team once they began work on the next 3D Mario. Since the game has been in development this long, I simply find it hard to believe that it's a 2D platformer, especially if they're using assets or ideas from the cancelled VV game. This game is approaching a BotW length dev cycle so I think it's pretty ambitious (and I know Covid slowed down development, but I still don't think a 2D platformer would take this long even with Covid). Also, it'd be very weird to me for Nintendo to abandon this 3D platformer concept if Nintendo staff really liked it and made a sidescroller since TF is already on Switch.

Regarding the job postings, I don't think it's safe to assume what those games could be. Could it be for a DK game? Sure. It could also be for a rumored 2D Mario game. Maybe Nintendo's bringing back Wario Land? Frankly, I just don't think using job listings is the right way to determine which franchise is getting which game. All we know about DK is that there was a cancelled 3D game by VV and EPD is working on DK now. No one knows if the EPD game is a 2D platformer, 3D platformer, or something entirely different that may not even be a platformer at all.
 
”EPD Tokyo is hiring level designers for a 2D Action Game”

Small Brain: Donkey Kong

Big Brain: Mario & Luigi 6 w/former AlphaDream devs

Galaxy Brain: SNES Remix
 
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N75 said:
”EPD Tokyo is hiring level designers for a 2D Action Game”

Small Brain: Donkey Kong

Big Brain: Mario & Luigi 5 w/former AlphaDream devs

Galaxy Brain: SNES Remix
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Wouldn’t Paper Jam be M&L5

Also not sure that would be a 2D action game
 
Quoted by: N75
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TheSpearGuy said:
You guys really believe any random dude on the internet
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Everything I've said is just regurgitating info from the Kongversation podcast sans the VV game (Hyle never mentioned the studio by name, just that it was a Western dev and that the game was 3D) and my own speculation on what type of game it is.

To be fair, I wouldn't believe any of this stuff myself if it wasn't for the fact that Nintendo's pushing DK very hard right now with the theme park and movies. When you really think about it, DK is Nintendo's 2nd most popular character after Mario. It makes sense why they'd choose him as the second character/franchise for a theme park. DK is as known as Pac-Man. That and mine carts are a natural fit for a theme park attraction. I feel like a year from now DK will be pushed very hard by Nintendo since the theme park will be open in Japan. Kinda feel like it's a reverse domino effect until that point tbh

That and DK is Nintendo's most neglected franchise atm besides Star Fox. DK fans have been left in the dark for far too long and although I'm a DK Vine regular poster, just wanted to give my insights to a general Nintendo forum to reach more DK fans to let them know that things are looking up even if it doesn't seem that way
 
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EPD Tokyo team being split in half would justify why next 3D Mario is taking +6 years right? SMO was made in 4 years (I think 1 was pre production while most team were working fast in Captain Toad), Bowser’s Fury was mostly made by NST and I guess they are now helping with Tokyo team to finish their projects.

But marketing wise, it wouldn’t be a little too much releasing 2 (sandbox?) 3D platform style games from the same studio.

Honestly, I think in a better case next EPD DK game is going to be a linear 3D platform title very similar to Crash games (and that was what VV was developing..) with a level based system. It would be like playing the original DKC Trilogy but in a 3D perspective. It will also have some 2D levels. Playable characters are DK, Diddy and some sections with Pauline. It will feature the return of animals as gimmick.

Next 3D Mario is a full open world game exclusive to next Switch HW. It features Cappy mechanic again with a non-linear design. Like a mix of Bowsers Fury with Odyssey.
 
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KremlingKuthroat said:
DK also has a new brand management team believe it or not. When being interviewed about the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, the Director of the game mentioned that they consulted with a "The DK IP team", and he referred to them as a "new team" back in 2018. Here's the video: http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?showtopic=14021
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last comment on the dk vine thread says it all lmao

They're talking about the team that manages how the brand is represented, rather than the people actually developing the games. Still pretty cool that DK gets its own IP management though, instead of being lumped in with Mario as I would have assumed until hearing this. I wonder if it's a more recent thing. Either way, they're probably the ones responsible for DK's nose job.
 
Mekanos said:
Wouldn’t Paper Jam be M&L5

Also not sure that would be a 2D action game
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Looks like I miscounted. Being slightly serious, it is described as an “Action RPG“ on the Japanese website, but yeah I doubt it’s happening......
because that’s Arzest’s next game
 
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Yeah, I mean tbh I'd be happy/interested with whatever DK game releases. Whether it's 2D or 3D, level based or open world. I'm not even usually into open world games but DK's universe would be really fun to fully explore.
 
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LoneRanger said:
EPD Tokyo team being split in half would justify why next 3D Mario is taking +6 years right? SMO was made in 4 years (I think 1 was pre production while most team were working fast in Captain Toad), Bowser’s Fury was mostly made by NST and I guess they are now helping with Tokyo team to finish their projects.
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I mean, honestly, what justifies it more than anything is that the Switch doesn't need it, and the Switch 2 does.
 
What @KremlingKuthroat is saying lines up with what I know. There's reason to believe that the game is being developed by a new team at EPD Tokyo and not the Super Mario Odyssey team specifically. Kind of like how the Splatoon team spun-off from the Animal Crossing team even though there's some developer overlap. A 3D Donkey Kong game wouldn't prevent a new 3D Mario from getting made, though I should reiterate that I don't know what genre this new DK game will be. I can say with confidence, however, that a 3D DK game was in development at Vicarious Visions and the project was shelved/given to EPD Tokyo.
 
KremlingKuthroat said:
I've been lurking on this thread. I'm a regular at DK Vine and registered on Famiboards just to share a few details that I'm privy to.

First of all, Hyle has mentioned multiple times that his sources on the EPD game mentioned that development on this EPD game began around late 2017-early 2018 so that lines up with what's being said here. The whole "Nintendo making a DK game with the Mario Odyssey team" is a misnomer. This is a NEW EPD team allegedly. Meaning this team isn't taking away from mainline Mario games and vice versa for DK. It's not a DK or Mario situation. The clickbaity articles titled, "The Mario Odyssey team is working on DK" is what's causing this confusion. TLDR; rest easy Mario fans. No one's taking away or postponing 3D Mario.

With that being said, allegedly this new team is younger EPD staff that are huge fans of DK and were excited about the opportunity to work on DK. The devs behind this game probably worked on Mario Odyssey, hence all the references to DK in that game, especially in New Donk City. Some members of the DK Vine forum corroborated that VV was working on a 3D DK game before it got cancelled, and they mentioned Pauline having a bigger role, so I'm going to believe these rumors since I've heard it from so many people.

Lastly, with DK and crew's major presence in the Mario film, a rumored spin off film, and massive theme park expansions, it's obvious that Nintendo is positioning DK to be an A-list franchise again. You don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars into a dead IP. The only thing missing is the game announcement. It's possible they're holding off the game reveal until they announce their next platform, but I'm so over speculating about the next Nintendo Switch. I've been hearing about the Switch Pro since 2018 and that turned out to be a big waste of time since nothing materialized unless you want to count the OLED. DK's next adventure will most likely be announced in the next 6-12 months imo. It's hard to be patient, but we'll have to be patient
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Thank you for sharing the details! We really appreciate it : )

Hopefully few negative comments here from sceptics won’t turn you away, I know some people can get worked up way too easily over rumours.

So you know most of us are really happy to hear your thoughts from the DK Vine circles
:)
 
PikminSnezkov said:
Thank you for sharing the details! We really appreciate it : )

Hopefully few negative comments here from sceptics won’t turn you away, I know some people can get worked up way too easily over rumours.

So you know most of us are really happy to hear your thoughts from the DK Vine circles
:)
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Thanks for the kind words! Everything I've mentioned is just what I've heard from people online in the DK community. I don't have "sources" or any insider knowledge whatsoever. Just been a regular listener of the Kongversation for a while and wanted to distill this info.

This thread was brought to my attention on the DK Vine forum anyways so happy to chime in :)
 
Professor Chops said:
What @KremlingKuthroat is saying lines up with what I know. There's reason to believe that the game is being developed by a new team at EPD Tokyo and not the Super Mario Odyssey team specifically. Kind of like how the Splatoon team spun-off from the Animal Crossing team even though there's some developer overlap. A 3D Donkey Kong game wouldn't prevent a new 3D Mario from getting made, though I should reiterate that I don't know what genre this new DK game will be. I can say with confidence, however, that a 3D DK game was in development at Vicarious Visions and the project was shelved/given to EPD Tokyo.
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I had made the same comment Nate.. I guess about a year or 2 ago. Yes, it’s Tokyo, but not specifically the team that developed Odyssey. Although I’d be head over heels for a 3D DK, I feel it will be a 2D game, and likely launching within the next 12 months.
 
TreIII said:
In the end, the most important thing to me is seeing K. Rool again. I'm down for almost anything else, otherwise!
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Yep. Like I said before, I'm not super attached to the classic Kremling characters - if they reimagine them entirely to fit a new gameplay style, I am totally fine with that. I just want to see DK's archenemy make a proper return. There's no excuse after being added to Smash.
 
KremlingKuthroat said:
I've been lurking on this thread. I'm a regular at DK Vine and registered on Famiboards just to share a few details that I'm privy to.

First of all, Hyle has mentioned multiple times that his sources on the EPD game mentioned that development on this EPD game began around late 2017-early 2018 so that lines up with what's being said here. The whole "Nintendo making a DK game with the Mario Odyssey team" is a misnomer. This is a NEW EPD team allegedly. Meaning this team isn't taking away from mainline Mario games and vice versa for DK. It's not a DK or Mario situation. The clickbaity articles titled, "The Mario Odyssey team is working on DK" is what's causing this confusion. TLDR; rest easy Mario fans. No one's taking away or postponing 3D Mario.

With that being said, allegedly this new team is younger EPD staff that are huge fans of DK and were excited about the opportunity to work on DK. The devs behind this game probably worked on Mario Odyssey, hence all the references to DK in that game, especially in New Donk City. Some members of the DK Vine forum corroborated that VV was working on a 3D DK game before it got cancelled, and they mentioned Pauline having a bigger role, so I'm going to believe these rumors since I've heard it from so many people.

Lastly, with DK and crew's major presence in the Mario film, a rumored spin off film, and massive theme park expansions, it's obvious that Nintendo is positioning DK to be an A-list franchise again. You don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars into a dead IP. The only thing missing is the game announcement. It's possible they're holding off the game reveal until they announce their next platform, but I'm so over speculating about the next Nintendo Switch. I've been hearing about the Switch Pro since 2018 and that turned out to be a big waste of time since nothing materialized unless you want to count the OLED. DK's next adventure will most likely be announced in the next 6-12 months imo. It's hard to be patient, but we'll have to be patient
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This implies that EPD Tokyo is working on 3 games at once, two of which are AAA games that have been in development for five years with no announcement.

This is extremely unlikely.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
This implies that EPD Tokyo is working on 3 games at once, two of which are AAA games that have been in development for five years with no announcement.

This is extremely unlikely.
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Two different teams is what's implied. There may be some developer overlap, but just repeating what I heard. This team developed Jungle Beat as their first project so it isn't far fetched imo

What's the third game btw?
 
KremlingKuthroat said:
Two different teams is what's implied. There may be some developer overlap, but just repeating what I heard. This team developed Jungle Beat as their first project so it isn't far fetched imo

What's the third game btw?
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"Two different teams working for five straight years with no releases or announcement and also the games are very similar" is just something that doesn't happen as they would have almost surely prioritized one game to get something released and likely would have taken staff from one game and given it to another to get one released and create separation between releases.

But EPD Tokyo was also hiring for a 2D Platformer as well.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
"Two different teams working for five straight years with no releases or announcement and also the games are very similar" is just something that doesn't happen as they would have almost surely prioritized one game to get something released and likely would have taken staff from one game and given it to another to get one released and create separation between releases.

But EPD Tokyo was also hiring for a 2D Platformer as well.
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Maybe DK will release this year or next and the next 3D Mario will be a launch title for the next gen system. Who knows? I also don't subscribe to a Switch coming out in late 2023 or 2024 until Nintendo says it's coming out. I think a big hangup a lot of people have is that the Switch successor is guaranteed to come out in a year or so bc that's what the rumors say when it could come out in 2025 or later.

Who says the games are very similar either? We have no idea what this DK game will look like. DK could be a 2D platformer. Hyle from DK Vine theorized that the DK game could be a hybrid 2D/3D platformer so maybe that's what's also causing confusion and why people can't figure out what type of game this is.
 
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My dream would be a 2D game with the same physics and mechanics from the Rare games, but since that's not happening, I don't care if it's 2D or 3D. Just be good, and have K Rool and the kremlings.
 
Not exactly, because the notion that the "Odyssey Team" is doing DK is a half truth. My understanding is that DKs team is a new addition to EPD for DKs permanent home. Some of the devs for DK are indeed lifted from the 3D Mario/Odyssey crew, some are the young/fresh bloods, some may even be lifted from other teams in EPD, but it won't be at the expense of any other series. The devs that went from Mario to DK will have their roles filled appropriately to continue whatever in the works for Mario.

Hi BTW. I also crossed over from the dk vine forums :)
 
Dante Kong said:
Not exactly, because the notion that the "Odyssey Team" is doing DK is a half truth. My understanding is that DKs team is a new addition to EPD for DKs permanent home. Some of the devs for DK are indeed lifted from the 3D Mario/Odyssey crew, some are the young/fresh bloods, some may even be lifted from other teams in EPD, but it won't be at the expense of any other series. The devs that went from Mario to DK will have their roles filled appropriately to continue whatever in the works for Mario.

Hi BTW. I also crossed over from the dk vine forums :)
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This mirrors what Nate said about 1-2 years ago when the rumors was initially surfacing.
 
TheSpearGuy said:
You guys really believe any random dude on the internet
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It's not really that farfetched to believe that a Donkey Kong game is in development, considering Tropical Freeze came out almost a decade ago.
 
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the farfetched stuff is vicarious visions having ever worked on donkey kong. they're much more of an "open book" than nintendo, why not ask an activision insider about whether or not they did in fact work on a donkey kong game for switch
 
Dante Kong said:
Not exactly, because the notion that the "Odyssey Team" is doing DK is a half truth. My understanding is that DKs team is a new addition to EPD for DKs permanent home. Some of the devs for DK are indeed lifted from the 3D Mario/Odyssey crew, some are the young/fresh bloods, some may even be lifted from other teams in EPD, but it won't be at the expense of any other series. The devs that went from Mario to DK will have their roles filled appropriately to continue whatever in the works for Mario.

Hi BTW. I also crossed over from the dk vine forums :)
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Amazing username and avatar combo
 
KremlingKuthroat said:
Hyle of DK Vine claims that he was "lead to believe" it'll be a new team that's purpose is to be the new dedicated team for DK. This team was allegedly formed from Miyamoto and younger EPD staff that grew up with the Country games so K. Rool and other Rare elements may be making a grand return. I can't necessarily confirm that, but that's what I've heard.

DK also has a new brand management team believe it or not. When being interviewed about the Donkey Kong Adventure DLC for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, the Director of the game mentioned that they consulted with a "The DK IP team", and he referred to them as a "new team" back in 2018. Here's the video: http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?showtopic=14021
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I've no idea how credible those sources are but considering how things have been handled at Nintendo lately, I do feel they have been slowly moving towards a new model where dedicated teams will be handling important ips to manage a steady flow of new releases (both new games and remakes).
Take Metroid for example: we had Samus Returns and MP4 announced (which admitted had troubled development and got delayed) then Dread, this year MPR, probably more remasters will follow before MP4 and by 2025 I'd expect another 2D Metroid, and more games after that.

In a similar fashion I do believe DK is also very important and Nintendo have been working on the next title a few years now with a long term plan of more DK games to follow. Every year I'm disappointed that we don't see an announcement but at the same time I'm getting even more convinced that it's coming. Even if we don't see a new DK in the next five years I will assume that a game was actually in development but for some reasons was cancelled. I don't think for a moment that they have just abandoned it.
 
Rampo360 said:
In a similar fashion I do believe DK is also very important and Nintendo have been working on the next title a few years now with a long term plan of more DK games to follow. Every year I'm disappointed that we don't see an announcement but at the same time I'm getting even more convinced that it's coming. Even if we don't see a new DK in the next five years I will assume that a game was actually in development but for some reasons was cancelled. I don't think for a moment that they have just abandoned it.
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I agree. Even if you disregard insider stuff regarding EPDs DK, or VV DK, or what have you, there is still the common sense aspect to all of this DK talk- Universal is putting (what I assume to be) millions upon millions of dollars into the DK series through their theme parks alone. The first DK park next year in Osaka, 2025 has the Orlando park, and DK has a chance of coming to any Universal Park in the future (Hollywood? Europe, if Universal makes the move there?), and it just simply would not make sense if Universal had talks with Nintendo, Ninty said "yeah, were kind of done with DK now. No games in the pipeline, we still want the park though" and Universal agreed to go through with it. The kind of money being thrown around shows that DK is an evergreen series again, were justg waiting for the fruits of Nintendo's labor.

Pair that aspect with the kind of info Professor Chops has mentioned, and the bigger picture for DK comes together. And speaking of Chop's original post, has there been any previous mention of VV's DK outside of their post and the DK Vine forums that anyone is aware of? I learned of it in 2021 and tried to find any supplementary info of it online but came up dry until this thread was mentioned in the DK Vine forums days ago.
 
Dante Kong said:
Not exactly, because the notion that the "Odyssey Team" is doing DK is a half truth. My understanding is that DKs team is a new addition to EPD for DKs permanent home. Some of the devs for DK are indeed lifted from the 3D Mario/Odyssey crew, some are the young/fresh bloods, some may even be lifted from other teams in EPD, but it won't be at the expense of any other series. The devs that went from Mario to DK will have their roles filled appropriately to continue whatever in the works for Mario.

Hi BTW. I also crossed over from the dk vine forums :)
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There's a sort of precedent. Before Galaxy, the Tokyo team was simply "EAD Tokyo". The key staff includes producer Takao Shimizu (accidentally, one of the directors of DK '94) and game director Yoshiaki Koizumi. After the success of Galaxy, Koizumi was promoted, and a new team was formed with him as producer -- EAD Tokyo 2, which then developed Galaxy 2 and the other 3D Mario Games. Shimizu's team was renamed EAD Tokyo 1 and focused on simple projects such as the Louvre guide for 3DS.

EPD8 (Tokyo) currently has two key figures: Koichi Hayashida and Kenta Motokura. After directing the previous Mario games, Hayashida was promoted to producer for Odyssey (sharing the role with Koizumi), while Motokura was the design director of Galaxy 2 - 3D World, and the director of Odyssey. I think he might be due for a promotion soon. So either Motokura or Hayashida might become producers of a newly-formed EPD11 (a second Tokyo team), with the other holding the producer role at EPD8 -- kinda like Koizumi and Shimizu after Galaxy 1.

This would explain the confusion around "it's the Odyssey team! No, it's a new team" and the two job recruitments. It might be a new team (EPD11) with key staff from Odyssey (say, Motokura as producer). Still, in the context of EPD a "team" is a handful of people working on a given IP (usually the producer, the director, and some designers ). Most designers, programmers, and artists move freely between one project and another.
 
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MrGab said:
Thanks for the insights @KremlingKuthroat and @Professor Chops . I'm happy DK is alive and coming, just wish Nintendo decide for end Switch 2023 with a bang with this DK game, but everything points this will be one of stars of Switch 2.

​

​

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Yeah I'm not sure if it'll be one of the last games on Switch or one of the first games on the next console. This DK game and MP4 fall in the same category imo.

Btw, one more thing I wanted to add relating to Super Nintendo World. There's a Nintendo YouTuber named Mike Odysssey. He mentioned that he has a buddy that works construction at Super Nintendo World, and according to him, Nintendo is planning to have DK become one of their pillar franchises up their with Mario and Pokemon as a multimedia juggernaut. Here's the video:

[1:25:50-1:30:00 mark]
He basically says that in terms of the rollout of the parks Mario is Phase 1, DK is Phase 2, and Pokemon is Phase 3.

Since Pokemon has already entered into an agreement with Universal for theme parks in late 2021 (https://www.usj.co.jp/company/company_e/2021/1006.html#:~:text=Universal Studios Japan and The Pokémon Company will enter a,and creativity beginning in 2022.), we can assume he's right about Pokemon being the Phase 3 expansion. If I were to guess Zelda is the phase 4 expansion, and if those Giant Freaking Robot rumors of a Zelda movie are true, it'd make sense that a Zelda theme park and a Zelda movie would happen after a DK movie. The DK movie to me just seems like its obviously happening as the next Nintendo film due to the heavy presence of DK in the Mario movie and the fact that they've already casted Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen, as well as the fact that the theme park will already be open before a DK movie launches in 2024 in Japan. I don't see why they cast Cranky Kong and flesh out this entire Kong world in great detail in the second act of the movie and even have an entire army of Kongs driving on Rainbow Road in the climax of the movie if they're not spinning that off as it's own film.

Admittedly, DK is by far the weirdest Nintendo franchise by a mile atm. It's getting all this love and heavy investment in terms of a theme park, a huge presence in the Mario movie, a rumored new movie, and a rumored new game, but the public doesn't view DK as a major Nintendo franchise anymore which saddens me. A lot could change in the next couple of years though assuming Nintendo's plan to position DK as an A-list IP goes according to plan. Hyle of DK Vine and a few others such as Andres Restart and the aforementioned Mike Odyssey have stated that Nintendo's goal is to make DK a top-tier IP again so I think it's safe to believe this to be the case :)
 
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Gingerbread Man said:
There's a sort of precedent. Before Galaxy, the Tokyo team was simply "EAD Tokyo". The key staff includes producer Takao Shimizu (accidentally, one of the directors of DK '94) and game director Yoshiaki Koizumi. After the success of Galaxy, Koizumi was promoted, and a new team was formed with him as producer -- EAD Tokyo 2, which then developed Galaxy 2 and the other 3D Mario Games. Shimizu's team was renamed EAD Tokyo 1 and focused on simple projects such as the Louvre guide for 3DS.

EPD8 (Tokyo) currently has two key figures: Koichi Hayashida and Kenta Motokura. After directing the previous Mario games, Hayashida was promoted to producer for Odyssey (sharing the role with Koizumi), while Motokura was the design director of Galaxy 2 - 3D World, and the director of Odyssey. I think he might be due for a promotion soon. So either Motokura or Hayashida might become producers of a newly-formed EPD11 (a second Tokyo team), with the other holding the producer role at EPD8 -- kinda like Koizumi and Shimizu after Galaxy 1.

This would explain the confusion around "it's the Odyssey team! No, it's a new team" and the two job recruitments. It might be a new team (EPD11) with key staff from Odyssey (say, Motokura as producer). Still, in the context of EPD a "team" is a handful of people working on a given IP (usually the producer, the director, and some designers ). Most designers, programmers, and artists move freely between one project and another.
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EPD11 already exists though, it"s the Smart Device Group.
 
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A 'new team' could be contained within EPD 8 - it doesn't have to mean a new production group was formed. EPD 5 handle Splatoon and Animal Crossing, for example, and EPD 10 are (probably) handling both Pikmin 4 and 2D Mario. EPD 8 being home to two teams handling two franchises wouldn't be that unusual.
 
MisterSpo said:
A 'new team' could be contained within EPD 8 - it doesn't have to mean a new production group was formed. EPD 5 handle Splatoon and Animal Crossing, for example, and EPD 10 are (probably) handling both Pikmin 4 and 2D Mario. EPD 8 being home to two teams handling two franchises wouldn't be that unusual.
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There's also precedent: There were two groups within EAD Tokyo before the restructuring.

edit: Oh, I see someone already brought this up earlier.
 
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See, the whole story about Vicarious Visions working on DK is just the conflicting detail to me; because it doesn't match the development on the Crash Bandicoot side of things (talks on doing something with the IP was ever present.. Activision never stopped pursuiting some way to bring the franchise back during the 2010~2016 hiatus; and the N. Sane Trilogy project was greenlit by late 2015, with partial Sony funding);

But otherwise, I don't have anything else to add.. the tale is already as old as time, and I don't doubt a second that something was in the works for DK after Tropical Freeze and before EPD taking over (which, again, I do believe on Hyle's original reports, and Nate's reassurance);

As I said on the DK Vine forum, no point on stressing over that alleged project; I'm glad N.Sane Trilogy was made, and DK was given the respect he deserves internally at Nintendo. We're on the good timeline for everyone.
 
If Nintendo is real about making DK a big, long-lasting brand, then it makes sense for them to be developing a 3D game.

DKC Returns already went with the whole 2D grand revival angle, so it would be weird to do that again.
 
KremlingKuthroat said:
Yeah I'm not sure if it'll be one of the last games on Switch or one of the first games on the next console. This DK game and MP4 fall in the same category imo.

Btw, one more thing I wanted to add relating to Super Nintendo World. There's a Nintendo YouTuber named Mike Odysssey. He mentioned that he has a buddy that works construction at Super Nintendo World, and according to him, Nintendo is planning to have DK become one of their pillar franchises up their with Mario and Pokemon as a multimedia juggernaut. Here's the video:

[1:25:50-1:30:00 mark]
He basically says that in terms of the rollout of the parks Mario is Phase 1, DK is Phase 2, and Pokemon is Phase 3.

Since Pokemon has already entered into an agreement with Universal for theme parks in late 2021 (https://www.usj.co.jp/company/company_e/2021/1006.html#:~:text=Universal Studios Japan and The Pokémon Company will enter a,and creativity beginning in 2022.), we can assume he's right about Pokemon being the Phase 3 expansion. If I were to guess Zelda is the phase 4 expansion, and if those Giant Freaking Robot rumors of a Zelda movie are true, it'd make sense that a Zelda theme park and a Zelda movie would happen after a DK movie. The DK movie to me just seems like its obviously happening as the next Nintendo film due to the heavy presence of DK in the Mario movie and the fact that they've already casted Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen, as well as the fact that the theme park will already be open before a DK movie launches in 2024 in Japan. I don't see why they cast Cranky Kong and flesh out this entire Kong world in great detail in the second act of the movie and even have an entire army of Kongs driving on Rainbow Road in the climax of the movie if they're not spinning that off as it's own film.

Admittedly, DK is by far the weirdest Nintendo franchise by a mile atm. It's getting all this love and heavy investment in terms of a theme park, a huge presence in the Mario movie, a rumored new movie, and a rumored new game, but the public doesn't view DK as a major Nintendo franchise anymore which saddens me. A lot could change in the next couple of years though assuming Nintendo's plan to position DK as an A-list IP goes according to plan. Hyle of DK Vine and a few others such as Andres Restart and the aforementioned Mike Odyssey have stated that Nintendo's goal is to make DK a top-tier IP again so I think it's safe to believe this to be the case :)
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Check out our Theme park thread, and you'll already see Pokemon is in parts of the park. It seems clear that once DK is done work will immediately begin to integrate Pokemon more. Now, I don't know they're expanding anything or if they'll tear down stuff, but it seems clear Universal is not resting on their laurels with Pokemon.

 
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KremlingKuthroat said:
Yeah I'm not sure if it'll be one of the last games on Switch or one of the first games on the next console. This DK game and MP4 fall in the same category imo.

Btw, one more thing I wanted to add relating to Super Nintendo World. There's a Nintendo YouTuber named Mike Odysssey. He mentioned that he has a buddy that works construction at Super Nintendo World, and according to him, Nintendo is planning to have DK become one of their pillar franchises up their with Mario and Pokemon as a multimedia juggernaut. Here's the video:

[1:25:50-1:30:00 mark]
He basically says that in terms of the rollout of the parks Mario is Phase 1, DK is Phase 2, and Pokemon is Phase 3.
Click to expand...

Hearing them say Splatoon is bigger than DK, and seeing the comment on the right side of the video, "Splatoon is vastly more popular than DK, and that is as it should be." I mean, Splatoon as a franchise is bigger with active gamers sure, but DK is a household name. And like damn, there hasn't even been a new DK game since Splatoon's inception and that is no fault on DK's popularity. What is up with this disrespect for DK? If it isn't "shoulda been Metroid," it's "shoulda been Splatoon." ffs

Nintendo's negligence on the IP has been extremely damaging to the brand, and it shows. Nintendo might be trying to take DK serious again, but it looks like it's going to be an uphill climb to get others to feel the same way. Hopefully, the hill isn't that big this time like it was in 2013.
 
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