Nightdive Studios Wants To Remaster Titles Like Eternal Darkness, But Hasn't Had Any Luck With Nintendo

I'm happy Nintendo doesn't give their IPs to any studio that comes knocking.

They’re idiots for not trusting Nightdive. They’ve proven they know what they’re doing over and over, and this would be no skin off Nintendo’s nose.

I'm pretty sure Nightdive would do a grand job porting Eternal Darkness and Geist. Can't think of anyone better tbh.

If it were that easy, Playasia would have released uncensored ports of Xenoblade X and Tokyo Mirage Sessions.

That is actually a real shame. I would welcome a remaster done properly.

I would love a remaster of Eternal Darkness. It’s one of the reasons I keep my GameCube around.

Nightdive knows what they’re doing with their remasters. Any company could feel safe trusting them to work on an older IP imho.

I feel like Nintendo is intentionally ceasing communication to spread out their releases. I'm not surprised about it, but I'm also not too impressed by it.

I say if Nintendo has no plans to do something with the game in house then let Nightdive handle it, they have already proven they do great work at remastering games.

Eternal Darkness on switch? Yes please! No other game I Know pretends to erase your save file or makes you think your power went out. Only thing close I've seen is the glitch fake out on Arkham Asylum.

I gave up on Eternal darkness 2 which was teased in the game but never happened. A second chance on switch for the original needs to happen.

This is so depressing. Nintendo can be infuriating sometimes.

@GrailUK Kudos to mentioning two underrated GCN experiences.

@GrailUK
Wasn't Geist made by a non nintendo company?

I know the developer's head said a few years ago that he'd like to revisit the game and/ or series.

NightDive, Panic Button, and Inti Creates are all tippy top tier as far as I'm concerned. Although im happy Nintendo isn't giving their IPs away to just anyone (like @sanderev said above) it's still a bit nonsense that Nintendo themselves have not done anything with that highly sought after IP in forever. I love Nintendo's quality control but Night Dive is just equally amazing. NightDive would remaster in their typical fashion, bringing it up to current day standards with all new options and whatnot. Ugh... Now I want this really badly.

@Kiwi_Unlimited I know Nintendo published it. The company that made it was American, but I don't think they are still going. (I'll be honest, I can't remember their name.)

There is one game i want back, Geist! But i want a remake of that game.

I'm not 100% sure if Nintendo is gun shy about 3rd parties remastering their games. I just think Nintendo is gun shy about Eternal Darkness. Didn't Dennis Dyack approach Nintendo at the start of the Wii U generation to either make a sequel to Eternal Darkness or make Shadow of the Eternals Wii U exclusive? And despite being a massive Silicon Knights fan Shadow of the Eternals is basically vaporware... Eternal Darkness never sold well on the Gamecube and with how Silicon Knights went full 3rd party I think really soured that relationship.

Nintendo has worked with a number of 3rd parties to make remasters of their previous games. They allowed Grezzo to do Link to the Past (GBA), Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on 3DS. Tantalus did Twilight Princess HD and Skyward Sword HD. They had Mercury Steam remake Metroid 2 and then make Dread a project Nintendo could never get off the ground internally. I just think depending on the IP Nintendo can get very gun shy either due to licencing issues or just bad blood between them and the original creators. What if Eternal Darkness Switch does well? Would they have to get a deal done with whoever owns the carcass of Silicon Knights to make a sequel? Would they have to bring in Dennis Dyack? So many questions that I think Nintendo does not want to open that Pandora's Box.

Is a remaster enough? Technically we're 3 generations ahead, although Switch is really just a generation and half ahead of Gamecube.

Nintendo simply doesn't trust any developer with their IP. People think it's easy and simple to give them access to it, but there are many reasons why they might not want to cooperate, and not all of them are down to just quality. Confidentiality is also a massive factor. For Eternal Darkness which has been pitched here, it's possible that Nintendo has plans of their own.

@Wexter Grezzo didn't do the GBA version of A Link to the Past, Grezzo didn't exist yet. Nintendo did it themselves with Capcom making Four Swords.

There are so many games that are worthy of a rerelease/remaster that will most likely never receive one, including:

-Faxanadu
-Clash at Demonhead
-Maniac Mansion
-Little Nemo
-Willow
-The Adventures of Willy Beamish
-Snatcher
-Lunar 1 and 2
-Suikoden
-Eternal Darkness
-Astro Boy (GBA)
-Ninja 5-0
-Ninja Town
Panzer Dragoon Saga
-Dynamite Cop
-Shining Force 3
-Burning Rangers

@BanjoPickles I'm sure some of the games on your list will receive a remaster. I mean, Famicom Detective Club did, why wouldn't Eternal Darkness? It's just a matter of availability and priorities, there are not enough developers in the entire world to remaster everything while also working on new games.

Let them remastered it, Nintendo. Eternal Darkness, Geist, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and GoldenEye 007 remastered by Nightdive Studios would be fantastic.

@BanjoPickles I'm sure Lunar 1 & 2 got lots of remastered/remakes already.

If Nintendo were just shy about working with third parties, but willing to remaster and bring forward old titles, they could easily found a studio to do this. They honestly just don't care about these older titles until they have a financial gap to fill.

Just look at the NES and SNES minis. They were only created because the Wii U was failing and they wanted hardware to sell. I'd very much assume it's the same story with all the Wii U ports too. They are just filling the gap, not preserving a legacy.

Wasn't there an article a couple of days ago on how Nintendo doesn't buy other developers but lends out their IP to them with some oversight over the project? Maybe there is another reason why they are hesitant?

Night dive has an amazing track record so I'd love to see them update a classic like Eternal Darkness.

@sanderev
But Nighdive does amazing Ports.
Those Guys are actually Fans that made their Hobby to a real Profession.
They're working on Ports as Doom 64 way before there was the "Indy Hype" .

@BanjoPickles I'd die in a nanosecond if Snatcher was finally ported to new systems. I've been wanting that for decades. I first bought it back in 1995 for Sega CD and have loved it ever since. Really needed a sequel though.

Have Nightdive actually had any experience with gamecube ports? Because I can see why Nintendo aren't interested in them making N64 ports (they're already doing that themselves). I don't know why everything has to be written so as to make Nintendo seem like the bad guys. Nightdive are charging £15 for Turok alone! I'm not paying £15 each for N64 games when Nintendo will make them part of their online service. If they're shy about gamecube it means those games are eventually on the horizon too.

Shadow Man is also £16, N64 games on the Wii U were half that price!

@Richnj those are N64 games. I asked about the Gamecube

I look at terrible remaster/remakes like XIII and the first Secret of Mana and I wonder why, when a studio like Nightdive comes along, do publishers not trust them. Grezzo did a meh job with TPHD and Link's Awakening was just ok so, why not trust a dev with a better track record than them.
Edit: Tantalus did TPHD.

Judging by Turok and Shadowman, I'd much rather keep playing Eternal Darkness on Dolphin.. don't get me wrong, I love ED (it's my favourite game) but a remaster would require too much work on all new textures, effects and everything else that a remake would take about the same time and be a much better result.

I do understand the sentiment that it would be for those who haven't played, but you need to understand that I don't care about them...

@Scapetti you do realize that Nightdive's ports are basically a whole new game's worth of work, right? makes perfect sense to charge the price of a new indie game for these remasters.

also, Nintendo's ports of old games are usually just glorified ROM's. whereas Nightdive develop the ports to add new features, provide options for whether to have as close to the original experience as possible or to have something more modern (ex. fog and save states in Turok). not only do they develop these features and their remaster engine, they also y'know, have to bargain for the licenses in the first place, which is a lengthy, expensive process when you're digging up the cult games Nightdive typically do. also, you're just blatantly ignoring how Nightdive are not Nintendo and don't have a suite of titles to justify setting up a discrete subscription model for their remasters like Nintendo or Xbox have. ridiculous comparison. what Nightdive charge for their remasters is actually really industry standard, looking at all of the recent ports of the older Final Fantasy titles from Square Enix.

@Half-ShellHero What makes you think that Nightdive have a better track record than Grezzo? That's a laughable take. Nightdive has never worked on a game as great and important as Ocarina of Time, they have only worked on B or C tier IPs, and they have mainly worked on first person shooters, that are far easier to develop/remaster.

Don't get me wrong, I would welcome them to work on remastering some of Nintendo's back catalog, but they sincerely haven't done anything to write home about yet. Nintendo games would require a lot more work than anything they've worked on so far.

Also TP HD was done by Tantalus.

@TheRealMW I'm not sh***ing on Nightdive. I'm just saying I understand why Nintendo want to do it their way. My point about the price is that if Nintendo charged that much they wouldn't get away with it. You can defend Nightdive but that wasn't at all my point. I just don't know why everyone is like "bad Nintendo, they should partner with Nightdive". I could do without all the fancy extras. Nintendo's games were great as they were

@Troll_Decimator this is my point also. And have they worked on a gamecube game before?

@Azuris I haven't seen or played any of their games yet. They might be great, I don't know. But they are small, and only recently active.

They have done a few smaller games, sure. But nothing really important. What if they'd mess up a remaster like Eternal Darkness, Nintendo would get all the blame.

For example, look at the remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Gamefreak gets the blame because some people don't like them (I think they are good remakes), but they had absolutely nothing to do with them.

@Kiwi_Unlimited Geist is developed by n-Space, the same dev who made the Call of Duty and James Bond games for Nintendo DS. They are defunct now but would be nice to see some of their members return for a Geist remastered.

Eternal Darkness is one of those gems that isn't necessarily executed to its full potential, but there are so many fantastic ideas in there, that I will always have this in my collection. A remaster that brings some of the mechanics a little more up to date would be a day one for me.
I usually do a run every couple of years, I enjoyed the combat when it came out, much more so than Resident Evil, but it hasn't aged well. As for the Sanity effects, they are still brilliant, even if the underlying mechanic is a little too easy to circumvent (even on hardest run). I sometimes let my character go a little insane just to see what the game throws my way .

Nightdive would do amazing work with Eternal Darkness. Nintendo should consider this.

@echoplex Having to buy the arcade archives Nintendo games individually was the worst. I'm so glad they're taking the subscription approach now. So if they say no to individual ports for their legacy consoles I'm glad! I know they'll release them somehow.

I don't think Mario 3D All Stars was limited just because of Mario 64. Let's hope they add gamecube games in the same way.

@Troll_Decimator Oh that's right about Tantalus. They had issues with TP that should have been easy to deal with.

@BTB20 I forgot about that! Sorry been a while since I look it up because this was off the top of my head. In that case, Capcom helped and they also made the Oracle games and Minish Cap. But the stuff I said about Eternal Darkness I think still stands.

Nintendo allows 3rd party studios to remaster/remake their older titles, as we have have seen from Grezzo with Ocarina of Time 3D + Majora's Mask 3D + Link's Awakening 2019, Tantalus with Twilight Princess HD + Skyward Sword HD, Mercury Steam with Metroid Samus Returns (+ Metroid Dread, which is a brand new game), and more recently WayForward with the upcoming Advanced Wars remake.

I just don't think Nintendo cares about Eternal Darkness or any of Nightdive's other proposals.

@westman98 That and Dennis Dyack is a bit of an egomaniac. Love the guy's work, but the legal hell that Blood Omen; Legacy of Kain was in was because of a legal fight between Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics. Notice how Konami has not re-released Twin Snakes despite it running on the same engine as Metal Gear Solid 2? I wonder if some of that has to do with legal contracts Nintendo could have had with Silicon Knights.

Just some thoughts I've had since reading the article as it seems Nintendo has been rather open with Pokemon, Metroid, Smash Bros. and Zelda having external teams work on those IPs. So there has to be something up with Eternal Darkness for them to have never revisted it at all.

EDIT: I also forgot about the legal fight they got into with Epic over Too Human. Yeah, I think there is a legal thing keeping Nintendo from revisiting this property. Wha Happened did an episode on that saga : https://youtu.be/Y3TIfOKG74Q

@Half-ShellHero What do you mean? TP HD was not a bad remaster, was it?

@dimi My thoughts exactly. Because of its N64 origins Eternal Darkness was graphically dated even when it launched in 2002. I absolutely love this game and would much prefer a faithful remake as opposed to a remaster which would involve plastering new textures and lighting over the same angular geometry. 😩

@Scapetti I don't know but it's pretty irrelevant, newer games are usually easier to work on, and they have done N64 stuff so GameCube would be no problem.

@Troll_Decimator It was a great remaster! They cleaned up the textures, fixed the lighting (the original had major over bloom), fixed some odd glitches, added a new optional dungeon. They did a great job!

@BloodyMurder If I may, how was Xenoblade X censored?

Nightdive have been doing amazing work with their remasters and Nintendo would be fools not to let them work on their games too. Let's be honest Nintendo's efforts with the likes of Mario 64 are pretty embarrassing compared to what these guys have done

@Mariotag They put an extra layer of clothing on the female character who is canonically 13-years-old when in a swimsuit... didn't stop them revealing Elma's well... you get the idea.

@sanderev Nightdive isn't just anyone.
They have done many proper praised remasters for many years.

@GrailUK
yeah they have a very good track record and they have definitely proven they are capable of working with switch.

Ive been happy to see companies like Nightdive and M2 doing great things with ports and emulation on modern systems.

@GrailUK I agree. Someone here called Nightdive a random nobody, and yet all their remasters of famous old games were praised.

Games that only ran at like 15 FPS on N64, ran at 60 FPS when remastered when Nightdive were done with them. The blurry graphics were also fixed.

The still N64 Exclusive Turok 3 should have had an upgrade too, but probably harder to get the assets than the 2 first which were also on PC.

@Mgalens Yeah. Nightdive isn't just upscaling a game cheaply and call it a day. They fix things everywhere in these games and is why it takes time between each remaster.
On top of it they have to add new settings for modern systems.

In fact i think Nightdive is the #1 existing remaster people for very old games.
They know exactly what to do without ruining the games.

@Ventilator I'm going to pretend I'm Nintendo for a bit. What projects have Nightdive proposed that would make me money or would not conflict with future plans to put let's say Gamecube on Expansion Pack? We have Grezzo, Tantalus, Mercery Steam, MAGES, Wayforward and our own internal teams working on remasters of our top IPs and our odd obscure title (Famicom Detective Club and Advanced Wars). Now sell me on why we should let Nightdive remaster our older back catalogue?

Not saying they shouldn't allow it, but it has to make sense from a Nintendo perspective. If you cannot make it make sense from a Nintendo perspective they won't do it.

Also, remember Nintendo needs to justify Nightdive making Eternal Darkness from scratch as Silicon Knights is defunct and odds are Nintendo does not have the original assets or Sourcecode sitting around for this one as that was probably stored on Silicon Knights' servers.

@Wexter Nintendo hired a unknown developer (Straight Right) in Australia to remaster Zelda games for Wii U, which of course will be ported to Switch at some point.
Nintendo even allowed Indies to use their IP's. Nintendo isn't as strict as they used to be. They loosened up when Wii U launched.

I guess the developers of the Steamworld games didn't get greenlight from Nintendo to remake the legendary "Ice Climber" from 1985 either since it must be 2 years since they mentioned it.

I'm not sure that Nintendo owns ALL the rights to the original ED anyway? The license to the IP sure, but to the actual code? Silicon Knights stuff can get really complicated to get rights to to begin with with Denis Dyack being, well... who he is. It's also possible that Nintendo wouldn't even want to bother with the DRAMA that would ensue (and Denis Dyack would probably NOT want any remake without his own involvement).

Let’s be honest, Eternal Darkness doesn’t need a remaster. If something then a remake.
Not sure if they can handle that.

@Ventilator Hahaha I think you misunderstood what I was saying! I'm saying is while I'd love an Eternal Darkness remaster it has to make sense for Nintendo. Nightdive is a great studio, but the way they worded the tweet made Nintendo seem like this grumpy grinch. Which we know is not the case. I just think we as fans sometimes suck thinking like Nintendo. Which is fair we're fans! I just am not sure if Nightdive proposed anything which makes sense for the Big-N.

@RudyC3 Yeah I brought that up earlier. Dyack has a history of suing former partners from Crystal Dynamics to Epic games. I also think part of the reason we've not gotten it yet is either a legal issue or a fear of opening Pandora's Box. Maybe Dyack will sue Nintendo because they used a story idea he pitched to them for an Eternal Darkness 2. I mean he did that when Crystal Dynamics started making Soul Reaver... so I never doubt he'd do it.

@Troll_Decimator It has alot of frame rate issues and weird texture glitches. They could have dropped a single patch for the game that fixed them. It's not a terrible port but when you compare it to the Windwaker HD remaster, it's not up to par.

@Half-ShellHero This is honestly the first time I've heard anyone have issues with the remaster. It is a far better experience than the original, which was a blurry brown mess. I think it's just you to be honest.

Would totally buy an Eternal Darkness remaster. That was such a unique game and I got rid of my GameCube games many years ago. If I could just pick two GameCube games to bring to Switch that aren't on Switch yet they would be wind waker and Eternal darkness.

@Scapetti
the issue with the subscription approach is that unlike something like gamepass there is no option to buy the games at all.

That means the games are entirely dependent on a service.

looking at the recent announcement of the closure of the wiiu and 3ds eshops, people can still play their downloaded games even once the service is down, with the nso once the service stops or a game is delisted then it is unable to be played.

again its not about the service being available but more about the lack of other options.

@Troll_Decimator No. There was much discussion about it when it released. It's a known thing.https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/183128-the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-hd/73391102
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?view=detail&mid=266D95A9330037814B2F266D95A9330037814B2F&q=twilight princess hd issues&shtp=GetUrl&shid=f7fa2539-a4e7-49d9-9f0f-eb01aecd68f2&shtk=RXZlcnl0aGluZyBXcm9uZyBXaXRoIFRoZSBMZWdlbmQgb2YgWmVsZGEgVHdpbGlnaHQgUHJpbmNlc3MgSEQ%3D&shdk=VHdpbGlnaHQgUHJpbmNlc3MgaXMgbXkgcGljIGZvciB0aGUgYmVzdCBnYW1lIGluIHRoZSBaZWxkYSBmcmFuY2hpc2UhIEJ1dCBldmVuIEkgd29u4oCZdCBkZW55IHRoYXQgaXQgaGFzIHNvbWUgcHJvYmxlbXMuIE5leHQgRXZlcnl0aGluZyBXcm9uZyBXaXRoIHZpZGVvOiBTb21ldGhpbmcgZnJvbSBhIGZyYW5jaHNpZSBJIGhhdmVuJ3Qgc2lubmVkIGluIGEgd2hpbGU%3D&shhk=nQ6F3fa8pCqW4hqpMtOS3jqD6lZe5vySCP57nIusUvo%3D&form=VDSHOT&shth=OVP.lUS_Kx9XBddHIxOucpFi_gEsDh

@Truegamer79 metal gear solid 1 does something similar on a certain boss.

I'm not interested in remasters. I'd love a remake of eternal darkness, even exactly the same with new graphics, but I've already played games i like enough times, & i have too much a backlog to replay older games. If others would buy it, there's no reason it shouldn't be remastered, IMO, tho.

@Mgalens the games are stored in the app. They're not running off the cloud. Whenever that happens in like ten years or whatever they could just permanently unlock them. The service will likely carry over to the next console too. Plus you can always buy the old games on the old consoles

Night Dive is great.
I really wish they work with Square Enix on remastering Ion Storm's games (Thief Trilogy, Deus Ex 1 and 2, Daikatana, Anachronox, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3).
It would be great especially if Deus Ex can have vanilla, PS2 and Revision content on consoles and PC in one package, while it gets regularly updated with Caustic Creatives' additions to the Revision mod pack.

What's that? Something cool that Nintendo refuses to do? In other news water is wet. Stupid Nintendo being stupid, as always.

@MetalMan Oh no you mean Nintendo turned down a proposal from a company they've never worked with before to completely reverse engineer, port and then enhance a game that is for a fringe IP they own, and one that did not even break half a million units in sales when it first came out? An IP whose original development studio is defunct due to them suing previous partners? One that sold off all their assets probably not limited to the discs or hard drives that contain the original assets and source code that Nintendo probably does not have access to? That would probably cost more to make than what Nintendo is odds are going to make back on? And might I add a game that will probably be better to just store in their back pocket when they inevitably release on a Gamecube emulator for when they expand the Expansion Pack to include Gamecube games? Oooooh, no poor Nintendo for being so dumb.

I'm not trying to be that guy, but while Eternal Darkness port on Switch sounds cool, yet calling Nintendo dumb when this is a very shaky business proposal is itself a very dumb thing to say.

Shameful Nintendo.. Nightdive have long since proven they are masters of their craft.

@vio Instead of copying and pasting what I wrote above, can you please explain why this is shameful? The more I've thought about this article throughout the day, the more it has made sense why Nintendo did not greenlight this—outside of Eternal Darkness probably having legal issues around it (just look up Dennis Dyack and Silicon Knights' previous legal history). Can you just think of the business reasons why they said no? This is a very fringe IP even by Nintendo standards (estimated 400k sales on Gamecube), and they'd probably have to build the game from scratch. There is no PC ports of the game, the assets are probably long gone, and all they'd have is an ISO file as their base to work from. You tell me how this makes any business sense for Nintendo to greenlight? Instead, Nintendo can just dump the ISO on a Gamecube emulator when they extend the Expansion Pack to include Gamecube games in a few years.

Eternal Darkness and Nightdive Studios is a match made in heaven. Nintendo has to be able to see that! I'll never forget the sense of awe I felt exploring different times as different people, and especially exploring beneath that mansion. Would be perfect on Switch.

Would be awesome if Nightdive had the freedom to expand on the psychological aspects. Maybe some disconnecting joycon, or who knows what they'd think of...

I love when someone says "nintendo is pushing me toward piracy". No one is pushing you towards piracy, you're doing it out of your own selfish desires and even if nintendo did remaster half these games you'd still probably pirate them. Shut the hell up.

With that said, its not as easy as just remastering a game, people have no idea the politics that go into this nonsense. My friends in the industry explained how much of a nightmare it an be to remaster an old game, especially if its a licensed property and the game engine owned by some company that doesn't exist anymore.

its not just as easy as dumping the game's content into unreal or something and then all the legalities involved.

Also the game didn't even sell half a million units. I can understand why nintendo would be like....eeeehhh maybe we shouldn't pour upwards of 10 million into remastering a game that not that many people bought in the first place.

And before anyone jumps down my throat, yes I want this game remastered as much as the next guy, but I also understand that doing things like this is a lot more complicated than just 'lol remake it'.

@Scapetti
The issue is that there is no guarantee that they will carry over, for example the snes games on the 3ds virtual console launched after the account system was implemented on wiiu and 3ds, but purchases from wiiu didn't carry over, likewise the virtual console itself didn't carry over to switch.

It also feels unlikely that they would just unlock the games, people were expecting the 3d all stars games to be available to purchase separate after.

in terms of buying games on the original systems there are also some major issues when trying to do that, such as the age of the hardware, having to replace battery backups and the issue regarding price, Games like earthbound, Suikoden 2, Symphony of the night and Kirby air ride (at least in europe) are going for ridiculous prices and its not like any of the money will be going to nintendo, this is what the argument is regarding emulation in the tweets above.

@Mgalens I covered this in a comment on a separate article but to your point, I think Nintendo are in a far better place now with their 2nd generation account system. In the past, they just never planned it into their development cycle and weren't forward thinking enough in terms of user account management to seriously consider it. Note that the Switch's account system was what came after merging their handheld and home console divisions together.

Nintendo are getting there painfully slowly, but they are getting there.

@AugustusOxy "its not as easy as just remastering a game, people have no idea the politics that go into this nonsense."

I'm so glad to see several ppl here talking sense. 👍

I'd also add that I've read something before about Nintendo also wanting to work with others who understands Nintendo's DNA. Perhaps this studio hasn't quite articulated or demonstrated that level of understanding well enough yet?

@jsty3105
yeah it is definitely an improvement in terms of account system and i do hope that the switch successor has BC both physically and digitally.

i think it is because of the improved account system and the concept of the switch being the most appealing in a while that im sad that the VC is gone, this is the system i would have loved to buy the VC games on (though even if its not VC i would buy the games on the NSO if it was an option)

@Ventilator "Nintendo hired a unknown developer (Straight Right) in Australia to remaster Zelda games for Wii U, which of course will be ported to Switch at some point."

Apparently they spent months convincing Nintendo they were good enough and the ME3 and Deus Ex releases helped them be less unknown - https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/04/tantalus_spent_several_months_convincing_nintendo_it_could_handle_zelda_twilight_princess_hd

"Tantalus spent "several months" convincing Nintendo it could handle a project of this size and stature"

Reckon everyone complaining (not necessarily talking about you, Ventilator!) about the lack of a Eternal Darkness remaster should read it for insight into what actually forms part of the process.

I get it that Nintendo doesn't want to just give one of their best games to anyone, and I'm glad they don't, but whoever eventually brings back Eternal Darkness in a way that makes it better than the original, is my hero. Whoever makes it impossible to happen, is the villain here, Nintendo...

I think Nintendo would look at this as a game that won’t generate any return on investment. Yep it’s a cult classic, but if it barely scratched half a mil in the first place it’s not coming back. Add to that it only seemed to review well in the States. If GC comes to Nintendo Online it might surface but I can’t see a reimagining/remaster happening.

@echoplex Nintendo days usually do nice things for fans, like when they gave away that Zelda collection disc for GameCube. I guess that was 20 years ago though 😂

@BloodWolfe why would Nintendo be stupid?

Yeah, f**k Nintendo. They are so far up their own asses. Their first party titles have been boring for a looong time. They got no imagination or don't look forward for the next big thing when it comes to games. Their last great title was Super Mario Galaxy. Third party is the future.

@BloodWolfe It's Nintendo's money that would be funding the project. And anyone with a basic understanding of the situation around this game knows it would be an expensive remaster. The original devs went out of business some 10 years ago with their assets sold off to pay their massive legal fees (you remember the Too Human saga?). There are probably no assets, source code to work from and the engine was custom and owned by Silicon Knights. This project is basically asking Nintendo to fund money into a pure vanity project. So add in how the original audience has probably for the most part moved on and there was not a massive one to begin. Now explain how Nintendo is dumb now that you know that information? Instead, Nintendo can just dump the ISO into an emulator when they get to GCN games on Expansion Pass considering they already have an internal GCN/Wii emulator. Ports let alone remasters are never cheap. This would be similar to the Silent Hill 2 HD saga as far as the amount of work that would be involved.

Gen Z Kid here. I finished Eternal Darkness a month ago (by not so ethical means) and it was probably one of the most underrated experiences I wish I could've played when it came out. Scary stuff lol.

@BloodWolfe I'm surprised as it seems like you're suggesting that the cost to Nintendo for this to happen is zero.

I'm guessing you're not the only one on the internet who thinks this way though 😐

@Apkorv "Their last great title was Super Mario Galaxy" - Interesting trolling attempt

@120frames-please @120frames-please Exactly...so many ways to imagine updating this amazing feature of the game!

@Wexter Yeah. Perhaps Nintendo don't want Eternal Darkness re-released as there were some controversary with the original developer after they went to Microsoft and took the GameCube game Too Human with them.
Microsoft itself were not the problem. SK themselves went to court with Epic and lost. Then Too Human had to be removed from all stores. You can find the whole story on google.

@jsty3105 Yeah, but they already had a foot inside at Nintendo which helped.
"Straight Right" became the #1 porting studio on Wii U, and since then logo were changed to Tantalus on Switch.
Mass Effect 3 and Deus EX were highly praised Wii U ports.
Zombi in 2015 were the last ever port from Straight Right.

That Wii U port were sloppy, but it's quite obvious UBI wanted a quick, cheap and dirty port with no effort. Zombi were forgotten the day it released. Only Wii U version is remembered.

I remember completing most of ME 3 on Xbox 360, but got stuck somewhere due to a bug making it impossible to complete.
Then i started ME 3 from scratch on Wii U and completed it there instead.
ME 3 online co-op on Wii U were populated for years after release, but same on 360. Lovely online game.

@Ventilator I LOVED ME3 online co-op on the Wii U.

I've read that it's still active on the PC so I may jump in again

@Wexter Not sure what you mean by copy and paste, I didn't read your comment. To answer your question, why are assuming Nintendo would accrue any cost here? Nightdive self funds most of their remasters. If Nightdive wants to pay for it and put in the man hours, Nintendo should allow them.

@vio I cannot imagine any scenario where Nintendo doesn't put any money into this. Who is going to publish and distribute it?
Who will do quality checks? Are Nightdive really going to spend tons of money on a remaster of something which only sold less than a million units and was famously part of legal troubles? Who is paying for their legal advice?

@vio Nightdive has never taken on a game as complex as Eternal Darkness. Most of the games they've self-published have been FPS games or point-and-click adventure games. The biggest remaster they did System Shock was published by Prime Matter which means Prime Matter foot the bill on that one. That and their Quake remaster was published by Bethesda which foot the bill and they had access to Id.

Eternal Darkness would require a lot of heavy lifting from Nintendo's end. From contacting former developers from Silicon Knights, to dealing with the legal issues around Silicon Knights engine, from even footing the bill. That is all Nintendo. To assume Nintendo would not foot the bill on this one is foolhardy at best. Read some of the controversies around Too Human and Blood Omen to get an idea around the Pandora's Box that is Eternal Darkness. We have no idea what kind of contract they had with Nintendo.

@jsty3105 The original sold 400k copies. That is not a lot of sales even by survival horror standards of the early to mid-00s. Silent Hill 2 broke 1 million units on PS2, and Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 0 broke 1 million units. Now, Eternal Darkness with Nintendo money and advertising behind it only sold 400k copies.

@Wexter Yeah - there's presently no immediately obvious reason why any remaster might succeed.

@jsty3105 ME 3 sure is great. I remember leveling up a lot on both Wii U and 360 versions.
I wish the fun carried over to Mass Effect Andromeda online, but sadly didn't.

Why did they fix what wasn't broken?

@Ventilator yeah - I haven't played Andromeda yet but haven't heard many good things

@jsty3105 It were bad at launch, but they did a lot of upgrades after the release for a long time.
I forgot to try it after it were fixed. Perhaps it's online is better.

@jsty3105 Hello again.

Here is something strange when it comes to Nintendo and unknown developers with no track record at all.

Velan Studios had never made a game ever, before Nintendo hired them to make Mario Kart Live.
Their second game weren't released until 2021.. Knockout City.
The two founders of Velan were not unknown. They founded Vicarious Visions in 1991 and is owned by Activision which is soon owned by Microsoft.

They made a Mario Kart Live prototype in 2017 without Nintendo knowing about it. lol
That's how they got hired.

Can't blame Nin for not wanting to work all the time with 3rd party to remaster their games. They look at how the west has destroyed how games are made by selling broken games day one etc & maybe they want to keep their IPS to themselves to work on. Also they way Nin makes their games with some crazy techniques maybe they don't want to let others know how they do magic at making them bcos they feel someone could leak it.