Sadness loses its publisher, title becomes more ironic

by JC Fletcher { Apr 8th 2007 at 2:57PM }

Doubting that there was a real game involved, an IGN forumite decided to check up on Nibris's claim that their mysterious Sadness was going to be co-developed and published by Frontline Studios. The conclusion supports the claim but may not justify the meanness.

Basically, he contacted Frontline to see if they were actually publishing Sadness and if it really existed. Frontline responded that they were "no longer interested in developing Sadness game based on Nibris' concept." This sort of makes it sound like there never was a game, and now there may never be. We might disagree with the poster's tactic, because it's kind of rude to openly doubt the existence of a game in an interview with its erstwhile publisher, but it sounds like his doubts were not misplaced.

Tags: frontline, nibris, nintendo, nintendo wii, NintendoWii, sadness, wii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr Khan @ Apr 8th 2007 3:21PM

This sort of lends credence to the rumor that NiBRiS is just a Polish dude with a computer and internet access making press releases and various claims

And that's pretty sad, because that Polish guy had some good ideas

Wizky911 @ Apr 8th 2007 3:39PM

Aw it had me going.....

TIME @ Apr 9th 2007 7:29AM

So...did Sadness even exist?

bboyspaz @ Apr 9th 2007 3:15PM

i'm not very surprised. cus honestly to me.....from the video i saw, it looked really fake. like it wasn't an actual game. maybe that was me. but thats how i felt. but it did seem really cool. who knows.

Chris @ Apr 8th 2007 10:35PM

That sucks. Nibris looked pretty kickass.

flameofdoom666 @ Apr 9th 2007 12:24PM

This really sucks...

I am a huge Nintendo fan boy and I was going to actually buy this game. Not many non-Nintendo games seem that great, but this was definitely one of them. Hopefully they will develop it, and get a publisher to distribute it! :-)

vidGuy @ Apr 8th 2007 6:59PM

Sadness, if executed properly, has the ability to be a million+ copy seller. The idea is perfect, the story sounds fun, and the gameplay led on to be revolutionary. If Capcom was smart they'd buy the idea, produce it using RE technology, slap their name all over it, and sell a few million copies for mondo profit.

Thomas @ Apr 8th 2007 7:41PM

That's not ironic at all. I was looking forward to this game. Now I really am sad.

So when will we see an artful game on Wii?

Ranus Studios @ Apr 8th 2007 11:24PM

That's not ironic, that's coincidental.

But it is indeed very sad.

javelin @ Apr 9th 2007 12:21AM

I thought Nibris was involved in a DS game too, which I've seen screen shots of... in fact, I seem to recall downloading an mp3 of music supposedly from Sadness. Nintendo or some other publisher needs to pick this up and develop it ASAP. It is one of the few early Wii games I was interested in, and I am a bit of a hard sell.

Angus @ Apr 9th 2007 1:52AM

NOOOOOOOOO! I need Sadness! The wii as a system needs Sadness!

James Koehler @ Apr 9th 2007 2:36AM

Yes Nibris has shown screenshots of their game for the DS so they do in fact exist. Also a company not being interesting in publishing a game during its development cycle happens more than you think so this means nothing at all to its possible existance. Plus I doubt that video they showed during E3 was fake.

JC Fletcher @ Apr 9th 2007 2:46AM

It may not have been fake, but it was live-action. Unless Sadness was going to be a FMV game, that trailer wasn't real game footage.

Lewis @ Apr 9th 2007 3:04AM

That is ironic, because the title is supposed to refer to the sadness of the characters in the game, but now its the game that is causing US sadness

ShaleX @ Apr 9th 2007 4:47AM

I still haven't figured out what the hype is. It was an FMV of concepts that.. if realistically considered.. espically now that i've used the Wii-mote, seem impossible.. or more like, Not fun... From a developer who has a mission statement ripped out of a Nintendo ad campaign... the story was somewhat interesting, but lead me to see a game tha was little more then a glorified Escort mission at worst, and an Ico clone at best.

Sadness reminded me more of Lifeline though.. great concept lost due to poor game design and flawed technology... or.. i should say, technology that wasn't ready for a title of that percision. Not saying it couldn't have been well made, but the Escort-mission game is dosne so often, and so often badly that I'd need to see something more before I have any hope of it being good.

Wii needs the concept of "Sadness" Not the game itself.

And seriously, Wii isn't about art. It's about "fun" Mini-game fests and franchises. Artful games are niche games that don't sell well... Wii is about Mass Market, and attracting to non-gamers. Your grandma dosen't want to play Sadness... so none of that.. This is a Nintendo Console, Take your mario/zelda/metroid/pokemon, and eat it like a good boy/girl.