We have a few strange rumors to share about Nintendo’s stealth drop from yesterday, Emio.
This all came up in Resetera, where a forum moderator using the handle Jawmuncher linked to what they believe is proof that Bloober Team is making Emio.
The proof was an interview with Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno. In translation, Piotr said that they are working on a new game in cooperation with ‘the world’s best game creators’ for Nintendo platforms. The translation also had Piotr claiming that this new game had a significantly smaller budget than other games the studio had worked on.
Everyone knows that Bloober Team is working on the upcoming Silent Hill remake, but the studio made their name on the Layers of Fear series, which also came to the Nintendo Switch. So Bloober Team would have the experience to make a game on the platform, and to work with Nintendo.
But not everyone is thrilled with Bloober Team’s games. Of course, this is partly a subjective thing, but we can factually state that their games do not get good metascores, from fans and critics alike. While we have seen Nintendo partner with a studio and get better games out of them than they could make on their own, there are also times when that has not happened.
Clear examples of studios who have been successful working with Nintendo while staying independent are PlatinumGames and HAL Laboratory. On the other hand, publishing Devil’s Third with Valhalla Games did not turn out well for either party.
In any case, Necro Felipe, editor at Universo Nintendo, came up in the same Resetera thread to categorically deny that Emio is being made by Bloober Team. While we have to be skeptical of all sources, it would seem that the onus is not on Necro Felipe to prove his claim, but for Jawmuncher to bring up more evidence to prove that Bloober Team is the studio involved.
We don’t have any inside information on this game ourselves, but if we were to warrant a guess, this might be Nintendo’s next project with the Fatal Frame team. Nintendo had a partnership with Koei Tecmo for the Fatal Frame games a console generation or too ago, and Nintendo owns a spinoff they commissioned from the same team, called Spirit Camera.
To clear things up, that partnership never led to Nintendo taking any ownership stake on the Fatal Frame IP, only for Spirit Camera. But what we’re referring to now as Emio might just be the marketing name for an upcoming Fatal Frame or Spirit Camera game. Given the attention Nintendo drew to this title, you can tell that this is something outside their wheelhouse and they’re eager to spend some Switch earnings to give a new experiment a try.
