I thought the Star Wars bits would be especially of interest to you guys.
While we were wandering the halls of E3, we stumbled across a few juicy tidbits. Nothing earth-shattering, mind you, just some interesting rumors for you. We won't make broad claims; we'll just supply what we heard in what context, and let you decide what to make of it.
Sonic in Smash Bros. When we were being demoed Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games, I asked one of the producers at Sega, "Will Sonic be in Smash Bros Brawl?" The response was "I can't comment on that". This does not mean that Sonic is in Smash Bros. However, I had asked a number of people in different companies different questions about projects I was interested in, and many of them said "They haven't told me anything" or "I honestly don't know". When someone says "I can't comment", they've been instructed not to talk about it. Does this mean Sonic is in Smash Bros? No, it means Sega has talked about it. They may have decided against it, they may have him as a guest cameo, or he may be a character, I don't know. But at the very least, Sega is thinking about it.
Red Steel 2 is real. Okay, kind of obvious, but still. There's been rumors flying around, French sites claiming it is real, job postings for developers, but no official announcement. I talked to a dev at E3 and straight out asked, "Is there a Red Steel 2?" to which I got the response, "Uh, there was a list of things I can talk about, and things I can't. I can't remember which that was on." So Red Steel 2 is real.
Star Wars on Wii. I walked straight up to the LucasArts booth where a bunch of reps and devs were standing at the front door chatting. I pointed at them and shouted, "Give me a Star Wars Lightsaber game!" I was met with several wide ear-to-ear grins, and a sarcastic "Ooh, I wouldn't know anything about that..." comment.
Kingdom Hearts 3 announcement. Sorry fanboys (of which I am one), no word of the platform or any concrete info. All the demoers at Square Enix told me they had been told nothing about the status of a third Kingdom Hearts game (and none of the developers I met spoke English). However, a very high-up source at Disney Interactive Studios (I'd rather not name the position) told me that, if memory serves, there should be an announcement around February. While that person didn't seem extremely sure about the exact date, it does confirm it is in development. I did get the impression that it is not very far along, however (probably due to the fact that the Kingdom Hearts team is working on Final Fantasy Versus 13).
That's about all we've got for you. Nothing earth-shattering, but definitely some interesting tidbits to keep us pondering.
