Videogame Rumor Control: The Arguments Against and for Bringing Okami to Wii

When it comes to finding new hope for a fledgling videogame title to find a new audience on a new platform, gamers will believe anything they hear about further development of an underappreciated title.

But sometimes it also begs to ask this: How do you answer to the masses -- and also to the media as well -- when the original developers of the game have disbanded?

That's the question on everyone's minds in the videogame industry right now thanks to rumors of the slow-selling title Okami potentially heading into redevelopment for Nintendo's Wii. IGN, which first reported on the rumor, claims it's heard that "Capcom USA is looking to port the game to Nintendo's Wii console to generate extra sales for the underperforming title. They claim a '"reliable industry insider unaffiliated with Capcom' has told them that the developer is "seriously considering" a Wii version of Okami, and that it may already be in development." Evidently, since Okami was released on PS2 last year in the States, it's been apparent that Clover Studios' epic game and the Wii seemed to go hand in hand, thanks to Nintendo's motion-sensing controller.

But can we really believe thes rumors yet? Don't hold your breath: Even the people over at Capcom admit that a few potential roadblocks exist toward the possibility of making it happen. Indeed, the company faces several issues that must be dealt with before the game can be re-released on any platform. The shutdown of Clover Studios itself, not surprisingly, is one of them. In fact, a Capcom official contacted by IGN for confirmation purposes has also questioned the odds, saying that although Capcom "Officially... [Has] no [current] plans for Okami on Wii at this time" the odds are currently stacked just because of the very issues currently at hand. Regardless, Capcom's research and development folks "are always looking at possibilities -- but given [that] Clover is now closed for business, I think it [is] highly unlikely [that] a Wii version would be possible."

Regardless of the facts, reports are also circulating that the disbanded development teams are likely to head elsewhere within Capcom. In other words, according to IGN, even "with the closure of Clover Studios it wouldn't be that difficult for a[nother] team to port it across, particularly when you consider a lot of Clover staffers are likely to head over to Capcom once the studio finally shuts its doors next month."