Three of the game's V.I.P. Bots are not based on video game characters, and are instead references to non-gaming products made by Sony. The Bots in question are "Forgotten Mascot" (based on Polygon Man, the intended mascot of the original PlayStation), "Pup Pal" and "Pup Pal +" (respectively based on the ERS-110 and ERS-1000 from AIBO, a series of robot dogs designed and manufactured by Sony).
The game is loosely based on the H. P. Lovecraft novella "The Shadow over Innsmouth". Lead developer Joseph "Akabaka" Hunter struggled to adapt this story as modern scholarly interpretations of Lovecraft's works frequently make accusations of racist and anti-miscegenation allegories in accordance with what is known about his personal views. While the original story (like most of Lovecraft's works) attempts to play into the fear of the unknown, Hunter felt the monsters and creatures used were "just, you know, metaphors for the guy living down the street, which is hardly unknown." Hunter did not want to potentially alienate players, and in order to adapt the story without reproducing these aspects, he took inspiration from "Lovecraft Country", a 2016 horror novel that adapted the Lovecraft mythos by using the controversial themes present in the original works to portray the experiences and threats black people faced in the United States under the Jim Crow laws.
Vs. Ice Climber and its NES port were the first games that programmer Kazuaki Morita worked on at Nintendo. In a 2006 interview, he said that he considered the game to be a "warm-up on the NES" prior to working on Super Mario Bros.
In the original version of Amanda the Adventurer (retroactively renamed to Amanda the Adventurer: Pilot Episode after being picked up by DreadXP to become a full game), Amanda was voiced by Chelsea Lecompte due to the game having to be made in a single week as part of "DreadXP's Found Footage Jam" and being easy to cast as she lived with the main developer. When the game was picked up for full funding, it was decided to recast her in favor of Blair Greene-Osako, as Amanda was a black character (something proposed during the design process) yet was voiced by a white actress in the game jam version. While they felt it was acceptable at the time given the circumstances, they decided to recast her with a black actress once those circumstances had changed. Despite this, Lecompte does still provide voice work for the full game, specifically as the Say n' See toy and Gret-chan the doll.
The Nintendo DS having two screens was suggested by former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi to then-current president Satoru Iwata, and was inspired by the Game & Watch LCD game series' clamshell two-screen design. In a 2016 Retro Gamer interview with former Nintendo designer Satoru Okada, he delves into its origins:
"The project was moving forward at a good pace but during the development, something at unexpected happened. President Iwata then came to see me. He was obviously bothered and he said: 'l talked to Yamauchi-san over the phone and he thinks your console should have two screens... A bit like the multi-screen Game & Watch, you see?' [...] at the time, everybody hated this idea, even Iwata himself. We thought it did not make any sense. Back in the Game & Watch days, it was different because a second screen allowed us to double the playing area and the number of graphic elements on display. But with the modern screens, there was no point. We were free to choose the size of our screen, so why bother splitting it into two? Especially considering that it was impossible to look at both screens at the same time. This is why we did not understand his idea."
Unlike past titles in the Life is Strange series, Double Exposure is a direct sequel to the original game. In order to respect both of the first game's endings, players are given the option to choose an ending organically rather than making one of the two endings canon. Game director Jon Stauder elaborated on this, stating:
"There's no canon ending in our book to the first game. Double Exposure will respect both endings in Max's thoughts, her journal, her SMS, her interactions with other characters, what she opts to reveal about her past to her new friends, it's all reflective of that final choice."
Although released in Japan on August 25, 1995, early in the Sega Saturn's life, Magic Knight Rayearth was the final Saturn game released in the United States, in late 1998. This long localization process was discussed in the game's US manual, where the localizers at Working Design shared details about the process and even acknowledged that it was likely the last Saturn game to be released in the country.
According to a Q&A hosted on the game's Steam page, every character in the game is voiced by audio designer Martin Halldin, including Curly, Daisuke, Polle, and "anything that isn't an advert in the tv sections". In the case of Polle's voice, the intention was to have it feel like they were pulling voice clips from random advertisements to string a sentence together. To that end, the words were all recorded individually and cut into sentences during post-production.
In 2015, developers Mind Candy and 55pixels were ordered by the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to change the wording of their in-app advertisements in Moshi Monsters and Bin Weevils, arguing that said wording was directly pressuring young players to pay for subscriptions (Moshi Monsters claimed that members would be "super popular", while Bin Weevils' options for subscriptions were phrased as commands). They also claimed that certain phrases used in the games, such as Moshi Monsters' "The Super Moshis need YOU" and Bin Weevils' interpretive phrases such as "DOSH Top Up", put pressure on children to pay. Both developers conceded to the ASA's demands, with Mind Candy claiming it took its "responsibilities very seriously with regards to how we communicate with all of our fans, especially children".
In the late 1990s, Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo began working on a second sequel to Battle Chess known as Battle Chess 3, but it was ultimately cancelled. The existence of the game would not be revealed until years later in 2015, when Fargo posted footage of the game's prototype for the first time.
During an interview with Jungle Island (a fan website dedicated to the Super Monkey Ball series), concept artist Keith Webb revealed that the character Future AiAi came about after he came up with an idea for a space monkey that would appear at certain points in the game to give players power-ups (later spells), and was intended to be an homage to the Bomberman series by Hudson Soft. He was originally supposed to wear a white spacesuit, but before Webb could finish coloring in the artwork, the character modeler making the character in 3D chose a red color that ultimately stuck. Webb had later joked about the character being AiAi from the future (the reason why he had the power-ups was because he had gotten them from himself), and the idea stuck as well.
Despite being largely forgotten in favor of its sequels, the original Age of Empires remained popular decades later in Vietnam, due in large part to pirated copies of the game being bundled in Vietnamese computers and a long history of LAN matches dating back to the 1990's. Modern Vietnamese players often use custom rulesets, and top players have earned tens of thousands of dollars in tournaments viewed by audiences as high as the hundreds of thousands.
In 2023, this popularity in Vietnam was formally acknowledged by Forgotten Empires, the modern developers of the series, in their "Return of Rome" expansion for Age of Empires II, which ported and updated content from the original Age of Empires to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. The expansion included a new faction, Lac Viet, "in honor and recognition of ["The Rise of Rome" expansion from the first Age of Empires game's] phenomenal popularity in Vietnam."
In 2024, interest in Piglet's Big Game was unexpectedly revived by a series of tweets noting that elements of the level and sound design (specifically in Owl and Eeyore's dreams and the music track "Foreboding 1") had mild similarities to survival horror titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill despite not being a gory and graphic game. This renewed interest led to the game selling out on eBay and being relisted by scalpers for triple and quadruple-digit prices, despite previously being fairly cheap to get on the platform.
Following the 2024 Splatoon 3 world championships, Nintendo released a commemorative Splashtag banner depicting the winning team, Jackpot. However, shortly afterwards, the team became embroiled in controversy following allegations of racist comments and behavior both in and out of the game. Nintendo subsequently issued a statement on Twitter announcing that Jackpot's victory would be rescinded and that their banner would be redesigned due to them violating the game's community guidelines. Consequently, the Version 9.0.0 update replaced the design with a placeholder one depicting generic Inklings and Octolings. Nintendo additionally removed footage and social media posts of the championship from their website and social media accounts and pulled the Nintendo Switch News article announcing Jackpot's win.
In May 2021, following the announcement that WarnerMedia would be merging with Discovery Inc., the exact status of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment was left uncertain, with some reports claiming that only portions of the company would be moved with the bulk of other WarnerMedia properties. Ultimately, the company would be retained under the name Warner Bros. Games as part of the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery. However, one of the company's subsidiaries Playdemic was divested from the merger and sold to Electronic Arts later that year.
During an interview with GamesHub, it was revealed that Stray Gods was inspired by the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", specifically the season six episode "Once More, With Feeling". While the episode's plot was standard for the show, it was notable for being one of the first "musical TV episodes", combining elements of the musical genre with heavy action and narrative storytelling. Liam Esler, the Managing Director of Summerfall Studios, stated that they wanted to replicate what TV musicals did for television but with video games.
When the game was first announced, Nintendo did not reveal what company was developing the game, only stating that some former developers from AlphaDream, the company that developed all previous games in the series, were involved. It wouldn't be until the intellectual property notices were discovered that the developer was identified as Acquire, who were best known for developing the Tenchu, Way of the Samurai, and Octopath Traveler series.
In an interview with Nintendo Minute, ARMS producer Kosuke Yabuki revealed that some employees at Nintendo of America found the initial sketches of Lola Pop to be frightening. Since coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) was uncommon in Japan, Yabuki felt like he had "learned a weak point of Americans."
With the development of New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U happening simultaneously, Nintendo created a "Mario Cram School" to teach developers from outside the core Super Mario team how to design levels. Most of the core developers of New Super Mario Bros. 2 were "graduates" of this program, while New Super Mario Bros. U was developed by the same core team that made prior games in the series.
The character Marcas Brickley is played by Sean McLoughlin, better known as the YouTuber Jacksepticeye. During his playthrough of Chapter 2 where the videotape featuring Marcas appears, McLoughlin revealed various details about getting into the character and recording his part. The video was recorded months before the chapter's release and required him to record in a place that resembled an office, something that took him "ages" to find and required audio treatment due to the room not having sound padding. To match the color scheme of Playtime Co., McLoughlin was required to wear a yellow shirt, with the lanyard the character wears being made from scratch by combining a lanyard, a piece of paper printed with a fake barcode, his character's name, and the Playtime Co. logo, which he found on Poppy Playtime's merchandise website. Additionally, at the end of the video tape, Leith Pierre asks Marcas to bring him a cup of coffee; while unconfirmed, this may be a reference to McLoughlin's coffee company, Top of the Mornin' Coffee. During his playthrough of Chapter 3, McLoughlin revealed that he had been asked to reprise his role, but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts.
Although released in Japan on August 25, 1995, early in the Sega Saturn's life, Magic Knight Rayearth was the final Saturn game released in the United States, in late 1998. This long localization process was discussed in the game's US manual, where the localizers at Working Design shared details about the process and even acknowledged that it was likely the last Saturn game to be released in the country.
Despite being largely forgotten in favor of its sequels, the original Age of Empires remained popular decades later in Vietnam, due in large part to pirated copies of the game being bundled in Vietnamese computers and a long history of LAN matches dating back to the 1990's. Modern Vietnamese players often use custom rulesets, and top players have earned tens of thousands of dollars in tournaments viewed by audiences as high as the hundreds of thousands.
Following the 2024 Splatoon 3 world championships, Nintendo released a commemorative Splashtag banner depicting the winning team, Jackpot. However, shortly afterwards, the team became embroiled in controversy following allegations of racist comments and behavior both in and out of the game. Nintendo subsequently issued a statement on Twitter announcing that Jackpot's victory would be rescinded and that their banner would be redesigned due to them violating the game's community guidelines. Consequently, the Version 9.0.0 update replaced the design with a placeholder one depicting generic Inklings and Octolings. Nintendo additionally removed footage and social media posts of the championship from their website and social media accounts and pulled the Nintendo Switch News article announcing Jackpot's win.
The character Marcas Brickley is played by Sean McLoughlin, better known as the YouTuber Jacksepticeye. During his playthrough of Chapter 2 where the videotape featuring Marcas appears, McLoughlin revealed various details about getting into the character and recording his part. The video was recorded months before the chapter's release and required him to record in a place that resembled an office, something that took him "ages" to find and required audio treatment due to the room not having sound padding. To match the color scheme of Playtime Co., McLoughlin was required to wear a yellow shirt, with the lanyard the character wears being made from scratch by combining a lanyard, a piece of paper printed with a fake barcode, his character's name, and the Playtime Co. logo, which he found on Poppy Playtime's merchandise website. Additionally, at the end of the video tape, Leith Pierre asks Marcas to bring him a cup of coffee; while unconfirmed, this may be a reference to McLoughlin's coffee company, Top of the Mornin' Coffee. During his playthrough of Chapter 3, McLoughlin revealed that he had been asked to reprise his role, but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts.