Matt Soell comments on beta status

Following the MacCentral article on Oni (see previous news post below), Matt Soell pointed out that Oni is in fact at Beta 8, not Beta 2 as the article states.

Read his forum post here.

Comments on Oni by Bungie and more on January

MacCentral today released an article in which they have development details given by Matt Soell himself. A quote:

"The Oni team is really hammering on the game right now, and while I can imagine that the schedule might slip a little -- nothing ever goes as planned -- I can't see it slipping another half-year. Too much furious all-night work is happening ... I don't know how long that process will take but I really doubt it'll be six more months," said Soell.

Also, the article states that Gathering of Developers was contacted about a release date:

MacCentral has also received confirmation from Gathering of Developers that Oni is now slated for release on January 10, 2001. The game will debut simultaneously for Mac, Windows and PlayStation 2. "The dates are firm," said the Gathering spokesperson.

(Thanks for the heads up, Claude)

My thoughts on this are that it seems more and more that Gathering of Developers is indeed aiming for a January release; Matt's comments on the status of the game are hints to this. I'm not saying I believe it, but I don't disbelieve it either.

Oni only in January 2001?

GA-Source reports that they contacted Gathering of Developers and "confirmed" that Oni is set to release in January 2001. This is, like I always say, pure speculation. Even though there are points that could hint for a release next year, it seems to me that this is another date given to satisfy a reporter's curiosity. We'll have to wait and see...

(Thanks for the heads up, Maestro)

Oni appears on GoD's site

Oni has its own little spot on the homepage of Gathering of Developers, the page is right here. Nothing new to see, really, but its good to know some public Oni activity is happening at Gathering of Developers.

(Kudos to Matt for the heads up on the forum)

Guess what...more fan art!

I can't tell you how grateful (and quite flattered) I am with all the fan art submissions I received this month. Here are the newest additions:

The anonymous desktop artist sends in a new desktop which contains something veteran Oni fans should recognise.

The other fan art I got, inspired by the recent PS2 cover for Oni, were four small pictures edited in Photoshop by David McMahon.

New forum

The forum here at Oni Central has received a cosmetic change, among other things. Be sure to check out the forum today!

More fan creations

I've received even more fan art AND a theme for an OS. Wow, people sure are creative this month!

I received two desktop pictures from Thomas McBride, where he did some interesting editing.

I also received a theme for the shell replacement of Windows, Litestep. This one comes from William Entwistle.

Thanks you guys, your efforts are appreciated, the same goes to all the other busy bees who have sent in fan art the last few months. Thanks!

Yes, more fan art!

Will the madness ever end? I sure hope not! Another desktop picture, submitted by an anonymous artist, in four flavours. It's a great looking desktop, so be sure to check it out!

Larger version of PS2 cover

Thanks to Bachus, who pointed out that Amazon.com has larger versions of the cover for Oni on the PS2. The front cover can be found here, the back cover is here. The text on the back cover is legible.

Is Konoko human?

It's something to ponder about: is Konoko human, or maybe a cyborg, perhaps part human and part cyborg? Only playing the game could tell us that, but for now the new poll asks this question and you get to vote on what you think.

Cover art for PS2 version of Oni?

Nijhazer pointed me to a page at EBWorld.com where you can pre-order Oni for the PS2. Interestingly enough they have an authenic-looking cover posted on this page which you can see below.

Even more fan art

I've received two more desktops for the fan art section. One is from Tsian, and is a modified version of a desktop picture Ben Lewis Evans submitted the other a new desktop by Brendan ".derf" Hickey.

Interesting tidbits from Matt

Matt Soell made a very cool post to the forum today with some nice tidbits about the latest Oni build and other stuff. Check out the post here.

Machinima.com looks at Oni

Hugh Hancock (the Chairman of Strange Company and the Editor-In-Chief of Machinima.com) sent me an e-mail letting me know that their site Machinima.com has a report about Oni at ECTS, and I'm glad to say it's a positive one that doesn't make assumptions about its release date.

It's a good read and can be found here

Matt Soell makes a large post to the forum

This was a much needed post, it explains a ton of stuff. And rather quoting it all here, head on over to the post yourself! The post focuses on release dates and beta issues.

Release date speculation

Inside Mac Games posted news about Oni's release date being March 2001. IMG states that this latest report by Eurogamer "confirms" this. Of course, gaming sites report news as it comes, using a "we deliver, you decide" policy.

But at this site, which is focused only on Oni, I can say that this latest report by Eurogamer is utter crap. Bungie would not tell anybody a release date (and longtime Bungie fans know this well), so why should we believe some gaming site when they say Oni will be out in a random month next year? There really is no reason to loe your head over these kind of things, it's all untrue and speculative.

Unless Bungie posts a date on their homepage or on their Oni website, we can only speculate about a release date, and nothing is confirmed, nothing is definite unless Bungie gives us a date. And they will do so when they are sure the game is ready for release.

News tidbits

Phew. Finally back from my absence from this site, many thanks to Claude Errera for posting news whilst I was away. Now that I'm back here's some stuff that has happened since I was gone:

First off, Matt Soell made a post to the forum about Konoko's voice, you can read his interesting reply right here.

Next, Macaddict's website reported the following:

We all know that Bungie is famous for missing ship dates, but the latest news on Oni is still disheartening. A new report from GameSpot UK suggests that the highly-anticipated game, already nearly a year overdue, won't ship until "just after the new year." Pure speculation, of course.

More fan art

Hiroko Yamamoto sent in a desktop picture to add to the growing collection of fan art here at Oni Central. People are certainly being creative these days, and I enjoy getting any type of fan art which I can put up here at Oni Central!

New Fan Art, Delayed

Ben Lewis Evans sent in two pieces of fan art last week, but we were caught up and missed 'em. Sorry, Ben! They're up now... you can find them on the Fan Art page!

New Screens at GameSpot UK

Nicola Hibbard, of GameSpot UK, writes to say that they've gotten their hands on new Oni concept art from Rockstar (which isn't new, really, it's the characters you can see in the images section of the archives here at Oni Central), as well as new PS2 screenshots. Definitely worth a look! It's part of their ECTS (European Computer Trade Show) coverage.