GAME TIME: Saskatoon developer working on monster game for Nintendo Switch

Game Time: March 3 Watch: Matt Young brings us the week’s top news in electronic entertainment.

SASKATOON — Welcome to GAME TIME, a recurring feature in which CTV Saskatoon’s Matt Young brings us the latest news from the world of video games.

A game for PC and Nintendo Switch is in production by Saskatoon developer Foolish Mortals.

Kaiju Wars is a 2D strategy game set in a world where monsters are destroying a city and users must use tanks and bombers to try and stop them. All while scientists work on creating a monster serum.

CEO Michael Long says the game is inspired by his love for Godzilla.

“Me and my brothers always loved Godzilla movies as a kid. And my brother made a Godzilla style board game over the summer. And I decided to turn that into a video game.”

Long says Kaiju is a term for term for large creature or monster.

Foolish Mortals, which started up in 2017, has released three games so far. Long says Radio General has been their most successful release.

Long says he works out of his apartment and five people are working on Kaiju Wars including himself.

They are aiming for a November release.

New college football game may not include Notre Dame

There is plenty of excitement about the potential return of a college football videogame from Electronic Arts.

But one school, considered a staple in college sports, may not be part of it.

The Athletic Director at the University of Notre Dame, Jack Swarbrick, says the school will not get involved in the game until rules are determined around the use of college athletes.

“Notre Dame Athletics welcomes the return of EA Sports College Football, a video game series that has historically helped promote interest in college football. Notre Dame will not, however, participate in the game until such time as rules have been finalized governing the participation of our student-athletes. As those rules are developed, it is our strong desire that student-athletes be allowed to benefit directly from allowing their name, image and performance history to be used in the game,” Swarbick said in a statement.

If the University of Notre Dame elects not to participate in a new college football videogame, it means the game would not include property associated with the school, such as the name or logos.

Earlier this month, Electronic Arts announced it would be rebooting it’s college football franchise, posting a photo on twitter with the caption “College Football is Coming Back.”

Electronic Arts has not provided a release date for the game.

Global chip shortage making consoles hard to get

A global shortage in computer chips has made it difficult for buyers to get their hands on game consoles and PC graphics cards.

Electronics retailers have faced major stock shortages when it comes to the recently released PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles as well as the new graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD.

William Mitchell, who is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business, says that global chip shortages have been caused by big swings in demand due to the pandemic.

“Many products had reduced demand during 2020. Cars, for instance, were down 10 to 15 per cent and as a result, companies that were making chips for those cars reduced capacity because you can’t run the lines at partial capacity,” he told CTVNews.ca. “And then when demand is coming back up in 2021, there’s a spike in orders.”

On Feb. 24, U.S. president Joe Biden signed an executive order instituting a 100-day review of the semiconductor supply chain. He also announced that he would seek US $37 billion to boost chip manufacturing in the United States.

Mitchell expects the chip supply woes to be sorted by this summer, much like how toilet paper became easier to find a few months into the pandemic.

With files from Tom Yun from CTVnews.ca