Starlink: Battle for Atlas Featured Star Fox Before Nintendo Gave Permission

Starlink: Battle For Atlas is known by Nintendo fans as "the new space game with Star Fox in it." But did you know that developer Ubisoft had actually incorporated the cameo before getting Nintendo's permission?

The open-world space adventure Starlink: Battle For Atlas released last week for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch last week. The Nintendo Switch version of the game featured elements from the Star Fox franchise. And according to a recent interview with game producer Matthew Rose by Okay Cool, they added it in before getting the green light by Nintendo.

Were so excited by even them having this conversation with us, even though they hadnt confirmed anything. And so we started working. We started drawing concepts, we made a 3D-printed Arwing that had their proper connectors and toys in it so that you could take it apart and everything.

Fortunately, we had started work before we were really confirmed anything. So we scrambled to put together this pitch and pull everything together and, for instance, we had this 3D-printed Arwing, but we didnt have time to paint it properly to like pro paint it. . . it was almost like youd see an untextured 3D model in a game, and so we spray painted it grey and brought it over.

As you can probably guess, Nintendo gave the go-ahead in the end. The company has a history of protecting their intellectual property with a firm hand. Had they declined the crossover, Ubisoft would have wasted what limited time they had.

Starlink: Battle For Atlas is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.