Nintendo’s set to finally reveal some concrete details (and hopefully some real games) about their latest console in just a few weeks at E3, but thanks to a pic posted to Twitter by a game tester at TT Games (a tester who’s probably in a lot of trouble right now,) we’ve gotten an early look at what appears to be a finalized version of the Wii U’s tablet-like controller.
It’s kind of weird that The Avengers was released this past weekend without any sort of licensed game tie-in: the movie has already set box office records and will probably go on to be the biggest film of the year, so you’d think videogame publishers would be lining up for the chance to cash-in on The Avengers craze. Well, while there wasn’t an Avengers game released in time for the premiere of the movie, apparently Ubisoft will announce a game starring Marvel’s A-team very soon.
Nicalis, the small publisher best known for releasing cult-classic Japanese indie game Cave Story in the West, announced last night via Twitter that the WiiWare port of another beloved Japanese indie title, La Mulana, has been cancelled. Nicalis cited poor sales of other WiiWare titles to justify the cancellation.
Well, this news comes out of nowhere, but it’s being reported by multiple legitimate news agencies, so I might as well repeat it here: rumors are currently circulating in the financial community that Korean MMO publisher Nexon (best known for free-to-play games like Maple Story and Mabinogi,) is currently attempting to buy ownership of American mega-publisher EA.
Back in the early days of the Wii, Nintendo re-released a bunch of Gamecube games with “new” (read: tacked on) motion controls in order to quickly capitalize on the success of their new system. I didn’t mind; after all, the Gamecube had some great games that a lot of people missed out on because of the relative commercial unpopularity of the tiny purple box. One of these Wii ports was the original Pikmin, which was one of the few games to actually work better with the Wii-mote than it did with a GCN controller. Fans expected that a port of Pikmin 2 would come soon after and… well, it did. Except for us Americans.
Still haven’t played Mass Effect 3? Well, now you can get yourself Shepard’s final adventure — complete with thrilling action sequences, beautiful graphics, memorable characters, and that infamous ending that will inspire you to send death threats to Bioware — for just $30 bucks today.
The original Rayman Origins came out last year to rave reviews, but unfortunately, Ubisoft chose to release it during the middle of the holiday rush, and the game only managed to achieve modest sales in the midst of competition from higher profile titles. However, if a new rumor is to be believed, we might be seeing more of Rayman Origins very soon.
Nintendo held another one of their regular “Nintendo Direct” streaming press conferences tonight, and while most of the hour long video was comprised of trailers for games we’ve already heard about, Nintendo did have a few surprise announcements to make.
Capcom is planning a big celebration in honor of Street Fighter’s 25th anniversary, but they’re not saying what exactly they’re planning to do. A new game? Retro compilation? A special fan meet-up or tournament? Capcom’s not saying, but they are giving members of the Street Fighter community a chance to participate in the upcoming celebration.
The Gamecube, Wii, and 3DS all launched without a Mario game, and while the Wii managed to have a successful launch without Nintendo’s mascot, the Gamecube and the 3DS struggled early on without gaming’s favorite Italian stereotype there to help sell systems. Nintendo’s not taking any chances with the Wii U, as they let it slip today that a new Super Mario Bros. game will be unveiled for their strange new system at this year’s E3.
Retail tracking service NPD has released their monthly sales data, and as expected, Mass Effect 3 was March’s biggest hit. Despite Bioware’s success, overall sales in the games industry continued to decline.
THQ isn’t the only big publisher facing a financial crisis — Sega just reported a whopping 47% drop in profits for the past fiscal year, and unfortunately, that means that the Japanese giant will have to institute some drastic cuts in its workforce. Sega also stated that they’ll have to cancel several of their upcoming titles in order to focus on becoming profitable again (translation: expect more Sonic games and not much of anything else.)
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