Gaming News 22/01/12 - 29/01/12
Nintendo
- New Racing game confirmed for the Wii u
Slightly Mad Developers have confirmed that Project Cars will be arriving on Wii U. The racing game is already confirmed for development on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The news emerged when the developers slapped a Wii U logo onto the games artwork. Unfortunately Project Cars has yet to find a publisher but in an interesting turn of events the development team turned to forum members to not only to invest in the game but also to advise and write code for Project Cars in return for a slice of revenue.
- Soulcalibur V heading to the 3DS?
A retail insider has apparently tipped off online gaming publication NintendoLife that a pre-order listing for SoulCalibur V his appeared on tills at a major store in the UK. Who knows, maybe we will eventually see SoulCalibur V on Nintendo 3DS, but as usual Namco Bandai won’t confirm anything.
- Developer source claims the Wii u is twice as powerful as Xbox 360
There are two conflicting rumours this week. A developer has told online gaming publication Develop that the Wii U is twice as powerful as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. Mean while IGN reported that the xbox will be 6 times as powerful as the 360 and only 20% better than the Wii U. The developer who told Develop the news that the Wii u is 2twice as powerful as the 360 is currently working on a new title for Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii U platform. We’ve already heard that Wii U developers are currently using final Wii U development kits.
- Hulu plus is still coming to the 3DS
A new video from Nintendo which shows consumers the benefit of connecting their Nintendo 3DS console online states that the long-delayed Hulu Plus is still coming to the Nintendo 3DS. There’s no official date regarding when the service is coming, but at least it appears that it’s on its way.
- Nintendo is considering renaming the Wii u?
Online gaming publication CVG claims that an industry insider has suggested that Nintendo are considering changing that name of the Wii U. Nintendo might consider such a move due to the public confusion that has surrounded the Nintendo 3DS console since launch. We will have to wait to E3 to see if it is true.
- Nintendo announces brand new Mario game for the 3DS
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told investors that the company is hard at work developing a brand new side-scrolling Mario title for the Nintendo 3DS. Iwata claims that the game is a “key title” for the Nintendo 3DS and will be released in the next fiscal year – at some point after March 2012 and before April 2013.
“it’s a totally new side-scrolling action Super Mario in 2D”.
- Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata
- Nintendo say they’ve learnt from the 3DS and the Wii u launch will be great
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confessed that Nintendo has learned “bitter lessons” from the Nintendo 3DS launch, but claims that he’s confident that the company is doing all in its power to make sure the Wii U launch is nothing short of a tremendous success.
“The company is aiming to firmly complete the development of the entire [Wii U] system and prepare sufficient software so that the Wii U will be at its best at the time of the launch. Needless to say, we have learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS.”
Sony
- God of War IV and Syphon Filter 4 to be revealed next month?
Long-rumored sequels God of War IV and Syphon Filter 4 will be officially unveiled next month, according to U.K. gaming magazine PLAY. The publication claims that in addition to the reveal, both titles will be confirmed for a holiday 2012 launch. This isn’t the first we’ve heard on either game, with God of War IV having previously been rumored for a September 2012 launch, while Syphon Filter 4 was originally pegged for an E3 2011 reveal. However, PLAY claims that the new Syphon Filter isn’t being worked on at Sony Bend as previously thought, but instead at SCE Studio London. God of War IV will supposedly include some form of online play, with recent reports suggesting a co-op mode featuring Kratos and his brother.
- Sony design boss says the original design of the PS vita was thinner
Takashi Sogabe, head of Sony’s Corporate Design Centre, has revealed that PlayStation Vita’s original design was thinner than its final incarnation, though hinted future iterations may trim some of the fat.
"Speaking not only about the PS Vita, we always have a battle between engineers and designers. The original design of the PS Vita, for example, was very much thinner than the current retail product," Sogabe told CVG, during a round-table interview at Sony HQ last month.
"From a designer's point of view, thinner is better-looking, but the engineers wanted to put all the features in."
"Maybe it will become thinner in the future, but the engineers would have to come up with a means to do that. The main effort for me was to make this product happen.”
- WipEout 2048 fails to stimulate PS Vita sales in Japan
Sony’s PlayStation Vita sold 15,213 units in Japan during the period January 16 – 22, reports retail tracker Media Create. The figure put sales of the new handheld down 3,142 units in comparison to the previous week, and again outsold by PlayStation Portable. 3DS was once again sitting pretty at the summit of the hardware charts, moving just north of 80,000 units. PlayStation 3 came in second with 21,155 units sold. On the software front, PS Vita futuristic racer WipEout 2048 failed to chart within the Top 20, though next week’s release of Tales of Innocence R is very likely to give Vita sales a firm shot in the arm.
Check out the full charts below.
Hardware:
1. 3DS: 80,960
2. PS3: 21,155
3. PSP: 17,181
4. PSV: 15,219
5. Wii: 10,173
6. X360: 1,588
7. DSi LL: 1,200
8. PS2: 903
9. DSi: 822
Software:
[3DS] 01. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12/01): 35,105
[3DS] 02. Rhythm Thief (Sega, 01/19): 31,598 <- NEW
[3DS] 03. Monster Hunter 3G (Capcom, 12/10): 31,369
[3DS] 04. Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo, 11/03): 26,051
[360] 05. Onechanbara Z Kagura (D3 Publisher, 01/19): 22,013 <- NEW
[PSP] 06. Heroes Phantasia (Namco Bandai, 01/19): 15,163 <- NEW
[3DS] 07. Inazuma Eleven Go (Level-5, 12/15): 14,190
[3DS] 08. Beyond the Labyrinth (Konami, 01/19): 14,176 <- NEW
[PSP] 09. Super Robot Taise OG Saga Masou Kishin II (Namco Bandai, 01/12): 11,598
[PS3] 10. Musou Orochi 2 (Tecmo Koei, 12/22): 10,690
[PS3] 11. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Square Enix, 12/15): 8,706
[WII] 12. Just Dance Wii (Nintendo, 10/13): 8,315
[PSP] 13. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP the Best(Capcom, 09/22): 8,126
[WII] 14. Wii Party (Nintendo, 07/08/2010): 7,133
[WII] 15. Wii Sports Resort Wiimote Plus Pack (Nintendo, 11/11/2010): 6,594
[WII] 16. Hoshi no Kirby Wii (Nintendo, 10/27): 6,162
[WII] 17. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, 04/10/2008): 6,137
[PS3] 18. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Dubbed Version (Square Enix, 12/22): 5,945
[3DS] 19. Nintendogs + cats (Nintendo, 02/26): 5,932
[WII] 20. Go Vacation (Namco Bandai, Wii, 10/20): 5,460
- Ubisoft says the next Assassins Creed game will be the biggest yet
Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, has claimed that this year’s planned entry in the Assassin’s Creed series will be the “biggest to date.” Chatting with MCV, Guillemot noted the success of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, particularly in the U.S., and expressed the publisher’s desire to expand to new platforms and attract new fans.
"Assassin's Creed is an incredible franchise and there are a lot of expectations that it will continue to grow," he commented.
"We are pleased with our continued success so far: in the US, Assassin's Creed: Revelations was a Top Ten title for the entire calendar year, which shows that the demand is definitely there.”
"We think that delivering regular instalments and expanding the brand to other platforms will continue to satisfy the demand, while at the same time attracting new fans.”
"And we're confident that the next instalment of Assassin's Creed will be the biggest to date," added Guillemot.
The next Assassin’s Creed game will be released before December this year, and is expected to feature a brand new character. No details have been revealed on the title as of yet, but possible locations touted include Victorian England, Medieval China and the American Revolution
- Mass Effect 3 to improve new player orientation
BioWare has made more effort to ease players into the Mass Effect experience with the upcoming third instalment in the sci-fi franchise, after admitting it didn’t do such a great job of introducing newcomers in Mass Effect 2.
Speaking to the chaps at IGN, marketing boss Nick Clifford conceded that last year’s sci-fi space epic was a little jarring for those who weren’t familiar with Command Shepard’s previous exploits.
“In all honesty, we didn’t do a really good job of new player orientation,” he commented. “If you didn’t play the first game then 2 was pretty jarring for the first half hour.”
Clifford added that the developers have taken steps to improve player orientation with Mass Effect 3, however.
“If I’m a new player and some guy walks up to me and is like ‘Ohhhh Shepard! Remember that one time?’ I would be like ‘No. I don’t remember that one time. So we wanted to make sure that there aren’t those moments that the player is like, ‘Who is this? What’s going on? What are they talking about?’”
- Mass Effect 3 gets Special Forces trailer
BioWare’s unleashed a new multiplayer-centric trailer for Mass Effect 3, showcasing the various races and classes players can get their grubby mitts on come launch day.
- Grand Theft Auto III and Vice Citycoming to PS2 Classics?
Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City look set to join the PS2 Classics range in the near future, if a listing on the ESRB is anything to go by.
The ratings body has listed both games for release on PlayStation 3, indicating they’ll soon be making their way to PlayStation Network.
It should be noted, however, that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas wasn’t re-rated for Sony’s flagship console, so don’t get your hopes up for a digital release.
Xbox
- Resident Evil 6 to have 6-player Co-Op Claims Microsoft
According to the overview page for Resident Evil 6, it looks like Chris and Leon are going to have a lot of company thanks to 6 player online coop.
While Capcom hasn't made any comments about multiplayer or coop numbers, Microsoft is stating that the game will feature 2-6 players in online co-op, 2-8 in online multiplayer, and 1-2 in offline co-op.
- Microsoft Building new Kinect Studio?
Microsoft looks to be ramping up their Kinect development with the foundation of a new studio. According to a job posting, Microsoft is looking for a Senior Human Resources manager in Redmond, Washington to work with their 343 and Platform Next internal studios.
343 Industries is the development house that oversees the Halo series, but Platform Next Studios is new. According to the job description, the studio is set to "pioneer experiences on Kinect", and doesn't seem to appear anywhere else but within the job description. As a result, it looks like Microsoft is either setting up a brand new studio to help create new Kinect content, or expanding their internal Kinect team into a full studio.
- Microsoft Points to be phased out by the end of the year
A new report, citing sources close to Microsoft, states that MS is planning to phase out Microsoft Points in favor of a real currency option, similar to the wallet feature currently used by the PlayStation Network by the end of 2012.
According to InsideMobileApps Microsoft has informed mobile developers that their publishing agreement with Microsoft will change this year. They are telling developers to plan their future downloadable content to use real figures instead of Microsoft Points.
It is very likely that within this calendar year all purchases on Xbox Live, Zune Marketplace and Windows Phone 7 will be made using $. What do you think of this development? Are you in favour of the abandonment of Microsoft points six years after their introduction?
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 gets DLC
Call Of Duty: Elite subscribers can now download the exclusive DLC for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which consists of two maps. Piazza takes place in an Italian seaside map, while the Liberation map takes place in an open Central Park.
Activision has also published their Elite content calendar, highlighting the DLC available over the service in the upcoming months. February will see a map, March will have a map and two missions, April will feature a map, May will go with a map and mission, June gets something extra with a map, mission, and mode, while July will bring two more maps, then a map, mission, mode in August and finally a map and mission in September.
- Next Xbox to be 6 times more powerful than 360
With a new Xbox system in the near future, the rumor mill is hitting overdrive. The latest rumor about the next Xbox comes from IGN, who states that their insider sources have confirmed that the next Xbox will be based on ATI's Radeon 6x00 series, with a performance akin to the HD 6670, which IGN says will result in 6 times more GPU power than the current Xbox 360.
IGN also states that mass production of the GPU will begin by the end of 2012, making a 2013 release seem likely. However, with all news about the next Xbox 360, it is important to take this one with a grain of salt, as most of these rumors are based around pure speculation.
Sources: http://mynintendonews.com/