Recent News
- Tomb Raider Petition, Almost 5k for Dark Souls 2: Why 3rd Parties are Skipping Wii U
11. December 2012 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
Yesterday we mentioned a petition for Dark Souls 2
, which is just a few signatures shy of 5,000. Of course, that is well shy of the 100,000 it is seeking, but the petition has only existed for a couple days so there is plenty of time to hit the mark. Now a petition has risen up to bring the next Tomb Raider to the Wii U
. These petitions are certainly an interesting prospect and it’s one way fans can show that there is demand for such titles on their preferred platform.Jim Sterling, editor-in-chief of Destructoid, goes as far as to point out that these games would arguably be better on the Wii U due to the controller regardless of if they provided unique Wii U toolsets or not. It’s true that developers feel like they have to use the GamePad just because it’s there, regardless of the fact Nintendo has always made it’s inclusion optional. I mean, why not just offer the ability to to stream it to the pad and maybe just some rough map for those that don’t? You don’t have to make use of the GamePad if you don’t want. It’s a tool that is optional, not required. This isn’t motion control gaming.
Still, this overlooks a grander reason that third parties are not hoping on board to make ports and it has nothing to do with the GamePad or the hardware. Rather, it has to do with the fact it’s a Nintendo console. More after the jump.
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I know what many are thinking. “Not Pachter again. What an idiot. Why do people continue to give him the time of day”. Well, the truth of the matter is that Pachter is one of, if not the best, at what he does as an analyst of the industry. Is he wrong an awful lot? Sure. But where he truly makes his paycheck is his predictions for investors, of which he would never speak publicly about because it would compromise his job. You can’t give that advice away publicly. So, instead he just talks about the things that fans throw at him and factors he uses in his own private predictions for WebBush.He feels the Wii U will get a $50 reduction next holiday season, mostly due to sales decline. Of course, he also feels the PS4 is coming out next year as well, so it could also be to combat the excitement for that console by offering their own deluxe model at least $100 cheaper (he feels the PS4 will launch at around $400) than the competition. Time will tell if he’s right, but I don’t think it’s necessarily unreasonable. A lot, of course, depends on sales. They are already declining right now, but will Nintendo reinvigorate the consumers next spring and summer?
We can only hope.
- Japan Wii U Launch Numbers Are in: Something Other Than Mario is Selling
11. December 2012 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
307,471 Wii U consoles have been reported
to have sold during the Wii U launch this past weekend. Those numbers are second to the United States launch, but still rather impressive. What’s more impressive is the fact that it wasn’t just Mario that had a high attachment rate. Japan continues to show it’s love for all things Monster Hunter, and while this is just an HD upgrade of the original Monster Hunter Tri, Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate
chimed in to a cool 106,454 games sold. Pretty impressive indeed. Want the full game sales chart for Wii U? That’s after the jump. - Bonus Round: Wii U Post Launch Thoughts, 2013 Lineup Concerns
11. December 2012 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
The Wii U has now been out in the United states for over three weeks, Europe for about a week and a half, and naturally in japan for just this past weekend. We still don’t have Nintendo TVii. We still don’t have any reassurances of what is to come in 2013. Pikmin 3 ? That seems to be the lead game next year, with the possibility of Bayonetta 2 making some small waves. That doesn’t mean Lego City: Undercover should be overlooked, and that The Wonderful 101 isn’t something to try out. It’s just one of those things where the great promise of the Wii U was supposed to be more than just what Nintendo gives us. To make up for gaps like we are likely to see until summer next year we were supposed to get games like Bioshock and GTA V . The problem? We’re not sure which if any of the top third party games we will get to tide us over.Colonial Marines sure looks promising, but will many attach to that game? The Wii U is hardly doomed. It’s a system that will take awhile to catch on, but it definitely needs about 3 “must own” gaming experiences to come out I feel before it really catches on.
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This week’s sales figures
from the UK are in, and Nintendo isn’t doing too well. In fact, they’re doing terribly. Nintendo’s current Wii U #1 in the region is Nintendo Land
all the way in 27th place, with New Super Mario Bros. U
trailing in 36th. Even Nintendo’s strong-selling 3DS is losing some fire power, as its #1 title is New Super Mario Bros. 2
in 17th place. Even Sticker Star
just barely managed to wiggle its way into the top 40.Overall, Nintendo’s only got 7 games in the whole list, which they certainly aren’t too happy about. It looks as if they’re going to need to seriously rethink their marketing strategy in order to let the system live up to its potential over there. But this gloom makes me wonder… is America next?
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Last Friday, Namco Bandai announced
Dark Souls II
, the sequel to last year’s hit acting-RPG at the 10th Annual VGAs. The game was announced for PS3, Xbox 360, and… PC. A Wii U version of the game has yet to be announced and is probably not even planned at the moment. To remedy this, a fan named Christopher Marcill started an online petition
to bring the game to Nintendo’s latest console.The petition is currently at 1,720 signatures out of the required 100k, so even if you don’t plan to buy the game, signing this petition is worth it, because it needs all the support it can get. Head past the jump to see the petition’s official platform.
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The Mass Effect Trilogy might be making a turn to the Wii U. So far, BioWare has not made an official announcement for a possible Wii U version, however, the developer says: “Never Say Never.”Although I hate how much this single sentence reminds me of a certain boy for which I have nothing good to say and absolutely hate, this is good news. Even though many people hate Mass Effect 3’s ending, this is a great gaming franchise, and it would be good to have these games on the Wii U. The trilogy can already be bought for PS3, Xbox360 and PC and costs $60. On the other hand, on the Wii U only has Mass Effect 3: Special Edition which also costs $60. Read on for more.
. - The Wii U in Europe: 18+ Content on eShop Only Available During Late-Night Hours
07. December 2012 by James Prumos
Nintendo has been trying to get rid of the idea that only children are meant to play their systems for many years, but Nintendo of Europe apparently disagrees with that idea, as they have restricted
access to 18+ content on the eShop from 11PM-3AM. Nintendo Italy explained this, saying:“Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries.We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors (PEGI) to the 11 P.M. - 3 A.M. time window [...]”
- Weekly Sales Are In: Wii U Sells 462,099 Units, 1,340,726 Pieces of Software
07. December 2012 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
Weekly sales are officially in
, and the Wii U showed decent sales totals for it’s second week on the market. Worldwide (so, United States and Europe) it sold 462,099 total consoles. Although in the US it only sold just north of 140,000 units. However, if you look at the software attachment rate for the week it sits at 2.9 games per console sold. That’s a pretty healthy attachment rate.For those wondering, that puts total global sales for the Wii U at around 900,000, with roughly 2,800,000 pieces of software moved. Not too shabby for two weeks on the shelf no? The Wii U launches in Japan tomorrow, so while the sales charts for this week (which arrive next week) may not show a ton of uptick, the following week should definitely show more positive signs. On the other side of the barrel, the 3DS continues to perform extremely well, though it’s software sales are still massively lacking. The exciting part however is that Animal Crossing: New Leaf is selling like hotcakes still in Japan, and the only thing keeping it from cracking the top 10 is the fact that no other market has the game yet.
What can we garner from these sales so far? Not much, outside of the fact the 3DS is doing very well despite not having much software people appear to be interested in, and that the launch of the Wii U is so far… so good. Lets see if the US numbers dip even more next week.
- Analysts Weigh in on NPD Sales in November, Wii U Both a Success and Failure
07. December 2012 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
Video game sales are down 11% year to year
for the month of November, and analysts are starting to weigh in on the cause of such trends as well as the future of the industry.Liam Callahan, NPD analyst, noted that Wii U sales generated 21% more revenue than the Wii launch in November 2006,. “With an average price 35% higher for the Wii U at launch, compared to the Wii, this is an example of how consumers are willing to come out and spend when they see the value of the product.”
Callahan compared this time period to November 2005 when the industry began transitioning to the Xbox 360 and, the following year, the Wii and PlayStation 3. Retail video game sales, he says, “are nearly twice as big as they were then. This really demonstrates the long-term health of retail sales even as many platforms are quite late in their lifecycles.”
It’s nice to see a positive note, but not everyone agrees with that assessment. More after the jump.
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