Monster Hunter is one of the biggest gaming franchises in Japan. But much like Dragon Quest, its popularity has never reached similar levels overseas.

Capcom hopes that it will begin to change the situation with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. On Wii U, users will be able to play with others online. The Wii U and 3DS versions feature save transfers. And in Europe, a Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate bundles will be released.

According to Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, these were all steps taken to enhance the series’ appeal in the west:

“You’re right in terms of us intentionally doing this. It’s always been our wish to make a good start and we’ve always been saying we’ll do this at one point. Monster Hunter in Japan started and developed in a very different way to how it’s been in Europe so far, Japan being a rather densely populated place with a quite prominent culture of visiting each other’s places to play games together. You see kids carrying their consoles taking them to their friends. They already had this basis of playing games through local network, whereas it’s a bit more difficult in the US and Europe where your neighbour is seven miles away. With Wii U, which is online compatible, and with 3DS with its portability, releasing both of them together, we’re giving opportunity and options to consumers to really pick up the version they want and the one that suits them. By doing that we might be able to actually have a breakthrough. That’s definitely our intention.”

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag dated

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Update: Some folks haven’t been able to access the page, so we’ve added in a capture below:

There’s an older Assassin’s Creed III trailer featured currently, so I imagine we accessed a page we weren’t supposed to. Oops!

We’ve been poking around Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag countdown site a bit more, and managed to come across another page containing some very interesting information.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV page list a release date: October 29. Those who pre-order the title will receive a collectible Todd McFarlane poster.

Finally, before accessing the new page, we reached an age gate with an image which looks to be some new art (or something along those lines). Take a look below:

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Wii U will be a $60 game

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

A lot of late ports have arrived on Wii U since launch. Darksiders II, Mass Effect 3, and Batman: Arkham City all hit the console in November, and each was initially priced at $60 despite having shipped on other consoles months earlier.

The situation won’t be any different with Need for Speed: Most Wanted. EA has confirmed that the Wii U edition will cost $60 when it comes out next month. To be fair, Most Wanted is probably one of the few late ports that deserves the price point given how much effort Criterion is putting into the project. It’ll include DLC and new modes, as well as slightly prettier visuals.

Other Wii U ports are also in the pipeline, but there is one exception to the $60 benchmark. The Amazing Spider-Man: Ultimate Edition, due out next month, will cost $40.

The Conduit HD confirmed for NVIDIA Tegra devices

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii | 1 Comment

As originally expected, The Conduit is heading to Tegra-supported devices – including the upcoming Shield handheld.

The Conduit HD will be pretty much like the original Wii game, though it will sport prettier visuals. Players will be able to take on the first two missions for free and will need to offer up $7 for the remaining seven. There will also be an option to purchase levels 3-6 for $3 and levels 7-9 for the same amount.

It’ll definitely be strange seeing The Conduit on new hardware, but I guess High Voltage Software figured this would be a smart thing to do.

Source, Via

A Hat in Time trailer

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Podcast Stories, Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Man, this game is looking more and more beautiful (and funny!) every time I see it! Glad it’s probably hitting the Wii U at some point.

Renegade Kid working on “Treasurenauts”

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

A new trademark coming from Renegade Kid has been discovered in the USPTO. Siliconera detected the name “Treasurenauts”, which was filed by the Mutant Mudds developer.

As it turns out, Treasurenauts is one of Renegade Kid’s next games. The studio has confirmed that it will be making an announcement in the near future.

Source

Pwnee Studios says they’ve had few issues working with Wii U development, Nintendo has been very helpful

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Developer of the upcoming Cloudberry Kingdom on Wii U “Pwnee Studios” told Aussie Gamer the other day that Nintendo has been great to work with relating to the development and publishing of their game on the Wii U eShop, and they were “pumped” when they got the chance to bring the game to Nintendo fans.

Nintendo has been great to work with so far! We were raised playing the NES and SNES, so when we got the chance to develop our game for the Wii U, we were pumped! We really haven’t had many issues with Nintendo, and they have been very helpful whenever we have had a problem.

In terms of getting the game onto the eShop, it has gone pretty smoothly. We presented the game to Nintendo, they liked it, and they said we should go onto the eShop. All we had to do was agree!

– Pwnee Studios’ TJ Lutz

One of the more interesting bits of information to come from this is how simple it was to get Nintendo to let them publish the game on the eShop! They simply show off their game (probably to some Nintendo representatives), and the Big N makes the decision themselves based on how cool the game is. I find that to be quite a refreshingly simple way to get a game put out!

Via Nintendo Life

MercurySteam never started Lords of Shadow 2 on Wii U, not about budget constraints

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U | 0 comments

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 won’t be hitting Wii U – at least for the foreseeable future. But it has nothing to do with budget constraints, as some reports have suggested.

Producer David Cox took to Twitter and clarified comments published by Eurogamer earlier today. Cox had told the publication that a Wii U version wasn’t in the cards due to a lack of resources. What he meant by this is that MercurySteam would need more staffers and time – not additional funds.

“Can I just say the story about CVLOS2 not coming to WiiU due to budget constraints is utter bullshit. What I said was its a question of resource (people, time, space etc) and focus on what we are already doing”.

Cox also confirmed that Lords of Shadow 2 was never in development for Wii U at any point. Thus, the game was never cancelled for the console.

“Oh and we never cancelled the WiiU version because we never started a WiiU version for the reasons I just gave…”

Source

All of EA’s future games will utilize micro-transactions of some kind

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

After we heard that Dead Space 3 would give players the ability to pay a few extra bucks for upgrades to weapons, items, and armor in-game, a lot of people were concerned: If EA was bringing this trendy business practice into a truly core franchise like Dead Space, what would games like Madden and The Sims look like in the future? According to the mega-publisher, they’ll look awfully similar:

“The next and much bigger piece [of the business] is microtransactions within games. We’re building into all of our games the ability to pay for things along the way, either to get to a higher level to buy a new character, to buy a truck, a gun, whatever it might be, and consumers are enjoying and embracing that way of the business.”

– EA CFO Blake Jorgensen

I can’t imagine too many gamers are happy about this, but if history is any indication, these things will pass. Such things are trendy now– like social networking interaction– but they don’t represent the core of what the fun of games is about, and they can be ignored. Only when EA starts forcing you to participate in the micro transaction model should you be worried!

Via NowGamer

Runner2 causing lock-up issues on Wii U

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Podcast Stories, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

Runner2 is an absolutely lovely game. We suggest that you grab it from the Wii U eShop when you have the chance. There is just one problem with Runner 2’s release: lock-up issues.

Numerous users have noted that Runner2 causes the Wii U to freeze and lock-up when exiting the game. This doesn’t appear to be isolated, unfortunately.

Thanks to Jake for the tip.