UK software sales (Week ending 4/30)
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News, Wii | 0 comments
Individual formats
1 1 PORTAL 2 XB360 EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
5 2 ZUMBA FITNESS WII 505 GAMES 505 GAMES
3 3 MORTAL KOMBAT XB360 WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE
2 4 MORTAL KOMBAT PS3 WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE
4 5 PORTAL 2 PS3 EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
8 6 WII FIT PLUS WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
7 7 OPERATION FLASHPOINT: RED RIVER XB360 CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS
9 8 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS XB360 ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
13 9 JUST DANCE 2 WII UBISOFT UBISOFT
10 10 POKEMON BLACK VERSION DS NINTENDO NINTENDO
14 11 FIFA 11 XB360 EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
11 12 POKEMON WHITE VERSION DS NINTENDO NINTENDO
12 13 WII SPORTS RESORT WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
30 14 KINECT SPORTS XB360 MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
18 15 HOMEFRONT XB360 THQ THQ
21 16 OPERATION FLASHPOINT: RED RIVER PS3 CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS
25 17 CARNIVAL GAMES: IN ACTION! XB360 2KPLAY TAKE 2
16 18 LEGO STAR WARS III: THE CLONE WARS XB360 LUCASARTS LUCASARTS
6 19 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS PS3 ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
15 20 CRYSIS 2 XB360 EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
38 21 MICHAEL JACKSON: THE EXPERIENCE XB360 UBISOFT UBISOFT
19 22 FIFA 11 PS3 EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
23 23 WII PARTY WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
22 24 LITTLEBIGPLANET 2 PS3 SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
27 25 HOMEFRONT PS3 THQ THQ
26 26 ART ACADEMY DS NINTENDO NINTENDO
– 27 LEGO STAR WARS III: THE CLONE WARS PS3 LUCASARTS LUCASARTS
– 28 HALO: REACH XB360 MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
17 29 PORTAL 2 PC EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
37 30 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 12: THE MASTERS XB360 EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
36 31 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 12: THE MASTERS PS3 EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
24 32 SOCOM: SPECIAL FORCES PS3 SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
39 33 DRAGON AGE II XB360 EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
– 34 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2011 PC SEGA SEGA
20 35 CRYSIS 2 PS3 EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
29 36 LEGO STAR WARS III: THE CLONE WARS DS LUCASARTS LUCASARTS
– 37 ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD PS3 UBISOFT UBISOFT
– 38 TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED 2 XB360 ATARI NAMCO BANDAI GAMES
– 39 JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT UBISOFT
– 40 ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD XB360 UBISOFT UBISOFT
All formats
1 1 PORTAL 2 VALVE EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
2 2 MORTAL KOMBAT NETHERREALM STUDIOS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE
4 3 ZUMBA FITNESS PIPEWORKS 505 GAMES 505 GAMES
6 4 OPERATION FLASHPOINT: RED RIVER CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS CODEMASTERS
3 5 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS TREYARCH ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
5 6 LEGO STAR WARS III: THE CLONE WARS TRAVELLER’S TALES LUCASARTS LUCASARTS
7 7 FIFA 11 EA CANADA EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
9 8 WII FIT PLUS NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
10 9 HOMEFRONT KAOS STUDIOS THQ THQ
15 10 JUST DANCE 2 UBISOFT (FRANCE) UBISOFT UBISOFT
8 11 CRYSIS 2 CRYTEK EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
11 12 POKEMON BLACK VERSION GAME FREAK NINTENDO NINTENDO
18 13 MICHAEL JACKSON: THE EXPERIENCE UBISOFT (MONTREAL) UBISOFT UBISOFT
12 14 POKEMON WHITE VERSION GAME FREAK NINTENDO NINTENDO
16 15 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 12: THE MASTERS TIBURON ENTERTAINMENT EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
14 16 WII SPORTS RESORT NINTENDO NINTENDO NINTENDO
31 17 KINECT SPORTS RARE MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
17 18 DRAGON AGE II BIOWARE EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
20 19 ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD UBISOFT (MONTREAL) UBISOFT UBISOFT
22 20 LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 TRAVELLER’S TALES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE
25 21 THE SIMS 3 THE SIMS STUDIO EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
29 22 CARNIVAL GAMES: IN ACTION! CAT DADDY 2KPLAY TAKE 2
– 23 VIRTUA TENNIS 4 SEGA SEGA SEGA
33 24 TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED 2 EDEN STUDIOS ATARI NAMCO BANDAI GAMES
13 25 WWE ALL STARS THQ SAN DIEGO THQ THQ
19 26 SHIFT 2: UNLEASHED SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
23 27 RED DEAD REDEMPTION ROCKSTAR SAN DIEGO ROCKSTAR TAKE 2
21 28 FIGHT NIGHT CHAMPION EA CANADA EA SPORTS ELECTRONIC ARTS
– 29 GUITAR HERO: WARRIORS OF ROCK NEVERSOFT REDOCTANE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
27 30 WII PARTY ND CUBE NINTENDO NINTENDO
32 31 WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2011 YUKE’S THQ THQ
26 32 LITTLEBIGPLANET 2 MEDIA MOLECULE SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
– 33 BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM ROCKSTEADY STUDIOS XBOX 360 CLASSICS SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
– 34 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2011 SPORTS INTERACTIVE SEGA SEGA
30 35 ART ACADEMY HEADSTRONG GAMES NINTENDO NINTENDO
– 36 JUST CAUSE 2 AVALANCHE STUDIOS XBOX 360 CLASSICS SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
– 37 HALO: REACH BUNGIE MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
24 38 BULLETSTORM EPIC GAMES/PEOPLE CAN FLY EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS
28 39 SOCOM: SPECIAL FORCES ZIPPER INTERACTIVE SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
– 40 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2011 KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT KONAMI KONAMI
May – What’s in store
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, Features, Wii | 0 comments
MDK 2 (WiiWare)
US: May 9
EU: TBA
AU: TBA
It’s not a Virtual Console game, but this is a straight-up port of the weird third person shooter developed by Bioware for the PC, Dreamcast and later the PS2 back in 2000. And boy is it weird, with a cast of heroes that include a robotic, six-legged dog, a mad scientist, and a janitor. At only 1000 Nintendo points, it’s not a bad deal, and who knows — if enough people buy it, maybe we’ll eventually get an MDK 3.
Rumor: Wii Select budget line starting this month, May 15 price cut sounding more likely
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Wii | 0 comments
Even though the Wii was released more than four years ago, launch games such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess still cost $50 at most retailers. Might that be changing soon, though?
According to Kotaku, Nintendo is set to announce a “Wii Select” budget friendly line this month, which is comparable to “Players Choice” used in past video game generations. The lineup of games include Zelda, Mario Super Sluggers, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Wii Sports. These titles will be sold at a $19.99 price point.
Kotaku’s sources say that Wii Sports will become a part of “Wii Select” because Nintendo is planning a new bundle for the console. Mario Kart Wii will take Wii Sports’ role in the packaging, and the sports title will now be sold separately.
Kotaku also reports that a $50 Wii price cut is set May 15. This matches a number of rumors we’ve heard recently, so we may hear something official from Nintendo soon.
ESRB updates
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, News, Wii | 0 comments
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II (3DS) – T
ExerBeat (Wii) – E
Chrono Trigger (Wii) – E
Dream Trigger 3D (3DS) – E
Junior Island Adventure (DS) – E
Reel Fishing 3D Paradise (3DS) – E
Zimo: Mahjong Fanatic (DSi) – E
Transformers Dark of the Moon AUTOBOTS (3DS) – E10+
Transformers Dark of the Moon DECEPTICONS (3DS) – E10+
Let’s Create! Pottery (DSi) – E
Iwata comments on Wii Vitality Sensor
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments
The Wii Vitality Sensor was one of the more odd announcements made at E3. Almost two years later, we haven’t heard much about the peripheral at all.
Satoru Iwata discussed the status of the Vitality Sensor at a financial results briefing last week. Although he believes that the “project has a lot of interesting potential”, Nintendo isn’t sure when they will be ready to release it.
“Also, concerning Wii Vitality Sensor, I imagine that you are worried about that because it hasn’t been put on the market even though a long time has passed since it was initially announced. This is a totally new type of entertainment, and there are large individual differences in the biological information of humans. For example, if it was acceptable that only 80% of the users thought the result was natural, then we could propose this to consumers right now. However, we are aiming for a level of quality in which 99% of consumers feel comfortable, and that is why this project is taking time to complete. I feel that this project has a lot of interesting potential, and we would like to continue this project without giving up, but it is difficult to overcome this hurdle, so please understand that now I cannot clearly say when we will be ready to put this on the market.”
Iwata: Kinect not “seriously” impacting Wii sales
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments
Microsoft’s Kinect add-on will always be compared to the Wii Remote because they both offer motion-controlled gaming. Even so, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata believes that sales of Microsoft’s latest controller are not greatly impacting the Wii. Iwata told investors at a financial results briefing last week:
“I think the image of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is largely different between Japanese citizens and U.S. citizens. I think I can say that the Xbox 360 business has been in a good condition since last summer. On the other hand, when we talk about whether Kinect contributed to significantly expanding the number of Xbox users, as I have previously shown you the data on the graph, the number of Wii users has grown to about 10 million, but the growth in the number of Microsoft users is much smaller. Therefore, we feel that it would be rather unusual if Nintendo’s Wii market was taken over by the launch of Kinect, or if the users who were playing with Wii quit playing with it and started to play with other consoles. Of course, many users in the U.S. have multiple consoles at their homes. Many Wii users also have Xbox 360 and vice versa, so I am not saying that there is completely no effect in terms of use rate. However, hit titles are not being released continually every month for Kinect software, so we don’t believe Wii sales are being seriously affected.”
Iwata discusses lack of third-party success on Wii, wants to cooperate with software devs for Project Cafe
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments
It’s pretty much a well-known fact that third-parties haven’t been able to find success on the Wii. Sure, a few titles have performed beyond expectations – such as Just Dance – but on the whole, third-party releases just haven’t sold well.
Satoru Iwata was asked to comment on Nintendo’s inability to attract third-parties for the Wii at the company’s financial results briefing last week. Iwata explained that poor sales of previous games was a factor, as was the console’s graphical limitations and competition among other platforms. He also said that Nintendo is interested in cooperating with software developers for the Wii’s successor and admitted that third-parties are important to maintain the market.
“Regarding your analysis that cooperation with third-party software developers didn’t go as well for Wii as it went for Nintendo DS, there actually are some arguments which attribute the reason to the system’s ‘performance,’ but in terms of ‘performance,’ Nintendo DS did not overwhelm other devices by its performance. However, it proposed what other devices could not, and that value was recognized, and as a result the software sold well, which is the most important point. Unfortunately, there are very few success stories of third-party software in Japan on Wii. This lowered the motivation of the software developers, and at a time when these software developers should have been running their businesses on the platform with the biggest installed base, this wasn’t the reality. On the contrary, in the U.S., several titles sold well. Not only ‘JUST DANCE,’ which I introduced today, but for some titles, such as ‘Guitar Hero,’ even if the titles were released for multiple platforms, the Wii version sold the most, and in such a situation, the developers did not completely lose motivation for development on Wii. However, Wii is good in some areas but not in others, so especially for games like ‘Call of Duty,’ the Wii version sold pretty well, but the unit sales were very different from the versions of other platforms, and I assume that one of the reasons is the issue with the graphical representations which you mentioned before, and also, the consumers who like that kind of game will have other platforms at home as well, which led to this result. Of course, we would like to cooperate with software developers for Wii’s successor, and as I am repeatedly saying, I don’t believe Nintendo can carry out everything alone. I am saying that we are responsible for building up the market, but I don’t think that Nintendo can maintain the market alone; We are aiming for creating a situation where software publishers will be willing to cooperate. As for commenting on such things as the performance, I already stated in the beginning that I would not mention any specific plans. Thank you for your understanding.”
Screenshots of this week’s Nintendo Downloads (5/2)
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, Screenshots, Wii | 0 comments
Nintendo Download: Action is in Full Bloom with New Game Downloads for Nintendo Systems
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in DS, News, Wii | 0 comments
Spring flowers aren’t the only new arrivals you’ll want to savor as May gets underway. The latest downloadable games for the Wii™ and Nintendo DSi™ systems include action-packed fare that’s sure to keep your adrenaline pumping. For the WiiWare™ service, a new demo version of BIT.TRIP RUNNER invites players to discover the fast-paced, retro-flavored platforming fun of the BIT.TRIP series for zero Wii Points™. On the Virtual Console™ service, RIVAL TURF! delivers classic street-fighting kicks from the Super NES™ era. And for the Nintendo DSiWare™ service, Anonymous Notes Chapter 2 – From The Abyss – plunges hand-held gamers deep in the heart of a rich dungeon-based adventure.
Voice actor hints at North American Xenoblade localization, month for European release
Posted on 13 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii | 0 comments
Nintendo of Europe made a surprising announcement about a month ago that Xenoblade Chronicles will be hitting store shelves this year. Gamers in North America, however, are still waiting for a localization confirmation.
If Nintendo of America is planning on releasing the title, we won’t be hearing anything official until E3. There is a small hint, though, that it will be brought stateside. Peter Dickson, a voice actor working on the European release, posted the following information on his website:
“Peter has been cast as the Emperor Sorean – the leader of the High Entia in the cult Nintendo RPG Xenoblade Chronicles. The game will be released Autumn 2011 in UK, Europe and USA. Peter is thrilled to have played such a leading role in a massively successful Nintendo title.”
Keep in mind that nothing has been confirmed yet, and it’s certainly possible that Dickson simply assumed that the game will ship in North America. Again, we’ll have to wait until E3 before we know the fate of Xenoblade in North America.
In other news, Dickson said on his Twitter account a few weeks ago that Xenoblade will launch in Europe this September. Adam Howden, voice actor for Shulk, seems to be in agreement. Nintendo of Europe has yet to confirm the game’s release date.