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:

Assassin’s Creed IV countdown begins, trailer confirmed for Monday

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

Ubisoft has opened a new countdown site for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Following the game’s official boxart unveiling and name confirmation, Ubisoft is now gearing up to unleash a debut trailer. The video will be accessible once the countdown ends.

Black Flag’s embargo will end on Monday, so we should begin to receive the first official information once March 4 arrives. The countdown looks like it’ll expire on the same day.

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.

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

Game & Wario footage

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

Off-TV play and cross-region online play coming to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Wii U

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

Capcom is working on an update for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on Wii U that will launch in April. It’ll bring about off-TV play as well as cross-region play. The latter feature will allow players in North America and Europe to participate in online battles together.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate launches on Wii U and 3DS next month. The game will be available in North America on March 19 and Europe on March 22.

The official announcement regarding off-TV play and cross-region online play is posted below.

Activision community manager on Black Ops II DLC for Wii U

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

So basically… still no news.