Wii Street U’s free download period is about to come to an end. Those who have already downloaded the app will be able to keep it at no extra cost, but new Wii U owners will be forced to fork over 500 yen starting on November 1.
The same will also apply to overseas markets. Nintendo hasn’t announced a price yet, but it should end up at around $5 or so.
SEGA confirmed its “SEGA 3D Classics” for North America and Europe months ago, but we haven’t heard much since. Today, though, the company has finally announced that the series’ games will begin releasing in the west late next month.
Here’s the lineup:
3D Space Harrier, 3D Super Hang-On – 11/28/2013
3D Sonic The Hedgehog, 3D Altered Beast – 12/5/2013
3D Ecco the Dolphin, 3D Galaxy Force II – 12/12/2013
3D Shinobi III, 3D Streets of Rage – 12/19/2013
Pricing is set at $5.99 / €4.99 / £4.49 each.
Siliconera has posted a write-up of of NHK’s “Professional—Style of Work” program that aired earlier this week, where Pokemon president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara shared the first details about the new Pokemon game starring Pikachu as a detective partner. You can find a few more bits below, as well as images above.
– The new Pokemon game is a huge project
– Solve mysteries and use deductive reasoning
– Pokemon devs are working on new ideas to separate the game from other titles involving detectives and mystery solving
– Will be made so that a younger audience can enjoy
– As mentioned previously, Pikachu will talk
– First time Pikachu will speak
– Pikachu will have lines that are more suited for an adult
– Example of the above: “…Oh, they’re just beauties [girls]”
– Pikachu will also have other hard-boiled lines to fit a detective persona
– Example of the above: “If this keeps up, we’ll have a bag made from Pikachu…”
– Having Pikachu talk was a decision Ishihara and the other staff members spent a long time mulling over
– They first thought it would be impossible and a risky proposal
– Ater telling them “let’s make this happen,” Ishihara and the others decided to go with it
– The staff are surprised in the possibilities of all the different facial expressions motion-capture affords
– Motion-capture is being used to have Pikachu show more personality
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
This week’s Japanese eShop update is as follows:
3DS
Downloadable Titles
Simple DL Series Vol. 18 – The Shogi – 400 yen
Simple DL Series Vol. 19 – The Go – 400 yen
Simple DL Series Vol. 20 – The Card Daif?g? Poker Blackjack – 400 yen
Simple DL Series Vol. 21 – The Kanshiki-kan – File.1 Kinky? S?sa! J?y? Sh?ko o Touch Seyo! – 500 yen
Big Bass Arcade – 700 yen
Danb?ru Senki Wars (Little Battlers Wars, retail title) – 4,980 yen
Shin Hikari Shinwa Palutena no Kagami (Kid Icarus Uprising, retail title) – 4,790 yen
Gureko kara no Ch?sen-j?! Eitango no Shima to Obake-tachi Step 1 DEMO – FREE
Gureko kara no Ch?sen-j?! Eitango no Shima to Obake-tachi Step 2 DEMO – FREE
Tamagochi! Se-shun Dream School DEMO – FREE
Medalot Dual Kuwagata Ver DEMO – FREE
Seis? no Amazonesu DEMO – FREE
Virtual Console
Hanajuku Hero (Famicom) – 500 yen
Wii U
Downloadable Titles
Wii Sports Club (Tennis, Bowling) 1,000 yen each (or 200 yen 24 hours rental)
Wii Party U (retail title) – 4,620 yen
Wii Fit U – FREE (from 10/31)
Virtual Console
Tennis (Famicom) – 500 yen
Daik?kai Jidai II (Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, Super Famicom) – 800 yen
This week, Famitsu put out its 1,300th issue. The magazine celebrated by giving insight into Japanese sales since the beginning of the 21st century.
Some notable statistics:
– Roughly 14,000 console and portable titles have come out in Japan since January 1, 2001
– Handheld systems have dominated the Japanese market since the DS’ arrival
– 32.9 million DS units sold in Japan
– PSP sold just under 20 million
– 39 DS titles are in the top-100 sales ranking
– 22 PS2 titles are in the top-100 sales ranking
– 16 Wii titles are int he top 100-sales ranking
– Year 2006: most titles in the top 100 with 14
– New Super Mario Bros. sol 6,424,042 copies in Japan
– Nintendo took up all five top slots for software sales since 2001
– Pokemon Diamond/Pearl is number two, followed by Black/White, Ruby/Sapphire, Animal Crossing: New Leaf
– All of these games sold at least 5 million copies
– Brain Age, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Dragon Quest IX and Mario Kart DS round out the top 10
– 8 Nintendo-published titles overall
– Nintendo has sold 99.8 million pieces of retail software in Japan since 2001
– Combined with the 33 million or so Pokemon games sold, that’s nearly 133 million Nintendo-produced game cards and discs floating around Japan
– That’s enough to give every Japanese citizen one game and still have about seven million left over
– Runner-up in software sales: Square Enix
– Square Enix has sold just over 30 million retail copies
– Only 11 publishers produced all of the games that made the top 100 sales ranking
Famitsu concluded with the following:
“More users are downloading their software purchases, and the flow toward free-to-play can’t be ignored. Games are being played in an expanding number of ways, and there’s been a massive rise in the number of users who play games on their smartphones. We’re approaching an era where software sales aren’t necessarily a direct reflection of what gamers like.”
F1 Race Stars: Powered Up Edition launched in Japan months ago, but oddly enough, it hasn’t been available overseas. That’ll be changing in December.
Codemasters announced today that F1 Race Stars: Powered Up Edition will head to North America and Europe in December. It’ll come out as an eShop-only release – no retail version planned.
F1 Race Stars: Powered Up Edition is more or less the same game that hit other consoles, albeit with some additions. The package adds four extra tracks and nine extra accessory packs. Additionally, players can race as their Mii, use tilt controls with the GamePad, and display the map on the controller.
Source: Codemasters PR
Along with today’s screenshot, Sakurai passed along the following message on Miiverse:
“Is is just me or do I smell something beastly…?”
EA earned $695 in revenue across console, mobile, and PC software sales during the latest financial quarter. Unsurprisingly, just $9 million of the total came from Wii U and Wii U titles, or 1.3 percent.
If you were to disregard handheld and PC sales, Wii and Wii U’s total increases to 3 percent. Still, that’s nothing compared to the Xbox 360 (54 percent) and PlayStation 3 (42 percent).
Also worth mentioning, handheld sales encompass 14 percent of all EA mobile sales. Sony handhelds take up 8 percent while Nintendo portables account for 6 percent.
This week’s Japanese software sales are as follows:
01./01. [3DS] Pokemon X / Y #
02./00. [PS3] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2013
03./00. [PS3] BlazBlue: Chronophantasma #
04./02. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 #
05./03. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto V
06./00. [PSP] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2013
07./00. [PSV] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 2013
08./04. [3DS] Battle For Money Sentouchuu: Densetsu no Shinobi no Survival Battle!
09./00. [PSP] Kamigami no Itazura #
10./00. [PSP] Diabolik Lovers: More, Blood #
11./10. [PSV] Dangan-Ronpa 1-2: Reload
12./00. [PS3] Samurai Warriors 2 with Xtreme Legends & Empires HD Version #
13./06. [PS3] FIFA 14 #
14./13. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf #
15./11. [3DS] Friend Collection: New Life #
16./08. [PS3] Soccer Tsuku: Pro Soccer Club!
17./09. [PS3] Tales of Symphonia Chronicles
18./00. [3DS] Sonic Lost World
19./17. [3DS] Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life #
20./07. [PS3] Beyond: Two Souls
The latest Japanese hardware sales from Media Create are as follows:
3DS LL – 69,001
3DS – 40,507
Vita – 24,513
PS3 – 11,460
PSP – 3,807
Wii U – 2,598
Wii – 742
Xbox 360 – 351
For comparison’s sake, here are the hardware numbers from last week:
3DS LL – 94,988
3DS – 59,590
Vita – 25,763
PS3 – 11,643
PSP – 3,651
Wii U – 2,999
Wii – 806
Xbox 360 – 539
