Nintendo just sent out a new press release highlighting upcoming third-party games for the Wii U. In a way, it’s just a bunch of fluff, but there are two important points included.

First, Splinter Cell: Blacklist has finally been confirmed for Wii U. The game will launch on the same day as the other console versions in both North America and Europe.

Rayman Legends’ new online challenge mode download has been reconfirmed, too, which offers four levels including “Murfy’s Dungeon”. Players can count on daily and weekly updates as well as leaderboards. This is planned for late April.

Look for the full PR below.

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Square Enix registered a new trademark in Europe and also nabbed a domain name for something called “The Mad & The Monstrous”. Of course, no such title has been announced by the company thus far. Square Enix Japan is listed as the website’s holder for what it’s worth.

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Following today’s announcement of Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, pre-orders have opened across all retailers. Notable outlets such as Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop are now taking reservations. Links to both Arkham Origins versions can be found below.

Amazon

Batman: Arkham Origins (Wii U)
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (3DS)

Best Buy

All SKUs here

GameStop

All SKUs here

Arkham Origins carries a $59.99 price tag, as is the case with all major console releases. The handheld game is set at $39.99.

Devil World will be hitting the Japanese eShop as a Famicom download on April 17 for 500 yen. Screenshots of the game can be found above.

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Just as with any licensing agreement, there comes a time when a certain content distributor is o longer legally allowed to sell the content they licensed from a particular third party. Such a day has come for Rock Band creator Harmonix, as they will be yanking the much-loved ‘Metallica’ from their store– or at least, one pack of their songs that was released for players to download.

“Metallica Pack 01” (including such hits as ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘Blackened’) is now unavailable from the console-accessed ‘Rock Band Music Store’, and soon it will also be removed from first-party marketplaces as well. More songs will likely follow suit going into the next few months or years, but Harmonix says they’re looking to extend an “overwhelming majority” of content licenses they have to minimize the legalese’ effect on their customers.

Via IGN

Nintendo has yet to announce a North American release date for Game & Wario. However, if GameFly is to be believed, the Wii U title is set for June 30.

We typically don’t put much stock into retailer discoveries, but GameFly tends to be correct in most instances. You may remember that the release date and name for Mario Tennis Open were leaked through GameFly prior to Nintendo’s official announcement.

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