The English version of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has gone live. Access it here. The discussion has all sorts of talk about the game from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and members of the development team.
Digital sales are becoming increasingly important to the video games industry. Yet, since its inception, the NPD Group has not typically included any of these figures in its monthly reports.
Plans are now in place to change that. NPD hasn’t set any sort of date, but hopes to begin include digital sales in its reports – which will include global sales as opposed to just US sales as is the case with its retail data – later this year. Market research firm EEDAR is on board to make this possible.
David McQuillan, president of the Games group at NPD, told GamesIndustry:
“We fully realize that the market needs the same level of information for the digital categories as exists for the physical business today: SKU-level POS. The progress on that effort up until recently has been slow and frustrating at times, but today I am very happy to share that the pace of progress has changed recently. NPD has formed a leader panel to track digital POS sales of full game and add-on content downloads. It is an important and critical step toward that goal. Leader panels are often formed as a precursor to a formal launch of a POS tracking service.
“We couldn’t agree more with ESA; full market transparency, including digital is incredibly important to the health of the industry.”
“The NPD games leader panel is currently comprised of nine leading games publishers. The initial focus will be on full-game downloads and downloadable content for consoles, PCs and portables. We aren’t at liberty to say who is participating at this time, since we are in the beta (proof of concept) stage.”
“The plan is to have digital POS sales integrated into our US new physical POS retail sales data to enable more efficient analysis for our clients. The timing of when that will happen has not been finalized.”
This month’s GamesMaster review scores are as follows:
The Last of Us – 95%
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 91%
Game & Wario – 70%
Remember Me – 74%
Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep – 90%
Grid 2 – 74%
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger – 75%
Way of the Dogg – 33%
Hunter’s Trophy: America – :(%
Dorito’s Crash Course 2 – 61%
Poker Night 2 – 75%
Fuse – 58%
Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler – 73%
Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery: Episode 1 – 83%
Nun Attack – 66%
Farming Simulator 2013 – 51%
Draw Slasher – 70%
Rymdkapsel – 90%
Project X Zone – 60%
Rayman Legends Challenges App – 92%
Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move – 85%
Swords and Soldiers 3D – 23%
The Starship Damrey – 45%
Publisher Dream – 40%
Bloody Vampire – 64%
Dust 514 – 69%
Zeno Clash II – 60%
The Night of the Rabbit – 73%
Sanctum 2 – 62%
Rising Storm – 85%
Thanks to joclo for the tip.
also have it for $30.
Watch_Dogs is here to stay for Ubisoft. So much so that the publisher is planning an investment that will span ten years, at the least.
Speaking with The Guardian, producer Dominic Guay mentioned that Ubisoft is approaching Watch_Dogs similar to how Bungie is taking on Destiny. Both IPs will be sticking around for the long term.
Guay said the following when it was brought up that Bungie has a 10-year plan for Destiny:
Honestly that’s what we’re doing too. Here’s the way we think about it: even if we change our minds mid-course or after shipping Watch Dogs and say ‘scratch that, we’ll do something else’, the planning helps to make a strong core. We’ve all seen TV series where after a season there are a lot of mysteries; then at the start of season two you think, they didn’t know what was going to happen – they’re just stringing us along! You feel it! And it’s the same with games. If there’s a clear long-term plan, you’ll have stronger characters, the universe will be more coherent. So when you have the luxury of creating a new brand – which is happening less and less in this industry, you need to do just that. We’ve been doing the same thing Bungie has been doing – we’re trying to see how our characters and world will evolve. That’s always in the back of our heads.
– Ubisoft managing director Nicolas Rioux
The irony of the situation notwithstanding, it would be pretty unfortunate to see Ubisoft’s next gen games skip the Wii U, but perhaps even more troubling (politically) to see the games hit the platform but skip out on the tablet-integration interface. Given that the Wii U is the only console that actually ships with such a device installed, common sense would dictate that it’d be easiest to develop such extra features for. Unfortunately, the case is such that making an iPad app means you’ve covered the PS4 and XBO in one swipe, whereas developing something separate for the Wii U Gamepad requires additional resources.
Such has been the situation with Nintendo consoles for a while now– their unique architecture is designed the help Nintendo stay in the game, but it’s a bit of a turn off for third parties.
Ubisoft will have five games on display at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Rayman Legends, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Watch_Dogs.
Ubisoft is planning events for the following games:
Watch_Dogs
Attendees at the San Diego Convention Center will have the opportunity to check out Watch Dogs at Ubisoft’s booth (#135) from July 18 – 21 in the Exhibition Hall. Viewers will be treated to never-before-released footage showcasing protagonist, Aiden Pearce’s hacking prowess in a fully connected recreation of Chicago. Fans who pre-order Watch Dogs from Amazon.com will receive an exclusive free t-shirt (while supplies last).
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Fans of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag can visit the Jackdaw, the ship of Captain Edward Kenway, the game’s hero on July 19 and 20 from 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. at the 5th Avenue Landing behind the San Diego Convention Center. Attendees can experience the new single player gameplay demo with an insider’s perspective from the development team, and play the acclaimed multiplayer mode, including customized levels created through the new Game Lab feature. Additional information on the Assassin’s Creed experience on the pirate ship to follow.
Rayman Legends
Ubisoft’s most popular platforming hero is back. The sequel to 2011’s acclaimed Rayman® Origins, Rayman Legends will be featured in the Gamespot® booth in the Exhibition Hall. Rayman enthusiasts unable to attend Comic-Con can visit the Xbox® Gaming Lounge at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel at 1 Market Place or immerse themselves in touch-based gameplay at the Nintendo Gaming Lounge at the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina at 333 W Harbor Drive.
thatgamecompany made three titles in partnership with Sony. The studio’s contract ended following the release of Journey, so its future games are free to land on any platform.
Nothing has been announced, but there is now a possibility of thatgamecompany’s games heading to the Wii U due to its new-found independence.
thatgamecompany said the following when asked if the studio has any plans to release games on the Wii U eShop:
@Lukasmeza We don't have any announced plans, but it is an option for us. 🙂
— thatgamecompany (@thatgamecompany) July 2, 2013
If Ubisoft ever develops Beyond Good & Evil 2, it will be made for next-gen consoles based on the fact that a new lifecycle is upon us. Current-gen consoles haven’t but ruled out, but it would apparently be “painful” to make happen.
When asked if he would be able to accomplish what he has in mind for Beyond Good & Evil 2 on current-gen systems, creator Michel Ancel said:
“I think [on current platforms] Beyond Good & Evil 2 was possible, but it’d be painful. It’s always possible to do anything on any kind of console, but sometimes you need to spend your energy not on the optimizations or things like that. Now that we have the [new] consoles around the corner we’re working on them. We’re trying to see how we can get the power out of those consoles because there are still things we need to understand on those consoles, but yes, Beyond Good & Evil is a project I always have in mind and I hope good things will come for this project very soon.”
Regardless of where you stand on the current-gen/next-gen debate for Wii U, there’s no denying that its power is closer to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as opposed to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. That could make a Wii U version of Beyond Good & Evil 2 unlikely in that case.
