A new update concerning Pokemon X/Y will be revealed next Saturday. The official Pokemon Twitter account teased the news a short while ago, tweeting:
We’ve got big Pokémon X and Pokémon Y news coming up next Saturday! Stay tuned! twitter.com/Pokemon/status…
— Pokémon (@Pokemon) March 30, 2013
Japanese show Pokemon Smash will be showcasing the announcement as well. At the end of today’s episode, a teaser was shown featuring Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and some kind of mysterious question mark.
Wii U and other current-gen platforms can’t run Unreal Engine 4 in its original state. However, Epic Games’ co-founder Mark Rein has now clarified that it is technically possible to release games supported by the tech on older systems.
Rein told Engadget:
“You heard the stupid gaffe yesterday about the Wii U. If someone wants to take Unreal Engine 4 and ship a game on Wii U, they can! If they wanna ship an Unreal Engine 4 game on Xbox 360, they could make it happen.”
The point is that even though Unreal Engine 4 can’t run directly on Wii U, games could be brought to the system even though the visuals would be a bit worse. That’s because Epic’s technology is scalable.
NintendoEverything Reader Poll #10 – Are you concerned about a lack of third party support on Wii U?
Unreal Engine 4, folks. It’s so shiny…
This is a two question survey that requires no signing up, accounts, clicking through ads, or anything. Just answer a required question, answer a non-required question (if you want) and make your voice heard in yet another NintendoEverything reader survey poll thing! Results will be read in the form of our top ten list on the next podcast, and if you opted to answer the written question your answer could be read on the show! So don’t say anything ridiculous.
Thanks very much. As stated above the question for you guys this week is “Are you concerned about a lack of third party support on Wii U?”
Shovel Knight has managed to reach its Kickstarter goal. With two weeks remaining, Yacht Club Games managed to collect over $75,000.
The studio said of the news:
We are so appreciative and thankful, we could cry. It’s been a crazy ride, and we still have a long campaign ahead, but WE’RE FUNDED! Were you worried? We weren’t worried. Ok, we were worried.
But! Let the celebration be short! We have lots of updates to put together, and few other goodies.
Check out our awesome Stretch Goals if you haven’t yet, and stay tuned for big excitement tomorrow. I think we’re gonna take the rest of the night off… well, maybe we’ll answer a message or two. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
As mentioned above, while Shovel Knight has been officially funded, there’s still money to be raise. Stretch goals include New Game +, playable boss knights, a 4-player battle mode, and more.
Update: The official Retro City Rampage Twitter account has offered some clarification.
Clarification: WiiWare version of Retro City Rampage has not generated dev revenue or hit the threshold, still a “gift to the fans”.
— Retro City Rampage (@RetroCR) March 30, 2013
Clarification: Those sales numbers per platform circulating are not accurate, extrapolated from a bar graph that didn’t show to-the-digit.
— Retro City Rampage (@RetroCR) March 30, 2013
RCR hasn’t sold close to that on Wii, significantly more on the other platforms. Around 100,000 units total across all platforms 5+mo in.
— Retro City Rampage (@RetroCR) March 30, 2013
Those sales numbers circulating for Retro City Rampage are incorrect. All you need to know is that it’s sold around 100,000 units total.
— Retro City Rampage (@RetroCR) March 30, 2013
Retro City Rampage performed the best on the PlayStation Network. According to creator Brian Provinciano, who shared the breakdown of the game’s sales during a GDC panel, over $600,000 in revenue was generated through 35,000 copies sold on PSN – free PlayStation Plus copies not included.
PC was the second best-performing platform for Retro City Rampage, with most sales coming from Steam. From more than 40,000 units sold, the title collected over $400,000.
Another $200,000 came from Xbox Live Arcade thanks to 15,000 copies sold. And last but not least, WiiWare earned $100,000 with less than 5,000 copies sold.
Provinciano not only spent the most development time on the Xbox Live Arcade version, but also found it to be the most expensive. During his GDC panel, Provinciano said: “Knowing what I know now, I would’ve skipped it.” Retro City Rampage on WiiWare may have been a $20,000 gift to the fans, but in the end, the Xbox Live Arcade version took more out of Provinciano’s pockets.
For the time being, lifetime Retro City Rampage sales come in at around 97,000. Provinciano expects the total to surpass 100,000 next week.
While it’s true that three Banjo-Kazooie console games exist, the series never saw a true third entry. Rare mixed things up completely with the Xbox 360’s “Nuts & Bolts” by removing practically all platforming elements that had become a staple in the franchise.
The chances of Banjo-Kazooie returning to Nintendo platforms are very low at the moment. Microsoft owns the IP after all. But that doesn’t mean hopes and dreams have to die!
Series composer and ex-Rare employee Grant Kirkhope recently appeared on Game Grumps and relayed a desire to have former staffers reunite, form a new company, and make Banjo-Kazooie 3 for Nintendo on Wii U.
Kirkhope said:
“I keep wishing that all the ex-Rare staffers would just get together and form a company, and go to Nintendo and say ‘give us the money. We’ll make you Banjo 3 for the Wii U’ or whatever. …Just make Banjo 3 like it should have been made back then and it would be great, and it would be great on Wii U, and all the ex-Rare guys would be together again all happy and kissing each other. … I just keep thinking we should just give it a try.”
More downloadable content has been made available in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Players can purchase “Rogues and Redeemers 1″ for $3, which sees Chrom partnering with characters from Fire Emblem games of old. Ephraim leads the charge against a number of high-level enemies.
By clearing Rogues and Redeemers 1, Ephraim will be added to your game as a playable character. The full set of Rogues and Redeemers is up for grabs for $6.50, though the latter two missions are locked for the time being.
Fire Emblem: Awakening players can also receive the “Ghost of Blade” map for free through SpotPass.