MILAN, Italy – December 11, 2009 – Today, Playstos Entertainment, independent video game developer, is pleased to announce that Pallurikio™, its new action platformer for WiiWare™, is now available for download on the European Wii Shop Channel. A release date has also been set for the American market, where Pallurikio will release later this month, on December 21.
Pallurikio will retail in both regions at a 1,000 Wii Points™ price point.
For more information about Pallurikio, gameplay videos and screenshots, please visit http://www.pallurikio.com, or the official UK WiiWare game page at
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/wiiware/pallurikio__15301.html.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – December 10, 2009 – Today Ubisoft announced a new addition to its sports portfolio with Racquet Sports, a multisport game that includes tennis, ping pong, badminton, squash and beach tennis. Developed for Nintendo Wii(TM), the game delivers an engaging and interactive experience for the entire family. Compatible with Wii MotionPlus(TM) and Ubisoft’s Motion Tracking Camera for Nintendo Wii(TM), players will receive a highly realistic and personalized gameplay experience. Players will experience easy-to-use controls that precisely simulate their movements and be able to play in multiple gameplay modes, from party to championship mode. Racquet Sports is scheduled to be released in North America in March 2010.
Racquet Sports engages players in 40 rich graphical environments in worldwide locations including an underwater reef, a Moroccan palace, a New York loft, and a fan-filled stadium. The multiplayer feature in Racquet Sports allows the entire family to play cooperatively with each other or to compete against each other at the same time. In addition, users will have the ability to customize their character’s body and clothing with different looks and accessories.
“We feel we now understand the hardware and the interface very well. But the flip-side to that is that non-Nintendo publishers feel they haven’t done that well on it commercially. That’s the biggest issue. From that perspective the Wii is a really difficult device to develop for, because as a hardcore games machine, Wii games are always going to be held up against whatever’s just come out on the Xbox 360 or PS3. The second you try to make a gamer’s game for it you will get unflattering comparisons. That’s why it’s difficult…despite it being very large, I think the attachment rate is fairly low, and I think that colours publishers’ view on how much they can invest in the system. I think that ROI’s on Wii games are probably low. I think publishers are very conservative on how much they can spend on it. We just don’t know if hardcore games can succeed on the Wii. I think it’s yet to be proven. I think a lot of people have bought Wii’s, but many aren’t buying software for it. With Silent Hill Shattered Memories, we’ve made a gamer’s game, and we’ve put a lot of passion into the game to get it right. But we’ve now got to wait and see how successful it’s really going to be commercially. That’s kind of out of our hands.” – CEO at Climax Studios
It seems like one core third-party title after another this year haven’t found commercial success. MadWorld, Dead Space Extraction, and Little King’s Story haven’t sold well at all even though they’re high-quality games. I really hope that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will be one of the few third-party offerings this year to have financial success.
The poor sales of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS has been well chronicled. In spite of receiving critical acclaim, the title pretty much bombed in its opening month in the United States. Nintendo said that the sales of Chinatown Wars would grow over time, but it doesn’t look like the game has been selling a whole lot more since April. But in a recent interview, Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway discussed the poor sales of the game and noted that heavier and long-term advertising should have been in place.
Very recently, the DS became the fastest-selling console ever in the UK. Yet the handheld has already managed to obtain another achievement in the same country. Data from GfK Chart-Track shows that at the end of week 27 this year, the DS sold 10.05 units in total. This means that the portable surpassed the PS2 in sales, which stood at 10.02 total units sold. Of course, the DS has accomplished this in a much shorter period of time at a little less than five years.
Wii – 101,000
PSP – 66,000
DSi LL – 62,000
PS3 – 50,000
DSi – 45,000
DS Lite – 6,700
Xbox 360 – 4,300
PSPgo – 3,600
PS2 – 2,500
1. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 935,000 / NEW
2. [PSP] Phantasy Star Portable 2 – 287,000 / NEW
3. [PSP] Gunduam vs. Gundam Next Plus – 223,000 / NEW
4. [WII] Samurai Warriors 3 – 121,000 / NEW
5. [DS] Professor Layton and the Devil’s Flute – 85,000 / 391,000
6. [DS] Tomodachi Collection – 75,000 / 1,822,000
7. [WII] PokePark Wii: Pikachu’s Great Adventure – 64,000 / NEW
8. [DS] Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver – 63,000 / 3,153,000
9. [WII] Wii Fit Plus – 52,000 / 1,044,000
10. [PS3] Assassin’s Creed 2 – 49,000 / NEW
11. [PSP] Tokimeki Memorial 4
12. [DS] Power Pro-Kun Pocket 12
13. [DS] Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryakusha – Blizzard
14. [DS] Metal Fight Beyblade: Bakutan Cyber Pegasus
15. [Wii] Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes W
16. [360] Assassin’s Creed 2
17. [WII] Momotarou Dentetsu 2010 Senkoku Ishin no Hero Daisyuugou ! No Ken
18. [WII] Wii Sports Resort
19. [DS] Stitch! Ohana to Rhythm de Daibouken
20. [WII] Taiko Drum Master Wii: Dodon to 2 Yome! 21. [DS] Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
21. [DS] Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
22. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2010
23. [DS] Kaijuu Busters
24. [DS] New Super Mario Bros.
25. [WII] Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
26. [PSP] J-League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! 6: Pride of J
27. [WII] Mario Kart Wii
28. [DS] Tamagotchi no Narikiri Channeru
29. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best)
30. [DS] Dragon Quest IX
According to Amazon, Endless Ocean 2 will be called Endless Ocean: Blue World in North America and will release on February 22, 2010.
Thanks to Devin for the news tip!
