Although Nintendo of Australia’s media summit was rather uneventful, there is some exciting news to share. IGN is reporting that both Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released sometime between June and August. Unfortunately, exact dates were not provided, although that information will most certainly be revealed in the coming months. If I had to guess, Sin and Punishment 2 will launch in North America in April/May, Other M and Galaxy 2 in the summer, and if we’re lucky, Zelda Wii sometime during the holidays.
Mark Serrels, an editor for the Official Nintendo Magazine in Australia, just tweeted the following…
“Not seeing metroid until the US summit. What an absolute jib.”
According to Serrels, Metroid: Other M will be featured at North America’s Nintendo summit tomorrow. IGN’s Matt Casamassina seemed to strongly believe that the title would be there, although now it seems much more likely with this news. Hopefully the Big N will have a new trailer or footage to share.
THE FUNNIEST COMPLETE CREATIVE PHOTO SUITE FROM NEKO ENTERTAINMENT AVAILABLE NOW ON DSiWareTM
The ultimate creative photo application for the Nintendo DSi that allows users to personalize, mix and “give life” to their photos now available through the Nintendo DSi Shop
PARIS, FRANCE – February 23rd, 2010 – Neko Entertainment a leading independent video game developer and publisher is pleased to announce the release of Faceez. Marking Neko Entertainment’s debut into the category and designed exclusively for Nintendo DSiWare™, Faceez allows you to personalize, mix and decorate your photos with a huge range of the funniest accessories and craziest animations to share online with friends. Faceez is now available on DSiWare in North America for 200 Nintendo DSi Points™.
“We are happy to announce our latest addition to the Nintendo DSi™ Shop with the North American launch of Faceez, the new fun easy-to-use photo suite that gives users the freedom to customize their photo library, through millions of colorful, crazy combinations and share them online with friends”, said Laurent Lichnewsky, Managing Director of Neko Entertainment. “With thousands of unique combinations Faceez really makes photos come alive in ways you have never experienced before”.
Tales of Graces, which released in Japan this past December, is being recalled by Namco Bandai due to an abundance of bugs. It is said that these bugs occur mostly on “New Game+” replays, so it’s a good thing they’re being replaced! Plus, this also means that the bug will (hopefully) not be present in the North American version of the game.
“Why compete with the 360? The Conduit is a great example. Talk about an incredible piece of technology. Those guys did an amazing job of modernizing the Wii engine. It’s got to be frustrating for [Conduit dev, High Voltage]. Gamers will see the flaws, not your work. They’re not going to see all the effort you put in. Any developers working on the Wii, I recommend you stylise the look because it helps. I think it looks cool anyway.” -Red Steel 2 Creative Director, Jason Vandenberghe
You know… I hate to admit it, but I almost have to agree with him on this one. Just looking at how The Conduit’s visuals were received, and then seeing the praise given to games like Red Steel 2 or No More Heroes, it’s hard to disagree! Plus, I do prefer my games a little on the unrealistic side.
Thanks to Ross M for the news tip!
February 22, 2010 – Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE) has released its annual report for 2009 for Nintendo’s WiiWare and Virtual Console services. FADE estimates that the two platforms combined for $125 million in revenue in 2009, with the holiday rush just giving Virtual Console the edge over WiiWare ($66 million to $59 million).
While WiiWare grew by over 30% in 2009 compared to its launch year, Virtual Console slid almost 25% in 2009, leading to an small overall decline of 6% year-over-year. The main factors for the decline in Virtual Console revenue are an overall weaker and less numerous release schedule in 2009, combined with a promotion by Nintendo to give away a free NES game to Wii owners who had purchased the Wii Internet Channel – leading to over 500,000 free downloads.
The Official Nintendo Magazine recently conducted an interview with Jason Vandenbergh, the creative director of Red Steel 2. You can check out the full interview here, but we’ve posted two interesting quotes from the interview below.
ONM: There’s are quite a few hardcore games for Wii though – Madworld, Dead Space etc…
JV: They sold nothing, right? In each case we’ve seen so far we have other circumstances that have to be taken into consideration. I don’t know, I’m no statistical marketing expert. I’m an expert on player emotion. But you look at Madworld. If you make an ultra violent game where you’re shoving signposts through people’s heads as a core mechanic – I have no problem with that. I played it and I had a great time but if you do that you’re going to sell 10%. You’re cutting out 90% of your sales because that offends 90% of gamers.
ONM: What did you think of the first game?
JV: I was really excited about the first game. As a game developer, it was hard to play. I could see the team’s experience. Even before I knew the team I was like ‘Oh God… these guys just needed an extra three weeks.’ They were right there. There were issues with the controls schemes and it just wasn’t done. It wasn’t really finished. They didn’t need much time but they had to do it for launch so the ship date was the most important thing. They did a great job getting it out there. It was popular and it set us up for this. It was a nice introduction to the Wii – it was a little disappointing on the swordfighting front.
