Category Archives: PS Vita

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Developer Explains Why It Left Nintendo

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The developer behind upcoming Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita game Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, Armature, consists of former Retro Studios employees Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Jack Matthews. In an interview with Game Informer, Pacini revealed why he and his colleagues left the Nintendo subsidiary. Pacini said that while he thinks Nintendo is an “awesome company,” he didn’t like how working for the video game giant meant he was obliged to work solely on games for its hardware.

Stepping away from the game for a minute, why did you leave Retro? Do you want to talk about that story a little bit?

Armature’s Mark Pacini: I was there for eight years. When you work for Nintendo, Nintendo’s an awesome company. They’re great to work for. It’s hard, challenging work, but it’s rewarding at the same time. But given that regard, there’s a limited amount of things you can do in Nintendo. You can’t work on other platforms. You kind of work on games that they would like you to work on, so after doing three of the same games in a row, we were kind of like, we’d really like the flexibility to do other things.

And that’s really what it came down to was we didn’t have anything against Nintendo or Retro or anything – they’re all great people, we still talk to them all the time, and we still have a great relationship – but having an independent studio, one day you’re working on Batman, the other day you’re working on something else, and that’s kind of what we wanted to do. We would have never been able to work on Vita, or 3DS – it wasn’t something that Retro was gunning for. And Armature as a studio, we’re hopefully able to make some announcements later this year on what we’re working on next, and those are, again, forward thinking on consoles, and things we weren’t able to do before.

Starting Armature when we did was a very difficult time in the game industry. And the game industry continues to be difficult. Right now as a studio we’re in a really good position and there are a lot of opportunities that we’re going to be able to pursue that we wanted to five years ago.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 And Nintendo 3DS Continue To Rule Japan

3DS, Ds, DSi, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Sony, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, , , , ,

luigi's_mansion_dark_moon_ghost_chase

This weeks Japanese hardware and software sales are now in. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon continues to be the best-selling software and the Nintendo 3DS remains the best-selling hardware. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is number one for the fourth week running and it sold another 56,000 units. Wii U continues to struggle as it only managed to sell 9,984 units this week compared to 14,783 units the previous week. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.

  1. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
  2. [3DS] Card Fight!! Vanguard Ride to Victory!!
  3. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  4. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2
  5. [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  6. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition
  7. [PSV] Muramasa Rebirth
  8. [PSP] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  9. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2
  10. [PSP] Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment
  1. Nintendo 3DS XL – 28,139 (34,180)
  2. 3DS – 18,584 (22,684)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 14,112 (19,328)
  4. PlayStation 3 – 14,039 (16,807)
  5. Wii U – 9,984 (14,783)
  6. PSP – 7,566 (8,876)
  7. Wii – 1,383 (1,718)
  8. Xbox 360 – 492 (536)

Capcom Is Pushing For Their Fighting Games To Have More Single Player Content

3DS, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, ,

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Capcom’s senior vice president, Christian Svensson, has revealed that the company is actively pushing for their fighting games to include more single player content. The news came after a number of beat em up enthusiasts took to the Capcom Unity forums to discuss the need for more single player content in Capcom fighters. Here’s what Svensson had to say.

“The strategic marketing group here has for quite a while been pushing for our fighting franchises to have more and better single player content, of which full fledged story modes are one component.”

“How and when those requirements manifest in our future roadmap, I’m not prepared to speak about at this time.”

NPD: Analysts Expect Wii U Sales Decline During March In The US

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Despite several high-profile games having been released, industry analyst Michael Pachter and research firm EEDAR believe that the Wii U under performed last month in the United States. The news comes ahead of the March NPD figures for hardware and software sold in the United States. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter and fellow analyst firm EEDAR believe that the Wii U only managed to outsell the PlayStation Vita, PSP and the PlayStation 2 last month. Here’s their estimations.

  • 360 – 290,000 (-22%) / 330,000 (-11%)
  • PS3 – 260,000 (-22) / 270,000 (-19%)
  • 3DS – 190,000 (-16%) / 190,000 (-16%)
  • DS – 85,000 (-20%) / 100,000 (-5%)
  • Wii – 85,000 (-51%) / 80,000 (-54%)
  • Wii U – 55,000 (n/a) / 65,000 (n/a)
  • Vita – 42,500 (-80%) / 45,000 (n/a)
  • PSP – 10,000 (-67%) / n/a (n/a)
  • PS2 – 100 (-99%) / n/a (n/a)
  • Total – 1,017,600 (-30%) / 1,080,000 (-26%)

“We expect hardware sales of 55,000 Wii U units in its fifth month (down 17% month-over-month).

“Last month… the only key hardware device to underperform our expectations was the Wii U, and its fortunes appear unlikely to improve for several months, even if Nintendo decides to drop price, as there are an insufficient number of core titles that are generating interest in the console.”

“We think that core gamers are far more likely to turn their attention to the PS4 (due in the holiday season) and the next Xbox, which we believe will be unveiled before E3 and have a launch alongside that of the PS4, and believe that the long-term appeal of the Wii U will be severely limited by the perception that the PS4 and next Xbox will be much more powerful with greater online integration and multimedia functionality. Should the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft be price competitive, we think that Wii U sales may continue to stagnate.”

UK Charts: Luigi’s Mansion 2 Remains In Top Five, Lego City Slips Again

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Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon remains the best-selling Nintendo 3DS title this week as it remains at number five in the UK individual formats charts. Wii U exclusive LEGO City: Undercover didn’t fare quite as well as it slipped from number twenty-five to number thirty-five this week. Bioshock Infinite remains the best-selling game in the United Kingdom. You can view the entire charts, right here.

There’s A Chance Cloudberry Kingdom Comes To Nintendo 3DS

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Pwnee Studios‘ upcoming platformer, Cloudberry Kingdom, is scheduled to launch this summer. The game was originally announced for Wii U and Steam, but with the help of publisher Ubisoft, it will also be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The game wasn’t announced for Nintendo’s latest handheld; however, Pwnee Studios Vice President TJ Lutz says there’s a chance that Cloudberry Kingdom will hit the Nintendo 3DS. Would you like playing Cloudberry Kingdom on your Nintendo 3DS?

“It’s still in our minds, we would really love to do a 3DS port. I’m not giving up on it yet, I would say there’s still a chance.”

-Pwnee Studios Vice President TJ Lutz

Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon And Nintendo 3DS Rule Japan

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luigi's_mansion_dark_moon_ghost_chase

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon continues to be the best-selling game in Japan for the third time running. This week the game sold 68,423 units and has sold a total of 459,000 units since going on sale on March 20th. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is currently sitting in second place and has shifted over three million physical copies in total in Japan. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.

  1. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
  2. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  3. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2
  4. [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  5. [PSP] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  6. [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission
  7. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition
  8. [PSV] Muramasa Rebirth
  9. [PSP] Fate/Extra CCC
  10. [Wii U] Game & Wario
  1. Nintendo 3DS XL – 34,180 (38,442)
  2. Nintendo 3DS – 22,684 (28,538)
  3. PlayStation Vita – 19,328 (31,795)
  4. Wii U – 16,807 (22,829)
  5. PlayStation 3 – 14,783 (19,069)
  6. PSP – 8,876 (12,594)
  7. Wii – 1,718 (1,858)
  8. Xbox 360 – 536 (598)

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate Coming To 3DS Via Ex Metroid Prime Devs

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batman_arkham_orgins_game_informer

Game Informer has also announced that the Nintendo 3DS will also be receiving a Batman title.  The Nintendo 3DS version of the game called Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. Blackgate is said to be a completely separate experience and takes place after the events of Arkham Origins. The game is being developed by Armature Studio which consists of several of the leads from the Metroid Prime trilogy. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is set to be a 2.5-D Metroid-style exploration action game and launches the same day as the home console version.

Here’s The LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Gameplay Trailer

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TT Games and Marvel have released the first footage of the long-awaited LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. The footage shown in the video is from the Xbox 360 version of the game, however it is also coming to PlayStation 3, Wii U, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita and PC. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is coming to these platforms sometime during the autumn.

Thanks, Sam C and Alex

Nintendo 3DS And Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon Rule Japan

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luigis_mansion_dark_moon_mansionThis weeks sales figures are in from Japan and they once again show that the Nintendo 3DS remains the dominant platform. Wii U hardware sales improved with the release of Dragon Quest X and Game & Wario. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was the best-selling game overall and sold 110,840 units, easily retaining the top position. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.

  1. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
  2. [PSP] Fate/Extra CCC
  3. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf
  4. [PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2
  5. [PSV] Muramasa Rebirth
  6. [Wii U] Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online
  7. [PSP] Dungeon Travelers 2: Ouritsu Tokoshan to Mamono no Fuuin
  8. [PS3] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  9. [PSP] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2013
  10. [Wii U] Game & Wario
  1. Nintendo 3DS XL – 38,442 (40,924)
  2. PlayStation Vita – 31,795 (41,073)
  3. Nintendo 3DS – 28,538 (35,629)
  4. Wii U – 22,829 (11,398)
  5. PlayStation 3 – 19,069 (22,942)
  6. PSP – 12,594 (12,690)
  7. Wii – 1,858 (1,720)
  8. Xbox 360 – 598 (610)