Research firms IDC and App Annie have both conducted a study which found that tablet and smartphone gaming on Apple products have eclipsed Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita software sales during the first quarter of 2013. This is the first time that iOS game sales alone have beaten the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. Previously it was iOS App Store and Google Play store combined that had outsold dedicated gaming handheld sales.
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.
Yesterday, Capcom announced that NES classic DuckTales is getting a remake. DuckTales Remastered is being developed by WayForward Technologies, and it’s coming this summer to three home consoles – PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360. Were you hoping to play the game on your Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita? Unfortunately, you may be out of luck, as Capcom’s corporate officer, Christian Svensson, confirmed that the publisher ultimately decided the game will not arrive on handheld consoles.
I have both handhelds and was wondering why not put the game out on both 3ds and ps vita?
Christian Svensson: Sorry but we could only do “so many” platforms and portable formats were not in the frame this time around.
Fez creator Phil Fish took to Reddit today to answer questions posed by fans. One fan asked if Fez is coming to the Nintendo 3DS, and Fish replied by saying he and his team don’t have any plans to bring the puzzler to Nintendo’s latest handheld. Fish went on to say it would be pointless to bring Fez to the Nintendo 3DS and that it wouldn’t work on the autostereoscopic device. Fish did say, however, that he’s working with Sony to bring Fez to the PlayStation Vita. What do you think? Would a Nintendo 3DS port of Fez be pointless?
Is FEZ coming to 3DS?
Phil Fish: we don;t have any plans for that, no. people keep assuming fez would be a no-brainer on 3DS, but in truth it would be kind of pointless. the game is practically always shown in isometric 3D, there’s never any perspective there. i don’t think it would work.
The PlayStation Vita has finally managed to outsell the Nintendo 3DS in Japan this week. Sales for the ailing device have been boosted, thanks to a well-needed price cut and Soul Sacrifice. The PlayStation Vita sold 63,581 units compared to the Nintendo 3DS which sold 61,008 units. Nintendo’s latest home console the Wii U is still struggling to gain traction in Japan. Here’s the software and hardware charts.
The PlayStation Vita has had possibly its best week yet selling 62,543 units in Japan after it was given a much-needed price cut. The PlayStation Vita still couldn’t outsell the Nintendo 3DS which sold 77,439 units combined. The Wii U is still desperately struggling in Japan as it only sold 10,021 units this week. Here’s the Japanese software and hardware charts.
The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals that a sequel to role-playing game Conception: Ore no Kodomo wo Undekure!, which launched last year for the PlayStation Portable, is being developed for the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. Conception II is scheduled to launch in Japan this summer. We don’t know whether the upcoming title will eventually hit the West, but its predecessor was released only in Japan.
Data from research firms IDC and App Annie show that consumers spent more money last quarter on mobile games, rather than dedicated handheld games on Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. Gaming app sales on Apple’s App Store and on Google Play apparently eclipsed those of dedicated handheld games. The dedicated portable gaming devices like the Nintendo 3DS sold a decent amount of software during the holiday season, but mobile games on tablets and smartphones sold better all year round. Interestingly, IDC and App Annie found that Nintendo and Apple were nearly equal in terms of consumer spending on games.
New figures have come to light that show that Wii U software sales during January were worse than PlayStation Vita software sales. The Wii U only managed to sell 34,000 games (this includes bundled Nintendo Land), while the PlayStation Vita sold 46,000 software units. The Xbox 360 sold the most software in the UK, with 810,000 sold. The PlayStation 3 followed closely behind with 545,000 pieces of software sold. The Nintendo 3DS sold less software than Wii and Nintendo DS in January. Here’s the figures.
Christian Svensson, Capcom’s Corporate Officer and Senior Vice-President, has told gamers not to believe everything you read on the internet. Svensson made the comment when users asked him whether or not the rumours are true about Monster Hunter 4 coming to the PlayStation Vita. The rumour stated that Capcom decided to delay the game so it could have a simultaneous release on PlayStation Vita to boost hardware sales.
“I would not believe everything you read on the internet. It will set you up for disappointment or misdirected frustration.”
