Information Update // Noticias Nuevas - Nintendo 3DS & PSVita

Information Update - Nintendo 3DS


1.- This weeks Japanese Media Create hardware and software charts are in and unsurprisingly they show that the Nintendo 3DS is still at the top of its game. Nintendo managed to shift a respectable 63,796 Nintendo 3DS consoles. Sony on the other hand only managed to sell 8,250 PlayStation Vita consoles. To top it off there are seven Nintendo related titles in the Japanese all-format top ten, with Kingdom Hearts 3D leading the charge.
[PSP] 2nd Super Robot Wars Z: Saisei-hen

More After the Break...

1. [3DS] Kingdom Hearts 3D -Dream Drop Distance
2. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land
3. [PSP] Pro Baseball Spirits 2012
4. [3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising
5. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3G
6. [PS3] Pro Baseball Spirits 2012
7. [3DS] Mario Kart 7
8. [NDS] Pokemon Conquest
9. [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

1. Nintendo 3DS: 63,796
2. PlayStation 3: 17,765
3. PSP: 13,166
4. PlayStation Vita: 8,250
5. Wii: 6,837
6. Nintendo DS: 1,433
7. Xbox 360: 1,373
8. PlayStation 2: 1, 212

Namco Bandai has now confirmed that Thundercats will be coming to the Nintendo DS. The company hadn’t formally announced the game but it was found to be playable on the show floor at the Global Gamers Day’s press conference. Thundercats is a side-scrolling action game for the Nintendo DS and is based upon the new cartoon series. Namco Bandai announced that the game will be available to purchase sometime in August.

Toys For Bob producer Alex Ness has confirmed that Skylanders Giants will be coming to the Nintendo 3DS. Activision previously stated that it would be coming to handheld and mobile devices but wouldn’t confirm a Nintendo 3DS version. Ness wouldn’t offer too many details but he does claim that the Nintendo 3DS version of Skylanders Giants will be a completely different game than the Wii version.


“I don’t know too much about the 3DS version of Skylanders Giants, but I do know it will be a completely different game than the Wii version – just like it was with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. And also just like Spyro’s Adventure, all Skylander toys will work in both games and remember all their adventures.”

2.- Trent Oster, the controversial developer who was rather scathing towards Nintendo in a series of Tweets has further clarified his opinions on Nintendo. Oster claims that he fails to see how Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii U console will be the revolution in gaming that Nintendo hopes and prays it will be. However, Oster admits that he didn’t originally get the idea behind Wii when it was first unveiled.

When the Wii first launched, I didn’t understand it. I thought it was just a gimmick. After playing with it I could see the mass appeal, but I was afraid it would be treated like a toy by the family purchasers, where they would buy the Wii bundle with Wii Sports and never buy another game. I think for a lot of the family purchases this was true and a huge number of the Wii units only ever sold one or two games. The initial third party titles didn’t do a great job with the controller implementation and I think that really hurt the perception of third party titles on the Wii as a whole. The end result was a platform where the perception was only Nintendo could make money.
For the Wii U, I once again don’t get it. I’m having a hard time seeing how a tablet controller & console system is going to be revolutionary. I could be wrong, but I think the gaming world has changed irrevocably and there are now two fronts: Triple A console titles which resemble blockbuster movies and freemium/app store titles which are closer to television. The triple “A” titles cost a ton to develop and there is a market for the best of the breed, with the major brands doing huge numbers but many titles not even breaking even.
The freemium/app space has everything from “assware” (my pet name for poor quality freemium titles), up to what I would compare to HBO television titles, which are high production quality and well executed games which sell in the $10-$30 price point. The PC platform bridges both models, which makes it an interesting target to develop for. To me, the Wii U doesn’t fit into either model and I see a lot of difficulty for it on either front. The app store/freemium model has redefined consumer pricing expectations, making consumers much less likely to invest $60 in a title without playing it first. The triple “A” model focuses on delivering the experience you expect at the agreed upon price, which is going to be hard to sell conceptually with a new platform like the Wii U. I wish Nintendo the best and I hope they can hit big with a major success.”

Level 5 CEO, Akihiro Hino has taken to Twitter to inform a fan that the development team is hard at work creating the next game in the immensely popular Professor Layton series. Hino says that the general framework for the game has already been outlined, but he confessed that it will be a while before they can officially announce the game.

Famed Wedbush Morgan games industry analyst Michael Pachter has admitted that he is concerned at what he claims is a lack of third-party support for Wii U. Third-party developers have been rather cautious to reveal what they have in store for Wii U, though it’s likely that they will announce their plans at this years E3 event in June.


“If that is right, the Wii U will have limited appeal, and ‘Xbots’ and Sony fanboys will just wait for the upgrades to their favourite systems.”

“I really think the key is third-party support, and from what I’m hearing, it is very light so far. Nintendo will be all right, they have a ton of cash, but I don’t think they will get to the sales levels they are accustomed to with this device. I’m most interested in third-party support, and we should get an idea of that at E3.”

“I think ‘same’ power level [as current gen consoles] is probably right, as it doesn’t make sense to ask third parties to do something significantly differently for the Wii U than for the 360 or PS3,” he explained.

“The price sounds right to me as well.”

3.- Famitsu has revealed that Level 5′s Guild 01, a compilation game for the 3DS will include a demo for Level 5′s other game, Time Travelers. We’re not sure what the demo entails, but we do know you have to “clear certain conditions to access the demo”, so it won’t be playable the moment you pop in the cartridge. But even if you don’t pick up Guild 01 yourself, there should be footage of the Time Travelers demo soon after it’s available.

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Mister Gaga