1.-Gamasutra has written an interesting article regarding the decline of the video games industry. It’s well documented that sales of video games and hardware are down 42% from their best showing in 2008. Industry analyst Michael Pachter believes that the people who contributed to the industry’s substantial growth in 2008 simply won’t be coming back to consoles, and have subsequently moved onto iPad and Facebook games.
So the middle of the market has fallen out, and that’s consistent with the flight of the casual gamer that is a common theme among market watchers.
As Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said to me in a recent email, “casual gamers are never buying consoles again.” If true, that would signal a sea change in the balance of power in the video game industry. No longer would companies like Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo hold the reins of power.
While he and I have had our disagreements, I think I can agree with Pachter that the casual gamers are gone for good — at least from the traditional business model. The industry giants are still largely focused on packaged game software for dedicated game hardware, and that simply does not make sense in the face of ubiquitous mobile devices and web-based free-to-play entertainment.
Mario Party 9 continues to be the best-selling piece of software in Japan selling a respectable 37,353 units. This week there were seven Nintendo related games in the top ten, which included Fire Emblem: Awakening, and the immensely popular Mario Kart 7. The Nintendo 3DS remains the best-selling piece of hardware, comfortably fending of Sony’s PlayStation 3. Here’s the top ten software and hardware in Japan:
[WII] Mario Party 9
[3DS] Fire Emblem: Awakening
[PS3] Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
[PS3] Starhawk
[3DS] Super Mario Land 3D
[3DS] Monster Hunter 3 G
[3DS] Mario Kart 7
[3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising
[3DS] Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
[PSP] Conception: Please Have My Children!
Nintendo 3DS: 46,425
PlayStation 3: 12,996
PSP: 12,247
PlayStation Vita: 6,430
Wii: 6,073
PlayStation 2: 1,212
Nintendo DS: 1,206
Xbox 360: 1,023
Sony and Msft are holding their breath on next gen interesting to see how they pad out another year. Price cuts, form factors?
Nintendo’s slightly lack lustre Wii U is going to have to blow us away with better specs and great 1st party line up.
The real challenge is how the players are going to adapt to the mounting pressure of Facebook, Apple, Social, Cloud, Multi-Gaming.
Is the biggest news that E3 itself runs the risk of being outdated, or perhaps it already is?
I guess I am excited about GTA V, but only in a mildly curious way.
I am excited, as always, to hear from Valve.
I would expect some announcement from Bungie
God only knows what COD will have to destroy in the Press briefing demo, after last year’s destruction of NY.
2.- Popular online retailer Amazon is currently listing Wii U games at $49.99. That’s roughly ten dollars cheaper than rival games on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which generally appear to retail for $59.99. It would be extremely interesting if Nintendo decided to price Wii U games ten dollars cheaper than the same games on rival formats. I’m sure more will be revealed at E3 next month.
Battlefield: Bad Company 3 and Mirror’s Edge 2 have both appeared on a variety of LinkedIn profiles for EA employees. Michael Joseph C states on his LinkedIn profile that he “provided video game prototype, design and demo feedback on various AAA titles including the Battlefield: Bad Company 3, Dead Space 2, Devil May Cry 5 and other unannounced titles”. A profile from an ex-EA Software Engineer and another EA employee clearly states that they have both been involved with the development of Mirror’s Edge 2.
One wild AR card will randomly unlock one of the three rare Dream Eaters: Ursa Circus, Sudo Neku or Meowjesty. The second AR card unlocks R&R Seal Dream Eater, and the last AR card unlocks the 360° viewing stand.
The Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance Mark of Mastery Edition will retail for $54.99 when the game goes on sale in North America on July 31st.
Nintendo is apparently teaming up with rapper Eminem to promote a brand new Wii U game which is titled Acid Ghost. Eminem is apparently ready to start post production for a marketing trailer for Acid Ghost, which is due to happen sometime later this week.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO has told investors during a Q&A portion of the annual earnings call that Wii U will be a great success. Guillemot then went on to say that the publisher and development studio is extremely happy with the functionality of the console.
“What is really interesting is the fact that we have this tablet that allows us to bring totally new gameplay, and also brings the possibility to have a lot more social functionalities, because you can have now a screen to play asynchronously with your friends, to receive challenges and to really have a screen to communicate with your friends. That is going to help tremendously the experience in video games.
“We feel that the more we grow, the more use we will have for social functions in our games. And the new gameplays – a lot have been invented in other platforms, so there are lots of new ideas that will come to console. So that will help to bring new games with good functionalities, and be very good in turn at usage.
“So all this tells us,” he went on, “that the machine can have a great success, because it will bring to families a good machine. And this will be for gamers but also for all the social games that are generally sold on the Wii. Going after those two types of populations will give a good chance for that machine to have a great success.”
3.- Nintendo has released an animated trailer for the forthcoming Pokemon Black & White 2. The game is due to be released in Japan on June 23rd. Nintendo of America and Nintendo Europe have confirmed that the eagerly awaited game will be out during the Fall.
The latest edition of Famitsu has revealed that Capcom is working on a new Nintendo 3DS game that takes place within the Lost Planet universe. The game is titled E.X. Troopers, and is an action game from Monster Hunter series producer Shintaro Kojima. The game will reportedly feature cell shaded visuals and is in development for both PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS.
A Capcom representative has told NintendoWorldReport that it won’t have any playable Nintendo related games at this years E3 event which takes place next months. The firm could announce some new titles for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, but they apparently won’t have any playable on the show floor. Of course, this could just be a misinformed Capcom representative so we will just have to wait until E3 to find out for sure.
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy has a special mode called the Chaos Shrine that can be unlocked by using the Rhythmia you earn from clearing songs. In this mode, you play randomly generated remixed songs called “Dark Notes” that can then be shared through a local wireless or StreetPass. The Chaos Shrine also allows you to unlock new characters, find rare items, and play new songs. Check after the break for screenshots.
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Mister Gaga
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