Nintendo gives thanks for plenty of holiday week hardware sales
Nintendo announced that over 1.5 million of its various game systems were sold last week. Not last month, last week. Thanks to Black Friday and two new DSi bundles, Nintendo could afford all the trimmings for a resplendent company Thanksgiving. Not that we know whether or not Nintendo had one of those. The point is, Nintendo sold a bunch of stuff and made a lot of money.
According to Nintendo’s estimates, more than 550,000 Wii systems were sold last week, and over 1 million DS and DSi systems. The release of two new DSi bundles (along with a few crazy prices) could have had something to do with that last statistic. By selling that many handhelds, Nintendo broke its own sales record for the holiday weekend! Though the company didn’t manage to beat last year’s 800,000 Wiis sold, which means that, despite still selling a huge number of Wiis, and despite all those DS sales, Nintendo is completely doomed, right?
Nintendo gives thanks for plenty of holiday week hardware sales originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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VC in Brief: The Combatribes (SNES), Solomon’s Key (VC Arcade)
This week’s Virtual Console update offers two delectable titles — Solomon’s Key is a very unique action/puzzler hybrid, whereas The Combatribes features a wonderfully bad story and the demon clowns of Coney Island. Life doesn’t get much better than this, folks!
- Solomon’s Key (VC Arcade, 1 - 2 players, 600 Wii Points)
- The Combatribes (SNES, 1 - 2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Every week, we like to check out what’s new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we’re pushy jerks like that.
VC in Brief: The Combatribes (SNES), Solomon’s Key (VC Arcade) originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Final Fight: Double Impact to Hit PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Next Year
Capcom Europe just announced today that it will be releasing a special double pack of two HD-updated side-scrolling arcade games for the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live in April 2010.
Final Fight: Double Impact will be a downloadable pack featuring two arcade titles: Final Fight and Magic Sword. Capcom says that both titles will be released using a proprietary graphics engine to make the games “shine in crisp and clear HD glory.” However, purists will be able to toggle back to classic and arcade cabinet modes to get a pixel-for-pixel translation on screen. There will also be a new selectable soundtrack from the composers of Bionic Commando: Rearmed.
The titles will feature online multiplayer complete with voice chat, leader boards and the ability to join games already in progress.
Final Fight is side-scrolling beat-’em-up in the vein of Double Dragon and Streets of Rage with three main characters – Guy, Cody and Haggar – pummeling bad guys in crime-ridden Metro City to save Haggar’s daughter from Mad Gear.
Magic Sword is a side-scrolling fantasy action title featuring “The Brave One,” a fierce warrior who bears the daunting responsibility of cleansing evil forces from an ancient tower.
Both titles were released in the arcades back in the late ’80s and early ’90s and received ports on the SNES shortly thereafter.
Further Details on Next Madden NFL 10 Update Revealed
We already started to get an idea of what to expect in the second title update for Madden NFL 10 last month: Fewer INTs thrown by sacked QBs, fewer gimme plays by throwing into the flats, better pursuits by defenders, and exploit fixes were among the changes we’ve already seen outlined. A new post on the EA Sports blog has given us more details about what’s included in the upcoming patch.
Uniforms are getting some attention, as the Seahawks’ home pants will now be blue instead of white, and they’ll also have access to those silly looking neon green uniforms they wore earlier this season. Both the Titans and Eagles will have tribute stickers show up on their helmets, with the Titans’ in honor of the late Steve McNair, and the Eagles’ for former defensive coordinator Jim Johnson who passed away this past summer.
Replay have also been enhanced and can now play for twice as long as they could previously. This thankfully means that long plays like kick/punt returns or interception returns won’t have a chunk of the play missing when watching a replay. You’ll also see auto-replays pop up more often, particularly those following touchdowns. What you won’t see as often is the unskippable sequence where the chain gang coming out to measure for a first down. I’m particularly happy about that change, as it’s frustrating because any frequent player knows immediately whether or not it was a first down based upon the camera angle shown while they’re measuring.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC Beta Delayed
Select PlayStation 3 owners have already had a week or two to fawn over the beta for Battlefield Bad Company 2, but what about PC gamers? Producer Gordon Van Dyke showed up on the official Battlefield blog with some good news and some bad news for fans of Battlefield on the PC (via Shacknews).
The bad news: Battlefield Bad Company 2’s PC beta has been pushed back until “very early next year.” According to Van Dyke, the overwhelmingly positive response to the PS3 beta inspired the team to increase the capacity of the PC beta. Unfortunately, this also forced them to delay PC testing in order to further optimize the game.
Don’t start a hilariously fruitless boycott just yet, PC shooter fans; Van Dyke also revealed a handful of PC-exclusive features for Bad Company 2, including an increased player count, dedicated servers, and DirectX 11 support. Will these additions be worth the wait? Read up on the full list of PC features below:
Valve Dismisses Criticisms Over Steam Conflict of Interest
We’ve seen Valve take some heat from others in the game industry recently over the potential conflict of interest it faces with Steam — most notably, these criticisms have come from Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford. Although his claims that Valve exploits “small guys” were shot down by one such developer, Pitchford’s comment that allowing Steam to “win” (by allowing it to dominate the digital distribution market) is “dangerous” hasn’t really been addressed until now. Valve’s business director for Steam, Jason Holtman, explained to GamesIndustry.biz exactly why having Valve’s own games on Steam actually benefit everyone else.
“There’s nothing better in the world for anyone making an Xbox 360 game than the fact that Halo exists,” Holtman said. “It’s awesome, there’s nobody saying ‘boy I wish Bungie hadn’t made Halo’ because it sold an awful lot of Xboxes that you can sell your games on.”
And likewise, Holtman believes the same applies to increasing the Steam user base by selling those big name Valve games on the platform. “Having the content and the distribution that go hand-in-hand make it a stronger platform, make it a platform to reach more consumers with your own game. If you look at any given time on our top-sellers and our marketing, it’s clear that [Valve games] are not the only push out there. In terms of whether we get too big or maybe our content shouldn’t be on the platform, it’s just doesn’t make much sense. Because the content helps the platform grow.”
Amazon’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii bundle adds Lunchable compatibility
New Super Mario Bros. Wii couldn’t possibly do anything more to remind us of the delight Mario games brought us in our youths, short of including a Mario lunchbox. Amazon is helping to ensure the full nostalgia experience by doing just that in a special bundle!
For $70, you get the game, a plastic lunchbox, a t-shirt (size L), and four Wiimote stickers. The t-shirt sizing suggests that this really is a nostalgia-focused gift set and not for people who are currently children. This, of course, means that these lunchboxes are destined for shelves and not cafeterias.
[Via GoNintendo]
Amazon’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii bundle adds Lunchable compatibility originally appeared on Joystiq Nintendo on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Further Details on Next Madden NFL 10 Update Revealed
We already started to get an idea of what to expect in the second title update for Madden NFL 10 last month: Fewer INTs thrown by sacked QBs, fewer gimme plays by throwing into the flats, better pursuits by defenders, and exploit fixes were among the changes we’ve already seen outlined. A new post on the EA Sports blog has given us more details about what’s included in the upcoming patch.
Uniforms are getting some attention, as the Seahawks’ home pants will now be blue instead of white, and they’ll also have access to those silly looking neon green uniforms they wore earlier this season. Both the Titans and Eagles will have tribute stickers show up on their helmets, with the Titans’ in honor of the late Steve McNair, and the Eagles’ for former defensive coordinator Jim Johnson who passed away this past summer.
Replay have also been enhanced and can now play for twice as long as they could previously. This thankfully means that long plays like kick/punt returns or interception returns won’t have a chunk of the play missing when watching a replay. You’ll also see auto-replays pop up more often, particularly those following touchdowns. What you won’t see as often is the unskippable sequence where the chain gang coming out to measure for a first down. I’m particularly happy about that change, as it’s frustrating because any frequent player knows immediately whether or not it was a first down based upon the camera angle shown while they’re measuring.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC Beta Delayed
Select PlayStation 3 owners have already had a week or two to fawn over the beta for Battlefield Bad Company 2, but what about PC gamers? Producer Gordon Van Dyke showed up on the official Battlefield blog with some good news and some bad news for fans of Battlefield on the PC (via Shacknews).
The bad news: Battlefield Bad Company 2’s PC beta has been pushed back until “very early next year.” According to Van Dyke, the overwhelmingly positive response to the PS3 beta inspired the team to increase the capacity of the PC beta. Unfortunately, this also forced them to delay PC testing in order to further optimize the game.
Don’t start a hilariously fruitless boycott just yet, PC shooter fans; Van Dyke also revealed a handful of PC-exclusive features for Bad Company 2, including an increased player count, dedicated servers, and DirectX 11 support. Will these additions be worth the wait? Read up on the full list of PC features below:
Valve Dismisses Criticisms Over Steam Conflict of Interest
We’ve seen Valve take some heat from others in the game industry recently over the potential conflict of interest it faces with Steam — most notably, these criticisms have come from Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford. Although his claims that Valve exploits “small guys” were shot down by one such developer, Pitchford’s comment that allowing Steam to “win” (by allowing it to dominate the digital distribution market) is “dangerous” hasn’t really been addressed until now. Valve’s business director for Steam, Jason Holtman, explained to GamesIndustry.biz exactly why having Valve’s own games on Steam actually benefit everyone else.
“There’s nothing better in the world for anyone making an Xbox 360 game than the fact that Halo exists,” Holtman said. “It’s awesome, there’s nobody saying ‘boy I wish Bungie hadn’t made Halo’ because it sold an awful lot of Xboxes that you can sell your games on.”
And likewise, Holtman believes the same applies to increasing the Steam user base by selling those big name Valve games on the platform. “Having the content and the distribution that go hand-in-hand make it a stronger platform, make it a platform to reach more consumers with your own game. If you look at any given time on our top-sellers and our marketing, it’s clear that [Valve games] are not the only push out there. In terms of whether we get too big or maybe our content shouldn’t be on the platform, it’s just doesn’t make much sense. Because the content helps the platform grow.”
Top 10 Best Selling Games
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