Industry News, Industry Features - Page 5 of 25

Nintendo share prices have dropped since the system's launch

Although no concrete sales figures for Wii U have been given so far, Satoru Iwata has spoken about the performance of Nintendo's new home console in its early weeks. Many have observed that stock has been readily available and easy to obtain in recent times, a significantly different...

But only if it suits the game in question

We've already reported on the Nikkei interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata regarding the success of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but the news that it had shifted 500,000 downloads wasn't the only interesting info he had to share. Iwata was also keen to talk about the impact of Free-to-Play gam

A rebellion against high Australian prices

Fractured Soul has been a passionate project years in the making for Endgame Studios, as they told us in our interview last year. It arrived in North America on 13th September 2012, and is due in this week's update in PAL regions now that the rating and approval processes are complete. We certainly felt...

Thankfully not "very disappointing", we suppose

Now that the Holiday season is passing and the majority of people are already returning to the drudgery of work and normal life, some analysis about festive spending and sales is expected to emerge. Wii U will be a major topic in the gaming industry when looking at sales, as it's a new home console...

You don't always get a happy ending

Remember Bonk: Brink of Extinction? It was an update of Hudson's famous TurboGrafx-16 platformer that was supposed to come out on WiiWare in 2010, but was cancelled despite being almost finished. Texas-based Pi Studios - the team behind the update - closed in 2011, but many of its staff moved on to form Oscar...

Big challenges for the industry

The Entertainment Retailers Association has reported that in 2012 the UK video games market fell by 17.4%, including both physical and digital sales. In 2011 the whole video games market in the UK was worth £1.934 billion, in comparison to £1.598 billion in 2012. While digital sales did increase by 7.7% in 2012,...

Mario should probably lose some weight

So it's the start of a New Year, and is the ideal time to reflect on hopes for future success and on what can be done better. Nintendo had an exceptionally busy 2012, working hard to expand the 3DS user-base and releasing the XL hardware iteration, while also bringing us its new home console, Wii U. We can...

XSEED came close to passing up the opportunity

The Last Story is one of the stronger titles on Wii, which we've just named as our staff's second favourite on the system in 2012. Originally released in Japan in early 2011, it took a long time to make an appearance in the West. It was early 2012 when it was published in Europe by Nintendo, however it...

French company reportedly in talks to acquire tangible assets

On Wednesday THQ filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the United States, handing over its tangible assets to Clearlake Investments, an investment firm, with a view to selling the business on. It appears that Ubisoft is the front runner to pick up THQ's tangible assets, with MCV reporting...

Upcoming games are safe

THQ has been sailing through some stormy seas recently. The developer currently has $16.4 million outstanding on its facility and recently entered into a forbearance agreement with the finance company Wells Fargo Capital Finance. The waves don’t seem to be easing up for the company as it has today filed for Chapter 11...

The Nightmare Before Christmas

LostWinds developer Frontier Developments has made 14 of its 233 staff redundant, Eurogamer has revealed. The Cambridge-based studio - which expanded its operations in North America earlier this year - is letting the staff go at 6pm on Friday 14th December - just 11 days before Christmas.

New instalment in development at Rare?

Although it's not something that is likely to impact the production of a new Killer Instinct title for Nintendo consoles - the IP is owned by Rare (and, by extension, Microsoft) so that's not going to happen any time soon, sadly - but interesting news has filtered through about a possible new entry in the...

Doesn't necessarily tell the whole story

Now that the Wii U and its launch library of games has been in the wild for almost a month, in North America at least, a general impression of the critical reaction to these titles and the console is starting to emerge. It's not a complete picture, of course, but gaming enthusiasts can start to see the trends...

Stock shortages or poor sales?

When Wii U initially launched in the UK its system exclusive titles made a modest start in the all-format software charts, which was hardly surprising as only 40,000 units had been available for sale in its first week. This week's results, unfortunately, make slightly grim reading, with no Wii U exclusives making it...

Eurocom Ceases Trading After 25 Years

A few weeks back Eurocom - the developer behind Goldeneye 007 on Wii - announced a large number of redundancies, cutting 200 staff down to 50 in an attempt to restructure the company. However it has been revealed that the measures were unsuccessful and the studio will be closing its doors for good, with the...

"Nothing is brewing right now"

Ken Levine is a pretty big name in the video game industry. The mind behind such seminal titles as Thief: The Dark Project, System Shock 2 and BioShock, Levine's one of those figures who could potentially make third party support for the Wii U explode if he decided to jump on board himself - but sadly, that doesn't...

Focus turns to Q1 2013

It's fair to say the Wii U's launch has been a success, with the system selling out across the United States and shifting 40,000 units in the UK. Extra shipments are coming in thick and fast to meet the extreme demand that you'd expect for a new Nintendo console at Christmas time. Nobody really doubted that Wii U would be...

Outspoken analyst casts doubt on Nintendo and Wii U's third party appeal

Michael Pachter - Managing Director of Wedbush Securities and someone who can always be relied on to stir up emotions - has made some interesting comments regarding Nintendo at the Digital Game Monetization Summit in San Francisco. Speaking mainly about the state of the games...

Happy Birthday, Iwata-san

Today brings us another Birthday for one of Nintendo's most well-known figures, with President Satoru Iwata turning 53 today. It would seem that, should he want to, Iwata-san will be able to continue in his current role for many years to come. Satoru Iwata had a passion for video game development from a young age,...