Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Rumor: Mother 3 will be released for the Nintendo Switch this Spring
It’s the question that has plagued Nintendo fans for more than a decade now… when will Mother 3 (often known as Earthbound 2 on this side of the Pacific) be released in North America? Originally released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan in 2006, we first started hearing rumors last year that a North American release for the game on the Wii U was imminent. But there’s been nary a peep about Mother 3 from Nintendo since then.
Now, in the first days of 2017, the Mother 3 rumors have surfaced once more.
Laura Kate Dale (of Let’s Play Video Games) is reporting that the elusive RPG will be available for the Nintendo Switch in Spring 2017. According to Dale’s sources, Mother 3 was originally on track for a Wii U release in 2016 (it was “done and ready to go”), but Nintendo pulled the plug to give fans one more reason to make the switch to the Switch this year. Her sources also confirmed that Mother 3’s North American debut will receive a new English translation, and it’ll likely be released directly after Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference.
Nintendo will fully unveil the Switch on January 12, and my fingers are crossed that Mother 3 will be part of the presentation.
Pokemon Sun/Moon were the best-selling games on Amazon in 2016
Earlier this week, Steam provided a quick glimpse at the best-selling games available through the storefront in 2016. Besides The NPD Group’s monthly reports on gaming’s retail sector, it might be the best window into what sells and what doesn’t that we have.
However, Amazon also published a list of best-selling games from 2016 earlier this week, and naturally, it features a considerably more console-centric bent. Nintendo’s Pokemon Sun and Moon reigned supreme, taking the #1 and #2 spots. Final Fantasy XV was the best-selling PS4 game (#3 overall), while Madden NFL 17 claimed the Xbox One’s highest ranking (#5).
You’ve got to go all the way down to #18 to find the best-selling Wii U game (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD), and the only PC game on the list is Overwatch (#46). No Vita games managed to crack Amazon’s Top 100 (which also included console bundles and accessories), but the Wii version of Just Dance 2017 checked in at #21.
The complete list of Amazon’s best-selling games from 2016 can be found after the break. (more…)
Mass Effect: Andromeda isn’t in development for the Nintendo Switch, but BioWare “never wants to close doors”
Mass Effect: Andromeda and the Nintendo Switch are both set to launch this Spring, so it seems natural to assume that the fourth game in BioWare’s best-selling franchise might eventually be released for Nintendo’s next console. However, it looks like the developer currently has no plans to bring Andromeda to the Switch… though that could change.
Speaking to Stevivor, BioWare’s Michael Gamble succinctly confirmed they’re not working on a Switch port of the next Mass Effect:
Gamble also shot down plans for a version of Andromeda on Nintendo’s hybrid console, the Switch.
“Yeah, not right now, no,” he said. “We’re not planning on it.”
However, Gamble also admitted that if there’s a huge demand for Mass Effect: Andromeda on the Switch, BioWare would have to consider it:
“If the Switch launches and everyone’s just yammering for Mass Effect, who knows.
“We never want to close doors like that.”
This kind of chicken-and-egg conversation around console launches isn’t new, but it’s not surprising that BioWare’s stance is a cautious one. Mass Effect 3 was available for the Wii U from day one, but fans decided not to follow Commander Shepard to Nintendo’s 2012 console. BioWare never released another game for the Wii U, and Electronic Arts completely dropped support for the console less than a year later.
However, the publisher is officially back on board for the Switch, so as Gamble said, you never know.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Mass Effect: Andromeda
Get another short glimpse at Earth Defense Force 5 in this New Year’s video
D3 Publisher will release Earth Defense Force 5 in Japan later this year, but a special New Year’s message has given fans a look back at the franchise’s beginnings, along with a short glimpse of the upcoming sequel.
Posted to Twitter on December 31, the video includes a look at Earth Defense Force 5’s frog-like Colonists and a new model of walking UFO:
新年あけましておめでとうございます。
皆様にとって素晴らしい一年になりますように！本部からのお年玉です。
地球防衛軍1～5のヒストリームービーをどうぞ！#EDF pic.twitter.com/goBASIuhjJ— 地球防衛軍(EDF)公式 (@EDF_OFFICIAL) December 31, 2016
Earth Defense Force 5 is currently in development exclusively for the PS4, and an American launch date remains unannounced.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Earth Defense Force 5
Top 100 Best Sellers on Steam in 2016 include Dark Souls III, Civ 6, No Man’s Sky, and more
A day after revealing the winners of the first-ever Steam Awards, Valve is back with a breakdown of the “Top 100 Best Sellers of 2016” on Steam.
The list is unnumbered, but Valve has broken it down into four tiers… Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Based on total gross revenue (not copies sold) for 2016, the games in the Platinum tier include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Civilization VI, XCOM 2, Total War: Warhammer, Fallout 4, Grand Theft Auto V, Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, No Man’s Sky, Dark Souls III, Rocket League, and DOTA 2.
Most of 2016’s biggest releases made the cut, including Doom (Gold), Watch Dogs 2 (Silver), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Silver), and Dishonored 2 (Bronze).
The complete list can be found at Valve’s SteamPowered.com storefront.
The Video Game Canon – An Introduction and the Top 100 (Version 1.0)
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
Is it possible to rank the greatest video games of all time in a “scientific” way? Do you just throw the question to so-called experts and let them hash it out in a no-holds-barred debate? Or is there some way to create a “Video Game Canon” that the wide-ranging community of developers, critics, and players can all agree on?
Probably not. But we can try.
Since gaming’s earliest days, dozens of publications have tried to sort through the noise and compile their own list of “The Best Video Games of All Time.” By analyzing all of these attempts at ranking the greatest games and combining them into a single list, we can apply a little scientific rigor to the process and possibly create a “Best Video Games of All Time” list that everyone can agree on.
Before we go any further, let me just say… no matter how we try to justify it, it’s impossible to prove, by “science” or otherwise, that one game is definitively better than another. My attempt at adding “science” to the mix is just a way to add some zing to the numerical formula doing all the work behind the scenes.
Ideally, this project will give us the chance to look back at the history of video games reflected through some the medium’s greatest titles. The list itself will serve as something of a road map to help us learn how the best games of all time are connected to each other, to better appreciate how players interacted with video games in the past, and to explore what video games might become in the future.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Sony shines a spotlight on what’s coming to PS4 in 2017 including Detroit: Become Human
PlayStation Europe definitely kicked the year off right after they unveiled a new video highlighting the many exclusives coming to the PS4 in 2017.
In addition to games such as Gran Turismo Sport, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the PaRappa The Rapper remaster, the sizzle reel also includes a glimpse of Quantic Dream’s Detroit: Become Human, which had previously been tagged with a “TBA” release date.
Here’s the full list of games featured in the video:
Coming to PS4 in 2017
- Detroit: Become Human
- Drawn To Death
- Dreams
- Farpoint
- Gran Turismo Sport
- Gravity Rush 2 (January 20)
- Hellblade
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (February 28)
- Knack 2
- Matterfall
- MLB The Show 17 (March 28)
- New Hot Shots Golf
- Nex Machina
- Nier: Automata (March 7)
- Nioh (February 7)
- Persona 5 (April 4)
- PaRappa The Rapper
- Pyre
- Starblood Arena
- Uncharted 4: The Lost Legacy
- Wipeout: Omega Collection
- World of Warriors
- Yakuza 0 (January 24)
The first big event of the 2017 “Video Game Calendar” will be PAX South, which will be held in San Antonio beginning on January 27. We’ll surely hear more about at least a few of these games then.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Detroit: Become Human, Drawn to Death, Dreams, Farpoint, Gran Turismo Sport, Gravity Rush 2, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Knack 2, MLB The Show 17, New Hot Shots Golf, Nex Machina, Nier: Automata, Nioh, PaRappa the Rapper, Persona 5, Pyre, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, WipEout Omega Collection, Yakuza Zero
Weekly Warp-Up: Good Riddance 2016
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Goodbye 2016, I think it’s safe to say that most people won’t miss you AT ALL.
Around Warp Zoned this week, we took an early look at Sony’s Gravity Rush 2, which will be released for the PS4 on January 20. The action game will offer fans a unique graphical style and a gravity-defying combat system.
So let’s all say hello to 2017 and hope for the best in the New Year. But first, you can find the rest of with the rest of the news from this week after the break. (more…)
Posted in News