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
Call of Duty: Black Ops II nukes the competition in November 2012 NPD report
Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Halo 4 set records in November 2012. The Wii U also opened strong with sales of over 400,000 consoles. And the Christmas rush resulted in big numbers for new releases like Assassin’s Creed III, Just Dance 4, and Need For Speed: Most Wanted. But that still didn’t stop The NPD Group from reporting that retail game sales dropped 11% from November 2011.
“Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11 percent, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year. This is a sign of momentum going into the December holiday period,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.
You can view the complete top ten from last month after the break, and remember, despite what The NPD Group says, the console game market is still in good shape. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, FIFA Soccer 13, Halo 4, Just Dance 4, Madden NFL 13, NBA 2K13, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, NPD, Skylanders Giants, WWE '13
Sega and Creative Assembly acquire the Warhammer license
Sega and developer Creative Assembly, the team behind the Total War series, have reached an agreement with Games Workshop to create games based on the Warhammer license.
“With this year being our 25th anniversary, it seems fitting for us to embark on such a dream project with such a well-established partner. The incredibly rich and detailed Warhammer world is something we grew up with, and has left an indelible imprint on us as both designers and gamers,” said Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly.
Heaton continued, “We’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before. We’re bringing those 25 years of experience and expertise in extremely high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that videogamers will absolutely love.”
The first Warhammer game will be developed by a new team within Creative Assembly’s UK office. The currently untitled game will be released “beyond 2013,” so don’t expect to hear more about it for a long time.
One final note, Eurogamer has confirmed that this agreement applies only to the Warhammer license. THQ will remain the sole publisher of Warhammer 40,000 video games.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Total War: Warhammer
Zen Pinball 2 will be added to Wii U eShop this month
Zen Studios has announced that their pinball sim, Zen Pinball 2, will be available to download from the Wii U eShop sometime in December.
The base game will be a free download, but individual tables will have to be purchased separately. However, to give gamers a better idea of what a table will play like, Zen will offer a demo version of every table, including the Plants vs Zombies and Marvel Pinball-themed tables.
You can check out the Wii U-centric trailer above and marvel at the game’s platform-specific features including “controlling the plunger on the touch screen, rotating camera views, accessing information via the dot matrix, and Free View control by tilting the Wii U GamePad.”
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Zen Pinball 2
Nintendo Download: Lego Lord of the Rings, Scribblenauts Unlimited, a lot more
Nintendo seems to have really gotten the hang of this digital download thing since the release of the Wii U. The consolemaker has added 13 games to their quartet of download services today as well as the first Wii U demo (FIFA Soccer 13).
This week’s biggest new releases can be found on the 3DS eShop: Lego Lord of the Rings and Scribblenauts Unlimited. Also available this week is Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning, Classic Games Overload: Card & Puzzle Edition, Murder on the Titanic, and the NES favorite Mighty Bomb Jack.
More information on all of these games (as well as new DSiWare, Wii Shop, and Wii U eShop titles) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii, Wii U
Tagged Lego Lord of the Rings, Scribblenauts Unlimited
Retro City Rampage readying for XBLA, WiiWare release
Vblank Entertainment has revealed that Retro City Rampage will soon be available to download from the Xbox Live Arcade and Nintendo’s WiiWare service. According to Vblank, both versions are currently going through “console certification” in North America and Europe and, barring any setbacks, will be released soon.
Retro City Rampage was first released for the PC, PS3, and Vita in North America on October 9, and since then, Vblank has been hard at work on tweaking the game to make it better. These tweaks (which are currently available on the PC/PS3/Vita as a title update) include “faster cars, tips screens, shop icons on the map, additional tutorials, checkpoints, level balancing and more.”
Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to get another chance to play Retro City Rampage. And for our friends across the Atlantic, the European release of the PS3/Vita version of the game was also said to be nearing completion as well.
Journey soundtrack nominated for a Grammy Award
The nominees for the 55th annual Grammy Awards have been announced and Austin Wintory’s score for Journey has been recognized in the “Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media” category.
As the only video game composer to be nominated in the category, Wintory will be competing against a quintet of musical heavyweights including John Williams for The Adventures Of Tintin, Ludovic Bource for The Artist, Hans Zimmer for The Dark Knight Rises, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Howard Shore for Hugo. Wintory’s work on Journey will also compete for “Best Song in a Game” and “Best Original Score” during tomorrow night’s Spike TV Video Game Awards.
The Grammy Awards will be awarded on February 10.
Latest Nintendo Direct dates Fire Emblem: Awakening, Brain Age 3DS, more
Another Nintendo Direct presentation is in the books and, while we didn’t get to see anything new, we did get a good idea on when some of next year’s big 3DS and Wii U titles will be available.
Hosted by Reggie Fils-Aime, the Nintendo of America President revealed that Lego City: Undercover, Game & Wario, and Wii Fit U will all be available in early 2013. They’ll be joined by a Google Maps Street View app, which will be available on the Wii U eShop.
The Big N also reiterated that Pikmin 3 is no longer a “launch window” title and will instead be released in Spring 2013. Also available next Spring will be Wii U Panorama View an entertainment app available exclusively on the Wii U eShop. A demo of the travelogue-like game will be made available to download before its release.
Over on the 3DS side of things, we’ve learned that Fire Emblem: Awakening will be released on February 4 and Brain Age: Concentration Training will be in stores less than a week later, on February 10. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is still scheduled for a Spring 2013 release.
Finally, two 3DS eShop titles were highlighted: Tokyo Crash Mobs, a Bust-A-Move-like game that involves throwing Tokyo residents into a mob of people; and Harmonite, an action platformer from Pokemon developer Game Freak that looks wild.
That’s it from this Nintendo Direct episode. If you want to see it for yourself, the video has been embedded above.
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Brain Age: Devil Training, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Game & Wario, Lego City Undercover, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Pikmin 3, Wii Fit U
CoD Black Ops II has made a lot of money since its release
Activision is in full-on brag mode when it comes to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The publisher previously reported that the shooter sequel set a sales record for single day sales. Now they’ve happily informed the world that Black Ops II has made more than $1 billion in sales in its first 15 days of release.
For the record, that’s one day quicker than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Of course, that’s likely due to the fact that the Black Ops II “Care Package” sold for $180 while Modern Warfare 3’s “Hardened Edition” was priced at a much more modest $100.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick used this announcement to continue to talk up Call of Duty’s dominance versus films like Star Wars, Avatar and Harry Potter. But that kind of comparison is really just ridiculous, as we saw last year.