Most Recent: Wii U

Wii U system launching on December 8 in Japan

Posted on September 13, 2012 by John Scalzo

As promised Nintendo Japan has announced when gamers in Japan will be able to get their hands on the Wii U (see what I did there?) on December 8. The system will be available in two configurations, a black 32GB Premium Set (¥31,500/$405) and a white 8GB Basic Set (¥26,250/$338). A release date and price for the US launch will be announced later today.

Will initially reluctant to sell the Wii U GamePad separately, Nintendo Japan has confirmed the tablet controller will be available in stores for ¥13,440 ($173). Of course, one GamePad is included with every system, along with an AC adapter, a stylus and an HDMI cable. The Premium package will include all of that as well as a GamePad AC Charging Adapter, GamePad Stand, a Wii U Stand, and a one-year subscription to Nintendo Network Premium.

Nintendo Network Premium subscriptions (which are only available with the 32GB system) will receive free eShop Points as well as a 10% discount on all eShop purchases. The Pro Controller will also be sold separately, at a price of ¥5,000 ($64).

Again, the Wii U’s launch price and release date for North America will be announced later this morning, so it’s possible that prices on this side of the Pacific won’t be so high.

Posted in News, Wii U |

Wii U release date and launch price will be announced tomorrow

Posted on September 12, 2012 by John Scalzo

We all suspected it, but today, Nintendo confirmed that the Wii U’s launch price and release date will be announced tomorrow during their next Nintendo Direct presentation. Company President Satoru Iwata broke the news via Twitter (helpfully translated by Joystiq):

Good evening, it’s Iwata from Nintendo. Tomorrow at [3 AM Eastern Time] we’ll broadcast online the Wii U’s sale information. We’ll tell you when the Wii U will launch and how much for.

The US presentation will be hosted by Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and it’ll take place tomorrow as well, at the more reasonable hour of 10 AM (Eastern Time). You can watch the Big Reg do his thing online at Nintendo.com/wiiu or Facebook.com/WiiU.

Posted in News, Wii U |

Dev porting Mass Effect 3 to Wii U working on two additional Wii U games

Posted on September 8, 2012 by John Scalzo

Straight Right, the development team behind the Wii U port of Mass Effect 3, is taking their job very seriously. Speaking to Eurogamer, CEO Tom Crago said, “We’re very conscious of not wanting to mess up.”

While the executive has high hopes for his Wii U launch title, he also revealed that Straight Right has two unannounced games for the system in development, an original title and another port, for 2013:

“We’ve made a number of bets on the Wii U, so we’re certainly hoping that the platform comes strongly out of the gate. We’ve got two other titles in development. One of them is original, our own IP, and another is based on another big franchise that will come out in 2013. It’s a big title and you will have heard of it,” he teased.

Nice to know, but that could be anything!

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Wii U version of Ghost Recon Online is “on hold”

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

Despite Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemont praising the Wii U numerous times this year, and with the company developing the very promising ZombiU as well as bringing Assassin’s Creed III to Nintendo’s new console, it seems work has stalled on the Wii U version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online. The official line from the game’s producer, Theo Sanders, is that the team wants to focus all of their energy on the PC version before work begins on any console version. His full statement can be read here:

“As of right now, the entire Ghost Recon team is focused on the PC version only. The Wii U version is on hold. If in the future we have an opportunity to address it again, we’ll make future announcements. But as of right now we’re focused completely on the PC version. It’s not a reaction to anything specific happening to Wii U. It was a really fun, cool platform to develop for. But you realise once you launch an online service that it’s an all-consuming effort, so we really wanted to have all hands on deck. It was the same dev team working on both SKUs, and we really wanted to focus on doing the PC version right.

It’s hard to say how the future will go for Ghost Recon Online. I think in the future, as different platforms evolve towards service models and towards being really online-driven, community-driven platforms, then we’ll definitely be looking at what our options are… I think it’s one of the strengths of the PC platform and I believe it’s something that all console manufacturers understand to be a strength of the PC platform, and will definitely be looking for interesting and innovative ways to bring their own experiences to.”

Despite the meek promise that the company may return to the project in the future, reading between the lines suggests something else is afoot, especially given all the references to online play in the PC market. It sounds as if Ubisoft is going to wait until after the launch of the Wii U to see if Nintendo’s new online system attracts the numbers deemed necessary to move forward with a free-to-play game.

With Nintendo due to make a major Wii U announcement next week, hopefully with more specific details on the system’s price and its launch date, lets hope it attracts more positive word of mouth than their E3 showing this year.

[Source: Video Gamer]

Posted in News, PC, Wii U | Tagged

Double Fine’s The Cave is coming to Wii U too

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

While already scheduled for release on the PC, PSN and XBLA, Double Fine finally confirmed during their PAX Prime presentation that their upcoming game The Cave will also be coming to the Wii U. The downloadable title will be a great compliment to the GamePad’s screen.

With the usual brand of humour associated with Double Fine’s Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, the title has been described as “an adventure game so odd and compelling that it can only be described as odd and compelling.”

“The concept of The Cave has been bouncing around in my head for many, many years, and then the little voices that tell me to do things said it was time to make the game,” explained Gilbert. The game itself is said to utilise concepts from Gilbert’s own 1987 classic, Maniac Mansion, with the player able to select three playable characters (from a group of seven) including a knight, a monk, a pair of street urchins, a time traveller and a hillbilly, to enter the magical talking titular Cave. Each character will have their own personality and traits used to solve the puzzles found within.

[Source: CVG]

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Gearbox adds female characters to Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

Given that the Alien film series has always featured strong female roles (including Ellen Ripley, Private Vasquez or Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus), it seemed not only sexist but basically wrong when Aliens: Colonial Marines producer Brian Burleson announced there would be no female characters in the multiplayer portion of the game. After a major online petition, signed by over 4,000 people including several associated with the Aliens film, it finally caught the attention of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.

Speaking to Eurogamer at this weekend’s PAX Prime, the company’s head honcho revealed that the co-op mode and online multiplayer will both feature at least one playable female character. The company released artwork of the co-op character, Private Jennifer Running, a fiery, short-haired redhead. Whether she was created after the petition, or existed all along and was only revealed early because of the outcry, we will never really know.

While it is a great result for female gamers, or those males who wish to get it touch with their female roots, should we really have been having this discussion over a game set in the Aliens universe? What do you think, readers?

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Wii U will be playable at PAX Prime 2012

Posted on August 28, 2012 by John Scalzo

Nintendo has announced that if you’ve got a ticket to this weekend’s PAX Prime expo, you’ll be able to demo eight different Wii U games during the big show.

The lines are sure to be long, but expo attendees who brave them will be able to play…

  • New Super Mario Bros. U, the latest 2D Mario game
  • The long-awaited Pikmin 3
  • The minigame collection Nintendo Land
  • The superhero squad sim from Platinum Games, Project P-100
  • The Wii U-enhanced Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
  • Scribblenauts Unlimited, the hi-def sequel to the popular DS series
  • The Wii U-enhanced Trine 2: Director’s Cut
  • …and ZombiU, Ubisoft’s zombie epic

PAX Prime will take place this weekend (August 31 – September 2) at Seattle’s Washington State Convention Center.

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Harmonix is gearing up for a next-gen “combat game”

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

Harmonix, a company best known for its musical franchises, such as Rock Band and Dance Central, is apparently moving in a brand new direction for its next title. A job advertisement on Gamasutra shows the company is actively seeking a “Combat Designer to create real-time, single-player combat experiences for a brand new IP on next-generation hardware.”

The ad is also seeking someone who can create “robust combat AI systems for minor and major combat encounters,” which certainly sounds a world away from the musical titles that have made the company’s name. Although never fear, Harmonix still needs to butter their bread and is rumored to be working on a pair of as-yet-untitled music projects for both the 3DS and PS Vita.

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