Most Recent: Xbox 360

Disney Infinity 2 in the works after Infinity 1 sells a ton

disneyinfinity-header

Disney Interactive had a 38% revenue growth (to $403 million) and a 600% quarterly operating income growth (to $55 million from $9 million), according to their quarterly earnings call, which took place last week. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger attributed the success primarily to Disney Infinity. Hopefully this means that last week’s rumor about layoffs was just that: a rumor.

But wait – there’s more great news. Iger confirmed that there would be additional entries in the Disney Infinity series, saying, “On the interactive front, there will be new iterations of [Disney] Infinity.” The executive also said that Disney Interactive would explore more mobile possibilities – could Infinity be coming to mobile platforms as well?

The company plans to focus more on licensing their iconic characters (for example, their deal with EA for two Star Wars games) instead of publishing when it comes to console – with the exception of Infinity. Iger also said they are “tracking what we are seeing in the industry” and “moving off of some of the more traditional platforms into mobile-to-mobile space, mostly for social games and for other casual games.”

With how much I see little kids stealing their parents’ phones to play Minecraft and other games, putting more Disney games on mobile would be sheer genius.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil scores on PS3, Xbox 360 in April

2014FIFAWorldCupBrazilEA has announced that 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will be coming out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 15 to celebrate the event. The game will feature new innovations and improvements in gameplay while capturing “the color and vibrancy of Brazil.” Players will be able to use Explosive Movement to accelerate, decelerate, and change direction, and will also feel like pros with Response Dribbling and Pinpoint Passing.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will have 203 national teams, 7,469 players (WOW that is a lot), 19 managers (all officially licensed) and 21 stadiums to choose from. There is also a tournament mode called Road to the FIFA World Cup in which gamers can choose from the aforementioned 203 teams “and play with one to 32 players locally through the qualifying rounds, and on to the group stages of the FIFA World Cup.”

This sounds like a dream come true for FIFA fans. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will be out on April 15 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Watch Dogs still on track for Spring release… except on the Wii U

watchdogs-header

Good news! Ubisoft has reconfirmed that Watch Dogs is stil on track for a Spring release. The game will be available in stores during the first quarter of Ubisoft’s 2015 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2014 through June 30, 2014.

But the bad news is that this release date doesn’t apply to the Wii U version of the game. According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, the Wii U version was delayed to provide more development resources for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One versions: “We made the difficult decision to further delay the release of Watch Dogs on Wii U to focus the team’s resources where they could have the broadest possible benefit for both our customers and Ubisoft.”

As terrible as this news is for Wii U owners, I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that the Wii U version of Watch Dogs wasn’t outright canceled.

[Source: Game Informer]

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

New Mighty No. 9 gameplay video released and a live-action adaptation is in development

Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man and the development lead behind next year’s Mighty No. 9, is on a mighty roll. After raking in a ridiculous pile of money with one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever, Inafune and his design teams at Comcept and Inti Creates have released a steady flow of Mighty No. 9 details. Now, they’ve released another gameplay video, with Inafune himself holding the controller.

It’s a very brief look at the game, but the developer closes out the clip with a hearty shout of “I’m extremely satisfied!” How can you not love Inafune’s energy?

In other Mighty No. 9 news, Contradiction Films’ Tim Carter recently sat down with EP Daily and revealed that his company has been contracted to produce a live-action adaptation of the game.

“We are at the very beginning stages of creative development on a digital series for Might No. 9. We are building the story right now,” Carter said. “I was a little apprehensive about it at first until I got his notes, and thought ‘Dude, you should be working at Pixar!’ It’s so good. We’re really, really excited about it.”

It’s currently unknown how the Mighty No. 9 adaptation will be released, but Contradiction Films is best known as the producers behind 2011’s excellent Mortal Kombat: Legacy webseries. So perhaps Mighty No. 9 will receive similar treatment.

Posted in 3DS, Etcetera, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Skylanders 4 is in development and set for release this year

skylanders4-infographicActivision is incredibly proud of the financial success of the Skylanders series. Since its debut in 2011, the publisher has released three titles in the franchise (Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, Skylanders Giants, Skylanders: Swap Force) and it appears a fourth is on the way. Toys For Bob, the developer behind Spyro’s Adventure and Giants, will take the reins on the currently untitled Skylanders 4 after allowing Vicarious Visions to handle Swap Force.

This news comes courtesy of a recently released infographic by Activision (click it to see a larger version), which also touts the franchise’s massive revenue stream of more than $2 billion. A release date for Skylanders 4 (or any other information, for that matter) is currently unknown, but an October release seems likely.

Also, allow me to also speculate that Skylanders 4 will likely appear on every platform imaginable including the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

New Releases: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, 2K/Bethesda Compilations, More

lightningreturnsfinalfantasyxiii-header

Lightning returns this week in the accurately named Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. The Square Enix-published RPG will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Also this week, the oft-neglected Vita will receive a pair of new games this week: the action-adventure Toukiden: The Age of Demons and the uterrly bizarre DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

And for some reason, 2K Games and Bethesda are joining forces to release an Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim + BioShock Infinite Bundle for the Xbox 360 and an The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim + BioShock Infinite + BioShock Bundle for the PS3. The publishers will also pair up to release a Borderlands 2 + Dishonored Bundle for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Why not, right?

Finally, Ubisoft will released a Far Cry Compilation for the PS3. The bundle includes Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

Posted in News, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

TitanFall’s Xbox 360 release has been delayed two weeks

titanfall-header

Those hoping to get their hands on TitanFall without having to purchase a new console will have to be a bit more patient than their next-gen peers. It was reconfirmed yesterday that TitanFall, developed by Respawn Entertainment, will hit the Xbox One and PC on March 11 in North America (March 13 in Europe). The Xbox 360 version, however, is being developed by a different studio, Bluepoint Games, and it has been given a shipping date of March 25 in North America (March 28 in Europe) so that the team can “put the finishing touches on the current-gen version of the game.”

As exciting as it is to hear that TitanFall is so close to release, it’s a bit of a shady business to have two different release dates. It harkens back to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where the game was released later for the previous generation console as well. Understandably, the Wii version of Twilight Princess vastly outsold its GameCube counterpart. Regardless of the reasoning, it’s sure to be exciting for Xbox 360 owners that they’ll be able to get their hands on TitanFall at all.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us wins ten statues at 2014 DICE Awards

dicesummit-header

When Santa Claus asks if you’ve been naughty or nice, if you’re a game developer, you might want to answer “naughty.” During last night’s DICE Awards in Las Vegas, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us took home the top prize in ten categories (out of 13 possible nominations). The only other game to win multiple awards was BioShock Infinite, which took home two (Action Game of the Year and Oustanding Achievement in Original Music Composition).

With such a big haul, The Last of Us naturally took home Game of the Year honors. The game also won Adventure Game of the Year, Oustanding Achievement in Game Direction, Oustanding Achievement in Story, Oustanding Achievement in Animation, Oustanding Achievement in Art Direction, Oustanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, Oustanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, and Outstanding Character Performance (for Ashley Johnson’s portrayal of Ellie).

A few other games did manage to wrestle a few awards away from Naughty Dog, but that’s mostly because The Last of Us didn’t qualify for every category. For example, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons won Downloadable Game of the Year, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds won Handheld Game of the Year, and Plants vs Zombies 2 won Casual Game of the Year.

The complete list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,