Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition continues to sell well… over 12 million copies and counting

Posted on April 4, 2014 by John Scalzo

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After crusing past 10 million copies sold in December and 11 million in February, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has reached another sales milestone right on schedule: 12 million copies sold. Mojang’s Daniel Kaplan spoke to Xbox Wire about the game’s sale figures and he has revealed that the developer would have been happy with a paltry one million:

Daniel Kaplan: It is pretty amazing! I remember when we started talking about sales numbers that we would be super happy to sell 1 million copies. That would have put us on par with BF1943 and Castle Crashers, which both are awesome games, so that was something to aim for. We never even dreamed of selling 12 million!

Kaplan also confirmed that more Mashup Packs, Texture Packs, and Skin Packs are currently in the works for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. While he wouldn’t give specifics, the game’s next add-on, the Candy Texture Pack, will be available on April 18.

And on the subject of Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, Kaplan said that it will be released “eventually.”

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NIS America will release Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection on June 3

Posted on April 4, 2014 by John Scalzo

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I’ve never understood it, but somehow “singing competition simulations” have spawned an entire genre of games in Japan. And today, NIS America has announced that one of the latest, Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection, will be available in North America on June 3 (and in Europe on June 6). The “idol” game takes place in Hyperdimension Neptunia’s Gamindustri, an anime parody of the companies and personalities within the actual game industry:

The player takes on the role of the main character, who’s been summoned to Gamindustri and is immediately hired by one of the four CPUs—Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert—to be their producer and manage their idol careers. Get your training wheels on, ladies, because a new producer is in town and the fate of Gamindustri hangs in the balance! Will you be able to properly raise these CPUs into idols, or will their citizens be stolen away from them by the popular idol group MOB-48!? Teach these girls to sing, dance, and properly promote themselves to the general populace thanks in part to your expertise in training video game idols back on Earth. As the girls’ popularity rises, they will be able to join one another in singing duets, or maybe even come together for a full ensemble!

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection will be available for the Vita as both a boxed game and downloadable through the PlayStation Store.

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Persona 4 available on PSN as a PS2 Classic next week

Posted on April 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

persona4boxThis one was already spoiled by the ESRB yesterday, but Atlus has announced that Persona 4 will be available to download through the PlayStation Network on April 8. The game will be part of the PS2 Classics store for the PS3 and, according to the publisher, there’s even a bit of importance to this particular release date:

Astute fans will recognize the date is three days before the main character transfers to Yasogami High School, so if you’re the type of super-dedicated player that wants to play the game exactly to the calendar date, there’s still time!

Persona 4’s price is currently unknown but PS2 Classics are typically sell for $10.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

Nintendo Download: Batman Blackgate, Metroid Fusion, Advance Wars, more

Posted on April 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

batmanarkhamasylumanimatedEveryone’s favorite handheld, the Game Boy Advance, returns in a big way this week courtesy of the Nintendo Download. Metroid Fusion (the last Metroid side-scroller), Advance Wars (one of the greatest strategy games of all time), and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (a pretty great RPG) are now purchasable through the Wii U eShop… and more 3DS games are on the way all month. Wii U owners will also have a chance to download Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate – Deluxe Edition, a high definition re-release of the Arkham Origins spinoff, and Evofish, an evolutionary fish sim.

Over on the 3DS, Nintendo has added their Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball, their free-to-play baseball-themed minigame collection, to the eShop along with a pair of Mystery Case Files hidden object games.

More information on all of these games can be found after the break.

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Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U |

EA hires former Uncharted dev Amy Hennig to lead Visceral’s Star Wars project

Posted on April 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Amy Hennig stepped down from her position as the Creative Director on Uncharted 4 at Naughty Dog a few weeks ago. Today, we learned where she’ll land. In a post on EA’s “The Beat” blog, the megapublisher has revealed she has been hired by Visceral Games to become Creative Director of their in-development Star Wars project. Steve Papoutsis, Visceral’s General Manager, is very pleased with the hiring of Hennig:

Amy has long been recognized as one of our industry’s top visionaries, and is coming off an amazing run as the Writer and Creative Director of the Uncharted franchise. But her contributions go beyond the games she helped create at Naughty Dog and at Crystal Dynamics, where we worked together many years ago. As both a colleague and friend, I’ve always admired her approach to creative development – focusing on nailing down the soul of a game first, and then making sure the writing, the gameplay, the design and the art comes together to form a unified, interactive experience for the player. This fits in perfectly with what we’re trying to do here at Visceral and Amy’s going to help us continue in our pursuit to make the most thrilling, immersive games in the world.

The details of Visceral’s Star Wars project are still very much under wraps. It’s expected to be an open-world game, but it may be a long time before we find out what Hennig will bring to the title.

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New Mario Kart 8 trailer showcases the beautiful return of Rainbow Road 64

Posted on April 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

Mario Kart 64‘s version of Rainbow Road is one of my all-time favorite tracks from any Mario Kart game. And it’s making a return in next month’s Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U as one of the game’s “remixed” tracks. In addition to Rainbow Road 64, Nintendo announced that Toad’s Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 will also be added to the sequel, alongside Moo Moo Meadows from Mario Kart Wii and Donut Plains from Super Mario Kart.

Mario Kart 8 will be more than just old courses with a new coat of paint, as Nintendo also revealed two new items, three new characters, and the brand new “Spin Boost” special move. According to Nintendo, the Spin Boost gives players an advantage when racing upside down or on walls: “Players can bump into other racers or certain track obstacles to get a speed boost, fundamentally redefining the way that players compete.”

As they put the “Spin Boost” to work, players will also be able to use two new items. The Piranha Plant “attaches to the front of the player’s kart and chomps at other characters, banana peels on the track or even shells thrown by other characters.” And the Boomerang Flower “allows players to strike multiple opponents with a single toss” of the Boomerang. In another, totally unrelated, first for the series, Mario Kart 8 will feature music recorded by live performers on some courses.

Finally, Nintendo has confirmed that three more racers will join the fray: Metal Mario, Latiku (who’s going to wave the checkered flag when he’s racing?), and Shy Guy.

Mario Kart 8 will be available exclusively for the Wii U on May 30.

Posted in News, Wii U | Tagged

Daily Scoop: April 2, 2014 – New Story Bundle

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Nicole Kline

Video Game Bundle 3.0 is live right now at Story Bundle, and it’s filled with some great books. Pay what you want for How to Do Things with Videogames, Atari Inc.: Business is Fun, Scroll: Collection 01-11, Service Games: The Rise and Fall of Sega, Ghosts in the Machine, and Ryan Veeder’s The Gothic Tower and Assorted Interactive Fiction. Pay more than $12 for Boss Fight Books #1: EarthBound, Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Marcus “Notch” Persson and the Game that Changed Everything Review: The Awesome Story of the Indie Sensation and the Man Behind it (that book I loved!), and The Final Hours of Portal 2.

There’s also the brand new Florida Bundle over at Indie Royale. Pay what you want for Defense Technica, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, Stronghold Crusader HD, BlackSoul: Extended Edition, Angvik, and Zombies on a Plane. Finally, the Daily Deal over at Steam is Call of Juarez: Gunslinger on sale for $5.09.

And now, time for t-shirts!

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Over 100 games will be included in the Indie Megabooth at PAX East 2014

Posted on April 2, 2014 by John Scalzo

paxeast2014Over the years, the Indie Megabooth has become one of the busiest spots at PAX East and PAX Prime and the 2014 East show is no exception. Organizers behind the Indie Megabooth have announced that 76 games will be permanently installed in the booth with another 28 titles rotating in-and-out of a special “Minibooth” within the Indie Megabooth over the course of the convention’s three days. For the first time, tabletop games will get a chance to shine in the Indie Megabooth. Sponsored by Cards Against Humanity, this selection of tabletop games includes bluffing game These French Fries Are Terrible Hot Dogs, party game Funemployed, and six others.

Other highlights in this year’s Megabooth include Duet, a hypnotic mobile puzzler; Delver’s Drop, everyone’s favorite indie answer to the Zelda franchise; Hyper Light Drifter, everyone’s other favorite indie answer to the Zelda franchise; Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Answer, a sequel to the ultraviolent overhead shooter; and Secret Ponchos, an arena shooter that was one of our favorite games from PAX East 2013. Of course, with 104 total titles, this list of highlights is just scratching the surface of what’s available within the Indie Megabooth.

A complete list of titles that will be playable within the Indie Megabooth at PAX East 2014 can be found after the break. And more information about all of them is available at the organization’s official website.

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