The 1-2 punch of Tekken 7 and Injustice 2 sit atop the best-selling games list for June 2017

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

Fighting game fans have proven, once again, that the genre is alive and well. According to the NPD Group’s recounting of the best-selling games in June, Tekken 7 (#1) and Injustice 2 (#2) took the top two spots. Nintendo’s bizarro take on the genre, Arms, also made a strong debut in the #5 spot.

Speaking of the Switch, Nintendo’s newest console continued to push the game industry to new heights in June, as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#6) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (#7) stayed in the top ten.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, NPD Analyst Mat Piscatella said: “The Nintendo Switch has been the catalyst for year-to-date growth. Year-to-date, hardware spending has grown 19% versus 2016 to $1.4 billion.”

However, older titles also performed well in June, including Grand Theft Auto V (#3), Overwatch (#9), and Minecraft (#17). 2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III (#12) even managed to outsell 2016’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (#15).

A complete look at the Top 20 for June 2017 can be found after the break.

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Square Enix will bring Final Fantasy, Lost Sphear, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm to Comic-Con 2017

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

The San Diego Comic-Con kicked off today, and Square Enix brought a handful of upcoming games to the Summer’s biggest convention for fans to test out. While attendees won’t get the chance to play Kingdom Hearts III or the Final Fantasy VII Remake on the show floor, there will be plenty of demo stations in the publisher’s booth featuring these titles:

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Now Available)
Platform: PS4
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age improves upon the 2006 classic Final Fantasy XII, now more beautiful and easier to play than ever. The HD remaster introduces a reconstructed battle design and the new Zodiac Job System, a 12-job character progression system first introduced in the 2007 title, Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System. With updated trophies and share functionalities, as well as stark visual and sound improvements, players both new and returning will experience the ultimate grand adventure through the world of Ivalice in an entirely new and improved way.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (Early 2018)
Platform: PS4
Developed in partnership with Team Ninja from Koei Tecmo, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is the newly announced team-based brawler. The game pits legendary heroes and villains from Final Fantasy’s 30-year history against each other in epic and strategic 3 vs. 3 battles. Players will choose a team from a roster of more than 20 beloved Final Fantasy characters across ten iconic battle arenas and call forth fan-favorite summons. With a deep customization and progression system, players will gain experience points and unlock EX skills, weapons, skins, and more as they develop their favorite Final Fantasy characters, their way.

Lost Sphear (TBA 2018)
Platform: PC, PS4, Switch
Expanding on the beloved I Am Setsuna, the Lost Sphear adventure begins in a remote town where a young man, Kanata, awakens from a devastating dream to find his hometown disappearing. To stop the world from being Lost forever, Kanata and his comrades set out to rebuild the world around them with the power of Memory by manifesting thoughts into matter.

Square Enix will also invite the “key creative minds” behind Life Is Strange: Before the Storm to San Diego for a panel on Friday, July 21. The speakers will reveal “brand new information and insights about their game for the first time,” as well as lead the audience in a live playthrough of the game.

But in case you are on the lookout for new Kingdom Hearts III information, Square Enix unveiled a new trailer (and a 2018 release date) for their hotly-anticipated action RPG during Disney’s annual D23 Expo last week.

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Nintendo Download: Splatoon 2, Boost Beast, Fate Extella The Umbral Star, more

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

Nintendo’s quest to make everyone love the Switch continues this week with the launch of Splatoon 2.

The team-based shooter will be available to download from the Nintendo eShop this Friday, and players will get the chance to compete in several different competitive multiplayer modes, as well as the cooperative Salmon Run mode, and a single-player Campaign.

Two other options are available through the eShop for Switch owners today, including Boost Beast, a match-3 puzzler from Arc System Works, and Samurai Shodown, a fighting game that was originally released for the NeoGeo in 1993.

Finally, Fate Extella: The Umbral Star will be available to download for the Switch beginning on Tuesday, July 25. Fate Extella: The Umbral Star is the first action game in the Fate series, as well as the first to appear on a Nintendo console.

You can learn more about all of these games (and the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop) after the break.

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The Catfish directors are in “final negotiations” to work on a Mega Man movie for Fox

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

If this story didn’t appear in The Hollywood Reporter, I would have assumed it was a hoax…

The reliable entertainment magazine is reporting that 20th Century Fox will team up with the directors of Catfish, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, to create a movie based on Mega Man. The pair are said to be in “final negotiations” with the studio, and will both write and direct the film.

The Mega Man movie will be produced by Chernin Entertainment and Masi Oka, the actor best known for playing Hiro Nakamura on Heroes.

While we await official confirmation from 20th Century Fox, we can set back and speculate what a Mega Man movie might look like. Joost and Schulman’s previous experience makes it likely that Fox wants to produce a live-action adaptation, but will the movie take its cues from the classic NES series or the more modern Mega Man X games? Who knows… maybe it’ll end up being a mix of both.

In addition to Catfish, Joost and Schulman have also directed Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, and last year’s well-reviewed Nerve. A Mega Man movie adaptation would be their first big-budget project.

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Motiga officially launches 5v5 hero shooter Gigantic for PC and Xbox One

Posted on July 20, 2017 by John Scalzo

Gigantic‘s Open Beta is coming to the end, and Motiga and Perfect World have announced that “Version 1.0” of their free-to-play “Hero Shooter” is available to download for the PC and Xbox One beginning today.

Today’s update will add Text Chat to the game, as well as new Packs, and Gigantic’s 19th Hero. Ramsay is “a cunning heavy-hitter brandishing a seriously lethal blade,” and he’s just the first of many new additions to the game. Motiga plans to add a new Hero to the game each month, in addition to other fixes and updates.

To celebrate Gigantic’s launch, Motiga is giving away several exclusive Skins for players who log in through Steam, Arc, or Xbox One/Windows 10. Steam players will receive a “Stone Relics” Skin for Beckett, Arc users will get a “Lightning” Skin for Tripp, and Xbox One/Windows 10 players will unlock an “Excelsior” Skin for Tyto the Swift.

“We’re thrilled to welcome all players to the vibrant world of Gigantic,” said Chris Chung, the CEO of Motiga. “The team has worked incredibly hard to develop an experience unlike any other. We hope you join us and the community of players who have fallen in love with the game and helped us throughout its development.”

If you’re not interested in Gigantic’s free-to-play business model, you can opt for the Ultimate Pack ($29.99) to gain access to all 19 currently-available Heroes, all future Heroes, and a variety of in-game bonus items (unique Skins, progression boosts, Fortune Cards, and Premium Currency). All Beta participants who purchased the Founder’s Pack will be upgraded to the Ultimate Pack, and all Steam and Arc users who purchase the Ultimate Pack will receive a free Starter Pack for a friend.

A Launch Trailer for “Version 1.0” of Gigantic has been embedded above.

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Xbox Store Today: Runbow, What Remains of Edith Finch, Moon Hunters

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

A trio of new Xbox One games are now available to download today, and one of them in a freebie if you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber…

July’s mid-month addition to the Games With Gold catalog is Runbow, a multiplayer platform racer from 13AM Games. Originally released for the Wii U (and then later the PC and 3DS), Runbow offers eight-player local multiplayer (and nine players online) and a ridiculous single-player challenge known as “The Bowhemoth.”

Also available to download today is What Remains of Edith Finch, a mystery game that promises to offer “a collection of strange tales about a family in Washington state.”

Finally today, Moon Hunters will make its Xbox One debut and it lets players experience multiple playthroughs of the same story to “see it from different angles and uncover new sides to characters, conflicts, and narratives.”

You can learn more about all of these game after the break.

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Telltale’s The Walking Dead will return for The Final Season in 2018

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Ahead of this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, Telltale Games has announced plans to produce one final season of The Walking Dead. Fittingly enough, it’ll be known as The Walking Dead: The Final Season, and the first episode will be available for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices in 2018.

Players will once again follow Clementine as she navigates a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies in The Final Season. A short teaser trailer has been embedded above, and Telltale also created an accompanying retrospective video detailing Clementine’s impact on the development team and the video game industry.

In a series retrospective released today in celebration of Comic-Con through Telltale’s Summer 2017 Update, the development team at Telltale sat down to reflect on the journey of series protagonist Clementine since the first episode premiered in April of 2012. In discussing the character’s path all the way through 2017’s conclusion of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, Telltale confirmed that this fourth and final season would focus on Clementine in the lead role, allowing players to fully step back into the shoes of the fan favorite character.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience. Thank you all so much, from the bottom of my heart,” said the voice of Clementine, Melissa Hutchison. “It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and so much love has been behind this whole experience. Good luck, I’ll be right there with you.”

Hopefully, we’ll learn more about The Walking Dead: The Final Season soon.

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90s Arcade Racer becomes 90s Super GP… and it’ll be released for Switch, PC, PS4

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Remember The 90s Arcade Racer? The throwback racing game was previously in development for the PC and Wii U, and publisher Nicalis originally planned to release the game in 2013. But here we are four years later, and the game has several new destinations… and a new name.

According to its official website, The 90s Arcade Racer will now be known as 90s Super GP, and it’s now in development for the PC, PS4, and Switch. But don’t worry, its core theme remains:

Overview
It is the nineties, and there is time for arcade racing! 90s Super GP is soaked in the nostalgia of the greatest era of racing video games, when “realism” and tedious minutiae took a back seat to fantastic environments, hyperspeed drifting, and paint-scraping!

Offering three different racing classes and a variety of exciting gameplay modes, 90s Super GP skillfully combines the feel and aesthetic of classic arcade racers with the polish, physics modeling, and widescreen HD visuals of current-generation games.

Features

  • Intense stock car, supercar and formula racing in the style of the best arcade racers of the 1990s
  • Bright colors, crazy track layouts and dance music evoke the golden era of arcade racing games
  • Finely tuned driving physics with precision handling and old-school drifting
  • 12 unique vehicles with different attributes and customizable colors
  • Six dynamic and shortcut-filled courses, three of which have “Long” and “Short” variations
  • Arcade mode for quick races in any unlocked vehicle on any unlocked course
  • Championship Mode with four circuits in each of the stock, supercar, and formula racing classes
  • Local and online multiplayer modes, with online leaderboards

Nicalis isn’t ready to announce a new release date for 90s Super GP, but it’ll hopefully be available soon.

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