Nintendo News: Nintendo Switch Was the Best-Selling Video Game System in April; Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the No. 1 Game
REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– According to the NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States, the Nintendo Switch system was the best-selling video game hardware in the month of April with more than 280,000 units sold. This is the second month in a row that Nintendo Switch has led the pack in video game hardware sales, following a record-breaking launch in March. April sales of Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS family of systems (more than 68,000 units sold) combined to make up almost half of all hardware sales across all dedicated video game systems.
This is the second month in a row that Nintendo Switch has led the pack in video game hardware sales, following a record-breaking launch in March. (Photo: Business Wire)
The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe game was the top-selling video game in April with more than 460,000 physical units sold. With digital sales added, the total is more than 550,000 units. Making this number more impressive is the fact that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launched on April 28, which only accounts for two days’ worth of sales in the reporting period, which cut off on April 29.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game for Nintendo Switch continued its legendary run, coming in as the third-highest-selling video game in April. The critically acclaimed open-air adventure will receive even more content with the upcoming launch of two DLC packs in the summer and holiday season of this year. The DLC is now available for pre-purchase via an Expansion Pass. 1-2-Switch and digital-only game Snipperclips – Cut it out, together! also saw strong sales in April.
*Data regarding physical sales of games are from the NPD Group. Data regarding digital downloads of games and combined physical/digital life-to-date numbers are from Nintendo’s internal sales figures. All numbers, unless otherwise stated, are specific to the United States only.
Black Desert Online Welcomes New Striker Class on May 24
Amsterdam, The Netherlands – May 17th 2017/ Kakao Games and PearlAbyss announced today that the recently announced Striker class will be introduced to Black Desert Online on May 24.
Along with the Steam launch that is planned on the same day, the newly revealed Striker class will join Black Desert Online’s roster, bringing the total number of playable classes to 14. The Striker’s combat style combines both classic martial arts as well as popular street-fight techniques. Employing precise footwork, he fights bare-handed to overcome his foes. Watch the Striker chain kicks, uppercuts, and grappling moves in a new trailer from Kakao Games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAuKd_d5UDM
The Striker uses his Gauntlet as a main weapon and has the Vambrace as a secondary weapon. This fast, agile class plays unlike any of the existing classes and is perfect for players who are looking for a challenging, fresh way to enjoy Black Desert Online.
Players who have maxed out their character slots will be happy to know that an additional slot will be available for just one loyalty in the Loyalty Shop.
KONGREGATE & HYPER HIPPO ANNOUNCE ADVENTURE CAPITALIST SEQUEL, ‘ADVENTURE COMMUNIST’ MOBILE GAME
San Francisco, CA (May 17, 2017) – Kongregate, a leading publisher of mobile, PC, and web games, and Canadian based game developer, Hyper Hippo Productions, today announced AdVenture Communist, the follow up to the breakout hit idle game, AdVenture Capitalist. With more than 20 million mobile players around the world, AdVenture Capitalist defined the idle genre with its charming and straightforward gameplay. AdVenture Communist continues to innovate the genre by adding a complex crafting system to create a unique and extremely deep experience for players.
“AdVenture Communist is the next evolution in economic simulation games, with deeper strategy than its Capitalist predecessor,” said Lance Priebe, CEO at Hyper Hippo Productions. “Where AdVenture Capitalist has all resources pooled into a central currency, the almighty dollar, AdVenture Communist has many different currencies that are all interconnected. You need to grow and evolve all your resources equally in order to grow your empire. This complexity adds a layer of strategy that you don’t normally find in other idle games.”
“We’re thrilled to have both of the groundbreaking AdVenture titles in our publishing portfolio,” said Emily Greer, president and co-founder of Kongregate. “I knew that AdVenture Capitalist was something special when I looked around the office and realized the entire office was playing it! Today it’s been played on mobile devices by more than 20 million budding Capitalists around the world. And with AdVenture Communist, Hyper Hippo Productions continues to challenge the market with genre defining gameplay experiences.”
AdVenture Communist is coming soon to iPhone, iPad, Android and is currently available on Steam Early Access. You can find additional information about the game on the official Twitter and Facebook accounts.
About Kongregate
Kongregate is a leading mobile game publisher and web gaming portal. Kongregate’s mobile publishing focuses on free to play mid- and hard-core titles. Working closely with mobile game developers Kongregate provides consulting, analytics, marketing, launch support, and game features such as cross promotion, guilds, and chat. Kongregate’s mobile games have been downloaded tens of millions of times and have hundreds of millions of gameplays. Kongregate’s web portal features over 100,000 free games played by tens of millions of gamers per month. Kongregate is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GameStop Corporation and is based in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2006 by brother-and-sister team Jim and Emily Greer.
About Hyper Hippo Productions
Hyper Hippo is a game developer based in Kelowna, British Columbia focused on making life more fun. The company’s games are available on Apple iOS, Android, Steam, and major consoles. Since its founding in 2012 by the creator of Club Penguin, Hyper Hippo has created over 50 games including AdVenture Capitalist with over 22 million installs. Hyper Hippo brings together an exceptional team that is relentlessly focused on innovating and exploring new ideas in game design. For more information, please visit http://HyperHippo.ca
So horror is not a genre I do well with in either film or games. I am way too easy to immerse into something and my overactive imagination can easily conjure up phantasms inhabiting the dark than anything a developer or filmmaker could come up with… in other words: I scare easily. Nonetheless, I have braved the cold darkness of space to give you an opinion on the new Prey. I am aware that it is a spiritual successor to the much beloved System Shock 2 but that particular game missed its place in my library back in the day so I’ll have to form my opinion just from my impressions of this title without being beholden to nostalgia. So for a completely fresh perspective on this action horror game, read on!
Story
The game throws you into the role of Morgan Yu, a brilliant scientist working as a part of Transtar. You wake up on Earth and, in true gaming scientist tradition, are subjected to testing. In pretty much no time at all, things go haywire and you wake up in a repeat of the simulation you just experienced but escape out into what is revealed to be a sound stage aboard a space station called Talos 1. Due to a side effect of a procedure with neural implants, you are suffering from amnesia and have no idea why you were in the simulation or what calamity has befallen the station. As you navigate the twists and turns of the narrative, every answer only serves to give about the who, why, and what.
As far as video game narratives go, this game does a fairly solid job with interesting hooks which kept me motivated to keep going along with it. Like any good mystery, it starts off asking you simple questions about what is happening to you and the world around you. Each clue you find is another thread you can pull on which only really adds to the conspiracy theorist dartboard of connections between every other piece of information you find. It takes a while to unravel and, truth be told, I have not yet finished the main story at the time of writing this but I’m enjoying the hours that I’ve spent with the story so far and am eager to try more of it next opportunity I have to play.
The setting is certainly an interesting alternative timeline and a creative reimagining of what the space race would have been like if Kennedy had survived his assassination coupled with first contact with a hostile alien species. You get little snippets of the world through audio log type recordings and books you can find scattered around the station and they little insights into the wider world. The game’s lore feels different enough so that when a character or text makes reference to an event in the alternate timeline, you can feel proud of yourself for knowing where and how this new information fits into the timeline. I’m sure if you’re one of those individuals who prefers to keep their gaming experience light of lore then you’ll probably enjoy the story just as much without knowing the game’s trivia.
Gameplay
The game showcases some fairly robust first-person shooter mechanics. You’ve got a plethora of weapons for a variety of encounters and enemy types all of which you have to manage in an inventory system which also houses your medkits, ammunition, and other crafting items. As you navigate the levels, you’ll collect and scavenge items which you can recycle at various crafting station scattered throughout the levels to make more of whatever it is that you need. As well as managing your inventory, you can also come across neuromods which serve as upgrade points for your various hacking, traversing, and combat abilities.
Something I absolutely loved in Prey was the level design and the varying architectural styles of station. As you run (and gun) your way through the twisting corridors, cluttered laboratories, and high vaulted lobbies. You’ll be running from section to section, learning the station layout by heart, and have a pretty good time doing so. The environments also allow you to approach any given problem in whatever way you can think of. For example, you could encounter a locked door and you attempt to either hack the lock (when you have it at a sufficiently high skill) or do what I did and climb in through a vent, find a shotgun very early in the game, and then spend the rest of the time gunning down enemies with abandon. The game supports exploration with Easter eggs, items, and bits of lore which any wannabe treasurer hunter will certainly appreciate.
The enemy types have some enjoyable variance to them at first, with the mimic types being a constant threat of ambush and uncertainty. The first time I encountered a phantom was a genuinely terrifying experience for me and I remember running back through the lobby with my tail in between my legs. After you get kitted out with weaponry heavier than a glue gun, however, they become much more manageable. My biggest concern when encountering enemies became managing my reserves of ammunition and health, which is largely par for the course for most FPS games of this type which lose some of their horror aspect about halfway through their story.
Visuals
I found this game to feature some very interesting visual design in terms of the various sections of Talos I and the design of the enemies. Each level of the station feels like it has its own aesthetic concerns and style from the practical workspaces of the engineering workshop to the stylish executive offices of the lobby and the brutalist architecture of Psychotronics. There’s a lot of variation which makes every area feel unique and gives an element of novelty as you run through the station. Each of these aesthetic choices feel like a throwback to various other designs in games such System Shock and the original Bioshock and Deus Ex. In regards to the visual designs of the Typhon enemies, I quite enjoyed the inky black character design of the various creatures you fight. There has been some criticism leveled at the Typhon for being rudimentary in their design as amorphous shadowy beings but I found their character design to be a refreshing change from other alien designs in the zeitgeist. They’re different, they’re weird, they’re creepy; they’re pretty much exactly what you’d want out of an antagonist in a horror action game.
Note: Up front, I must say, I was not able to play the game at its highest graphical settings on my computer. Although my rig is fairly high end and was top of the line just a few short years ago, it does not meet the recommended specs to run this game. So keep that in mind when you’re looking at the screenshots I’ve taken which may not showcase the game at its best. My opinion in this section is therefore based upon the general aesthetic and visual design of the game. If you want to see how the game textures and visuals look at the highest settings, check out a lets play or something.
Audio
In horror films and games, the sound design is of extreme importance for creating, raising and releasing tension. Luckily, Prey features a very robust and competent soundscape which accentuates the horror and sci-fi aspect of the game. As well as plucking strings to match the creepy, spider-like movements of the smaller mimic enemies as well as violin screeches when enemies jump out of the woodwork to ambush you. The soundtrack also features distinct synthetic tones to match science fiction aesthetic of the game. Although the game does miss a few marks here and there, by and large the audio cues play at appropriate times to add to, rather than break, the immersion.
One aspect of the sound design I had mixed feelings on was the fact that the phantom enemies repeat various bits of distorted dialogue which is taken from various NPCs throughout the game. As much I enjoyed the creepy aspect of having something so clearly inhuman speak in a way which was an uncanny imitation of actual speech (think the Vashta Nerada in the space suits from Doctor Who), their very short list of phrases and words soon lost its creep factor. In horror, the unknown invites terror and the familiar breeds contempt which is unfortunately what happened with my feeling towards this aspect of the phantom enemies. It would have been nice if they had a larger list of phrases to say but I imagine that it would have been difficult to maintain the creep factor over a long enough play time. It’s a cool sound design but ultimately ends up overstaying it’s effectiveness.
Overall
So, ultimately, I have very much enjoyed my time with Prey. It features a fairly robust narrative with enough to keep me interested throughout my time with the game. The gameplay has been largely enjoyable too with plenty of close calls and opportunities for lateral thinking to keep me on my toes. The visual design is certainly a unique composite of various styles for a fairly pretty game. The game’s soundscape is competently crafted to compliment the game’s horror moments and unsettle the player. It’s a game I have no problem recommending for fans of the Bioshock series and fans of action horror in general. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
LARGE-SCALE PLANETARY CONQUEST ARRIVES ON STEAM WITH MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER RETRO SCI-FI RTS CROSSOVER WIN THAT WAR!
Indie Dev Insane Unity Puts Thousands of Players at the Heart of a Fierce Galactic War
Rennes, France (May 17, 2017) – Independant French developer Insane Unity is excited to announce that their breakout title, Win That War! — a retro-futuristic real-time-strategy (RTS) game with a massively multiplayer online campaign where thousands of players battle for planet-scale dominion — is now available on Steam for Windows PC! Players can ready their futuristic weapons of war and embark on faction-based galactic conquest, alone, with friends or with (and against) the whole world.
It’s year 1023 of the Galactic Era. Bold explorers discover a new planetary system among the stars, confirmed to house extremely rare and untapped resources. This immediately prompts the greatest economic powers of the galaxy to dispatch their most skilled envoys to make claim to the alien worlds. This is where your – and many others’ – journey begins.
Win That War! is an RTS which immerses players in the heart of a galactic war fought by three power-hungry conglomerates — Nasca, Atlas, and Jet Blum. This conflict takes shape in a massively multiplayer planetary campaign, allowing players to fight by the thousands on unexplored planets, staking claim to territories by building powerful structures that siphon planetary resources and growing armies. If you agree to join one of the three mega-corporations, you will have to prove your worth on the battlefield by combining strategy, dexterity and a little panache.
Key Features of Win That War!:
Build your faction’s influence by taking over new planets in the Galactic Campaign.
Take part in heart-racing nine-player multiplayer matches with all three factions.
Utilize unique planetary resources to build and fortify a growing list of structures.
Raid unsuspecting opponents to steal their resources and improve your own technology.
Battle combat drones left behind by an ancient civilization in the thrilling PVE mode and Wasteland map!
Currently an Early Access title on Steam, post-launch, Insane Unity already has three months of carefully considered new content and features planned for Win That War!. Upcoming content includes new biomes, additional maps, online quests, new structures and units and a vast player skill tree. Each new update expands Win That War!’s single, multiplayer and Galactic Campaign modes. Win That War! features an innovative multiplayer networking system which allows for thousands of players to take part in the Galactic Campaign concurrently. Each conquerable planet is divided into hundreds of territories, where up to nine players can dispute a territory at the same time as thousands of others.
Based in Rennes, France, Insane Unity was founded in 2015 by a team of nine creative evil-geniuses who spent their early years playing hours upon hours of strategy titles like StarCraft and Supreme Commander. Insane Unity aspires to create a formidable company and a dedicated community, brought together by their love of unique and well-crafted strategy games. Insane Unity’s premier title is Win That War! is an ambitious real-time-strategy game featuring a thousand-player multiplayer campaign.
Wild West Online From 612 Games Raises Funding to Launch in 2017
Action Online Multiplayer Game to Bypass Kickstarter and Steam Early Access On Its Way to Full Release
Los Angeles – May 17, 2017 – 612 Games announces today that the recently revealed online multiplayer game Wild West Online will launch this year on PC. Thanks to an overwhelming response to the game’s reveal, which included thousands of emails and over 200,000 site visits, Wild West Online received additional funding from the game’s initial investors in order to fully launch in 2017.
Thanks to this further backing the development team will no longer need to raise additional support via a Kickstarter campaign and has also decided to bypass Steam Early Access to focus on a full launch. Those interested in learning more about the game and participating in Alpha and Closed Beta this summer can visit http://www.playwwo.com/.
In addition Wild West Online will now release with its previous stretch goals in place at launch, including female characters, rich role-playing and social activities such as card games, and localization. After launch 612 Games will release additional content and gameplay features as part of several expansions in order to continue delivering the ultimate Wild West experience on PC.
“The community’s response to Wild West Online is something we never imagined and thanks to it we’re able to fully develop a robust Western experience for PC,” said Stephan Bugaj, Chief Creative Officer of 612 Games. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have our initial investors step up and provide additional funding to make the game we wanted, without having to raise money via crowdfunding. Westerns are lacking on PC so we can’t wait to release the game to the public.”
Wild West Online is an open-world action-based, online multiplayer game in which players are free to explore and interact within a thrilling Wild West setting. Based on their decisions and actions, players can become a lawman, an outlaw or a pioneer exploring the Western Frontier. The game features a bevy of content, including world exploration, resource gathering, PvP combat, PvE game missions, treasure hunts and much more.
612 Games is a new publisher created in partnership between DJ2 Entertainment, a full service transmedia production company that develops and produces content for all media platforms, and other game industry veterans. The team is made up of industry vets who’ve worked on titles such as the Crysis series, Ryse, Armored Warfare, Telltale’s Walking Dead, Telltale’s Game of Thrones, Neverwinter Nights, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Star Trek Online.
Dorna Sports takes racing to the living room as MotoGP™ eSport Championship gets underway
Always at the forefront of digital trends, Dorna Sports kicks off the MotoGP™ eSport Championship in 2017 to further engage its gaming fan base – as well as enticing fans to race in the comfort of their homes.
17 May 2017, Milan – Dorna Sports approaches this project as a brand new Championship within its portfolio of racing series, managing all aspects of the competition. The official MotoGP™ ’17 console video game – produced by long standing licensee Milestone – will provide the backbone of the MotoGP™ eSport Championship, allowing gamers to take part in online challenges throughout the 2017 season with the aim of qualifying for the season finale, to be held in November at the circuit in Valencia – coinciding with the last round of the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship. The eSport final event will be broadcast live by Dorna’s TV partners.
Exclusive to SONY PlayStation® 4, the MotoGP™ eSport Championship will provide a direct link to real life racing with seven online events in a time trial format. The 16 fastest players will be invited to test their skills in a first live event in Valencia, just ahead of the MotoGP™ season closer, with a BMW M240i up for grabs as the top prize.
This first foray into the eSports scene will lay the groundwork for a more extensive calendar for next year’s eSport Championship, which is backed by several founding members – most of whom are already involved in the MotoGP™ World Championship as sponsors or partners.
Pau Serracanta, Dorna Sports’ Commercial Area Managing Director said: “Moving into the eSports scene is taking MotoGP into a new era. It’s a unique way to engage our established gaming audience and also a clear sign to the wider gaming community that MotoGP™ is not only one of the top motorsports properties in real life, but also one of the most exciting digital experiences a console game can deliver. We will be putting together an exciting package mixing virtual and real life encounters blending the two worlds to deliver the utmost authenticity. From top tier partners to TV broadcasters and MotoGP™ teams, the stakeholders will be working in unison to have a successful start in eSports, on a scale befitting MotoGP’s highest standards.”
Pokkén Tournament Championship Series Coming Summer 2017
The Pokémon Company International has announced the European qualifier for the Pokkén Tournament Championship series, which will take place at Dreamhack Summer 2017 on 17 – 18 June in Jönköping, Sweden.The top 8 players will all win a cash prize, and the top 4 players will also win an invite and travel sponsorship to the 2017 World Championships.
A prize pool worth over $25,000 is in store for the winning competitors in the Pokkén Tournament Championship Series at the Pokémon World Championships in August, held in Anaheim, California.
Charming Fantasy Sci-Fi RTS Hypernova: Escape From Hadea Launches today on Steam Greenlight and Indiegogo
Discover The Beautiful Flora And Fauna Of Haya In This Single-Player RTS Slated For Launch on PC and Mac
Ljubljana, Slovenia — May 16, 2017 – ActaLogic today announced the start of the Steam Greenlight campaign for its upcoming single-player real-time strategy game, Hypernova: Escape from Hadea. Players assume the role of the Scynthians who must colonise and mine Hadea’s moon, Haya, in a bid to escape the death of their star. The developer simultaneously kicks off an Indiegogo campaign in order to fund the last development stages and pre-release activities like localisation and promotion.
Combining classic resource management and civilization building with intuitive tower-defense gameplay, Hypernova: Escape From Hadea is a charming sci-fi and fantasy RTS with quirky characters, beautiful planetary design and a healthy dollop of humour. Launching on Steam Greenlight and Indiegogo today, it’s first steps towards saving the Scynthians from certain oblivion.
“Hypernova looks incredible with clean, colorful graphics and seamless, responsive gameplay”, said Simon Sukljan, CEO of ActaLogic. “We’re excited to finally unveil it to the public and start receiving feedback on our vision so we can incorporate that into the game.”
In Hypernova, an alien planetary system is in danger as its huge star – Naidira – is becoming increasingly unstable. Realising that it’s only a matter of time before an apocalyptic hypernova explosion destroys their entire planet, the Scynthians devise a plan to escape their planet and rebuild their civilization elsewhere in the galaxy. However, the technology to build an interstellar teleportation device that could allow them to escape is powered by materials which have been depleted as a result of their population’s expansion on Hadea.
The only place where they can gather more of these elements is on Hadea’s moon, Haya, an inhospitable world with a corrosive atmosphere, inhabited by violent creatures. In a desperate, last-ditch effort to save their race, the Scynthians send an expedition to Haya to find a way to power the escape technology and save their culture. Hypernova: Escape from Hadea is a fantasy game with single-player RTS gameplay launching on Steam for PC and Mac with an expected ESRB rating of 10+.
ActaLogic™ is a game development studio located in Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. Dedicated to new technology, art, animation, and design, we focus on titles for PC, Mac, Linux and Consoles (XBOX, PlayStation) in the genres of simulation, strategy and adventures. ActaLogic™ provides software solutions for the video game, military and civil industries, although the core business of the company is the development of high quality video and computer games.
Paradox Interactive Opens New Studio for Mobile Game Development
New mobile-focused team to reside in Malmö
STOCKHOLM — May 17, 2017 — Paradox Interactive, a global developer and publisher of games on all platforms, today announced the opening of a new studio which will focus on mobile game development. The new studio will operate in Malmö, a city in southern Sweden, and will consist of a small team of experienced developers focused on bringing mobile gamers the kind of deep, challenging experiences the world has come to expect from Paradox.
Paradox’s new studio will join the city’s rapidly growing development community, working alongside such peers as Massive Entertainment and Tarsier Studios.
“Paradox is committed to exploring new territory in mobile game development, and I’m eager to lead that charge,” said Kim Nordström, SVP of Innovation and Mobile at Paradox Interactive. “Our plan is to bring the iconic Paradox style to mobile players across a broad catalog of titles. To achieve that, it’s important that we bring aboard the right people – people capable of delivering the kind of hardcore strategic titles we’re known for on PC. Games like Prison Architect: Mobile are just the beginning!”
“We chose Malmö because it has such a vibrant development community, and we know there’s plenty of talent to be found here,” said Susana Meza Graham, COO at Paradox Interactive. “In the coming months we are looking to add several new members to the team, both in Malmö and the mobile publishing team in Stockholm.”
For more information on how to join the Paradox mobile team, please visit http://career.paradoxplaza.com/departments/mobile
Paradox Interactive is a leading global publisher of strategy games for PC. The world-renowned strategy catalog stretches back to 1999, and the company holds a particularly strong presence in the United States and Europe.
The publisher’s steadily-growing portfolio includes firmly established PC franchises such as the critically acclaimed Europa Universalis, Cities: Skylines, Crusader Kings, Magicka and the Hearts of Iron series created by Paradox Development Studio and a network of partner studios.
