The Nintendo Switch is looming on us all, and more rumors from trusted sources are popping up. We also reminisce about music from the Jet Grind Radio games and talk about the timing of Titanfall 2 sucked.
This week’s news includes:
Let us know if you’re going to buy a Nintendo Switch.
Congratulations to PopCap for showing why casual games will always be a viable market. Let’s put this in perspective, investors believe GTA IV will push 13-million sales by the end of 2008 and, as of January 2008, Halo 3 had sold 8 million copies. PopCap’s little casual game has hit 25 million units sold, that’s fairly impressive considering these blockbuster titles haven’t achieved such numbers.
You may say “well, these titles sold 3+ million in the first week, what about Bejeweled?” True, Bejeweled probably didn’t hit 3 million in a week, but which game will still be played in 2010? Bejeweled or GTA IV and Halo 3?
Casual games age well, they’re not competitive on the graphic space and, instead, focus on fun value. Fun value is a lasting appeal and is immortal in the time line of video games. The same reason people still find fun in Pac-Man gamers still find cash to pickup their copies of Bejeweled.
Which game had the smallest budget? Bejeweled or GTA IV? We’re pretty sure PopCap did not give the bejeweled team $100-million to make it! Investors take notice, casual games have a long lasting appeal.
Read on for full press release details.
This week we’ve got some crazy statistics that says Red Teams beat Blue Teams. According to a study published last week in a Cyberpsychology & Behaviour journal, during a study of 1,347 matches between “elite teams” in Unreal Tournament 2k4 … and all things being equal, the red team won 55% of the time. Huh?
EA Gets Sued by…The People? The class-action complaint focuses on Electronic Arts’ actions since 2004, when Take-Two Interactive’s NFL 2K5 was released at a $19.99 price point and sold more than 2.9 million copies in the US, according to NPD figures.
Wii and USB! Someone browsing the web came across a Job posting for Nintendo of America. The job posting was for a “Software/Hardware Tester” who can execute a “test plan for Wii’s USB devices.”
Analysts baffled that GTA didn’t move Hardware. How does a game with such powers of popularity manage to NOT sell consoles? Truely a mystery, or expected?
This weeks podcast also discusses the best game cinematic sequences, what are your favorite? Leave us a comment!
This weeks flashback is Where in the World is Carman Sandiego and we start our gaming history on Role Playing Games.
In a world of 3D worlds, dynamic lighting and intense shadows we see far too few old school retro style platformer titles. With the advent of Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and the PlayStation Network we’re seeing a few new indy developers getting into the game.
Castle Crashers, developed by The Behemoth, is an upcoming side scroller of cutely neat beat ’em up action on Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). The game will be 1,200 Microsoft Points (USD $15) and will launch August 27th, very soon. This side scroller allows for 4-player action, local or over the Xbox Live system with your friends and there is another mode for battling each other known as Arena.
This is like an artistically rendered version of Golden Axe with Knights! There are many different knights, each with their own powers of attack, Blue Knights can attack with Ice while the Orange Knight attacks with Fire, the Ninja Knight fires shurikens and a host of other unique Knights do battle with their own methods of madness.
If you checkout The Behemoth‘s Castle Crasher Website you’ll see a host of images and their recent trailer showing off the action. It’s safe to say, this is going to be a fast paced slightly silly slightly retro beat ’em up game paying homage to Golden Axe, Double Dragon and TMNT (original arcade one at least) with the graphic style of Alien Hominid HD, their last title.
Stay tuned, we’ll be announcing a contest to win a copy of Castle Crashers in the very near future!
