Monthly Archives: May 2015

Nintendo: No NX, Smartphone, or QOL Announcements at E3

Nintendo will not be sharing any details about its upcoming NX console, nor will it be discussing its Quality of Life or mobile initiatives at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.

During Nintendo's latest meeting with investors, company president and CEO Satoru Iwata confirmed that the company will be laser focused on Wii U and 3DS content for E3 2015. As such, the mysterious NX console that will allegedly "change video gaming life" won't be discussed in any way, shape, or form at the event.

Continue reading…

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Sold Early by Retailers

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been sold early by a number of retailers in the United Arab Emirates.

Not due for release until May 19, some gamers have managed to get hold of the title early and began to stream the open-world RPG over the weekend.

Developer CD Projekt Red has spent the last 48 hours locking threads on its official forums and taking videos down from YouTube, while also imploring anyone who may have an early copy not to post any spoilers.

"Please, don't discuss the contents of any leaked information you may find," a moderator wrote. "If you see anyone posting information from the leak on the forum, remember to use the Report Post button and let us know."

Continue reading…

SEGA Laments ‘Weak’ Sales as Alien: Isolation Sells 2.1 Million

SEGA has released it's full-year financial results for the 12 months ending March 30, 2015, revealing sales of packaged software have risen 41 percent year-on-year.

Despite this, the company is apparently disappointed with its 12.3 million sales, branding them "weak", even though it's 1 million units more than were forecasted in February. Both Alien: Isolatation, which sold 2.11 million, and the 620,000 combined sales of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal were cited as examples. The Persona series has now also managed to sell over 6 million units.

Overall, the company earned ¥111 billion ($925.7m) in revenue, up 11 per cent year-on-year. ¥44.8 billion of this came from physical sales and ¥44.7 billion from digital. Operating income rose to ¥4 billion ($33.4m), around double the previous year. As a whole SEGA earned ¥355 billion ($2.96b) in revenue, down 6.1 percent year-on-year. A new loss of ¥11.3 billion ($94m) makes up the bottom line, which isn't ideal considering last year's profit of ¥30.7 billion.

Continue reading…

Australians Will Have to Pay Tax on Steam and Netflix

The Australian Federal Government confirmed today that it will introduce the “Netflix Tax,” meaning Australian consumers will have to shell out an extra 10 percent for goods purchased from digital services like Netflix, Google, Steam and Amazon.

Treasurer Joe Hockey revealed during a press conference today that the 10 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be charged to all digital products and services bought online, such as games, movies and books. Australians currently don’t pay GST on physical online purchases under AU$1,000, and Hockey said that won't change after the adjustment.

"What we’re doing is going to digital providers overseas and saying ‘can you apply the GST to the products you provide into Australia?’," Hockey said according to IT News. "They are agreeable to it. It’s not their profits

Continue reading…

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Revealed on Classification Site

A listing for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition has appeared on the Brazilian Advisory Rating System website.

That's the same website that outed Dishonored Definitive Edition.

It's possible Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is in reference to the rumoured remaster that's reportedly happening at Dirty Bomb-developer Splash Damage, despite the denial of a 'Marcus Fenix Collection' from the new Gears of War developer Black Tusk Studios.

Continue reading…

Blue Martian Sunset Captured by NASA’s Curiosity Rover

Using its Mast Camera (Mastcam), NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured a sequence of images of the sun setting on the mission's 956th Martian day, or April 15, 2015.

The sequence was taken from the Gale Crater in between dust storms, according to NASA, causing some dust to remain suspended in the atmosphere. NASA explains that Martian sunsets make the blue more prominent, while normal daylight brings out the red rusty color of the dust.

Continue reading…

Steam Breaks Its Concurrent User Record Again

Steam broke its peak concurrent user record over the weekend when more than 9.5 million users logged in at the same time.

According to the Steam and game statistics page, the figure peaked at 9,502,661 users around midday pacific time on May 10. Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are currently the top two played games on the platform, with Grand Theft Auto 5 long bumping Team Fortress 2 off its usual position of third.

Continue reading…

Portal 2, Doctor Who, The Simpsons Outed For LEGO Dimensions

An official building instruction booklet for LEGO Dimensions reveals that Portal 2, Doctor Who, The Simpsons, Jurassic World and Scooby-Doo will be included in Warner Bros. toys-to-life project.

The catalogue depicts the Portal 2 Level Pack containing a turret, companion cube and protagonist Chell, where the Doctor Who Level Pack features the Tardis, the Doctor and robotic canine, K-9. The Jurassic World Team Pack offers four iconic figures from the movie including Chris Pratt’s Owen.

The Traveller's Tales-developed title was previously reported to also involve several universes such as DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings, The LEGO Movie, The Wizard of Oz, LEGO Ninjago, Back to the Future and more.

Continue reading…

Phineas and Ferb Creators Working on New Disney Series

Phineas and Ferb's 104 days of summer vacation will finally come to an end on Friday, June 12, in an episode entitled Last Day of Summer. But, it's not all bad news, because the show's creators are working on a new animated series for Disney XD -- Mikey Murphy's Law.

Phineas and Ferb will air its finale following a 73-hour marathon that includes every Phineas and Ferb story ever told. The marathon will begin Tuesday, June 9 at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT), with the one-hour finale airing on June 12 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

Following the series finale, the show will continue to air daily on Disney XD, and a standalone hour-long special focusing on Agent P (aka Perry the Platypus) will premiere this fall.

Continue reading…