Category: Gameinformer

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is still a bit of an enigma for No More Heroes fans, but it is hard to argue the game doesn’t have that old Suda style and that will probably be enough for a large number of fans. To further reinforce that idea, Suda is actually signing a special edition of the game with goodies in it for fans for release in the UK, but shipping everywhere.

For the UK version, everything is in English. Obviously the French version has everything in French, which could pose a problem if you don’t speak French, but this would be a good time to learn if you’re leaning that direction. 

The collector’s edition box, which comes with the game, a certificate of authenticity signed by director Goichi Suda, four lithographs, and a hardcover “Make Of” book about the game. The most hardcore No More Heroes fans were probably sold at the game part, but the rest of that is also pretty cool.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes releases on January 18 on Nintendo Switch. You can read our latest preview here and catch a New Gameplay Today right here.

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The NPD, or National Purchase Diary, tracks retail sales across the U.S. on a monthly basis including for gaming, occasionally receiving and reporting data from digital sales as well depending on the publisher. While Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 beat out Red Dead Redemption II last month in part due to how much earlier within October Call of Duty was released, the roles were reversed in November with Red Dead Redemption II winning the battle but not quite the war.

Red Dead Redemption rocketed to first place this month, which pretty much every industry analyst in the world expected. That said, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is still the overall best selling game of the year, despite the PC release not being tracked by the NPD. Red Dead Redemption could pull ahead given December, but 2018 might belong to Call of Duty much like 2017 did, as well as the previous three years.

Though, anyone who has ever bet against Rockstar games having extremely long sales legs has ended up with monthly egg on their face. The sales of Red Dead Redemption II already exceed the entire lifetime sales of Red Dead Redemption by 40 percent.

Battlefield V made its delayed debut at third, which should quiet murmurs about Battlefield V’s poor preorders. People were still eager to pick the game up, even after the releases of Red Dead and Call of Duty.

Fallout 76 follows behind at fourth place, which might surprise some after the poor critical response and essentially weekly controversies. The game was either what the market was actually looking for or speaks to the intense power of the brand, both of which are solid reasons for Bethesda to consider Fallout 76 as a successful experiment.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee hit the fifth and sixth spots respectively and likely would have charted above Fallout 76 had they been combined and had Nintendo reported digital sales of the two games. The launch sales for the game are the second highest of any Pokémon game in history, behind Pokémon Stadium on the Nintendo 64. This bodes extremely well for Pokémon’s next mainline game supposedly releasing in 2019.

You can check out the full software list below.

Some notable omissions are the Switch version of Diablo III, Hitman 2, and Darksiders III, though the THQ Nordic game released late in the month. It was a fairly packed month, however, so games that didn’t appear on the list may still have ended up successful.

In terms of hardware, this was one of the biggest months of not just the year but of the last several years. All three major consoles – the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch – sold more than 1.3 million units each in November. The last and until now only time three consoles of any stripe sold more than a million units was 2010 when the Wii, DS, and Xbox 360 came together to achieve that feat.

This time, the Nintendo Switch lead the charge in terms of dollar sales, but the PlayStation 4 still remains the best selling console in 2018, partially due to the incredible sales of the PS4 Spider-Man bundle ahead of Black Friday.

Next month, the major contender is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which Nintendo has said sold three million already. 

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A few years back, when IO Interactive was still working with Square Enix to publish the recent reboot of Hitman, the developer was big on surprise seasonal content. One of the most memorable missions put Agent 47 in a Christmas-themed mission in the first season’s Paris level and involving both Santa Claus and some rascally but well-known thieves.

Starting today until January 8, owners of the Hitman Legacy Pack can revisit the Paris level from the first season to have another shot at the Holiday Hoarders mission. Harry “Smoky” Bagnato and Marv “Slick” Gonif are skulking through the Paris fashion show stealing presents, which is more than enough to end up on Agent 47’s naughty list. The pair of thieves from Home Alone can now stop trying to murder a small child and pick on someone their own size.

Completing the mission nabs players the Secret Santa pack, which lets players use the Agent 47 Santa outfit anywhere within Hitman 2. Challenge yourself to assassinate some targets as Santa Claus for that extra boost of Christmas spirit.

The Hitman Legacy Pack comes free to owners of the first season of Hitman when launching Hitman 2, but can also be purchased separately.

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Update: Backpack Kid, the minor who allegedly originated the Floss dance that has become a core part of Fortnite’s cultural identity, is also filing suit against Epic, according to TMZ. To be more accurate, his mother and his manager are filing suit over the use of his dance. The firm representing the sixteen year-old are also suing 2K Games for the same dance.

The original story from 5:20 p.m. CT on 12/17/2018 is as follows:

The question of whether dances are freely available to be reproduced without concern has been fairly open over the years, but Epic’s Fortnite seems to have brought the discussion up to a more mainstream level. A number of artists and critics have chided Epic for stealing dances from people and cultures to profit from, but until 2 Milly recently filed an official complaint, no one had decided to test these waters. Now another popular dance is being put in the spotlight.

Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton in the 1990s NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, is suing Epic over a dance called Fresh. In the TV show, Carlton would exemplify his lack of dancing skills by swinging his arms side to side and snapping, usually to music by Tom Jones. The Fortnite dance is immediately recognizable as the Carlton’s dance from The Fresh Prince, with even the name evoking the show’s title.

Ribeiro’s law firm is alleging that Epic stole his dance and recreated it in Fortnite and is now profiting off of it from the game’s store. He was also mentioned in 2 Milly’s lawsuit by name as another dance creator whose moves were stolen.

While dances are protected, they can only be done if the ownership of the dance can be definitively pinpointed. In most cases, that is done through the copyright holder. In 2 Milly’s case, the Milly Rock Dance had not been copyrighted, but the rapper says he is in the process of doing so. Ribeiro’s law firm has not said anything either way about whether the actor, or perhaps the production company or even NBC, possesses a copyright for the Carlton dance.

The Fresh Prince dance has been reproduced in a number of video games like Saints Row and Destiny.

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Microsoft corporate vice president and head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross is set to become The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ 23rd Hall of Fame recipient.

Ross has been a part of the game industry since 1994, when she joined Microsoft’s PC sports division to work on NBA Full Court Press. Since then, Ross has helped with the development of several titles, including Dungeon Siege, Gears of War, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Psychonauts, and every Halo game since Halo 3: ODST.

Ross has also been instrumental in driving diversity in the industry. In 1997, she co-founded the Microsoft Women in Gaming community. You can watch Ross talk about her career and her role on Halo 5: Guardians in our video interview from 2015.

The 2019 Hall of Fame Awards take place during this years D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony on February 13, at the Aria Convention Center in Las Vegas.

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Hideki Kamiya of PlatinumGames, famed Japanese director behind games like Devil May Cry, Okami, and Bayonetta, has already gotten a bit of Smash Bros. representation from the Umbran witch. She was introduced as DLC in the last Super Smash Bros. game and is part of the base roster in Ultimate, but Kamiya was seemingly looking for more.

The tweet, which has now been deleted after harassment, had Kamiya asking which of his characters fans would most like to see in Smash. The options were Dante from Devil May Cry, Amaterasu from Okami, Wonder Red from Wonderful 101, and Viewtiful Joe. Kamiya took the poll down after a few hours after some racist responses to the tweet.

While the DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has already been decided, Kamiya might be lobbying for placement in a second character pass or perhaps the DLC choice is an action game character from Capcom they haven’t quite nailed down yet with Wonder Red as an added possibility. Kamiya could also have just been polling for his own amusement.

My choice for character would have been an option not listed: Leon Kennedy, who first appeared in the Kamiya-directed Resident Evil 2. He’s also on our list of dream DLC announcements for Smash Bros. Ultimate. My second choice would be Wonder Red, as all the other options have already been in crossover fighting games.

What about you?

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Update (12/18/18 at 12:20 p.m.): During a livestream today, Media Molecule announced that Dreams is getting a closed beta beginning tomorrow. Invites will be sent exclusively to those following Media Molecule’s community newsletter, and it will last from December 19 to January 21.

For the open beta, it won’t begin until early next year. No date was given, but you can start signing up on January 8.

If you follow the newsletter, invite codes will begin to be sent out tomorrow. You’ll need to sign a non-disclosure agreement agreeing not to stream or post any of its content online. The beta will not support PSVR, and it will require a 4GB download.

Original story:

Media Molecule’s Dreams, a fascinating, upcoming sandbox where you can create your own games, could be getting some special news soon. Media Molecule recently tweeted that it’s going to stream Dreams-related content tomorrow, and although these streams are a routine occurrence, the sarcastic tone suggests it’s something big this time.

Our best bet is that it’s related to Dreams’ upcoming beta. Last we heard, the plan is to release the beta before the end of the year, but time is running out. When a fan asked the team on Twitter whether they are still on track for that launch, they received a confident response:

Tune in to the stream tomorrow, at 11 a.m. CST, to find out for yourself. You can head to Media Molecule’s Twitch channel here.

Click the banner below to be directed to our Dreams cover story hub, filled with exclusive interviews, features, and more.

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Arkham Knight was the antagonist in Rocksteady Studios’ 2015 release Batman: Arkham Knight (surprise). The studio made a big deal about the fact that it created the character specifically for the game, but now Arkham Knight has come full circle and will appear within the comics.

The 1,000th issue of Detective Comics is right around the corner. DC Comics plans to release this milestone in March, and the massive anniversary issue will feature stories from creators like Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Kevin Smith, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, Brian Michael Bendis, Paul Dini, Christopher Priest, Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and more.

Detective Comics 1000 is also the debut of Arkham Knight. However, this version of the character may be different from the video game version. Spoiler warning: the the game, Arkham Knight was revealed to be Batman’s old sidekick Jason Todd (the second incarnation of Robin). In the comics, however, Jason Todd currently seems preoccupied, so we wonder if this Arkham Knight is a different person altogether. We’ll have to wait until March to find out.

Check out an image of Arkham Knight from Detective Comics 1,000 below.

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The NPD Group (via a Nintendo press release) has declared that through its first 21 months on sale in the U.S., Nintendo’s Switch console is the fastest-selling system of this generation when compared to the other consoles over the same period.

From March 2017 to November 2018 the Switch sold more than 8.7 million units.

Nintendo has also announced that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the fastest-selling Switch title of all time – as well as for the series as a whole – and has sold over three million units in its first 11 days.

[Source: Nintendo]

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Windows Central is reporting from multiple sources that Microsoft’s full-featured next-gen system is codenamed Anaconda, while the more pared-down, streaming version is codenamed Lockhart.

At E3 this year it was reported that Microsoft is internally referring to its next-gen family of systems as “Scarlett,” and Windows Central’s recent report puts Anaconda and Lockhart within that family. Anaconda is the more powerful, expensive option, while Lockhart is the comparably cheaper, hardware-light streaming box. Both are scheduled for 2020.

The Scarlett family of systems including Anaconda and Lockhart are not to be confused with Microsoft’s other reported console plan for 2019, which is to introduce a digital-only Xbox.

[Source: Windows Central]

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