Yooka-Laylee, a spiritual successor to legendary Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Kazooie, is now the most funded Kickstarter game in the United Kingdom.
The record was previously held by Frontier Development’s Elite: Dangerous, which raised £1,578,316 when the Kickstarter campaign closed. At the time of writing, Yooka-Laylee has raised £1,611,343 (almost $2.5 million), and it still has 31 days to go until the fundraising campaign ends.
Today, Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic announced that it has sold out of the limited edition “64-bit” package, which will give players the game on an Nintendo-64-style cartridge, box, and manual.
Yooka-Laylee is a “buddy-duo” game in the vein of Banjo-Kazooie, but instead of a bear and a bird, it stars a chameleon and a bat. The game is being worked on by a number of Rare veterans who developed Banjo-Kazooie, and is due to launch in 2016 for PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U.
You can secure a copy of Yooka-Laylee by pledging at least $15. Backing at that level gets you a copy of the PC version, while you’ll need to pay around $22 to get a console copy.
Operation Supply Drop, an organization that provides games to U.S. troops serving abroad, has kicked off its 8-Bit Salute mega game marathon this weekend.
“Since we started, Operation Supply Drop has used gaming as a catalyst to provide support for over 7,000 individual US and NATO troops through four major programs,” the organization said. “Going into our 5th year, we are determined to set a new high score with $1,337,000 for this event, and with your help, we can absolutely do it!”
You can participate by either streaming your own gaming marathon or donating here.
If you raise or donate the following amounts, you’ll also get rewards:
$50 – 3-Month XSplit License
$200 – Official 2015 8-Bit Salute tee shirt
$1000 – 1-month HeroCrate
$2,500 – 3-months HeroCrate
$5,000 – Custom OSD GAEMS Vanguard Case
At the time of writing, Operation Supply Drop has raised $146,928.
Sony thought that PlayStation 4-exclusive Bloodborne will sell well, but the game has apparently surpassed its expectations, the company has said.
“It did surprise us,” Sony UK managing director Fergal Gara told MCV. “We had expectations to do well. We looked at the Souls series as a frame of reference, and we thought we could do better than that. We did—and then some. Relative to some of our sister territories, we were being quite ambitious, but even that proved to be conservative.”
Gara said that this was in part thanks to good timing, as the game was released at a relatively slow time, and that while Sony was a bit behind in meeting demand, it was able to catch up take advantage of the opportunity.
Gara didn’t share any new sales numbers, but last month Sony said Bloodborne sold through more than one million copies worldwide. Xbox executive Phil Spencer, the top gaming boss inside of Microsoft, has has even congratulated Sony on hitting that sales number with a new IP.
While Bloodborne is a new IP, it was made by Dark Souls developer From Software, and was marketed as being a very similar game.
Welcome back to GameSpot Q&A, a weekly section where we ask our staff and readers an interesting discussion question about video games. Look at this as a forum where you and others can discuss and compare your opinions of this beloved hobby of ours. So don’t hesitate to let us know what your answer is to this week’s question in the comments below!
This week’s question is as follows:
What hugely popular game series have you never played?
With The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt releasing next week, there are likely to be a whole bunch of gamers who are going to be playing this popular series for the first time. Whether it be because of lack of time or even adamant avoidance, are their any popular game series that you have never played before? Below is what our editors had to say.
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy | Rob Crossley
I can understand why people love Final Fantasy, but for me, it just doesn’t lure me in. I’ve never been a fan of the turn-based fighting mechanics, and I’d love to be wrong, but I look at some of the trailers and art and have little confidence that there’s an interesting story to explore.
Nintendogs | Daniel Hindes
Nintendogs has sold 24 million copies and I’ve never played a single one. I’m more of a cat person. That doesn’t mean I’m not open to teh concept of a pet simulator though. So I must ask: Where is Nintencats, Nintendo? Or would it be called Cattendo?
MOBAs | Justin Haywald
Despite their undeniable popularity and incredibly fervent fanbase, I’ve never played a MOBA. It’s not that they don’t look fun; I might struggle to understand what’s going on when I’m listening to shoutcasters commentate a heated Dota 2 match, but it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement! But the high barrier to entry and the stories I always hear of and incredibly toxic player base have ensured that I kept my distance.
Diablo III
Diablo | Eddie Makuch
I adored Blizzard’s genre-defining PC MMO World of Warcraft, so much so that with every new expansion I’m tempted to surrender my life back to it, but I’ve never played the developer’s other major game–Diablo. Despite rave reviews from friends–and even family–I’ve never even given it a try. My defense had always been that I’m not a very big PC gamer. But with Diablo 3 now on consoles, I really have no excuse. Ahh!
Sports Games | Alexa Ray Corriea
Any major sports series I have not played and probably never will. I’ve never been into sports, playing or watching, so I have no idea how I would even begin to play the games. I’m way more interested in smacking trolls around with Firaga or whatever, but sportsball is just not for me.
Mega Man 10
Mega Man | Danny O’Dwyer
i’ve never played Mega Man. Mostly because I didn’t grow up playing Nintendo. Growing up in Ireland some of my friends certainly had them, but my household was a Commodore Amiga household. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I bought my first Nintendo console. Not many people can say they fell in love with Nintendo via the Gamecube, but I loved that little machine. I probably would have picked up the Mega Man Anniversary Collection but sadly it was a North American exclusive.
Legend of Zelda Series | Zorine Te
The Legend of Zelda series. I did not own any Nintendo consoles as a child. For years, I thought the boy in green was named Zelda. I’ve tried to finish one of the games in recent years but never ended up venturing past the starter towns and could not find the drive to continue.
Total War: Rome II
Total War Series | Chris Watters
While I’ve experienced no shortage of virtual war, I have yet to engage in Total War. Perhaps I am intimidated by its totality? The idea of commanding legions is a bit daunting, but a game series doesn’t get to be that popular by being totally obtuse. Indeed, the stories I’ve heard from friends of rousing, exciting conquests have piqued my interest now and then, but alas, I still haven’t taken up the commander’s call.
Fighting Games (and Sports Games) | Kevin VanOrd
Oh, a number of them! I don’t really play fighting games, and though I have dabbled in Marvel vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat, and others, I’ve never played a Street Fighter game. Shocking, I know! You can also throw most sports franchises onto this list; I haven’t played a Madden game since 1997, and have never touched an NHL or NBA game.
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft | Peter Brown
World of Warcraft. I played a lot of Warcraft,Warcraft II, and Warcraft III, but World of Warcraft never appealed to me. I’ve watched so many friends fall in love with the game, only to crash months later. Yet, despite realizing that they might not be enjoying the game for the right reasons, the same friends dove back in. It’s an addictive game, and despite what ’90s video game critics will tell you, that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Mass Effect Series | Matt Espineli
I’ve played a fair share of RPGs in the past, but for some reason I’ve never gotten around to playing BioWare’s Mass Effect series. I don’t what it is that keeps me from that series because I really do appreciate its focus on its characters and lore. But I guess what’s difficult for me is just the heavy weight of its decision-making and how that constantly effects what occurs throughout the series. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so whenever it comes to making choices in games, I always want the most ideal situation to occur. With a long series like Mass Effect, I find myself freaking out about my decisions at every turn. It’s truly a terrible habit of mine that I hope to overcome someday so I can finally play these games.
After years of dealing with the stamina restrictions and constant rotation of powerful paid content in the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons, the pay once, play forever structure of Puzzle & Dragons Z for the Nintendo 3DS sounded like a dream. Sometimes dreams are stupid.
It’s a psycho killer try-before-you-buy this weekend in Mortal Kombat X. If you bought the game but not the DLC, head over to MKX’s Living Towers this weekend to play as Jason Vorhees in what should have been a 13 round battle but ended up only being 6 because that’s no fun at all.
As delicious as the court jester of the sausage world can be, fast food hot dogs are rarely worth the asking price. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s have come up with an elegant solution to this age-old problem—they’ve turned the hot dog into a topping.
Now that you’ve seen it, what did you think?“What a lovely day!” Finally, after years and years of waiting, it’s here. George Miller’s long-awaited new entry into the Mad Max franchise titled Mad Max: Fury Road. This dusty new post-apocalyptic chase movie introduces a new Max, played by Tom Hardy, as well as another hero – Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. These two unlikely partners lead a band of rebels on a chase across a desert run by deadly scavengers, driving vehicles like you’ve never seen. The cast also includes Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz and Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe. Once you’ve seen it, leave a comment with your thoughts on Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. ›››
