No sales figures until next month but Nintendo says day one handheld sales were its highest ever.
Nintendo has announced that its new 3DS handheld has enjoyed the best launch day sales of any of its previous handhelds.
In a short statement the firm said: “US day-one sales numbers for Nintendo 3DS were the highest for any Nintendo handheld system in our history.”
It declined to offer exact numbers, promising they will be revealed “on April 14, when first-week US sales figures will be tallied by the independent NPD Group.
“If I was trying to sell people $49 pieces of plastic then yes, I’d be worried too.”
Peter Vesterbacka, of Angry Birds developer Rovio, has hit back at Nintendo’s increasingly combative stance on smartphone games, saying that console manufacturer angst is evidence “that we’re doing something right.”
Teams have until Sunday April 3 to submit applications for highly respected development contest.
Prospective entrants into Abertay University’s widely lauded Dare To Be Digital contest have until Sunday to submit their applications.
Former Koei president and Tecmo Koei CEO to join social gaming titan’s Japanese arm as CEO in May.
Kenji Matsubara, former CEO of Japanese publisher Tecmo Koei, is to take up the same role at Zynga Japan.
“We lost that ability to say what we want, do what we want, and most importantly make what we want.”
Ben Ward, the former Bizarre Creations community manager, has given his perspective on the closure last month of the Liverpool studio by parent company Activision.
Admits Nintendo must “do a better job” with 3DS eShop; clarifies “garage developer” comments.
Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo Of America, has admitted that the firm has to “do a better job” with its 3DS download service, eShop.
Nintendo been criticised for offering an inferior service to its platform holder competitors Microsoft and Sony, as well as PC and mobile download services like Steam and the iOS App Store, but Fils-Aime promises Nintendo has learned its lesson.
Format: iPad (iPhone to follow)
Release: March 24
Publisher: Superbrothers
Developer: Superbrothers, Capybara Games, Jim Guthrie
Halts future production of PlayStation 2 and PSP originals; first game now selling for almost £100.
Irem, publisher of Disaster Report, has completely halted production of games in the series in the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Sony Santa Monica seeking senior online programmer with matchmaking and leaderboard skills.
A Sony Santa Monica job posting suggests that the God Of War studio is looking to take its PS3 brawler into the online arena.
The vacancy, posted on Gamasutra, calls for a senior online programmer to “join the God Of War team”.
Open-source modding tools used to recreate PlayStation 2 classic using modern physics and textures.
Two separate teams of modders are at work on recreating Grand Theft Auto: Vice City using the Grand Theft Auto IV engine.
The teams, Vice City Rage and Vice IV, are using the open-source PC GTA IV modding tools, OpenIV, to recreate the 2002 PlayStation classic’s iconic game world using 21st century physics and textures.
Judge denies EA co-founder’s attempt to dodge $20 million in unpaid taxes with bankruptcy filing.
Trip Hawkins, co-founder of EA and current CEO of social studio Digital Chocolate, is in hot water with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over $20 million in unpaid taxes.
Hawkins has tried to wriggle out of the debt by way of his 2006 bankruptcy filing, but a US district court judge has upheld an earlier court ruling that he remains liable for the debt, according to VentureBeat.
Pulls feature after negative feedback from users: “Our database is not as comprehensive as it needs to be.”
Reviews aggregation site Metacritic has disabled the recently added feature that gave rankings to individual developers.
Suggests users update to latest firmware to avoid crashes; take breaks, adjust slider to see off headaches.
Nintendo has moved to address reports of owners of its new 3DS handheld suffering system crashes and headaches during play.
Reports began appearing on forums over the weekend of players being presented with error messages or black screens while playing 3DS, requiring a full reset of the system.
Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco the day before E3 begins in Los Angeles.
Apple has announced the dates for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) – and its annual showcase clashes directly with gaming trade show E3.
WWDC runs from June 6 to June 10 at Moscone West in San Francisco; the three-day E3 begins June 7 in Los Angeles.
Apple is expected to detail its new iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS 5, at the event, which will host over 100 sessions from some 1,000 Apple engineers.
Namco Bandai trademarks suggest Katamari Amore Rolling Whopper is on the way.
The Katamari Damacy series appears to be set for a return, judging by trademarks registered by series publisher Namco Bandai.
Siliconera spotted that Namco Bandai has registered three new trademarks: Katamari Amore, Katamari Amore Rolling Whopper, and Time Trip.
UPDATE: Eurogamer reports that the game has a release date of 24 June.
Gives 12 rating to six minutes of new cutscenes, confirming long-rumoured console release.
UK ratings board the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has confirmed the home console release of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition.
Bemoans lack of involvement in Populous DS: “I wish I had ten minutes with them at the start.”
Peter Molyneux has said that he would like to be involved in development of the rumoured remake of Syndicate.
The game, released in 1993 by Molyneux’s Bullfrog Productions, is rumoured to be set for a return, with EA retaining Bullfrog’s IP despite shutting the studio down seven years ago.
The primary rule of a great pop song: always leave your audience wanting more. Run for no longer than three-and-a- half minutes, repeat the chorus no more than three times – just enough to be catchy and memorable, not so many times that it becomes annoying. It’s a rush of blood to the head, an injection of pure upbeat energy that makes everything else simply stop for the duration.
New CCP video shows how player skulduggery in Eve Online will spill into upcoming FPS Dust 514.
Eve Online developer CCP has released a video showing its future vision for the Eve universe and its upcoming spinoff, Dust 514.
The studio revealed the trailer, Eve: A Future Vision, at this weekend’s Eve Fanfest event in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Says claims DirectX was getting in the way were taken out of context: Microsoft has “done a tremendous job.”
Hardware firm AMD has moved to clarify its recent criticism of DirectX, saying comments in which it alleged the Microsoft API was “holding back” PC games were taken out of context.
CCP Games demonstrates "exploratory project" running Eve on Tegra 2-powered devices.
Rock Band aside, NPD’s entire top ten comprised of Activision and Nintendo titles.
US market research firm the NPD Group has revealed the highest-grossing videogames on the current generation of consoles.
NPD passed the data, which ranks games by gross retail sales, not adjusted for inflation, to CNBC. As such games bundled with peripherals, which retailed at above average prices, have something of an advantage.
Amanita Design’s 2009 PC point-and-click adventure to hit PS3 download service later this year.
Point-and-click adventure Machinarium is to be released on PS3’s online service, PlayStation Network, later this year, creator Jakub Dvorský has announced.
Dvorský revealed the news at Nottingham’s GameCityNights event last Friday, according to casualgaming.biz.
Crytek sequel leads the pack as 3DS gets off to a good start.
EA shooter Crysis 2 is the new UK all-formats number one in a week dominated by new entries.
Only four of last week’s top ten – FIFA 11, Pokémon Black and White, and last week’s number one Homefront – make this week’s list.
Life’s work of Mikami, Molyneux, Inafune et al reduced to one single, debatable number.
Review score aggregation site Metacritic has begun ranking individual developers.
Prominent names like Shinji Mikami, Peter Molyneux, Ken Levine and Cliff Bleszinski now have their very own pages, as do any other individuals with a credit on a listed game.