Now that everyone’s presumably done with E3 — all that’s left is to watch how deep a hole Microsoft digs themselves — let’s get back to a far more important topic: games we can actually play right now. I’m not surprised that publishers try to drive the conversation to upcoming games. That’s their job. But I am surprised at how well it works. Why are so many of you peering so intently through carefully jiggered binoculars handed to you by various marketing departments? Had enough yet? Are you ready to come back to the amazing stuff already at your fingertips?
Because here are ten games you should still be playing Continue reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-4x6_b0Hs
There are a couple of reasons I’m predisposed to follow World of Diving, an underwater exploration game from an independent Dutch studio crowdsourcing its development (Indiegogo link here and Steam Greenlight link here).
The first is that I’m an erstwhile diver myself (if you haven’t actually been in the water in the last, say, two years, you can’t call yourself a diver in the present tense; scuba diving is as unnatural as space exploration and it takes acclimation, no matter how much experience you have). So I love the idea of a moderately serious simulation in a procedurally generated underwater world. In the above video, I was sold when the divers gave each other the “okay” sign rather than talking over mysterious microphones in their mouthpieces.
But the main reason I’ll be following this game is that there are too few like it. Nintendo’s Endless Ocean games for the Wii were a bit too gamey, as befits games published by Nintendo. Most of you have never even heard of the golden standard for this tiny genre. Aquanaut’s Holiday, for the original Playstion, came out in 1995. It was a simultaneously confounding and relaxing game, from a time when there was no such thing as a first-person open-world sandbox. As I should have guessed from the title, Aquanaut’s Holiday had no game structure: no quests, no goals, no danger. I swam around in vain searching for something like a shark or a giant squid. What sort of underwater videogame doesn’t have a shark or a giant squid? I’m not sure I ever figured out that the only thing that passed for gameplay was a coral reef endgame in which you built a home for fish. The developer of Aquanaut’s Holiday went on to make another confounding and relaxing game called Tail of the Sun, which is arguably a precursor to games like Minecraft and Don’t Starve.
Unfortunately, World of Diving is also an online game. Here’s where the promise of procedurally generated underwater exploration starts to look like something else:
Starting out in the Caribbean, World of Diving recreates and brings to life the world of wonder and discovery that is at the bottom of the ocean, where you will be hang out with friends — whether you have met them in or outside of the game — and can dive with the sea turtles, hunt for the great white shark, and party on your own luxury yachts.
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Nintendo didn’t have an E3 stage show this year. Instead, Nintendo decided to to just have a short 40 minute video presentation to communicate to their fans. The Nintendo Direct show was hosted by an uncomfortable-looking Satoru Iwata.
Games shown included Pokemon X and Y, Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, Art Academy, Sonic Lost World, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2, Project X, and a new Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and the 3DS. Nintendo also showed about 20 seconds of some AAA third-party titles in a montage, once again illustrating how important AAA third-party relationships are to them.
Wii U eShop games were also previewed with a quick snippet of footage. Mutant Mudds Deluxe, Oddworld: New & Tasty, Shovel Knight, and A World of Kelfings were included. Most of Nintendo’s upcoming first-party games will be available as direct eShop downloads as well.
Fans can go to select Best Buy locations and check out some of Nintendo’s E3 games for themselves. (Thanks, Locker K!)
GungHo CEO Kazuki Morishita told reporters that he wants to surpass Nintendo’s sales before he retires. Bloomberg reports that the 39-year-old’s comments came as he was being interviewed in Tokyo after his company posted Q1 results.
GungHo’s revenue for Q1 came to approximately $307 million, one third of Nintendo’s numbers for the same period. While that may make it may seem like GungHo has a long way to go to reach Morishita’s goal, the company also reported growth of 900% while Nintendo only grew 1%.
“I want to make people think whatever GungHo does is fun,” like they do at Nintendo, Morishita said. “I respect Nintendo.”
GungHo’s success is largely built on the free-to-play mobile phone game Puzzle & Dragons which rakes in about $3.4 million a day. It’s not as popular in the West, but Puzzle & Dragons is the top-grossing app for smartphones in the world. It has remained in the top of the charts since its debut in February 2012.
GungHo plans to bring Puzzle & Dragons to the Nintendo 3DS later this year. Although the 3DS version will not have the lucrative in-app purchases, GungHo has stated that the game is “targeting children” to “increase lifetime customers” of their brand.
Nintendo’s Wii U may not be getting any EA games in the near future, but they will be getting exclusive dibs on Sonic! Nintendo and SEGA announced a partnership for three exclusive Sonic games for the Wii U and 3DS systems.
“The onetime rivalry between Mario and Sonic has grown into a friendship that has never been closer,” said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. “These announcements in conjunction with SEGA demonstrate the commitment we have to bringing great games to the Wii U platform, and set the stage for our upcoming announcements at E3.”
Two of the exclusive SEGA games announced for the Wii U are Sonic Lost World (pictured) and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. More SEGA Game Gear games will be coming to the Virtual Console service for Nintendo 3DS.
Additionally, Nintendo announced during their Nintendo Direct video stream that in lieu of holding an E3 press event this year, they will be showcasing some upcoming Wii U titles at participating Best Buy stores for the public to try out. Details about which games will be shown and which store locations will have hands-on demos are forthcoming.
We’ve known for quite some time that Electronic Arts wasn’t going to port their upcoming Frostbite engine games to Nintendo’s Wii U console, but this is a different beast altogether. EA has officially confirmed to Kotaku that they have absolutely nothing in development for the Wii U.
That means no casual games, no family games, and no licensed games using any engine at all from EA. Nada. Zip. Zilch. While EA didn’t rule out future development, they’ve obviously cooled on the console since E3 2011 when then-CEO John Riccitiello said “We look forward to seeing great EA content on this new platform.” Insert sad trombone sound here.
