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What an exciting five days it has been, offering some amazing highs but equally saddening lows. THQ finally bowed out of the games business, auctioning off its prized assets for around $70 million. Volition and Saints Row – along with Metro – have been given a new home with Koch Media, but who knows what will happen next for the studio and its hit franchise.
Also changing hands was THQ Montreal and South Park: The Stick of Truth to Ubisoft, Relic Entertainment (along with Company of Heroes) to SEGA, Turtle Rock’s new game Evolve was snagged by Take-Two, and Crysis developer Crytek stumped up half a million dollars for Homefront. Vigil and its secret jaw-dropping new title were left on the table, as was Vigil’s moderately successful Darksiders franchise – the latter almost certain to be acquired over the next few weeks, perhaps by Platinum.
Whilst THQ was falling apart at the seams, Nintendo was doing its best not to end up in the same situation. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata hosted a Nintendo Direct broadcast to the world, announcing a string of new games for Wii U including a jazzed-up high definition version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. So excited were Nintendo fans by news of a Zelda re-release/re-make that it was easy to get over the fact that a proper new Zelda for the Wii U is a long way off.
More exciting – for me at least – is confirmation that we’ll be seeing the first footage of both a new 3D Super Mario game and Mario Kart for Wii U at E3. I’m gutted there’s no plan for a new Pilot Wings or Wave Race, but I’m resigned to never seeing these franchise again.
Next generation chatter continued at pace, with an eight-core CPU and secret sauce-powered PlayStation 4 said to be floppier than the very rigid Xbox 720. Expect to hear about the next Xbox first however – hopefully in March – with Sony’s Kaz Hirai stating he’s happy to let Microsoft show its hand in order to ensure Sony does it better. And if all that isn’t enough to get your juices flowing, Heavy Rain creator Quantic Dream is thought to be working on a PlayStation 4 game based on its Kara tech demo!
Devil May Cry stormed to the top of the UK Video Game Chart, but its chart position betrayed its sales figure. Chart-Track revealed DmC shifted a little over a third of Devil May Cry 4’s launch week total, which given the growth in user-base has to be a big disappointment for Capcom. And it’s a similar story in Japan, with DmC shifting around half the launch week total of DMC4.
It’s better news for HMV, with survival (in a reduced capacity) now looking likely after HMV Canada owner Hilco UK acquired the debt of the retailer, effectively taking control of the business. Customers can now also use gift vouchers once again, which will please those who believed their Christmas presents were worthless.
Be sure to listen to the latest edition of The VideoGamer.com Podcast and look below for the first episode of new video feature INDIE FACE.
Bye for now, but check back on Sunday the first in a regular new video series, Extended Play Classics – this week looking back on Outwars.
