Top Story
Extra 1.5 million Switch sales forecast in Nintendo’s Q3 earnings report
Thanks to solid Switch sales throughout 2019, Nintendo has improved their forecast and predicts another 1.5 million sales before the end of the financial year.
They initially predicted sales of 18 million Switch units, now adjusted to 19.5 million. They are more optimistic about software sales too: The initial projection of 125 million games sold is increased to 140 million. The 3DS forecasts, on the other hand, have been adjusted down – unsurprising considering the platform’s age.
Nintendo is reportedly working on another Switch model
Nintendo projected sales of 1 million 3DS units and 5 million games, which has been adjusted to 650,000 units of hardware and 4.5 million units of software. The Switch has now sold over 52 million units since its launch in 2017, and almost 18 million of them were sold between April and December last year.
Nintendo are expecting sales to be driven by games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX in the coming months and expect both the Switch Lite and the flagship console to maintain strong sales.
Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?
Which pop group appeared in Sims spinoff The Urbz: Sims in the City?
- The Black Eyed Peas
- Backstreet Boys
- NSYNC
- The Pussycat Dolls
The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.
News Bits
Get BioShocked with PlayStation Plus
Another month, another bunch of free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Next month’s bundle of joy will include BioShock: The Collection (which includes all three BioShock games: BioShock, BioShock 2 and Bioshock: Infinite), The Sims 4 and a VR game named Firefall Zero Hour, which requires PlayStation VR. The bundle will be available between February 4th and March 2nd.
Bad Seed DLC headed to Nintendo Switch
The Bad Seed DLC for Rogue-like Metroidvania Dead Cells launches on Switch next month, on February 11th. It features a ‘relaxing Arboretum’, a noxious Swamp, and a new boss at the heart of it called ‘mama tick’. ”…if you’ve seen StarShip Troopers, you get the idea…” The new levels and monsters are alternatives to existing content, and will surely spice things up for both new and old players.
Daily Fact
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Canon or not?
Some fans are real sticklers for canon and lore, and 2011’s Tekken Tag Tournament 2 presented some challenges – since parts of it are canon, and others are not.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 first appeared in arcades in 2011, before launching on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U in 2012. While the endings match the storyline in Tekken 7 and are thus canon, the rest of the game is considered a non-canon spin-off.
Fortunately, this didn’t stop anyone enjoying the game: Both critics and fans loved the epic cavalcade featuring nearly every character from the Tekken series’ long history, and it won a bunch of Game of the Year awards for fighting games.
Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.
Daily News
WarCraft III: Reforged wants your soul
Blizzard Entertainment has released the eagerly anticipated WarCraft III: Reforged, a remaster of its epochal 2002 real-time strategy game and all its expansions. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly a pure bundle of nostalgic joy.
By agreeing to the game’s terms of service, you essentially agree that anything you create using the included mapping and modding tools becomes Blizzard’s property and that they can do whatever they like with it.
“Custom Games are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Blizzard”
“To the extent you are prohibited from transferring or assigning your moral rights to Blizzard by applicable laws, to the utmost extent legally permitted, you waive any moral rights or similar rights you may have in all such Custom Games, without any remuneration,” reads the offending TOS passage.
‘Moral rights’ are essentially the rights to be recognized as the creator of a work for purposes of intellectual property protection. The hugely popular Defence of the Ancients started out as a WarCraft III mod, but Riot and Valve ended up being the big winners in the MOBA race.
It seems like Blizzard wants to make sure it doesn’t miss out on that kind of success again, even if it means inviting outrage from the entire WarCraft community – which probably precludes any new and innovative games originating in WarCraft III: Reforged.
Sega’s PC releases are going all-green
Following the success of Football Manager 2020’s fully recycled packaging, Sega will use recycled materials for all of its PC retail releases from here on.
The next PC title getting the green treatment is Creative Assembly’s upcoming Total War: Rome II – Enemy at the Gates Edition, which launches on February 6th. It includes the base game as well as the Hannibal at the Gates, Imperator Augustus and Empire Divided DLCs.
A small step towards a greener industry
What kind of materials is the packaging made from? According to Sega: “100% recycled and recyclable cardboard, along with a 100% recycled and recyclable manual.” The packaging is printed using “water and vegetable inks, apart from the disc, which is recyclable via specialists.” Finally, the packaging is shrink wrapped in “100% recyclable low-density polyethylene (LDPE).”
“The move to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly model of PC game packaging stemmed from Sports Interactive and SEGA Europe’s desire to find a solution that would reduce their impact on the environment,” announced SEGA. Will Sega’s console packaging follow suit?
