Posted Jul 3rd 2008 11:45AM by Phil Larsen Filed under: News
Those purple folk at the GAME Group (a prominent games retailer) have released European sales details for the first half of 2008, and it's looking pretty good. Group sales are up 54 percent, with like-for-like sales up 28.4 percent. Like-for-like is such a dumb term. Reminds us of these things.
Anyway, despite the strong performance of the group as a whole, the constant shortage of Nintendo products has left a gap in the big fat bricks of cash they're raking in. Well, the UK and Ireland are doing okay, but international performance isn't as high -- "particularly in Spain." Those wacky Spaniards and their neverending lust for technology! Total international sales were up 43.9 percent, with like-for-like (arrgh!) sales on the low end of the scale at 16.9 percent.
GAME will be opening 60 new stores before the end of the year, so if you aren't familiar with that big, neon purple logo, you soon will be.
"Interactive screen saver" Pokémon showcase title My Pokémon Ranch will be available in Europe (and presumably Australia) from this Friday on WiiWare, Nintendo has revealed. Whereas normally we have to wait until Friday itself to see what new bits and bobs appear on the PAL region Virtual Console and WiiWare (indeed, we do a weekly post on the subject, as written by some fabulously witty and erudite chap), Ninty broke the news early this week.
We reviewed the game when it arrived in the States last month, and it's fair to say that we weren't the biggest fans, mainly because we're all unfeeling sods with hearts as hard as mahogany it lacked substance.
Hey, Euro folk: those Club Nintendo Stars you've spent the last seven years compiling in the vain hope that you might bag something as glorious as this? Well, forget about it. From tomorrow at 17:00 (the time zone isn't specified, but we have a hunch it might be GMT), any Club Nintendo Stars that have been in your account for more than two years are getting atomized by Nintendo.
In other words, now may be the time to resign yourself to the fact that you'll never get anything better from the Stars Catalog than some natty Animal Crossing wallpaper. Life's unfair like that at times, believe us. Alternatively, if you've got enough Points, you could always buy Wii Points!
Well, this royally sucks: Eternity's Child creator Luc Bernard has admitted that there are no plans to bring quirky platform game Eternity's Child to North America's WiiWare service. Instead, only Europe will receive the title, with Bernard anticipating a release there "at the end of Q3."
Speaking to WiiWare World, Bernard said that he had no control over when or where the game comes out, and that UK publisher Alten8 was in charge of such matters. The only consolation for U.S. fans eagerly awaiting the game is that a version will be available to PC owners via the Steam service at the end of this month. But, y'know, we deal with Wii here, so we're officially disappointed.
Also in his chat with WiiWare World, Bernard defended World of Goo's shift to retail in Europe, and complained that publishers had little time for innovative games, even on WiiWare. Quoth Bernard: "Maybe I should put in a space marine with a gun that is defending Earth from space Nazis for them to be interested!" Space Nazis? We'd actually play that.
Even though Wii Fit continues to be as common as chicken teeth everywhere, Nintendo finally seems to be sorting out its Mario Kart Wii stock issues in Europe. After dipping in recent weeks, the racer (which nearly made this blogger sob with frustration at our last Game Night) has risen in Ireland, Holland, and the UK. Wii Play had a fine few days, sensationally nabbing second spot in Britain, while Sports Island is raking in the euros in the Netherlands. Those crazy Dutch.
Not much on the horizon next week, except for some beat-'em-up. Super Crash Bros. Fighter, or something. We forget. Charts follow the break, folks.
We buried our friend, the Smash Bros. Brawl Dojo, many months ago. Then, like a zombie, the beast rose from its grave to honor today's European Brawl release.
Aside from an apology (and the promise that you can play Brawl in five different languages), the Dojo doesn't offer much in terms of words. Yet, it does feature a snapshot gallery with some super silly Brawl images worth looking at. "Snapshots Galore" has been around the Dojo two times before, but since we happened to be around those parts today anyway, we decided to put the most recent ones in a gallery for your viewing pleasure (below).
We're really proud of what the Smash Bros. community has done, regarding these snapshots (which are filled with ridiculousness, awesomeness, and "huh?") and other creations, too. Now it's your turn to take the Brawl torch, Europe. Let's see what types of goodies you can come up with.
Warning: The pictures in the gallery below reveal spoilers! Only view the gallery if you're man (or woman!) enough to handle it.
Square Enix hasn't had their memories of Europe taken away by some enchanted bell yet. The company has just announced that their roguelike-ish Final Fantasy spinoff game, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, will be released "across Europe and PAL territories" in the fall of this year.
The game, a turn-based dungeon RPG about a cuddly Chocobo's adventures in random dungeons created from villagers' lost memories, came out in Japan in December. It is being released in North America on July 8.
Along with the new announcement, Square Enix has released new screens, which can be found in our gallery. And in addition to the totally sweet video above, two more videos of Chocobo in action -- as a black mage and dragoon -- are available after the break.
Maybe "monstrous" is overdoing it, but after last week's no-show for the Virtual Console, we're back to five games for this Friday's PAL region VC update. Hurrah! These range from forgettable spin-offs (Pac-Attack -- the first SNES title we've seen in over three months, bizarrely) to a Commodore 64 fan favorite (Cybernoid) to SNK's excellent King of the Monsters, which probably hasn't beenbettered in the monsters-breaking-stuff genre since its release.
Super Fantasy Zone -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points
Pac-Attack -- SNES -- 800 Wii Points
Summer Games 2 -- Commodore 64 -- 500 Wii Points
Cybernoid -- Commodore 64 -- 500 Wii Points
King of the Monsters -- Neo Geo -- 900 Wii Points
We have some videos featuring some of the above for you, but you'll have to smash the break down with your giant monster limbs to access them.
Europeans can't handle the whole "download" thing. No, they have to have their game all wrapped up in a neat little pack-age! Despite the fact that World Of Goo is to be a WiiWare title in North America, a release list for Nintendo Europe showed the game coming as a full retail version!
Speaking to WiiWare World, 2D Boy's Ron Carmel said "Our European publisher, RTL Playtainment, is planning to release both the Wii and PC versions as retail titles." Well, this means 2D Boy has opted to include extra content in the retail version, unavailable in North America and Japan -- though the amount of bonus stuff is still undecided. Find out for sure when the game hits Europe in Q3 2008.
Posted Jun 25th 2008 11:45AM by Phil Larsen Filed under: News
When in doubt, ask the French. The Interactive Digital Entertainment Festival at Cannes spurred some comments from Stephan Bole, head honcho of Nintendo France. A sales announcement revealed an interesting fact about the Wii -- it has sold over 26 million units globally. That's like, a lot of Wiis. More than seven.
In comparison, the Xbox 360 has sold 20 million units, while the PS3 is lagging with 14 million. The festival brought no announcement of a Wii price drop, and it's still selling out the door for 249 Euros. Bole made a generic statement about women and the elderley being a major factor in the Wii's success (which we already knew), but 26 million is still mighty impressive.
A lengthy, to-and-fro legal battle between the BBFC and Rockstar prevented Manhunt 2 from being released in the UK, with the BBFC eventually giving up and granting the game an "18" certificate in March. Having won its right to lop limbs clean off be released in Britain, it was no surprise that the title appeared in Nintendo's latest European release schedule this morning.
But wait, for there's another twist to this twistiest of sagas! A Rockstar spokesperson contacted Eurogamer earlier today to reveal that it "has no confirmed release date set for Manhunt 2 in Europe." Ho boy. If any Europeans out there are beginning to feel particularly indifferent about Manhunt 2 at this stage, we can't say we blame you.
We've been following Wario Land: The Shake Dimension for quite some time now. After the numerous scans and screens, we're about ready to hear something on a release date for the game. Well, as ready as we are in North America, it looks like Europe is the only region with a cemented release for the game.Wario Land: The Shake Dimension will release in Europe on September 26th.
Aside from that game, Nintendo of Europe also dished out release dates for plenty of other Wii games, including Baroque (July 18) and Manhunt 2(August). To check out the full list, head on past the break.
You don't have to be a gas mask-wearing, telepathic oddball to know what dominated Europe this week. Metal Gear Solid 4's ascent to numero uno throughout most of Europe was thoroughly predictable, though that's not to suggest that Wii titles had it rough.
Most managed to maintain high spots (seriously, Britain, what is it about LEGO and Indiana Jones?), while there was a heartwarming comeback for Wii Fit, which finally seems to be getting restocked here. It's reappeared in the Irish and Dutch top tens, and made 11th in the UK.Sports Island debuted in European countries that aren't Britain this week, and for the most part had a storming start, with a third place in Holland and eighth in Germany. Yet there is also sad news, reader: Okami -- beautiful, stunning, endlessly gorgeous Okami -- only reached 20th. In Sweden. Gah.
For the second time in three weeks, those rapscallions at Nintendo have decided to forgo releasing old, lovable Virtual Console games and have instead opted for WiiWare. Grr. Still, at least it means that Europe and Australia get Arkanoid-style puzzler Block Breaker Deluxe, which we deemed to be rather good, despite its cast of grinning, lifestyle pillocks. At the other end of the quality pool bobs the questionable floating object that is Cocoto Fishing Master, which we wouldn't buy for our worst enemies.
Nintendo has done, to date, nothing to promote WiiWare. If not for certain reliable information sources, most Wii fans would never have known that a new download service was on the way until the first games showed up in the Wii Shop.
In order to spread the word about WiiWare beyond the geeks and otaku who are already not downloading Protöthea, Nintendo's Laurent Fischer told Gamesindustry.biz that the company is launching television ad campaigns across Europe. "We believe that this software we have is very unique so the idea is that we need to drive awareness of what is available and how it works. We know that it takes time to drive that awareness among the general public."
Apparently the ads have already started in France, and will be launched in other countries soon. We're glad to see Nintendo realizing that the best way to increase awareness of something is to tell people.
Those purple folk at the GAME Group (a prominent games retailer) have released European sales details for the first half of 2008, and it's looking pretty good. Group sales are up 54 percent, with like-for-like sales up 28.4 percent. Like-for-like is such a dumb term. Reminds us of these things.
Hey, Euro folk: those Club Nintendo Stars you've spent the last seven years compiling in the vain hope that you might bag something as glorious as 
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Maybe "monstrous" is overdoing it, but after last week's no-show for the Virtual Console, we're back to five games for this Friday's PAL region VC update. Hurrah! These range from forgettable spin-offs (Pac-Attack -- the first SNES title we've seen in over three months, bizarrely) to a Commodore 64 fan favorite (Cybernoid) to SNK's excellent King of the Monsters, which probably 
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