Following up a very successful year in Leipzig, Germany, it looks like those of us in North America can look forward to the Games Convention in the future. CEO Wolfgang Marzin has announced that they're now planning on bringing the show to North America, likely looking to pick up the slack left in the wake of E3 practically going the way of the dodo.
"The concept is flexible and the network of the global games industry permits us to be active at different locations," said Marzin. "After the Southeast Asian Games Convention, we are now focusing on the North American market." With a record 203,000 attendees this year, it seems like an easy decision to bring the show to one of the largest gaming markets in the world.
Posted Aug 19th 2008 3:41PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
According to a statement given to Nintendo-Online by Sega of Germany, Platinum Games' MadWorld and the newly-announced House of the Dead: Overkill will not be released in Germany. Based on what has been shown so far, Sega does not believe that the restrictive USK ratings board would give the games a rating, and so rather than go to the trouble of changing all the enemies into robots, they have opted not to release them.
In other news, gamers and press from all over the world are in Germany this week to see new games like Sega's MadWorld and House of the Dead: Overkill at the Leipzig Games Convention.
Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl have combined to conquer Europe this week (apart from Denmark where -- gah! -- the Brawl slayerPro Cycling Manager 2008: Tour De France is now top!).
In fact, it's been a week for Nintendo to cherish, with games for the Wii and DS taking up eight places in Holland's top ten, and every single spot in the German chart. Howzat?! In slightly more upsetting news, Carnival: Funfair Games has been spotted skulking around the UK top ten again. Ewww.
Check out the full charts from across the continent past the jump.
Ah, only in Europe could Pro Cycling Manager 2008: Tour De France beat Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Brawl's second week on sale (cheers, Denmark). Thankfully, that occurrence is a minor aberration, because Nintendo's fighter is soundly thrashing the opposition everywhere else.
108 days after it originally launched in the U.S., Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in Europe and promptly flew to the upper echelons of Europe's sales charts. Nintendo's scrapper was top of the Week 26 pile in Sweden, Germany, Britain, and Holland, was only beaten into second place by the absurdly popular LEGO Indiana Jones in Denmark and Ireland, and will probably be top when the one-week-behind Spanish charts are revealed next week.
Yet it wasn't all smooth sailing. In the UK and Ireland, Brawl very nearly had its high position compromised by a game we haven't seen in a while -- Wii Fit. Thanks to the Balance Board game getting restocked, the title leapt 27 places in the UK to third place, and was also third in Ireland, after being outside the Top 20 last week. A remarkable recovery, but it just shows how overweight desperate we all are for Nintendo's wobbly creation!
Check out what Europeans are buying after the break.
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.
Posted Jun 24th 2008 2:45PM by Phil Larsen Filed under: News
New blood, new hope for awesome games! The creative team at Chimera has taken up the challenge of becoming an official developer for the Wii and DS. So far, the biggest credit to the name of this Munich-based group is Windchaser, a PC strategy game with more than one critical recommendation. Head over to the official site to check out a few screenies and company details.
The more the merrier, so any team willing to try their hand at success in the world of Nintendo is alright by us. Managing Director Hendrik Lesser is pretty confident of Chimera's abilities, saying "the creative potential of the team is enormous and the possibilities are endless." Hey, even a Wii port of Windchaser wouldn't be a bad place to start. Good luck, and may all your games be supercalafreakinawesome!
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.
Having watched the in-the-flesh Harrison Ford creak and grimace his way through Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the big screen, this week European consumers got a chance to give the LEGO version a leg-up to the top of the charts.
And mostly, that's just what they did. The Wii edition of LEGO Indiana Jones: Original Adventures showed Grand Theft Auto IV who was boss in the UK by nabbing top spot, and versions for other consoles charted well elsewhere on the continent. It's no surprise that LEGO Indy did so well in Blighty -- we still recall the whole country tripping over itself in the rush to pick up the LEGO Star Wars games. Evidently, the titles have that oft-discussed crossover appeal that most marketing types would slaughter their entire families for.
On a sadder note, Mario Kart Wii bowed out of the Dutch and UK top tens, Deca SportsSports Island only reached 15th in Britain, and Wii Fit is keeping up its disappearing act ... everywhere but Germany. So much for your empty, empty promises, Nintendo! Oh, and the Spanish charts failed to materialize this week, probably because they're all busy gawking at the footy.
Check out what Europe is buying past the break, and don't forget to join us next week, when we'll be sulking about how nobody bought Okami.
Finding a copy of Wii Fit has become increasingly similar to a particularly frustrating edition of Where's Waldo? here in Europe. After totally disappearing from the UK's top 40 last week, it's now also vanished from the Dutch charts, and dropped several places in Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain. The only place that is getting the title seems to be Germany, where it sits at the top of the charts. Way to distribute evenly, Nintendo of Europe!
Away from the Wii Fit famine, Sega Superstars Tennis continues to yo-yo its way through the British charts (up this week from 24th to 9th), Wii Play is still flying high in Spain, Ireland, and Britain, while the rest of the Wii games to have charted all feature Mario, and include Galaxy, Kart, and that Olympics one that will never, ever, ever, ever go away.
Stock shortages cruelly deprivedWii Fit of a Top 40 spot in the UK this week (which constitutes one heck of a drop, considering it was third last week), but the rest of Europe seems to have plentiful supplies of the title, thanks very much. Wii Fit bumped Grand Theft Auto IV off of top spot in Germany and Spain, and reached fourth place in Ireland and Holland.
In fact, don't be surprised to see desperate Brits in the coming weeks smuggling the thing back to the UK from mainland Europe, much like what happened with the Wii itself before Christmas. Then again, maybe they're happy to get fleeced -- some quick browsing reveals that the game is already going for waaaay over its recommended retail price on eBay's UK site -- just takealook for yourselves. Yowza!
Wii Fit fever aside, Mario Kart Wii is showing no signs of running out of steam, while Mario and Sonic and Wii Play are also keeping the Wii flag flying high.
Grand Theft Auto IV continues to show up the competition across Europe this week, with either the PS3 or Xbox 360 edition claiming top spot everywhere. Wii pair Wii Fit and Game Night favorite Mario Kart Wii are close behind in most places (because we're optimists, we're now going to consider third as the new first), though yours truly would love to know where anybody is finding Mario Kart in the UK -- I hit the high street to find a copy for a friend a few days back, with zero success.
Further down the charts, Boom Blox made (what could almost be described as) an impact in its second week on sale, soaring from outside the Top 40 to 19th in the UK, while Super Mario Galaxy and Guitar Hero III rejoined the top ten in Holland and Sweden respectively. No Irish charts this week, we're afraid, but here's a hunch we had: Grand Theft Auto IV probably sold a lot.
Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii continue to fly the flag for the Wii in Europe, with the former appearing in every European top ten this week. Mario & Sonic also put in a characteristically strong performance, while Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (ninth in the UK) and Mario Party 8 (tenth in Holland) seem to be enjoying a second burst of shelf life after their release last year.
But heck, you can tell all that simply by inspecting the charts after the post break. What you probably won't remember is that Boom Blox launched in Europe this week, yet never threatened any of Europe's top tens/twenties/forties; looks like this Spielbergian gem has been given the same frosty reception by consumers that it experienced in the U.S. Weaksauce (as my American colleagues might say)! It's sadly ironic, really -- EA's best game for donkey's years, and it's not even charted.
Grand Theft Auto IV has absolutely steamrollered everything else in this week's European charts, with only plucky Spain holding out and wedging Wii Fit between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of Rockstar's hooker-killing simulator.
Essentially then, everything has been bumped down a notch, with Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit mostly leading the rest of the pack (and giving young girls complexes in the process), and games such as Sega Superstars Tennis and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 suffering the biggest drops.
Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.
The Irish are shedding the Guinness pounds, the Germans are working off those brätwurst, and Sweden ... well, we don't really have a lazy, go-to food stereotype for the Swedes. Anyhow, the point is: they're all loving it, and if Wii Fit doesn't appear in a chart (see: Spain, Denmark), it's probably because a country hasn't got it yet, or the charts have fallen behind.
Mind you, don't expect any of this Nintendo dominance to last: next week's charts are guaranteed to be all about one game (yet we suspect Wii Fit might give you have better legs than GTA IV in the long-term). Lean past the break for this week's European charts.
Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl have combined to conquer Europe this week (apart from Denmark where -- gah! -- the Brawl slayer Pro Cycling Manager 2008: Tour De France is now top!).
Ah, only in Europe could Pro Cycling Manager 2008: Tour De France beat Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Brawl's second week on sale (cheers, Denmark). Thankfully, that occurrence is a minor aberration, because Nintendo's fighter is soundly thrashing the opposition everywhere else.
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New blood, new hope for awesome games! The creative team at Chimera has taken up the challenge of becoming an official developer for the Wii and DS. So far, the biggest credit to the name of this Munich-based group is Windchaser, a PC strategy game with more than one critical recommendation. Head over to the official site to check out a few screenies and company details.
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.
Having watched the in-the-flesh Harrison Ford creak and grimace his way through Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the big screen, this week European consumers got a chance to give the LEGO version a leg-up to the top of the charts.
Stock shortages cruelly deprived Wii Fit of a Top 40 spot in the UK this week (which constitutes one heck of a drop, considering it was third last week), but the rest of Europe seems to have plentiful supplies of the title, thanks very much. Wii Fit bumped Grand Theft Auto IV off of top spot in Germany and Spain, and reached fourth place in Ireland and Holland. 
Grand Theft Auto IV continues to show up the competition across Europe this week, with either the PS3 or Xbox 360 edition claiming top spot everywhere. Wii pair Wii Fit and Game Night favorite Mario Kart Wii are close behind in most places (because we're optimists, we're now going to consider third as the new first), though yours truly would love to know where anybody is finding Mario Kart in the UK -- I hit the high street to find a copy for a friend a few days back, with zero success.
Grand Theft Auto IV has absolutely steamrollered everything else in this week's European charts, with only plucky Spain holding out and wedging Wii Fit between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of Rockstar's hooker-killing simulator.
Wii Fit is selling like gangbusters in Britain, where it accounts for half of all Wii software sold in the last week, and has given Nintendo its first one-two finish in the All Formats Chart since 2003. And guess what? It's more or less the same story throughout the rest of Europe.
