Another week and more news to sort through. This week in our top 5 stories we picked a few of the note-worthies. Ditch your Xbox 360 controller and switch to your Xbox One for the PC, kiss your PSP goodbye, Watch Dogs (unsurprisingly) sells over 4 million copies in it’s first week and did someone say something about The Witcher 3? Read that and more in the neat summaries below or click on over to read the full stories. Let us know what you thought was this weeks top story in the comment section.
Number 5
Xbox One Controller Gets PC Compatibility
Today Microsoft announced that PC drivers are now available for the Xbox One controller. This news comes to us from Major Nelson who has given directed links to the to start the downloads.
“The new PC drivers will enable the Xbox One controller to be used with any game that featured gamepad support for the Xbox 360 controller,” Nelson wrote. “Simply download the drivers, connect your Xbox One controller to your computer through a micro USB cable and you’ll be gaming in no time.” – Major Nelson
Microsoft has been saying for a while that compatibility between the Xbox One controller and PC would be coming soon, but we never got a definitive date. This is great news for gamers looking to use the Xbox One controller with their PC. Microsoft also plans to release the drivers in the future as part of Windows updates.
Number 4
Sony Phasing Out the PSP by Year’s End
According to an article on Time.com today, Sony is now ending shipments of the PSP in Japan. Sony has already ended shipments in North America and Europe will soon follow later this year.
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) was released in Japan in December of 2004. In that ten year span, Sony has sold close to 80 million units. The handheld was released in North America and Europe in early 2005. The PSP was Sony’s first attempt at entering the handheld gaming market, which had to compete with the much popular Nintendo DS. Sony offered up five different versions of the hardware with the most recent being the 2011 PSP-E1000.
With Sony phasing out the PSP, the attention clearly now shifts to the PS Vita. For Japanese consumers, Sony is offering discounts on software and hardware for PSP owners. No official word has been given as to why North America did not receive the same discounts as Japan.
Number 3
Mario Kart 8 Sells 1.2 Million Copies
Nintendo proudly announced the Mario Kart 8 sales at 1.2 million. With MK8 being just released over the weekend, the sales are impressive especially because it is a Wii U game. There have even been complaints that some stores were running out of Wii U consoles and pro-controllers from consumers on social media sites.
With E3 next week, this is great news to bring attention to Nintendo’s future presentation. The Wii U’s troubling days may be over thanks to MK8. Nintendo is proving to customers and developers just how capable the Wii U is for enjoyment.
Number 2
Report: Sony to offer Ultimate Player Edition Bundle this Summer
E3 is just around the corner and this time of year leaky ships are popping up everywhere. The latest leak comes from Amazon France where they have posted a listing for the Sony Ultimate Player Edition Bundle, which will come with a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The release date on the listing is for July 4 and the cost of the bundle is listed at €579, around $790. And it is noteworthy, the price of this bundle is the same as if you bought these two items separately. No listing for this bundle exists on the North American Amazon website.
In related news, Twitter personality Wario64, a news breaker of sorts, was able to get a scan of next week’s Best Buy circular, which shows a listing for a similar bundle. Included in the Best Buy bundle are a PlayStation 4 and a PS Vita Slim, with a copy of Borderlands 2. The price listed is $560, which comes out to be $40 cheaper than if you bought them separately.
Number 1
Watch Dogs Sales Reach 4 Million in First Week
Ubisoft has announced that their most recent release Watch Dogs has sold more than 4 million copies, this makes it the best selling new franchise in history. Last week Ubisoft said that Watch Dogs was the fastest selling game in the publisher’s history, but we didn’t get any real sales numbers.
“With such strong sales momentum and positive feedback from gamers, Watch Dogs has positioned itself as the must-have game of the moment,” Ubisoft marketing executive Tony Key said. “We’re really proud of this achievement, and are confident that the Watch Dogs brand has a promising future.” – Ubisoft
Ubisoft also stated that Watch Dogs is the best-selling game of all time in terms of first week sales. Watch Dogs is still behind the first Assasins’s Creed in terms of lifetime sales, but with the amount of units sold in the first week alone it’s probably not going to have to hard of a time passing it.
Honorable Mentions
This week had a lot of big news and the news staff and I found it hard to narrow it down to the usual five stories:
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Release Date & Announced
- DS Virtual Console Heading To Wii U
- Terraria Coming To PS4 and Xbox One
