Has it been another week already? Unbelievable. Well you know what that means, we have another Top Five Stories of the Week ready for you. We’ve cooked up this weeks stories in nice brief summaries for you to make it easier to digest and included a few honorable mentions as well. Feel free to read the full story by clicking the link hidden in the titles. Afterwords, tell us which story you thought was #1 this week in the comment section below. Enjoy!
Number 5
The Next Fatal Frame Will Be A Wii U Exclusive
This month’s Famitsu magazine has revealed that Nintendo and Techmo Koei are working together to co-develop the next Fatal Frame title, which will be exclusive to the Wii U platform. The report included very little details about the game itself but it did mention that there are plans to expand the franchise into other mediums, with comics, novels and even a film in the works.
The Fatal Frame franchise, which is known as Project Zero in Europe, is a Japanese horror series in which players fight against ghosts and spirits using an ancient camera. The first three games were released for the PS2 but since then Nintendo has become more and more involved with the IP. Fatal Frame IV came out in Japan in 2008, exclusively for the Wii. Yet despite various hints and rumors, the game was never localized for the West. 2012 saw another Wii exclusive for the franchise, this time a remake of Fatal Frame 2. Unlike Fatal Frame IV, this game managed to be released in Australia and Europe, but it never made it to American shores.
Number 4
Tales of Xillia 2 Coming to The West This Summer
Bandai Namco have announced that Tales of Xillia 2 will be coming to the west this summer.
Scheduled for release on August 19th in North America and August 22nd in Europe, the role-playing PS3 game has been out in Japan for just over 18 months and is the fourteenth addition to the Tales series.
Namco have also announced two never before released editions that will be available to buy come its launch in the west: the Day One Edition, which features the game, an exclusive metal case and special tracks selected from the developer team, and the Ludger Kresnik Collector’s Edition, which features the above, although with a different metal case, plus Ludger Kresnik figurine, a pocket watch replica compact and a book of art from the game.
Number 3
Minecraft for PS3 Coming in Disc Form Next Month
Sony has announced that Minecraft will be coming in disc format to the PS3 next month.
Scheduled for a May 14th release date, the title will be available across all PAL regions and will contain all of the features of previous console versions of Minecraft.
The Mojang developed game will also come with everything that came with the recent update of the game, update 14, including Emeralds, Ender Chests and potatoes.
Sony have also added that a PS4 and Vita version of Minecraft is expected for release later this year, although a date has yet to be confirmed.
If you’re a PS3 gamer and still yet to get on board the Minecraft hype train, perhaps now is the time…
Number 2
GameStop to Close 120 Stores, Targeting Mobile
It looks like the retail giant Gamestop will be moving more into the mobile space. Paul Raines the CEO of GameStop told investors about future plans and their new initiative called GameStop 3.0.
GameStop has made it no secret that they want to aggressively pursue and expand into the mobile space, particularity Apples.
“a new phase of the company’s lifespan that will see it aggressively expand its footprint into gaming-adjacent tech fields,” – GameStop CEO.
As a result of this new initiative GameStop plans to shut down around 120 stores. As of now GameStop has near 6,500 stores world-wide. Aside from mobile, GameStop sees the new consoles as an enormous success and expects the console landscape to sell around $18 billion by the end of 2015.
Number 1
Assassin’s Creed Franchise Breaks 73 Million Mark
The last time Ubisoft announced sales figures for their Assassin’s Creed franchise, the numbers came in just over 60 million. Today, they released financial data for a majority of their properties and once again Assassin’s Creed came in at the top of the list with an astounding figure of over 73 million. While this might be a reason for Ubisoft to rejoice, there is room for improvement as the most recent iteration of Assassin’s Creed, Black Flag, sold less than its predecessor. The next installment in the franchise, Assassin’s Creed Unity is due out later in 2014.
Other titles that have sold well for Ubisoft are Just Dance, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and Ghost Recon.
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:
- Destiny Shows Off Its 3 Classes With New Gameplay Footage
- Ground Zeroes DLC Free May 1
- Time To Trap Em’ All! New Skylanders Game Announced
Don’t Look Back In Anger | Demon Gaze Review
Hot Cosplay Interviews & General Tomfoolery @ PAX East 2014
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