It’s the weekend again which means we have another top 5 stories of the week for you. There were a lot of good juicy stories this week including the sales numbers from both the PS4 and Xbox one. Is the next-gen console war battle finally over or is this just the beginning? Below, we’ve neatly organized the stories in order of what we thought were most important with brief summaries, we have also included a few honorable mentions that we thought you should check out. If you want to read the full story, simply click on the link hidden in the titles. Share this and leave feedback in the comment section!
Number 5
Steam Controller Will Go On Sale in Fall 2014
PC Gamer has reported that they learned about Steam’s controller going on the market this Fall. PC Gamer’s article states:
“Our source added that the completion of Valve’s Steam Controller was the final piece that would precede the availability of most Steam Machines, which indicates that Steam Machines will also begin to release at the end of the year. The source also told PC Gamer that they expect “about 500” games to be natively playable on SteamOS by the end of this year, up from the current count of 382.”
Number 4
Super Mario Bros. 3 Released for Wii U & 3DS
Regarded by many as one of the greatest games of all time, Super Mario Bros. 3 has finally arrived on the North American Nintendo eShop for not only the Wii U, but the 3DS as well. Check out the trailer and brace yourself for a dose of 8-bit gaming nostalgia.
The 3DS version features multiplayer support through download play.
Number 3
Report: Disney Infinity Getting Powered Up With Marvel Characters
In an invitation sent to the press, Disney has announced that they are holding a special media briefing on April 30 that will show off “the latest chapter of Disney Infinity“. Titled Disney Infinity 2.0 Edition this looks like it could be the biggest update so far for the incredibly popular game. In a teaser trailer posted by Marvel Entertainment we can see Captain America’s shield flying around inside the game world and interacting with other Disney characters. It therefore seems highly likely that this media event will reveal the addition of Marvel heroes to the list of Disney Infinity’s playable characters.
The game’s developer, Avalanche Studios, has always been keen on expanding their roster beyond the traditional Disney and Pixar characters. In an interview with Polygon, their CEO John Blackburn expressed a great deal of interest in bringing Marvel and Star Wars characters into the game. Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion back in August 2009.A few years later in October 2012, Star Wars owners Lucasfilm was also bought for $4 billion dollars.
Number 2
Microsoft Says They’ve Sold 5 Million Xbox One Units to Retailers
With NPD numbers for March being released yesterday, Yusuf Mehdi, Xbox corporate vice president of marketing, strategy and business, announced Microsoft has sold more than 5 million units of the Xbox One console to retailers worldwide. The NPD numbers revealed Xbox One sales for March were estimated around 311,000 units. Surely this number was aided by the release of Titanfall. Exact numbers of how many copies of Titanfall sold were not disclosed.
It is worthy to note Sony has reported selling more than 7 million units to consumers worldwide. Where Microsoft is reporting it has sold over 5 million units to retailers, not customers. Mehdi does report the Xbox One is “outpacing Xbox 360 by more than 60 percent at the same point in time.”
Number 1
Sony Reports 7 Million PlayStation 4s Have Been Sold
With the March NPD numbers due to be released today, Sony last night revealed that they have sold over 7 million PlayStation 4 units since launch. For those keeping a running tally, at the beginning of March Sony announced that they sold over 6 million units. With the release of Infamous: Second Son and a steady stream of PSN releases, it looks like they have sold at least another million within 30 days.
The good news for Sony doesn’t stop there. They have also announced that the attachment rate for physical games is 3 units per console. When you’re done doing the math, that roughly comes out to 20.5 million games sold since launch.
Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, had this to say about PlayStation 4 sales. “The response from the global gaming community for PS4 has been overwhelming and we are truly humbled that gamers are selecting PS4 as their next generation console of choice,” said House.
Honorable Mentions
If you missed out on the big news items this week, you can check out our weekly podcast and get an audio update of this week’s madness from our podcasting team. Listen to us as we talk about some things seriously and a few other things not so much. We guarantee this episode will make you shake your fist at times and nod your head at others.
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A Dish Served Cold | The Wolf Among Us Episode 3: A Crooked Mile Review
