It’s that time of week again when we take a fond look back at the top five news stories from the week. Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-Up. Below is a brief summary, but for the full stories simply click on the hyperlink. Let us know if you agree with our top five. If you have suggestions for future Weekly Wrap-Ups, feel free to email me at jeremy.tyler@bagogames.com.
Enjoy!
Number 5
Walking Dead Developer Telltale Offers Entire Season to 4GB Xbox 360 Owners
Telltale Games are to offer download codes which entitle the user to the first season of “The Walking Dead” on XBLA due to them being affected by performance issues on the 4GB Xbox 360 model. This bug is reported to cause freezing and stuttering during gameplay, the only solution of which turns out to be to use an external hard drive- ouch. Whilst the company has sent a title update to Microsoft to fix the problem for good, you can make Telltale aware of your troubles/claim their first season “good-will.”
Number 4
Sony CEO Reveals Thoughts On Vita Sales…
Current CEO of Sony, Kazuo Hirai, has revealed the companies thoughts on the PlayStation Vita during a discussion with ‘The Wall Street Journal’. After Sony revealed that the PlayStation Vita has sold 160,000 units over Black Friday, things were finally looking up for the console which has always received criticism in the face of the Nintendo 3DS in terms of games offered and the overall price of the unit itself. Kazuo Hirai however stated the following regarding the sales of the handheld overall; “(They were) on the low end of what we expected… Long term is what is important.”
Number 3
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Announced for 3DS
The main series of Pokémon games is set to continue on the 3DS this October, as Nintendo announced two new games during their Pokémon Direct earlier today. The new games will introduce three new starters for players to pick from –Froakie (Water-Type), Fennekin (Fire-Type) and Chespin (Grass-Type) and new legendary Pokémon; two of which make brief appearances in the debut trailer. But the most exciting news from the announcement (aside from the games themselves) is the fact that Pokémon X and Pokémon Y will be releasing in October 2013 worldwide; marking a first for the series. Usually, the games have been out in Japan for several months before finally making their way anywhere else. Now, it seems that all Pokémon Fans, from around world, can interact as soon as possible.
Number 2
PSN Web Store Coming to US
Appearing later this month for US users will be the PSN web store! It’s essentially a browser based PS store and the European version was released in December of last year. Users will be able to use remote browsing to download titles and in the future, it will allow for PS3 consoles to receive those titles automatically. The recent redesign has apparently seen ‘double-digit growth’, as remarked by Shawn Layden, Sony Network Entertainment COO. He stated that users were using the web version more and that the past design, which had remained largely unchanged for 6 years, was ‘a frustration’ due to remaining the same.
Number 1
THQ Assets to be Sold ‘Title By Tile’ On January 22nd
As many of us know, THQ has failed to obtain any sort of approval for a quick sale and many of us were wondering what would happen to the series/franchises which we all know and love. Recent news has revealed however that THQ’s assets are to be sold “title by title” in an auction-style format on January 22nd. News started spreading late last week that up to five companies were interested in purchasing THQ’s assets so this may help the company build up capital and could see franchises sold off in all manner of different directions.
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. And finally, check out The Interview with Q, hosted by Matthew Quinlan.
