It’s the weekend, which means two things: 1) Both next-gen systems have launched successfully (who got one, which system and why?) and 2) another exciting entry of the Weekly Wrap-Up is coming your way. Below, you’ll find brief summaries of our top 5 stories from this week, as well as a few stories that were interesting, but weren’t quite that big to make the cut. As always, if you want to read the full story, simply click on the link hidden in the titles. If you have suggestions for future entries, feel free to email me at jeremy.tyler@bagogames.com.
Here we go.
Number 5
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is Still a Ways Off
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the prologue to the even larger MGSV: The Phantom Pain, may be coming out next year, but don’t expect The Phantom Pain to come soon after. According to series creator Hideo Kojima, that title requires a little more time.
Speaking to Famitsu (via Siliconera) Kojima explained that Ground Zeroes is meant to grab the attention of players and lead into the following game.
“If I were to put it in Hollywood movie terms, the prologue, that is Ground Zeroes, would be similar to the first 10-15 minutes that are meant to ‘captivate’ [the audience],” said Kojima. “At first, something will happen, then the title will appear like ‘bam!’ and then nine years later, a big event will be the start [of Metal Gear Solid V]. That’s how the story will be connected.”
Number 4
EA Studios Boss Doesn’t Believe F2P Will Work On Home Consoles
With mobile app developers widely accepting F2P (free-to-play) games as the new ‘norm’ of game development, many news outlets have been reporting that a similar fate could soon rear its head in the home console market, especially after Nintendo’s recent push with both Wii Fit U and Wii Sports U adopting a similar pay-to-play scheme.
EA Studios executive vice president Patric Söderlund does not believe that this is the case however. Speaking to MCV he said:
“Only 18 months ago, most mobile games were full game downloads. Now I’d say 90 per cent are freemium. That change happened very quickly. Whether that will happen on the consoles I don’t know.”
Number 3
Destiny Launching on September 9th
Bungie and Activision have dated Destiny for a September 9, 2014 release. The game will launch worldwide on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
“We first shared the design pillars of Destiny less than one year ago,” reads the announcement on the official site. “We promised to redefine what players should expect from a Bungie game. We said we wanted to change the way people play games together. We set our bar high. For us, Destiny represents a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“Since then, Destiny has continued to reveal its promise. Every new build brings us closer to our original vision. With those goals insight, we intend to use every moment from now until the release of the game to ensure that Destiny lives up to our expectations, and ours.”
Number 2
PS4 Becomes Biggest UK Console Launch Ever
Sony has retained its crown after the sales figures for the PS4’s first 48 hours on sale to ensure it keeps the title of biggest UK console launch in the country’s history. The previous holder of the title may surprise you a little however!
Once champion, the PS4 passed the PSP (yes, the PlayStation Portable handheld) and its sales of 185,000 units in 2005 by selling an astonishing 250,000 units in its first 48 hours of sale, meaning the total sales range around £87 million. Not bad for two days work!
Number 1
PS4 & Xbox One Pass Wii U Lifetime Sales In UK
Although Nintendo’s next generation console, the Wii U, has been available to purchase in the UK for over a year now, both the PS4 and Xbox One sales have outsold the Wii U, not even a month into their shelf-lives. This news comes as MCV revealed that the PS4 sold more than 250,000 units in its first 48 hours on sale whilst the Xbox One was reported last week to be close to the Wii U with a total of 150,000 units sold through its opening weekend.
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:
- Nintendo 2DS Pokémon X/Pokémon Y Bundles Coming December 6th
- Microsoft Reveals a Large Number of Devs Joining ID@Xbox Indie Program
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.
