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
OUYA to Get a New Model Every Year
Speaking to Engadget today, OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman revealed that the system will see yearly models, as opposed to one model being released in a typical console generation similar to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. “There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3,” said Uhrman. She later went on to state that all games will be backwards compatible and are tied to the person who bought the game, instead of to the hardware. The OUYA will be making its way to Kickstarter backers in March and will later come to retail outlets, like Amazon and Best Buy, in June for $99; with additional controller being $49.99. Pre-Orders can now be placed for the June release as well.
Number 4
Square Enix Now “Struggling” To Profit From Console Games- Changing Focus For The Future
Square Enix has been suffering from financial issues for a considerable amount of time now and to add another string to the bow of their enemy it has come to light that the publisher has recorded a 5.7 billion yen (£39.1 million) loss for the nine month period ending 31st December 2012. This, unfortunately, is despite a rise in sales of 7.4% year-over-year equaling 102.8 billion yen (£705 million). Although Square Enix predicts that it will make profit by the end of the business year it has blamed ”sluggish performance” on arcade machines in Japan as well as console game sales in general.
A statement released from the company states:
“During the nine-month period ended December 31, 2012, the Company has not recovered the operating loss posted in the six-month period ended September 30, 2012, primarily due to the increasingly difficult condition of the world-wide console game market, under which the Group is struggling to achieve a fair expected return on its investment.”
Number 3
Rayman Legends No Longer a Wii U Exclusive, Going Multiplatform
Rayman Legends, the upcoming sequel to the ridiculously awesome Rayman: Origins is no longer going to be the Wii U exclusive it was once announced to be. Revealed by Ubisoft earlier today, Rayman Legends will now release on the Wii U, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with all versions hitting retail in early September.
“We heard from many Xbox & PlayStation owners and Rayman fans who told us they really wanted to play Rayman Legends on their current system”, says Geoffroy Sardin, EMEA Chief Marketing & Sales Officer. ”We decided to give the fans what they wanted while at the same time broadening the audience exposed to this innovative and memorable game.”
Number 2
Skylanders Swap Force Announced
Activision had previously registered domain names for new entries into the Skylanders series. The post (which can be read here) suggested that we may not see an extra game in the Skylanders series but an addition in the form of a new set of figures. We don’t tell you to come here for no reason, as Activision have announced that “Skylanders Swap Force” will be launching in the future for all consoles which support the main game. The focus on the new toys is that the 16 collectible figures include top and bottom halves which can be changed to create your own character out of a possible of 250 different combinations. Whilst it hasn’t been confirmed at the time of writing, we assume that a software update will allow you to use these figures on the new portal of power which gamers need to use the new figures. We will keep you updated when we learn more regarding this.
Number 1
Epic Closes Impossible Studios
A message from Epic Games founder, Tim Sweeney, confirmed the closure of Impossible Studios. Impossible Studios was comprised of employees from Big Huge Games and was formed a little over six months ago. Sweeney has stated that the employees will receive three months’ severance as well as the ability to form a new company using the Impossible Studios name and logo. Due to the closure of the studio Infinity Blade: Dungeons has been put on hold.
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. Here are some of the articles for the honorable mention section. Disney Achieves $9 Million Profit In Its Gaming Division, Sony and SuperBot Entertainment Part Ways, Iwata Rains On The Parade Of Cloud Gaming.
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.
