Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-Up, the weekly (and ever evolving) time when we look at the top five news stories (in no particular order) of the week. Below is a brief summary, for the full stories, simply click on the hyperlink. So here’s the list without further adieu:
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Good news for our friends down under, they are finally able to play games that are rated 18+. The bill was brought before the Federal Parliament in February and went through Australia’s House of Representatives and Senate without any changes being made. Jason Clare, Home Affair Minister, stated; “These are important reforms over 10 years in the making” after hearing of the bill’s passing.
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Tencent Holdings Limited, an internet, mobile and telecommunications service in China has acquired a minority stake in Epic Games, Inc.Epic will continue to operate independently and will expand their gaming franchises across multiple platforms. The deal is expected to close next month with the exact terms of the deal not being disclosed.
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If you were looking forward to the over-the-top Enter the Dominatrix DLC that was planned for Saints Row: The Third, don’t get your hopes up to high. On the same note; don’t fret just yet, THQ has stated that the planned DLC will now be part of the next Saints Row game. The next entry in the Saints Row franchise is scheduled for release sometime in 2013.
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Those crazy Germans (full disclosure, I have lived in Germany and I love the country and the people.) and Amazon are at it again. Amazon Germany has listed the Wii U on their site, stating the console will come out on December 21 of this year, at a price of €399.99 (wow…). Nintendo itself has been pretty secretive on the release date so take this supposed one listed on Amazon with a pinch of salt.
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Nintendo has announced that Namco Bandai will be taking the helm on the next Super Smash Bros. Game. The game is being developed for the 3DS and the Wii and is being co-developed by Nintendo and Namco Bandai. Masaya Kobayashi, producer at Namco Bandai, has said he has put together a “never-before-seen dream team for this project”, which includes key designers, artists and audio developers who have worked on game series such as Mobile Suit Gundam and SoulCalibur.
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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. With that in mind, we bring you, yet again, the honorable mention section: Neversoft is working on the next installment of Call of Duty DLC, THQ’s VP, corporate controller and chief accounting officer has left the company, Microsoft has unveiled a new tablet/lap top device called Surface. You can’t help but feel sorry for Curt Schilling, first his dream company fails and now it appears that his personal fortune from baseball is all gone as well. We can all finally welcome Nintendo to the 21st century after they introduce better online gaming and achievements to the Wii U, but they missed the boat when they decided not to include Facebook or Twitter.
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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.
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!