Nintendo's president says revenue from Super Mario Run was lower than expected, but he insists pay-to-play mobile games are here to stay at the gaming giant.
Super Mario Run, the first mobile game to feature Nintendo's star character, is free to download, but only a limited amount of content is free-to-play. To unlock the full game, players must pay US $10 / £10 / AU $15. By the end of January, the game hit a whopping 78 million downloads on iOS only, but only 5% of players had purchased the full game.
The game made its Android debut this week alongside the release of a major update for the iOS version. In version 2.0.0, Nintendo has expanded the free-to-play content in the game, which is included in the Android release.
While Super Mario Run has gotten more free content, it is another Nintendo game that is the company's smartphone "cash cow," according to Nikkei Asian Review. Fire Emblem Heroes, a more traditional free-to-play game, has been wildly successful in sales. Despite that, Nintendo insists pay-to-play is the preferred business model.
"Heroes is an outlier. We honestly prefer the Super Mario Run model," a senior company official told Nikkei.
In 2015, Nintendo announced an ambitious plan to break into mobile games. It has released two games so far, Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. Animal Crossing, originally supposed to be released last year, is now delayed with a release sometime in the next fiscal year. Nintendo now says it plans to release 2-3 mobile games a year.
The big screen reboot of Power Rangers opens today, March 24, and is already off to a strong start. As Variety reports, it made $3.6 million in Thursday night previews--however, it is expected that Disney's Beauty and the Beast will maintain its dominance of the box office.
The Thursday night gross is nearly as much as Kong: Skull Island made two weeks ago, and that movie went on to make $61 million across the whole weekend. Power Rangers isn't expected to make that much, but it is estimated to earn $30-$40 million over three days.
This is some way ahead of the other new releases hitting screens today--the sci-fi thriller Life and cop comedy Chips, which have been predicted to take $15-$20 million and $10-$12 million respectively.
However, even if Power Rangers makes as much as $40 million, it won't topple the hugely successful Beauty and the Beast from the top slot. The live-action Disney remake is predicated to earn another $90 million in its second weekend, following last week's record-breaking $174.8 million haul.
Power Rangers has received mixed reviews so far--check out GameSpot's opinion here. And if you want to know what happens in the post-credit scene, click here--be warned though, there are major spoilers.
On PC, this is limited to just the standard free weekend event we're used to seeing on Steam. You can download and play the full version on until Sunday, March 26, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM GMT. Additionally, you can pick up the full version for half price ($15/£10) until Monday. If you have enough friends and want to fill out a full group, a six-pack version is $75 (£50), which works out to $12.50 (£8.33) per copy.
For those on PS4 in the US, you'll have a bit more time with the game. The free event lasts until Tuesday, March 28. However, with the game having debuted much more recently on PS4 than on PC, its accompanying sale only drops the price to $26.79 (from $40).
You can grab the game through the links below. For more, check out GameSpot's Killing Floor 2 review.
Power Rangers is now playing in theaters. You can read our review here. The movie rebooted the franchise and brought back the original Rangers--Jason, Kimberly, Billy, Zack, and Trini. Familiar elements from the original TV series were given a modern makeover as the teens came together to fight the threat of Rita Repulsa in order to protect the world.
The movie's producer has stated they have plans for a six-movie arc, and the mid-credits scene delivers a strong indication to what could happen next. If you haven't seen the movie yet, stop reading now. There will be spoilers below.
Members of the Power Rangers report to Saturday detention after saving their town of Angel Grove and the world. This is where they met each other at the beginning of the movie. The teacher in the detention room takes attendance and calls out Tommy Oliver's name. This student is not seen, but the camera pans to an empty desk with a green jacket on the chair.
Fans of the Power Rangers franchise know what this means. Tommy Oliver was the Green Ranger. In the original series, he was introduced as a new student who was forced to become Rita's agent against the Power Rangers. He was a powerful enemy and was eventually freed from Rita's control and joined the others to make amends.
In the new movie, it is revealed that Rita originally was the Green Power Ranger on Zordon's team, millions of years ago. She still possesses the Green Power Coin, which she uses in her scepter. She may have been defeated, but we all know a good villain always finds a way back.
Adding to the Green Ranger tease in the movie, Sabban also tweeted the following video.
It's pretty obvious we'll be seeing the Green Ranger if a sequel happens. Casting information hasn't been released. This means either the role hasn't been cast, or Lionsgate is keeping it under wraps.
Blizzard has taken the next major step to phasing out the classic Battle.net name it's used for the past two decades. With the release of a new update, the company's launcher app no longer bears the Battle.net branding.
Formerly known as the Battle.net app, the company's Steam-style launcher for its PC games is now simply known as the Blizzard app, as pictured below.
In terms of functionality and design, nothing else has changed about the app, which handles downloading updates and launching Blizzard's various PC games. The company announced its plans to eliminate the Battle.net name last year, and newer services--like Blizzard Streaming and Blizzard Voice--have launched with the new branding.
"When we created Battle.net, the idea of including a tailored online-gaming service together with your game was more of a novel concept, so we put a lot of focus on explaining what the service was and how it worked, including giving it a distinct name," Blizzard explained. "Over time, though, we've seen that there's been occasional confusion and inefficiencies related to having two separate identities under which everything falls--Blizzard and Battle.net. Given that built-in multiplayer support is a well-understood concept and more of a normal expectation these days, there isn't as much of a need to maintain a separate identity for what is essentially our networking technology."
For those of us with fond memories of playing games like Diablo II on Battle.net, it is somewhat of a sad thing to see the name abandoned after all these years. But hey, at least the Necromancer is coming back.
As part of a new, limited ban on some flights, many US-bound passengers will no longer be allowed to take large electronic devices--including the Nintendo Switch--into the cabin.
The US government recently approved a ban on large electronic devices on flights from eight Middle-Eastern countries. Passengers will be forbidden from bringing devices "larger than a cellphone" on board the cabin, meaning laptops, iPads, Kindles, and more will have to be stowed away in the hold.
The ban will be enforced on flights from 10 airports spread across Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The restrictions also apply to tablets and games consoles--including, presumably, the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, and PS Vita. Smartphones will be allowed into the cabin.
According to the Guardian, Trump administration officials told press that the ban had been devised after "evaluated intelligence" emerged stating terrorists favored "smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items."
The ban, which comes into action within the next few hours, is reportedly not a public regulation; airlines will be expected to enforce the rule themselves.
The ban has been criticized by some tech experts, who say that forcing a device into the hold rather than the cabin does not remove the risk that they could be used as explosives. "If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold," International Computer Science Institute researcher Nicholas Weaver told the Guardian.
"If you're worried about hacking, a cellphone is a computer."
Shortly after the US government announced their restrictions, the UK government announced a similar ban. Flights to the UK originating from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia will not allow devices larger than 16 cm long, 9.3 cm wide, or 1.5 cm deep into the cabin. However, large smartphones and games consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, are permitted--meaning the UK and US bans differ in that regard.
"The ban will apply to flights bound for the US, not the UK," a UK government spokesperson told UK news outlet i.
Sony has kicked off the latest flash sale on the PlayStation Store in the US to complement this week's deals, and it's a good one.
Dubbed the Everything Goes sale, this discounts a wide variety of games for all PSN members. There are some top-tier games in there, including Persona 4 Golden on Vita for a mere $9. If you play it nonstop, you might even be done in time for its sequel next month.
PS3 owners can pick up The Evil Within for $9 (also available on PS4), Deadly Premonition's Ultimate Edition (an ideal game to play with Twin Peaks returning soon) for $4, or Catherine for $5. The first two Jackbox Party Packs are also on sale for $5 each, while the third is $7.49.
By Anonymous on Mar 24, 2017 09:30 pm (Produced in partnership with EA) You'll be spending a lot of time aboard the Tempest in Mass Effect: Andromeda, so get to know the scout ship that you'll be exploring the galaxy with.
The launch of Dark Souls III's final DLC expansion is just days away, and now Bandai Namco has released the official launch trailer.
Dark Souls III: The Ringed City takes players deep into a mangled, destroyed land. They'll discover the decrepit Ringed City, encounter nasty new enemies and bosses, find new armor and weapons, and cast new spells. The expansion marks the end of the Dark Souls III saga.
The Ringed City launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on Tuesday, March 28, and will cost US $15 / £11.99 / AU $22.95. It's also included in the season pass for US $25 / £19.99 / AU $37.95, which gives you access to the first expansion Ashes of Ariandel.
Dark Souls III's latest update just went live yesterday. It adds support for The Ringed City, increases Dark Souls III's frame rate on PS4 Pro, fixes severals bugs, and re-balances many items and weapons in the game.
He might be cinema's most famous space smuggler, but it seems Han Solo might not be his real name. According to Disney boss Bob Iger, the upcoming Star Wars spinoff focusing on a young Solo's adventures will reveal "how he got his name."
Iger spoke recently at the University of Southern California, and discussed the Solo movie, which releases next year. He said the film, "picks up with Han Solo when he was 18 years old and takes him through when he was 24. There are a few significant things that happen in Han Solo's life, like acquiring a certain vehicle and meeting a certain Wookiee that will happen in this film. But you will also discover how he got his name."
The Han Solo movie opens on May 25, 2018. The next entry in the series is this year's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which picks up immediately after 2015's The Force Awakens.
Splatoon 2's Global Testfire starts today, and the app is available to download on Nintendo Switch now.
You can grab the application from the Switch eShop, though until the event starts, booting the game up will just give you the following message: "The Splatoon 2 Global Testfire hasn't started yet."
You won't have to wait long, however. The first trial kicks off on March 24 at 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST / 7 PM GMT. Players have a number of limited-time slots in which to try the game, all six of which are coming March 24-26--check out all the times and details here, or take a look at this teaser video for more.
Available in the Splatoon 2 demo will be four main weapons, as well as "remixed" versions of the Splat Roller and Splat Charger. Take a look at the new guns in action here, or tune in to our livestream of the Testfire at noon PST.
By Anonymous on Mar 24, 2017 06:30 pm Check out the first 12 minutes of Has Been Heroes -- the latest action-strategy game from the developers of the Trine series -- and hear the tale of how three heroes came to escort a king's princesses to school!
Mass Effect: Andromeda's animation issues have been well-documented, and its dialogue scenes criticized by much of the game's community. Now, an ex-BioWare developer has provided some insight into why Andromeda's facial animations might not be as high quality as some other games'.
Jonathan Cooper, who is now an animator on the Uncharted series at Naughty Dog, explained on Twitter that "animating an RPG is a really, really big undertaking--completely different from a game like Uncharted so comparisons are unfair." He said that in a more linear series like Uncharted, every encounter with another character is "highly controlled," where the the developer can create "bespoke animations."
"Conversely, RPGs offer a magnitude more volume of content and importantly, player/story choice. It's simply a quantity vs quality tradeoff," he pointed out.
Cooper, who was the lead animator on the original Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, goes on to explain that in an RPG like Mass Effect: Andromeda, "designers (not animators) sequence pre-created animations together--like DJs with samples and tracks." Because of the amount of dialogue options, conversations, and order these can come in in an RPG, "dialogues are separated into tiered quality levels based on importance/likelihood," where "The lowest quality scenes may not even be touched by hand" and an algorithm covers the rest.
"Andromeda seems to have lowered the quality of its base algorithm," Cooper posits. He thinks BioWare may have "underestimated [the] task" of "hitting every line by hand."
The attention Andromeda has received "is exacerbated by us living in an era of Share buttons and YouTube," says Cooper, "Getting the lowest quality out to the widest audience." You can see the animator's full explanation at the bottom of this article.
In our review, critic Scott Butterworth said Andromeda "feels like a vision half-fulfilled."
"It contains a dizzying amount of content," he explained, "but the quality fluctuates wildly." Read more in our full Mass Effect: Andromeda review, or read what other critics thought in this review roundup.
Join Joey and Jean-Luc as they check out Splatoon 2 during the testfire.
(Produced in partnership with EA) You'll be spending a lot of time aboard the Tempest in Mass Effect: Andromeda, so get to know the scout ship that you'll be exploring the galaxy with.
Assemble your team of heroes and fight enemies in this action-strategy rogue-like, Has Been Heroes!
Check out the first 12 minutes of Has Been Heroes -- the latest action-strategy game from the developers of the Trine series -- and hear the tale of how three heroes came to escort a king's princesses to school!
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