Here’s our weekly round-up of the most important video games news from around the web, and here on Thumbsticks.
It’s been a fairly quiet week for gaming news, but there were some interesting financial results published, a new hardware announcement, and release dates confirmed for a two massive games.
Marvel vs Capcom
Capcom have released a glut of new information for the much-anticipated Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. The game now has a firm release date of September 19, 2017, but the most interesting news was related to the game’s growing character roster. Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, Rocket Raccoon, Ultron, Chun-Li, Strider Hiryu, and Chris Redfield have all joined the list of playable characters, and the game’s big bad is none other than a fearsome combination of Marvel’s Ultron and Mega Man’s Sigma.
Call of Duty: WWII is finally revealed
First it was leaked, then it was teased. and finally, this week, it was unveiled. Call of Duty: WWII will be released on November 2, 2017. The game looks exciting enough, but there was criticism of its approach from some quarters. Allegra Frank, writing at Polygon, considers the game’s diverse cast to be little more than marketing, and The Guardian’s Keith Stuart found the game’s desire to be ‘authentic’ uncomfortable.
Nintendo’s Genyo Takeda is retiring
Genyo Takeda, Nintendo’s influential producer and hardware designer, is retiring after 46 years with the company. Takeda was behind the design of the Nintendo 64 controller’s analogue stick, and also produced and directed a number of much-loved Nintendo hits including Punch-Out!! and Pilotwings 64. Takeda leaves Nintendo in June and will be replaced by Ko Shiota, who currently heads the Platform Technology Development Division. Happy retirement, Takeda!
The Switch is off to a good start
Nintendo also revealed that 2.74m Nintendo Switch consoles were sold during its first month of release. This is up from the 2m units the company initially forecast. Buoyed by the good start, Nintendo says it hopes to sell another 10m consoles in the current fiscal year. In addition, 5.46m units of Switch software have been sold, including 2.76m copies of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Taking its Wii U SKU into account, the game has shifted 3.84m copies in total. It’s not all about the Switch though. Much to everyone’s surprise, a new Nintendo 2DS XL console was also announced.
Capcom sales
It’s not just the Big N who have reasons to smile when they check the bank balance. Capcom also posted their full-year financials, reporting net sales of more than ¥87.17bn, a 13.2% increase over the prior year. Of particular note is the “solid performance” of Resident Evil VII, which has sold over 3.50m copies. GamesIndustry.biz takes a closer look.
Praise be for the return of the demo
Arkane Studios’ reboot of Prey arrives next week, and to promote the game an hour-long demo is now free to download. Aside from the game trials offered by EA Access, it’s been a long time since a title of this nature has received such a generous public preview. Bethesda Studios, the game’s publisher, must surely be hoping to capture a little bit of the magic created by the original BioShock demo. Gamasutra looks at whether it’s successful, and Mike Williams at US Gamer compares the game’s opening minutes to Irrational’s 2008 classic.
ZX Spectrum
The list of crowdfunding campaigns aimed at bringing back the humble ZX Spectrum makes for grim reading. Both the ZX Spectrum Vega Plus, and the Recreated ZX Spectrum floundered amid controversy and anger from backers. Hopefully, the ZX Spectrum Next will buck the trend. Eurogamer reports on the project’s ambitious goals.
Next week’s game releases
There’s a packed week of game releases ahead, including six new titles coming to PlayStation Plus. Check out the full lineup on our New Releases page.