Apparently yesterday’s news of 1.2 million U.K. sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was just the tip of the iceberg. Activision sent out word today that internal estimates pin the game at a whopping 4.7 million copies sold on day-one, in the U.S. and U.K. alone. Subtracting the U.K. numbers from the report yesterday, that puts first-day U.S. sales at around 3.5 million. In terms of cash generated, Activision estimates the game brought in $310 million already.
“The Call of Duty franchise has become a cultural phenomenon showing the power of video games as an entertainment medium,” said CEO Mike Griffith in the press release. We don’t have a breakdown of sales by console, and we likely won’t until next month’s NPD numbers come in. But, if each console sold the same amount, all of them have already topped a million sales. Reggie Fils-Aime is wagering on New Super Mario Bros. Wii beating out just the Xbox 360 version this holiday season, which is likely to be the most popular one.
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Keep watching until at least 1:30 in, you don’t want to miss the awesomeness.
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Surprise, surprise… Nintendo has announced two new games! First up is Last Window: Midnight Promise, which is a DS game that is the sequel to Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (known as Wishroom in Japan). Those following trademarks made by Nintendo will remember the mysterious “Last Window” and “Last Story” trademarks, which now we know were for this game. The game is being developed by CING, just like the first game. Last Window: Midnight Promise once again features Kyle Hyde, a New York City police detective, and takes place in Los Angeles during the 1980’s. The Japanese release date is January 14th, 2010.
The second title is a Wii game and it’s called Zangeki no REGINLEIV. Technically, this game was announced back at the October Conference last year under the name of Dynamic Zan, but this is the first time we’re getting any real details on it. The game is being developed by Sandlot (who have made Earth Defense Force 2017 and Chosoju Mecha MG). The game looks like an Earth Defense Force type game, but with a mythological setting, and will also feature free online co-op for up to four players. Not only that but this game is the first Nintendo game to have a “D” CERO rating, which is the equivalent of a Mature rating. Japanese gamers can look for this game on store shelves on February 11th, 2010.
No word on if these games will leave Japan yet. Since these games are releasing soon, I’d expect trailers for the games very soon and then hopefully plenty more details not long after.
UPDATE: Zangeki no REGINLEIV is compatible with Wii MotionPlus and the Classic Controller. There are also more details available for Last Window: Midnight Promise, but they are in Japanese and nobody has translated them yet. I’ll try and find a good translation before posting since Google Translate can often lead to big mistranslations.
[Via NeoGAF and TinyCartridge]
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Grab your Wii Remote™ and build a balanced stack in this physics-based puzzler!
Puzzle games must be addictive. This was our [Shin'en Multimedia] top priority during the development of the game. That’s why we designed 100 levels that not only challenge your skills but also your imagination. The game is easy to pick up and hard to put away.
Play alone or invite a friend to grab a second Wii Remote and drop in at any time for co-op play. We even added a dedicated two players split-screen “versus” mode for extra fun.
Art of Balance will be available exclusively via Nintendo’s WiiWare service.
Date of release and video are coming soon, you can follow them on FaceBook or Twitter
FEATURES:
Endless Puzzle Fun
Play 100 levels spread across 4 worlds, each with its own unique lounge style.
Arcade Mode
Rotate and place all available shapes with your Wii Remote™ to build a balanced stack. Watch out: Don’t let any shape fall into the water!
2-Player Cooperative Play
A second player can join in at any time and help you solve the puzzles.
2-Player Versus Play
Challenge a friend in a split-screen head-to-head match. Who can solve the puzzles faster?
Special Challenges
Test yourself in Balance Challenges, Height Challenges and Time Challenges for extra points!
14 Shapes + 2 Special Shapes
There are also 2 special kinds of shapes that break once you put too much load on top, or a timer runs out.
State-of-the-Art Graphics
Art of Balance supports 4:3 and 16:9 screen modes, PAL (576i), NTSC (480i) and EDTV/HDTV (480p) and runs in super-smooth 60 frames/sec.
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I suppose that this is now the officially revived Weekly Challenge.
First thing’s first:
Congratulations to Charmy, who made off with the Wii edition of Astro Boy in last week’s challenge. He tied with a score of 37 coins on Trouble on the Tower (with Titan38 and SirWetBiscuitJr.), and broke the tie with an impressive 56:28 seconds on Surfing 101. Good work!
This prizes available for this week’s challenge is the winner’s pick of the following:
The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the Fifth Sun – Wii or DS
Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks – DS
Astro Boy: The Video Game – DS
If you pick the DS version of any game, we’ll toss in the PSP version for whatever use you find for it (PSP games make good paperweights, I hear ;]).
So what is this week’s challenge? First, read this post (linked).
Send me at least three nominations at sirvenom#wiinintendo.net (replacing # with @, as usual). Sounds simple, right? That’s because that isn’t the whole challenge.
You will not be judged by your nominations (unless they are Petz games, naturally), but by one other detail: To be eligible for the contest, you must write a review on at least one of the games you nominate.
There is no minimum amount of words for a review, but bear in mind that it will be compared with other submissions, and you don’t know how good the others are 
So, in short:
- Nominate three of the years best games.
- Write a review on at least one of them.
- Email the nominations and review to sirvenom#wiinintendo.net.
- Put “Best of 2009” or “Weekly Challenge” in the message subject.
- You may enter as many times as you like.
That’s it. The contest ends on Tuesday the 24th at 5:00 PM EST. The early end time will give the podcast crew enough time to look over the submissions and decide on a winner.
You may discuss the challenge on our forums.
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Remember all those secret areas and level-skipping tactics from way back when you first played Super Mario Bros. on NES? Back before you could watch videos created by Nintendo showing off those very same tricks passed from friend to friend by word of mouth – before the internet was even a gleam in Al Gore’s eye!
Though our old, embittered brains remember those days fondly, you kids today with your shiny electronics and worldwide exchange of information get the not-so-secret tips straight from the horse’s mouth (in sorta high-resolution, no less) on New Super Mario Bros. Wii. After watching the video you see above, we came to a scary realization: there are people out there who might not have any 2D Mario strategies already embedded in their brains. Folks, if you don’t have any sort of tactic worked out for red coin collection, we’re not sure this video can help you. Or if anyone can, for that matter.
Thankfully, we have a much cooler video after the break.
Continue reading Nintendo takes the fun out of discovery with New Super Mario Bros. Wii tips video
Nintendo takes the fun out of discovery with New Super Mario Bros. Wii tips video originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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After the last two months of price drop-fueled sales surges, it’s almost comforting to see all these red arrows. Hardware sales are down 17% from last month and down 10% from the year prior, with only the Wii maintaining any upward momentum as we head into the two busiest shopping months of the year. The PS3 lost the highest percentage, but that’s hardly surprising following last month’s meteoric 134% spike in sales.
On the software side of things, the exceptionally well-received PlayStation 3-exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took top honors, selling 537K units in just the second half of October. Of course, Sony told us earlier today that the title has broken the coveted million mark (worldwide?) with November sales factored in. The multiplatform Borderlands makes a similarly impressive showing, taking third on Xbox 360 with 418K units sold; however, when you factor in the 113K units sold of the not-top-ten PS3 version (data provided graciously by NPD), you find an impressive 531K in cumulative sales, just missing the top spot.
NBA 2K10 had a strong showing with 524K in cumulative sales, “outselling last year’s NBA 2K9 by 60% in its launch month” reports the NPD, while last month’s champ, Halo 3: ODST, dropped to sixth with 271K in sales. With just four days on shelves in October, Forza Motorsport 3 made a strong showing at #8 with 175K. Slightly less strong was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days’ ninth-place showing despite a full month on the shelf. And in last place is the worldwide phenomenon known as FIFA 10 (or, in North America, FIFA Soccer 10). While FIFA 10 may be the “fastest selling sports game ever” in Europe, selling 1.7m in its first week, over here we bought up just 156K copies in a little over a week.
-Wii: 507K
44K (+10%)
-DS: 458K
66K (-13%)
-PS3: 321K171K (-35%)
-360: 250K103K (-29%)
-PSP: 175K15K (-8%)
-PS2: 118K28K (-19%)
Check out the software sales chart after the break.
Continue reading October NPD: Uncharted 2 takes top spot while hardware sales slow down
October NPD: Uncharted 2 takes top spot while hardware sales slow down originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was announced for the Wii, we kinda had to do a double-take on the whole thing. Would one of the current generation’s most popular games be done justice on the Wii? Well, according to what few reviews have made their way online, yes … and no!
- Nintendo Dpad (85/100): “Overall, the game is just what you would expect from an HD game like Call of Duty 4 being ported to Wii. Everything is there, from the great multiplayer and single player modes, to Wii specific controls that really trump those found on other consoles. The only real bad part is that the graphics needed a major step down for the port, and we would have liked WiiSpeak support for those who prefer that, though it is not necessary.”
- ONM UK (80/100): “Given the extra two years Treyarch had to squeeze every last drop of polish from the Wii, this is underwhelming visually. It looks okay for a Wii game – that’s the dreaded caveat – but it’s not even up there with Metroid Prime: Corruption. Having said that, Modern Warfare is still an excellent shooter packed with options and it should be a big player online so we can welcome it to the Wii family.”
- IGN (70/100): “Unfortunately, Reflex Edition on Wii just doesn’t cut it as a Call of Duty branded game or as a top-tier Wii first-person shooter. The framerate is jumpy, the pointer tracking needs some serious polish, and while most of the elements of COD4 are included, none of them are given enough fine-tuning to truly excel.”
Metareview: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reflex originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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